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, COO, Financial Planner

Areas of Specialty: Retirement Income Planning, Family Goal Planning

Kathryn Mandelcorn, FMA, PFP®, QAFP ™

Director, Cash Flow Strategies

Areas of Specialty: Money Coaching, Cash Flow Planning

Darryl Brown, CFA®, BComm

Director of Portfolio Strategies

Areas of Specialty: Investment Consulting,
Portfolio Analysis

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

Book Review: The Financially Empowered Woman by Tracy Theemes

by Karen Richardson | September 13, 2019 | Book Review | 0 Comments

Working in the financial industry is truly a privilege. Participating in people’s money journey when our clients have the means to pay us and make changes to their financial situation is a great, great job. What isn’t easy is to see people struggling with their money...

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,...

Design Thinking: Your Business and Disability

by Julia Chung | May 27, 2019 | Cash Flow, Design Thinking, Disability, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

When you are working on your business plan - or not working on it, as the case may be - the risks that you are usually considering are things like: How you’ll handle cash flow issues Where your next customer is coming from How you’ll manage staff Your next marketing...

Book Review: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

by Kathryn Mandelcorn | October 4, 2019 | Book Review | 0 Comments

As a business owner, how many times have you wondered why you have little to no profit at the end of the month or year? Especially when your accountant has shown you a profit on your financial statements but you are left wondering where that profit actually is! In...

Retired Widow: Case Study

by Sandi Martin | March 19, 2020 | Case Study, Front Page, Personal Finance, Planning in Action, Retirement, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

We’re delighted to present you with another financial planning case study as part of this year’s theme. This one was drawn from a mash-up of typical clients and scrubbed of identifying detail, because privacy. Remember, we’re writing these case studies to illustrate...

Book Review: Worry Free Money by Shannon Lee Simmons

by Sandi Martin | April 3, 2018 | Book Review, 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...

Integrated Investing by Bonnie Foley-Wong Book Review

by Sandi Martin | May 21, 2020 | Book Review, Front Page, Investing | 0 Comments

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a talk by Bonnie Foley-Wong of Pique Ventures on the concept of Integrated Investing for a small group of other advice-only planners. I now have a huge crush on her because of her passion for making a difference in the world through...

October’s Top Reads

by Sandi Martin | October 14, 2020 | Budgets, Debt Management, Front Page | 0 Comments

Here we are, well into fall...already? What even is time, anyway? Next thing you know it’ll be 2021 and all this will be over, right? The amount of creative energy we’re all using just to get through life these days is enormous, and you may not have much leftover for...

December’s Top Reads

by Sandi Martin | December 8, 2020 | Book Review, COVID-19, Relationships, Retirement, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

Friends, welcome to the end of 2020. We made it! Deep breaths all around. Our final Top Reads is meant specifically for those of us who are burnt out and in desperate need of a rest. While there are some great articles around retirement, investing, and financial...

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...

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...

Design Thinking: Retirement Income

by Sandi Martin | September 20, 2019 | Big Picture, Design Thinking, Personal Finance, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

Retirement income planning is a H-U-G-E topic, which is why we’re breaking it down in our Design Thinking Meets Financial Planning series over three posts. First, we want you to actively design answers to the question, who are you, really? What do you need to be...

Book Review: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff

by Sandi Martin | August 15, 2019 | Book Review | 0 Comments

You know the nagging feeling that something - even a lot of somethings - are wrong, but the language to express what that something is and why it’s wrong eludes you? Enter Shoshana Zuboff and The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Here’s an example: loyalty rewards....

Line of Credit Debt Case Study

by Sandi Martin | April 17, 2020 | Case Study, Cash Flow, Debt Management, Front Page, Meaningful Spending | 0 Comments

It’s time for another financial planning case study, drawn from real life work with our clients here at Spring, but smudged and blended artistically to keep you from recognizing your next-door neighbour with line of credit debt. As always, these case studies are...

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...

What We Want for You in 2020

by Spring Plans | January 28, 2020 | Case Study, Front Page, Goal Planning, Personal Finance, Planning in Action, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

Have you ever heard someone say, “yeah, well - as soon as you get the financial plan, it’s out of date, so why bother?” We have. More times than we can count (although, interestingly, we hear it from other financial professionals more often than from clients). It’s...

Design Thinking: Charitable Giving

by Julia Chung | October 15, 2019 | Big Picture, Design Thinking, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Autumn is a great time to think about charitable giving. As you are someone who plans ahead (or really, really wants to), getting these thoughts in place before the insanity of the holiday season truly hits your life and your pocketbook can help you focus on what’s...

Design Thinking: Post-Retirement Income

by Sandi Martin | November 21, 2019 | Big Picture, Design Thinking, Personal Finance, Retirement, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

Congratulations! You made it to retirement, and are living off of a combination of personal savings, company pension, and government benefits ...and here’s where most of the retirement income planning resources stop, as if retirement is a finish line instead of a...

Book Review: The Laws of Wealth by Dr. Daniel Crosby

by Sandi Martin | 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...

Book Review: The Value of Simple by John Robertson

by Sandi Martin | August 21, 2018 | Book Review, 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...

Book Review: Retirement Income for Life by Fred Vettese

by Sandi Martin | November 5, 2019 | Book Review, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

When our retirement income planning clients tell us they’ve read Retirement Income for Life, or one of Fred Vettese’s other books on retiring in Canada, I usually get very excited. No, it’s not because we’re huge book nerds at Spring and love talking to people who’ve...

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...

What We Want for You in 2019

by Spring Plans | January 28, 2019 | Design Thinking, 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....

