Our Mission

We believe that you need the tools to create financial success on your own terms.

Conflict-free financial planning equips you to make educated decisions about your future with the information available to you today.

Our Mission

We believe that you need the tools to create financial success on your own terms.

Conflict-free financial planning equips you to make educated decisions about your future with the information available to you today.

Julia Chung, CFP, CLU, FEA, TEP

Julia Chung, CFP, CLU, FEA, TEP

Partner, Sr. Financial Planner

Areas of Specialty: Retirement Planning, Private/Family Business, Cross-Border Planning
Sandi Martin, CFP

Sandi Martin, CFP

Partner, Financial Planner

Areas of Specialty: Retirement Income Planning, Family Goal Planning
Kathryn Mandelcorn, FMA

Kathryn Mandelcorn, FMA

Director, Cash Flow Strategies

Areas of Specialty: Money Coaching, Cash Flow Planning

Karen Richardson, FPSC Level 1®

Karen Richardson, FPSC Level 1®

Cash Flow & Associate Financial Planner

Areas of Specialty:
Cash Flow Planning, Retirement Planning

Meet the whole team

 

 

 
 

Connect with the team on social media

What We Do at Spring

We believe that you need the tools to create financial success on your own terms…whatever they may be. Although our process is the same with every client, the outcomes are always delightfully different, and as unique as the people we have the privilege to work with every day.

Your values are the driving force behind any recommendations we make.

We want our recommendations to our clients to be influenced only by what’s in your best interest, and never by the potential for referral fees or third-party compensation.

We don’t sell products , accept commissions, pay or receive referral fees, or earn affiliate income.

We sincerely believe that financial planning – done well – can benefit everyone, and are actively invested in mentoring and developing new financial planners.

We’ve been running a practice management peer-mentoring group since early 2016…it’s how we met, in fact!

  • Comprehensive Financial Planning
  • Retirement Income Planning
  • Cross-Border Planning
  • Family/Private Business Planning
  • Portfolio and Cash Flow Audits

Our Process

What We’re Writing

Book Review: The Value of Simple by John Robertson

by | August 21, 2018 | Financial Literacy, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

By day, John Robertson is a science communicator. If that sounds like the opening panel of a comic book to you, you’re not wrong. John’s got a superpower, and it’s his unique ability to take big, complex, sometimes messy ideas and make them simple. Here’s the...
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Is Private School Worth The Cost?

by | November 3, 2014 | BBC Capital, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Sending your children to private school can mean making some big sacrifices.

 

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Introducing: Kathryn Mandelcorn

by | December 12, 2017 | Announcement, Cash Flow, Personal Finance, Spring Original | 0 Comments

We are thrilled to announce the addition of Kathryn Mandelcorn to our planning team!

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Income Splitting with Spousal Loans

by | August 21, 2017 | Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Ah, tax strategies. Eyed with hopeful suspicion by the uninitiated, a tax strategy can feel like a fun Spy Vs. Spy game - but that other spy? That’s the government. Many a newly minted spy would consider backing away from anything that might have you facing that...
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February’s Great Reads

by | February 13, 2018 | Canadian Personal Finance News | 0 Comments

Your portfolio is probably down right now, and I don’t want to minimize the worry some of you are feeling, especially those of you who are about to start, or are already relying on withdrawals from your investments for income. It’s no fun, but it’s also not something...
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What I Want for You in 2017

by | January 3, 2017 | Big Picture, Blog, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

What I dearly want for you this year is structure. (Just what you'd expect from an introverted money nerd who once answered "spreadsheets" when asked to name one thing that made her happy to her son's kindergarten circle, am I right?) Listen, when you hear "structure"...
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Book Review: Lynne Twist

by | May 24, 2018 | Budgets, Cash Flow, Relationships | 0 Comments

The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist is not a personal finance book. It’s a book that will have you exploring your values, how you define money and how you use money. Twist’s work stems from 4 decades of experience in fundraising to eradicate world hunger. She has...
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Wealthing Like Rabbits: Book Review

by | March 7, 2018 | Accountability, Budgets, Debt Management, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

Note: this is not a sponsored post, but I did receive a free copy of the book. There’s no shortage of personal finance books out there, and so many of them are nearly indistinguishable from the rest. Which make sense: the rules mostly stay the same, with occasional...
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Success = Joy + Freedom

by | September 29, 2016 | Niche Magazine, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Have you ever set goals and just felt kind of… “meh”? Julia’s latest article for Niche Magazine gets to the heart of why that happens, and how you can change it.

