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

Partner, Sr. Financial Planner

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

Sandi Martin, CFP

Partner, Financial Planner

Areas of Specialty: Retirement Income Planning, Family Goal Planning

Kathryn Mandelcorn, FMA

Director, Cash Flow Strategies

Areas of Specialty: Money Coaching, Cash Flow Planning

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

To treat you as the unique person you are by listening, understanding what’s important, and working together to create your life, well spent.

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

RESP Rules & Tips with Sandi Martin & Julia Chung

by Julia Chung | August 8, 2016 | Personal Finance, Spring Original | 0 Comments

Summer is the best time to learn about saving for post-secondary education. Julia Chung and Sandi Martin chatted with Modern Advisor on July 21st. Click here for the recording.

Financial Planning: Speak Up for Consumer Protection

by Julia Chung | 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.

February 11th: Living & Investing In the Trudeau Era

by Julia Chung | February 7, 2016 | Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Join us for a free evening of cocktails, dinner, and insight on February 11th. RSVP today! tycuda@3macs.com

Values

by Julia Chung | May 27, 2019 | Personal Finance | 0 Comments

At the end of January, a few members of our team got together in Port Moody, BC (thanks for the hospitality, Kathryn!) and spent several days working with Pam Schmidt, our facilitator, to really dig into our Mission, Vision, Values, and Purpose. Since we live in an...

January’s Great Reads

by Sandi Martin | January 9, 2018 | Canadian Personal Finance News | 0 Comments

The New Year is always a really exciting, invigorating time for me. I’m that annoying chippy chipmunk who runs her annual spending summary on December 31st and who starts work on January 2nd with a really long list of the organizing she got done over the holidays...

Financial Facelifts, Eric and Ilsa, Soundbites, and Showing Your Work

by Sandi Martin | 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.

Life is a Highway: Sequence of Returns and You

by Sandi Martin | May 12, 2015 | Blog, Investing, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

The particular sequence of market returns that you’ll enjoy throughout your lifetime starts when you’re born, ends when you die, is entirely outside of your control, and, if you’re not careful, will heavily influence when you start investing, how you’ll do it, and your outlook on life when you turn those investments into income.

Book Review: Living Debt Free by Shannon Lee Simmons

by Sandi Martin | January 15, 2019 | Accountability, Book Review, Budgets, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

If you have any kind of debt at all, go read Living Debt Free, the no-shame, no-blame guide to getting rid of your debt by Shannon Lee Simmons immediately. Companion book to Worry Free Money: the guilt-free approach to managing your money and your life, Living Debt...

How Your Advisor’s Bad Investing Behaviour Costs You

by Sandi Martin | December 8, 2015 | Blog, Investing, Management Expense Ratio, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

The point: Yes, your own bad investing behaviour costs you, but your advisor's bad investing behaviour has the potential to cost you a lot more. First off: I'm not a portfolio manager or an investment advisor (or adviser, for what it's worth). I was a registered...

Book Review: Shannon Lee Simmons

by Sandi Martin | April 3, 2018 | Budgets, Goal Planning, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Worry Free Money: The Guilt-Free Approach to Managing Your Money and Your Life by Shannon Lee Simmons isn’t making empty promises in the title. There’s literally no guilt in it. None. The revolutionary thing about Worry Free Money is that it doesn’t start with...

June’s Great Reads

by Sandi Martin | June 12, 2018 | Canadian Personal Finance News | 0 Comments

Finally, summer is here! While I heartily encourage you to spend every possible minute outside (as I write this indoors because I’m tired of wiping pollen off my laptop screen), you may find yourself wishing for some great reads, and boy do I have some for you. If you...

Dear Everyone, Mutual Funds Are Boring. Please Go Buy Some.

by Sandi Martin | July 10, 2013 | Blog, Investing, Mutual Funds, Personal Finance | 3 Comments

Mutual funds are profoundly boring, although their ETF cousins have been known to be a little saucy. As an investor, you probably have a vague feeling that by buying mutual funds, you're performing the financial equivalent of buying a pink tract home and driving the...

An Admittedly Biased Argument in Favour of Banning Embedded Commissions and Instituting a Fiduciary Standard

by Sandi Martin | June 26, 2013 | Banning Embedded Commissions in Mutual Funds, Blog, Fee Only Financial Planning, Fiduciary Standard, Personal Finance | 2 Comments

The point: I stand to benefit if embedded commissions in mutual funds are banned, and if a fiduciary standard for advisors is enacted. I don't think it invalidates my argument, but - unlike some of the voices clamouring against the increased safety for investors - at...

2018 Spring Financial Gift Guide

by Spring Plans | December 13, 2018 | Affordability, Big Picture, Christmas, Fee Only Financial Planning, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

If you’re reading this financial gift guide, presumably you’re interested in helping your friends and family get better at managing their money and making great decisions about their lives. That’s good. When you give gifts like these, there’s a real danger that the...

