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

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

How Much Do Mutual Funds Cost, and Relative to What? Part Two

by Sandi Martin | October 15, 2013 | Blog, Investing, Management Expense Ratio, MER, Personal Finance | 15 Comments

The point: management expense ratios do a poor job of communicating the price you're paying for a mutual fund and the value you're getting in return. This is the second of a two-part rant, and you can find the first part here. If you walked into the grocery store...

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...

How CPP and Social Security Integrate

by Julia Chung | September 24, 2018 | CPP, Personal Finance, Retirement, Social Security | 0 Comments

If you’ve worked in both the USA and Canada, you have likely contributed to both the USA’s Social Security program and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). How will CPP benefits impact your Social Security benefits? How will your US residency impact your CPP and...

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

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

by Sandi Martin | 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...

Price Shock: The Sting of Moving Abroad

by Julia Chung | 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.

October’s Great Reads

by Sandi Martin | October 5, 2018 | Canadian Personal Finance News | 0 Comments

Just in time to cozy up in a comfy chair with whatever scalding hot drink you prefer, I present to you a few reads that got me thinking this month. They are loosely grouped around themes of cash flow and money management (like this pair on creating a financial routine...

August’s Great Reads

by Sandi Martin | August 11, 2017 | Canadian Personal Finance News | 0 Comments

I love my reading list this month, I really do. I know I say that almost every month, but guys: there’s some real gold in here for everyone, whether you’re spending the month of August toiling away at work like you do every month, relaxing in a canoe or on a beach...

When You Can’t Afford Your House, Do this

by Julia Chung | 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.”

Because Money Episode 14

by Sandi Martin | March 21, 2014 | Because Money, Blog, Fee Only Financial Planning, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Despite +Robb Engen's absence from this week's podcast, +Jackson Middleton and I had a great time talking with our guests about why regular Canadians should care about the regulation of financial advice. I've written about the incentives that are holding even the most...

September’s Great Reads

by Sandi Martin | September 8, 2017 | Canadian Personal Finance News | 0 Comments

In my world, September is a BIG month. Summer effectively ends on Labour Day, the kids are at school, and it’s time for a hard reset (what I privately think of as a second New Year) to prepare myself for the whirlwind of the last three months of the year. In your...

On Hiring a Financial Planner

by Sandi Martin | 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...

Family Values: How to Pay For a Large Family

by Julia Chung | March 10, 2014 | BBC Capital, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Want to have four, five, even six children? Plan ahead and make some smart decisions early to ease the financial burden. Full article on BBC Capital: Family Values: How to Pay For a Large Family

Why You Don’t Want Your Child to Be a Genius

by Julia Chung | November 18, 2015 | BBC Capital, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

“Find experts in the fields that your child is interested in,” said Julia Chung of Spring Financial Planning. “Talk to them and ask them for help and support. You’d be surprised how many people are willing to help.”

Not A Litre Of Milk: Evaluating The Utility Of Management Expense Ratios, Part One

by Sandi Martin | September 27, 2013 | Blog, Investing, Management Expense Ratio, MER, Personal Finance | 1 Comment

The point: When you buy mutual funds from the bank, or an advisor, or through your employee plan, how do you know if you're getting what you're paying for? I'm not a fortune teller, but I can probably guess what mutual funds you hold in your RRSPs. You have at least...

April’s Great Reads

by Sandi Martin | April 12, 2019 | Canadian Personal Finance News | 0 Comments

What is success? What is best? How do you make the right decision? The intricacies of personal finance require deep dives into countless areas, from investment vehicles, through decision making and your own definitions of success. Jenny Anderson takes a swipe at 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…

Learn to Love the NOPE

by Sandi Martin | November 17, 2017 | Christmas, Goal Planning, Income Tax, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

There’s a mostly fun deluge of events, meals with friends, and parties just over the horizon, and, depending on what holidays you celebrate, what your family is like, and how much pie is involved, you might be looking forward to the end of the year with some...