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The Power of Confusion

by | May 9, 2013 | Blog, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning | 4 Comments

The point of this post: the world of personal finance can be as confusing as a room full of five-year-olds playing soccer, and the financial industry needs to stop pretending that it's not. Yesterday was my oldest daughter's first day of soccer.     It...
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You Don’t Have to be Normal

by | July 23, 2018 | Big Picture, contentment, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” ~ Maya Angelou We get pretty excited working with each unique individual, family, and business we encounter - and a lot of that is because you’re unique. We’ve never hoped to provide...
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Your Financial Plan is Not a Slap-Chop

by | August 1, 2013 | Blog, Fee Only Financial Planning, Personal Finance | 2 Comments

The point: If you financial advisor is giving you a financial plan for "free", what's his incentive for doing it well? These days, we all want to believe that we're savvy consumers. We scoff at TV commercials for products that are worth hundreds of dollars but can be...
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Life Insurance as an Investment

by | May 17, 2017 | Personal Finance | 0 Comments

We get asked about this every once in a while. Life Insurance and its salespeople get a bad rap. Some of it is incredibly well-deserved, and some of it is just not. Here’s a breakdown of some life insurance basics that you should understand.

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Go Ahead, Spend Your Tax Refund

by | March 29, 2016 | Blog, Income Tax, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Ah, spring. The time of year when flowers bloom, birds sing, and the entire internet starts yelling at you for getting a tax refund or - even worse - getting a tax refund and then spending it.The horror.The conventional wisdom goes something like this: You shouldn't...
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In the Trenches: Living With Your Financial Plan and Avoiding Budget Fatigue

by | April 4, 2013 | Blog, Budget Fatigue, Budgets, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

The point of this post: living on a budget is (most of the time) tedious and hard. Reward yourself and remember why you're doing it to make it seem less so. If you are in the first, exciting stages of setting up your financial plan, organizing your money, and living...
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Capital Dividend Account: Changes to Note

by | December 15, 2016 | IAFE, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

The March 22, 2016 federal budget has resulted in significant changes to the credit to the capital dividend account arising upon the receipt of life insurance proceeds. While these proposals are not yet final, it is expected they will be enacted before the end of 2016 with certain retroactive effect.

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Your Financial Advisor Might Be A Nice Person, But… (Because Money, Ep 13)

by | March 6, 2014 | Because Money, Blog, Fee Only Financial Planning, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Last week's CBC Marketplace episode Show Me The Money took an average investor (with a hidden camera and glowing lights in her pants) into BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotiabank, TD, Dundee Securities, Edward Jones, Investor's Group, Money Concepts, and Primerica shopping for...
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Couple Money

by | March 14, 2013 | Blog, Financial Infrastructure, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning, Relationships | 0 Comments

The point of this post: if you can't be honest with your partner about money and financial planning, why are you with them? A healthy financial infrastructure is cost-effective, simple, flexible, and intuitive. It keeps you on budget, moves you closer to your goals,...
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UPDATED: How (and Why) to Choose Between NestWealth, Wealthsimple, WealthBar, ShareOwner, and Steadyhand

by | November 18, 2014 | Blog, Investing, Investment Fee Calculator, NestWealth, Online Investment Management, Personal Finance, ShareOwner Model Portfolios, Steadyhand, Wealth Management, WealthBar, Wealthsimple | 0 Comments

Each online investment management company has a slightly different fee structure and value proposition. Calculating their relative cost for your circumstances will let you compare their relative value depending on the kind of service you want to pay for. (Includes a link to the Canadian Online Investment Advisor Fee Calculator.)

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If You’ve Ever Tried and Failed at Budgeting

by | July 21, 2015 | Blog, Budgets, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

If you've ever tried and failed at budgeting, or if you've never tried at all because it sounds so hard and boring, this post is for you. Those of you with a budgeting system that works and that you possibly even love and want to have babies with are excused for the...
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Important Changes to the Principal Residence Exemption

by | December 14, 2016 | Personal Finance, Spring Original | 0 Comments

On October 3, 2016, Finance Minister Morneau announced new measures to address the housing market, with the intention of improving fairness and integrity of the tax system as it relates to the principal residence exemption. The changes include new reporting requirements, modifications to the calculation of the tax-free amount for individuals based on a residency requirements, and an extension to the period in which a reassessment may occur.

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Making it on his own

by | November 15, 2016 | Money Sense, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Sam Omeretti feels financially ready to live on his own. His parents aren’t so sure.

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When You Can’t Afford Your House, Do this

by | December 29, 2015 | BBC Capital, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

If you’re in a cash flow bind, you don’t want to wait too long before you take action. But you should take some time to calculate the size of the problem. “A lot of times people don’t really look at their expenses,” said Julia Chung, a financial and estate planner with Spring Financial Planning in British Columbia in Canada. “They have a hard time managing the numbers.”