The Family Cottage

by Julia Chung | September 26, 2017 | Personal Finance | 0 Comments

One of the great joys of summer for many Canadian families is a family cottage, cabin, or camp. No matter what name you may give the place where your clan gets together to enjoy the outdoors and each other, it’s often an important part of who you are, and how your...

Finding the RIGHT Financial Advisor

by Spring Plans | 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...

Is my pension… a pension?

by Julia Chung | October 17, 2017 | CPP, Personal Finance, Retirement, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

“I have a pension through my employer,” says Tim*, in a recent call. “But I don’t understand it.” If you’re like Tim, you’re not alone. In Canada, we have many different potential sources for retirement income, with all kinds of different names. Pensions can be...

Double the Trouble…

by Julia Chung | September 25, 2015 | BBC Capital, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Two kids in university at the same time means double the costs. The secret to saving for – and affording – two.

April 2018 Update

by Julia Chung | April 23, 2018 | CPP, Monthly Spring Update, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning, Small Business | 0 Comments

Have you ever felt like everyone is working with the same set of information that you are - and therefore, sharing it would not be valuable? It’s a cognitive bias called “false-consensus,” which leads people to believe that their own values and ideas are “normal” and...

Julia Chung at PowHerTalks Victoria June 18th

by Julia Chung | May 10, 2016 | Personal Finance, Spring Original | 0 Comments

We’re proud to announce that Julia Chung has been selected to speak at the upcoming PowHerTalks Victoria on June 18th! We invite you to join us at this powerful event.

Introducing: Kathryn Mandelcorn

by Julia Chung | 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!

So You Want to Have a Baby in 5 Years?

by Spring Plans | August 28, 2018 | Big Picture | 0 Comments

Before we jump in to helping you prepare your finances for parenthood, we want you to know one truth: you can be a phenomenal parent without being good at money. We didn’t put together this set of tips on how to prepare for a new baby just to add one more item to your...

Incoming: Avoiding The Useless Retirement Plan, Part Three

by Sandi Martin | June 5, 2013 | Blog, Personal Finance, Retirement, Series: Avoiding the Useless Retirement Plan | 2 Comments

The point: Retirement planning using general assumptions about your future income is just retirement guessing. And - surprise - it's useless. Seriously? Three posts into a retirement series and we haven't even answered the question "how much do I need to retire?" To...

July 2018 Update

by Sandi Martin | July 24, 2018 | Monthly Spring Update, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

Have you ever experienced a period of time where anything that could go sideways did? Did it feel like nothing you planned to do turned out the way you thought it should? Did it feel like you were too busy to catch a breath, never mind catch up on the vitally...

Introducing Karen Richardson

by Spring Plans | February 1, 2019 | Announcement, Cash Flow | 0 Comments

We are excited to announce that as of February 1, 2019 we have added a new member to our planning team: Karen Richardson, Cash Flow & Associate Financial PlannerKaren joins Spring after 7 years as an independent advice-only financial planner in Kenora, Ontario,...

August 2018 Update

by Julia Chung | August 27, 2018 | Big Picture, Debt Management, Goal Planning, Monthly Spring Update | 0 Comments

Just before you slam your nose into the grindstone that September often brings - regardless of whether you have kids in school or work full time, it can still be a thing - let’s stop and consider: What is it you want to achieve in the back half of this year? What is...

Practice News: Collaboration with JYC Financial

by Sandi Martin | July 5, 2016 | Blog, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

It's the best time of the year! Summer in Muskoka with three young kids means lots of late afternoons at the beach, so if you happen to be in Gravenhurst on a sunny day right before dinner...you'll know where to find me.Typically, the summer months are when I try to...

Sorry, Who Is It That’s Suffering? Advocis Doesn’t Want Embedded Commissions Banned, Because Financial Advisors Will Suffer

by Sandi Martin | July 9, 2014 | Banning Embedded Commissions in Mutual Funds, Blog, Fee Only Financial Planning, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Sometimes, someone says something that is so egregiously wrong that it can’t be ignored. Take, for example, this piece, published this afternoon on Advisor.ca, an online magazine for financial advisors in the investment and insurance industries, which elicited this...

What do YOU want?

by Julia Chung | January 18, 2017 | Personal Finance, Spring Original | 0 Comments

It sounds like an easy question.

See, Now This Just Makes Me Angry

by Sandi Martin | 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...

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers: Avoiding the Useless Retirement Plan, Step Two

by Sandi Martin | May 30, 2013 | Blog, Budgets, Personal Finance, Retirement, Series: Avoiding the Useless Retirement Plan | 3 Comments

The point: You can't plan where you're going until you know where you want to go and where you're starting from. Do you know what you want out of life? If that sounds like a surprisingly navel-focused question coming from a financial planner, it's only because - dare...

November 2018 Update

by Sandi Martin | November 27, 2018 | Big Picture, Goal Planning, Monthly Spring Update | 0 Comments

It’s the home stretch, friends. Even though we all know calendar years are arbitrary, that humans celebrate the new year at different times, and that your personal and financial growth can’t possibly be measured in tidy 365 day increments, the end of one year and...