Cooking At Home To Save Money Will Still Cost You

by Sandi Martin | February 16, 2015 | Blog, Meaningful Spending, Personal Finance, The cult of frugality | 0 Comments

If you want to get your spending on food or any other category to line up with your income and goals, you’ll have to spend one of your other resources – your time, your capacity, even your social capital – until it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice anymore.

The Biggest Mistake New Entrepreneurs (Almost Always) Make

by Sandi Martin | July 23, 2013 | Blog, Personal Finance, Small Business | 2 Comments

The point: have a plan for the money you earn within your business, and be ruthless about it. Otherwise, you'll only succeed through sheer luck. A short meditation, today. Losing power for forty-one hours during the busiest week I've had in my practice has set me back...

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

by Sandi Martin | 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...

Fun With Retirement Calculators

by Sandi Martin | June 20, 2013 | Blog, Personal Finance, Retirement, Retirement Calculators, Series: Avoiding the Useless Retirement Plan | 1 Comment

The point: retirement calculators are only as good as the information you put in them and the underlying assumptions of the calculator itself, and are useful only to model the future, not predict it. The lure of the retirement calculator is that it will tell you your...

How Much Is Enough for Your Emergency Fund?

by Julia Chung | January 28, 2016 | Personal Finance | 0 Comments

While the basic rule of thumb is to have enough money to cover at least three months of net income, even that may not be enough, says certified financial planner Julia Chung of Spring Financial Planning in B.C.

“Most people severely lowball their expenses; they think they spend way less than they actually do,” Ms. Chung says. “If you spend 100 per cent of your paycheque when it comes in, as many people do, then your expenses equal your net income.

The Budgeting Resource Everyone Has (And Nobody Uses)

by Sandi Martin | October 29, 2015 | Blog, Budgets, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

Does this sound familiar? You've read a book or a blog series or watched a show about budgeting and getting your money under control. You're all fired up, ready to really get it together, and get to work on that budget. The first few lines are easy: Monthly net...

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...

How (Not) to Consolidate Debt

by Sandi Martin | August 14, 2013 | Blog, debt consolidation, Debt Management, Personal Finance | 1 Comment

The point: it doesn't matter what method you use to pay off debt, or if you use any method at all. What matters is that you stop creating new debt. It's out there: the mathematically precise, strictly rational formula for paying off your three credit cards, small car...

February’s Great Reads

by Sandi Martin | 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...

You Don’t Have to be Normal

by Julia Chung | 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...

June’s Great Reads

by Sandi Martin | 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...

February’s Great Reads

by Sandi Martin | February 12, 2019 | Canadian Personal Finance News | 0 Comments

Winter weather often brings blankets, fireplaces, and hot drinks. While you’re thawing your toes, you may feel inclined to dream a little, and Sandi has the reads for you to do just that. Dreams about retirement, and who you might be when you stop working, are right...

What I’ve Been Reading While I Haven’t Been Writing

by Sandi Martin | September 20, 2013 | Blog, Canadian Personal Finance News, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

The point: It's been a busy week here at Spring Personal Finance, and client commitments trump writing commitments. I've always got a few minutes to read, though, and the best in Canadian personal finance news every week to an open list I share with +Jackson...

Design Thinking: Retirement

by Sandi Martin | March 12, 2019 | Design Thinking, Personal Finance, Relationships, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

There is a truth about retirement that I want you to understand: You don’t have to know precisely what you want to plan for the day when you stop working. Sure, it helps financial planners if you can say that you want to retire in the summer of 2021, stay in your home...

Fill in the Blank (Part One): I Don’t Want to Spend Money On…

by Sandi Martin | September 11, 2014 | Blog, Goal Planning, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

At first glance, it sounds like an incredibly stupid exercise, I grant you. Um, I don't want to spend money on insurance, on my mortgage payment, on those never-ending, teeny-tiny little school activity requests that dribble home every other day, on fixing my car...