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Business Model, Schmizness Model

by | May 14, 2013 | Blog, Fee Only Financial Planning, Personal Finance, Wealth Management | 0 Comments

The point: Financial advisors who are compensated based on how much money you have invested with them have less time for the equally complex needs of less affluent clients. You know the old saw "you have to have money to make money"? Apparently you also have to have...
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Money Mindset: Scarcity vs. Abundance

by | December 18, 2018 | Budgets, Cash Flow, contentment, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

  We ask some pretty tough questions at Spring. Open-ended, thoughtful and curious questions are among the many keys we use to unlock how we can truly help you move into great success. Without a doubt, some of the toughest questions we ask - the ones we agonize...
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Financial Facelifts, Eric and Ilsa, Soundbites, and Showing Your Work

by | January 23, 2015 | Because Money, Blog, Eric and Ilsa, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

Most of the value in a financial plan (or facelift, or makeover, or what-have-you) is in showing your work, not in the answers themselves. That is, the fact that recommendations are made for you is equally – if not more – important than the fact that recommendations are made at all.

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Thoughts on Privilege In Financial Advice

by | November 8, 2016 | Blog, Financial Literacy, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Normally on the first or second Tuesday of the month I'm compiling and sending out a Top Three email to subscribers, highlighting the latest collection of thought-provoking, or informative posts on investing, the finance industry, retirement planning, or budgeting...
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Caring for a Forever Child…

by | May 4, 2015 | BBC Capital, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

“These are things that are going to seriously affect your life and the lives of people after you,” said Julia Chung, a financial and estate planner with Spring Financial Planning. “Spend the money.” You will likely need both a financial planner and a lawyer that specializes in estates, and possibly an accountant to review tax ramifications.

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The Best Discount Brokerage for Small Index Investors, and How Much it’s Going to Cost You

by | July 16, 2013 | Best Discount Brokerage, Blog, Investing, Personal Finance | 8 Comments

The point: If you're starting out as an index investor, and are going to be regularly contributing in a self-directed brokerage account, the best discount brokerage for you is TD Direct Investing, but not for any of the reasons most reviewers list. *UPDATED* This post...
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Design Thinking: Income & Cash Flow

by | February 19, 2019 | Budgets, Cash Flow, Debt Management, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

As promised in our What We Want for you in 2019 article, we are jacked about design thinking this year, and how you can use it to optimize your life and your finances to create the life that you didn’t know you always wanted. This month, we are applying this thinking...
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What We Want for You in 2019

by | January 28, 2019 | Goal Planning, Personal Finance, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

A wish for our readers for the year ahead is becoming a tradition for us. If you’ve been reading the Spring blog for a while, you may remember that past years included wishes for clarity, ownership, structure, and momentum. If you’re new here: welcome—and buckle up....
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Price Shock: The Sting of Moving Abroad

by | August 25, 2014 | BBC Capital, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Imagine being asked to do your job in an exotic city in a far flung country… Julia gives BBC Capital her planning tips.

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How A Financial Planner Can Lighten Your Load

by | February 17, 2012 | Budgets, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

 
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Preparing for Retirement: Start Here

by | June 19, 2018 | Retirement, Retirement Calculators, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

When you think of retirement and everything you need to do to prepare for it, I suspect you might think that some of your success hinges on getting the answers to these questions right: When should I apply for Canada Pension Plan benefits to get the most out of them?...
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What’s Sandi reading?

by | December 7, 2016 | Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Sandi Martin reads a lot – and she tells everyone which ones were the best every month.  Starting in January, we will be sending you her reading list directly (if you’ve signed up for our email newsletter).  In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek:

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I Feel For You, But Busy Isn’t an Excuse to Ignore Your Money

by | April 18, 2013 | Accountability, Blog, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning | 2 Comments

The point of this post: being busy doesn't excuse you from having to pay attention to your money. You know that feeling you get when your to do list is so long that you have to turn pages to see it all? When you're overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work that your...
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Planning for Retirement: Uncertainty is Certain, so Pick Your Poison

by | July 28, 2016 | Blog, Personal Finance, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

If you're planning for retirement and make the mistake of scrolling through any finance section in a slow news week, you have to ask yourself: what kind of questions are they asking to produce breathless headlines like these? Half of Canadians don't think they'll be...
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See, Now This Just Makes Me Angry

by | April 19, 2013 | Blog, Fee Only Financial Planning, Financial Planners, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

"If you were to assume that many experts use their information to your detriment, you'd be right. Experts depend on the fact that you don't have the information they do. Or that you are so befuddled by the complexity of their operation that you wouldn't know what to...
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Another List: The Best Personal Finance Posts This Week

by | September 13, 2013 | Blog, Canadian Personal Finance News, Personal Finance | 1 Comment

The point: Last week, I started adding the best Canadian personal finance posts I read to a weekly list. Great idea, since whether I share something to Google+, Facebook, or Twitter is largely dependent on where I happen to be sitting at the time, and adding posts to...
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Financial Planning: Speak Up for Consumer Protection

by | October 14, 2015 | Personal Finance | 0 Comments

This month, you have a chance to speak up on an issue that is close to our hearts, and affects all Canadians: better protection for those seeking financial planning.