Life Insurance as an Investment

by Julia Chung | 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.

A Week in the Life of Julia

by Julia Chung | August 23, 2018 | Week in the Life | 0 Comments

This ended up being a week where I didn’t actually work on plans as much - next week, there is a lot of working on plans. This week was…. A lot of the other stuff I do... Monday, August 13 5:00am My alarm goes off and I snooze it a lot. A lot. I was at the Jack White...

If You’ve Ever Tried and Failed at Budgeting

by Sandi Martin | 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...

Announcement: Sandi Martin

by Julia Chung | July 5, 2016 | Personal Finance, Spring Original | 0 Comments

Announcement! A new collaboration with Sandi Martin of Spring Personal Finance…

Design Thinking: Investing

by Sandi Martin | May 23, 2019 | Design Thinking, Investing, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

“How should I think about investing?” is a question I wish a lot more people would ask. Why? Because there is so much more to investing - investing well - than what you should put in your portfolio and who you should get to manage it for you. Oh great, I can hear you...

Book Review: Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

by Sandi Martin | September 18, 2018 | Financial Literacy, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown is one of those few books that I want to keep multiple copies of, so I can press it into people’s hands and say, “Just read it, trust me.” Brown, if you’ve never heard of her, is a research professor who studies vulnerability,...

What happens if I don’t have a will?

by Julia Chung | November 21, 2017 | Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Very few people get excited about estate planning, except for financial planners, and we’re admittedly strange folks. Talking about and planning for the moment of your death is not only dark and creepy but also kind of boring - unless you’re the type who gets super...

Design Thinking: Estate Planning

by Julia Chung | June 20, 2019 | Big Picture, Cash Flow, Design Thinking, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Way back in January, we told you what we wanted for you in 2019: Permission to design your life Since then, we’ve given you so many different ways you can apply the concept of design thinking to your life, including investments, disability, taxes, retirement, and cash...

January’s Great Reads

by Sandi Martin | January 8, 2019 | Canadian Personal Finance News | 0 Comments

Welcome back!!! We hope you made good use of your Free Pass throughout the holiday season, and that when you look back on 2018, you’re feeling really proud of what you accomplished. If that pride has oddly led to stress and anxiety, you’re not alone. We...

Because Money Episode 21 | The Rise Of The (Not) Robo-Advisors

by Sandi Martin | August 26, 2014 | Because Money, Blog, Investing, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

This month, we were delighted to welcome Michael Katchen of WealthSimple to the show to talk about what's wrong with the asset management industry, how he and others like him plan to break it, and why regular Canadians who, for whatever reason, shouldn't or can't DIY...

What I Want for You in 2017

by Sandi Martin | 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"...

Money 201 with Yours Truly and John Robertson

by Sandi Martin | January 29, 2015 | Blog, Money 201, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Once you’ve already mastered the basics of paying off debt and saving, what are the next steps to take in your financial life? We’ll walk through long-term planning to provide the context for how to fit the financial pieces of your life together, that takes into account your individual needs and goals, and will help you make sensible investing decisions.

Book Review: We Need to Talk by Celeste Headlee

by Sandi Martin | July 16, 2019 | Book Review | 0 Comments

Any book that promises to help me get better at something important, and that the work will be hard and take time (possibly even a lifetime), is a book for me. I stumbled across We Need to Talk by Celeste Headlee while I was browsing through my library’s e-book app¹,...

Book Review: The Value of Simple by John Robertson

by Sandi Martin | 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...

I For One Welcome Our Robot Overlords: The New World of Investment Advice and Asset Management

by Sandi Martin | August 5, 2014 | Blog, Investing, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Before I let you read the rest of this post, I want us to agree on a set of facts: It is extremely rare (but not impossible) for any one investor, investment professional, or investment management company to consistently and reliably outperform the market for any...

A Spender Marries a Saver – Now What?

by Julia Chung | 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.

I’m 22…do I need a financial planner?

by Sandi Martin | August 10, 2015 | Blog, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

Hi Sandi, I am a 22-year-old and just starting my career. Do I need a financial planner and is talking to a financial advisor at the bank the same thing as talking to a financial planner? Thank you, Denise -- Hi Denise, You know, you have an enormous opportunity to...

Design Thinking: Emergency Preparedness

by Sandi Martin | July 19, 2019 | Big Picture, Cash Flow, Design Thinking, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

My partner Julia said something amazing when she wrote about applying design thinking to estate planning last month that I’ve been mulling over ever since: Planning for your eventual departure is truly one of the most loving and thoughtful things you can do for your...

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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Our Mission

Our Mission

Julia Chung, CFP, CLU, FEA, TEP

Sandi Martin, CFP

Kathryn Mandelcorn, FMA

Karen Richardson, FPSC Level 1®

Connect with the team on social media

What We Do at Spring

Our Process

What We’re Writing

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