March 2019 Update

by Julia Chung | March 25, 2019 | Budgets, CPP, Monthly Spring Update, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Budgets, budgets and more budgets. The Federal Budget was released on March 19, and you can find our summary here. Some provinces have already released their annual budgets and more are rolling in. If you’re reading as many finance newsletters as we are, you’ll have...

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...

You’re Just Not That Interested In Cars

by Sandi Martin | April 24, 2013 | Blog, Fee Only Financial Planning, Financial Planners, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

The point of this post: It makes sense to hire a professional for an essential job you can't make time to do yourself. Do you take your car to a mechanic? You're smart. Presumably you can read. Why are you paying someone else to do work that you could - with a little...

OPTIMIZE!

by Sandi Martin | June 12, 2014 | Blog, Fee Only Financial Planning, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Financial planning is misnamed. It really should be called Figuring Out How Much What You Want Out Of Life Will Cost And How to Pay For It By Finding The Happy Medium Between Doing What You Have To Do And Doing What You Want To Do. I imagine this will never take on....

The Screaming Ninjas Are Coming

by Sandi Martin | August 27, 2013 | Blog, Budgets, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning, The screaming ninjas of financial catastrophe | 5 Comments

The point: Learning to live within your means is discipline you have to practice. Financial catastrophe always strikes, and having the necessary skills already mastered will mean the difference between dealing with it and moving on or being overwhelmed and giving up....

The Coming Housing Crash, And What You Can Do About It

by Sandi Martin | June 11, 2013 | Blog, Budgets, Canadian Housing Crash, Debt Management, Inside the Bank, Personal Finance | 7 Comments

The point: there are two things you can do if there's going to be a housing market crash, and worrying isn't one of them. You're here, so I'm going to take a long shot and guess that you read about money online, unless you're here for the outstanding graphics, in...

June 2018 Update

by Julia Chung | June 26, 2018 | Big Picture, Monthly Spring Update | 0 Comments

SUMMER!!! Despite the fact that our name is Spring, we have a strong affinity for summer. It’s what we often spend the spring season planning for - and now you can see just one of the reasons why the name resonates: we’re all about creating plans that work. Even the...

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...

Corporate Control: When Are Corporations Associated?

by Julia Chung | October 21, 2015 | Personal Finance, Spring Original | 0 Comments

Associated corporations share the SBD, which provides access to a low tax rate on the first $500,000 of operating income. Obviously, this could be a concern to small business owners.

April 2019 Update

by Julia Chung | April 23, 2019 | Income Tax, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Don’t you just LOVE tax season? No? You’re not alone. Really, Sandi is the only person who loves tax season. It’s one of the many reasons we keep her around. Someone has to like it. In fact, she likes it so much that she’s been volunteering in her community tax...

Preparing for Retirement: Start Here

by Sandi Martin | 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?...

Design Thinking: Income & Cash Flow

by Kathryn Mandelcorn | 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...

Frugality Isn’t A Virtue

by Sandi Martin | June 3, 2013 | Blog, Budgets, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning, The cult of frugality | 6 Comments

The point: being frugal just for the sake of being frugal isn't being virtuous. It's being cheap. Let's pretend this is the first time you've been on the internet, and you feel like you need personal finance advice (one of these scenarios is probably easier to imagine...

Spring’s Summer Reading List

by Sandi Martin | July 17, 2018 | Financial Literacy, Personal Finance, Personal Financial Planning | 0 Comments

We’re readers at Spring. There’s nothing we like better in the summer than pairing up a good book, the great outdoors, and a cool drink. And let us be clear: we don’t sit around reading about money all day. That way lies madness (believe us). We want to read All The...

UPDATED: How (and Why) to Choose Between NestWealth, Wealthsimple, WealthBar, ShareOwner, and Steadyhand

by Sandi Martin | 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.)

Making it on his own

by Julia Chung | 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.

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.

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

Success!

Don't Be Shy