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A Spender Marries a Saver – Now What?

by | November 2, 2015 | BBC Capital, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

You’ve heard that money is the cause of many arguments between partners. But can a spender marry a saver and live happily ever after? BBC Capital interviewed Julia Chung of Spring Financial Planning to find out.

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On Hiring a Financial Planner

by | March 26, 2014 | Blog, Budgets, Fee Only Financial Planning, Mint.com, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

The folks at Mint.com interviewed me a few weeks ago about working with a financial planner, getting started on a financial makeover, and advice for beginners on investing.  When enlisting help to manage your money, what should you look for in a planner? You should...
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Book Review: Mindset: The New Psychology by Carol S. Dwek

by | October 23, 2018 | contentment, Personal Financial Planning, Relationships | 0 Comments

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success is the outcome of decades of research by Stanford University psychologist, Carol S. Dwek. Her findings produced the idea of fixed mindsets and growth mindsets. Dwek describes the Fixed Mindset as belonging to those who believe...
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Dear Big, Enormous Bank With Little Competition, Please Blow My Mind

by | October 24, 2013 | Blog, Inside the Bank, Personal Finance, Real Customer Service | 11 Comments

Hi. You probably don’t remember me. I was one of a series of warm bodies in that cubicle in Newmarket, the office (with a door!) in Huntsville, and the other office (with a window!) in Bracebridge. I mostly didn’t meet my sales targets and never made my cold-call...
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June’s Great Reads

by | June 7, 2017 | Canadian Personal Finance News | 0 Comments

I've got a monster reading list for you this month, and I'm still fighting that nagging feeling that there was way more good stuff out there than I managed to catch. If you've got the time, scroll through the entire list down there at the bottom, and catch Preet...
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Distressingly Common Investment Advice

by | August 20, 2015 | Blog, Investing, Personal Finance, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

I was recently part of a presentation for financial advisors, put on by someone whose work I respect (and who I imagine probably would not have said this if he had had more time to think about it). Just before the end, this came out of his mouth: Words I just heard!...
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Why Your Rate of Return Matters (and what to do – and not do – with it)

by | September 18, 2017 | Personal Finance | 0 Comments

I sent my kids to school on the day after Labour Day with a feeling that it hadn’t been a great summer. We hadn’t gone swimming or canoeing enough. I worked too much. Woe, etc. This isn’t a new feeling. Friends will testify that I become a mopey sad-sack in the last...
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Finding the RIGHT Financial Advisor

by | November 26, 2018 | Fee Only Financial Planning, Financial Planners, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

Given the sheer number of articles, 10 point lists, podcasts, and even books out there on the subject, it’s time to face the truth: choosing a financial advisor is hard. We are asked all kinds of questions in many different ways that all boil down to the same...
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Book Review: The Laws of Wealth by Dr. Daniel Crosby

by | March 5, 2019 | Book Review, Financial Literacy, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

  The Laws of Wealth: Psychology and the Secret to Investing Success by Dr. Daniel Crosby isn’t a book that I’d normally pick up off the shelf¹. However, after having deeply respected his work on investor behaviour and following him on Twitter for many years, it...
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October’s Great Reads

by | October 10, 2017 | Canadian Personal Finance News | 0 Comments

A real short list this month since we’re all still figuring out how this back to school stuff works (are those of you with kids surprised every year? I’m surprised Every. Single. Year.). You have to check out the top three, but if you have time for more there’s a...
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Working with Sandi was everything I hoped for. I felt like you got to know me well and very quickly. I feel like your recommendations reflected my current reality as well as my personality. That is, you didn’t recommend things that I would never commit to.

After going through this process, I feel like I have a much better understanding of my financial picture. I so wish that I would have done this years ago!! H. Bellerose

Having an impartial 3rd-party review our entire financial situation is one of the best business decisions my wife and I have made. We consider Julia our personal CFO and have incorporated her services into all aspects of our financial lives.

There’s no pressure to purchase any investment or insurance through her or any associate she has introduced us to; but rather an assessment and guidance on plans we have for the future. C. Dewar

Well, it’s been a year since we came to see you last and enacted our plan and we are writing to tell you that we are DEBT FREE on November 1ST ON SCHEDULE!!!

Coming to see you, using your services, was the best decision we ever made as a couple. We can’t thank you enough. We couldn’t have done any of it without you. Thanks, Kathryn.

 

K. & J. Shorrocks

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