Portfolio Second Opinion: A Case Study

by Darryl Brown | June 24, 2020 | Case Study, Front Page, Personal Finance, Portfolio IQ, Portfolio Second Opinion | 0 Comments

Welcome back to another case study! If you’re new here, our case studies involve mushing together similar client stories, scrubbing away any identifying details, and sharing how we’re helping Canadians in various financial situations with cash flow, retirement...

Book Review: Living Your Dream by Larry Wilson

by Sandi Martin | March 16, 2020 | Book Review, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Until I read Living Your Dream by Larry Wilson, I hadn’t found an all-purpose personal finance 101 book that delivers practical information in enough depth and breadth that I could responsibly recommend it. I’m happy to say that this streak has ended, and would...

Disabled Child: Financial Planning for Long Term Care

by Julia Chung | August 19, 2020 | Case Study, Disability, Disabled Child, Front Page, Long Term Care | 0 Comments

In this month’s case study, we’re sharing the financial story of a family with a disabled child who will require long term care. Before we introduce you, we’re circling waaay back to the beginning of the year (was that just eight months ago?!), when we let you in on...

Design Thinking: Taxes

by Julia Chung | April 22, 2019 | Design Thinking, Income Tax, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

Yum... taxes. As Canadians, we may have love-hate relationships with taxes. Or, like many of our cousins to the south, just flat-out hate-hate relationships. Regardless of how we might feel about taxes, they’re a part of our lives. We can choose to ignore them, we can...

Renovation, Kids, and Cash Flow: Case Study

by Kathryn Mandelcorn | February 20, 2020 | Case Study, Cash Flow, Goal Planning, Personal Finance, Planning in Action | 0 Comments

Every year, we give some thought to what we want for you in the year ahead. We proceed to spend the rest of the year riffing on that subject, hoping that multiple perspectives on a singular concept will provide the means for you to integrate it into your lives. This...

2020 September Update

by Julia Chung | September 28, 2020 | Front Page, Monthly Spring Update, Personal Finance | 0 Comments

How is your September going? Over at Spring, we are all back at our desks after a summer filled with holidays exploring our local communities. With team members spread from coast to coast, we have been able to share our explorations with each other, which is almost...

Financial Intimacy by Jacquette Timmons: A Book Review

by Sandi Martin | October 6, 2020 | Big Picture, Book Review, Financial Intimacy, Financial Literacy, Front Page, Relationships | 0 Comments

Because Financial Intimacy: How to Create a Healthy Relationship with Your Money and Your Mate by Jacquette Timmons was written while the 2008 financial crisis was unfolding, its lessons feel particularly relevant in what has been, with a few exceptions, a terrible,...

Portfolio Review and Investment Manager search: A Case Study

by Julia Chung | September 22, 2020 | Case Study, Front Page, portfolio review, Portfolio Second Opinion | 0 Comments

Welcome back to another exciting installment in our 2020 series of case studies. This month, we’re introducing you to Olivia, who came to us looking for a portfolio review. Our case studies use real stories about real clients (mashed up with many other client stories...

Book Review: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

by Julia Chung | April 23, 2019 | Accountability, Big Picture, Book Review | 0 Comments

The Power of Habit and its follow-up, Smarter, Faster, Better, by Charles Duhigg were some of the bright shining spots in my nonfiction reading over the past year. You never know what you’re getting into with any kind of reading, but at least with fiction, you know...

The Math and Strategy of Retirement Planning: A Case Study

by Sandi Martin | December 3, 2020 | Case Study, COVID-19, Front Page, portfolio review, Retirement, Retirement Calculators, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

Wouldn’t it be great to figure out your retirement, set it… and forget it? As we mentioned in November’s Rebuilding Retirement case study, retirement isn’t a destination. It’s an ongoing process.

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...

January’s Top Reads

by Sandi Martin | January 14, 2021 | Accountability, Affordability, Book Review, Canadian Personal Finance News, COVID-19, Income Tax, Personal Finance, Planning in Action | 0 Comments

For this month’s Top Reads, Sandi Martin shares a list of a variety of articles on topics from using habits to reduce stress, the benefits of laziness, to sharing some insights about the market, and persisting in the fight for a just society.

Book Review: Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

by Sandi Martin | September 18, 2018 | Book Review, 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,...

Design Thinking: Business & Money

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

Got a business? Self-employed? Looking at a side hustle? Your money just got a whole heck of a lot more complicated. But, not to worry, your friendly neighbourhood financial planners are here to help. In the months and years ahead as you grow your empire, your...

Book Review: Mindset: The New Psychology by Carol S. Dwek

by Kathryn Mandelcorn | October 23, 2018 | Book Review, 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...

Variable Income Case Study: Terri

by Karen Richardson | May 25, 2020 | Case Study, Cash Flow, Debt Management, Personal Finance, variable income | 0 Comments

We’re back with another case study, this time with “Terri.” Terri is 42 years old, single, and works as a pharmaceutical rep earning commission income that varies wildly from month to month. With variable income, it’s hard to save money without knowing when the next...

Book Review: Your Digital Undertaker by Sharon Hartung

by Sandi Martin | January 15, 2020 | Book Review | 0 Comments

I thought when I picked up Your Digital Undertaker: Exploring Death in the Digital Age in Canada, that I’d learn more about how digital assets are treated after death, how to plan properly for my own digital assets and to guide clients in planning for theirs, and...

What We Want for You in 2021

by Julia Chung | January 19, 2021 | Case Study, Front Page, Goal Planning, Personal Finance, Planning in Action, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

This year, what we want for you is to help you clarify your values and structure a plan that aligns with your values.

Book Review: Wealthing Like Rabbits by Robert R. Brown

by Krysten Merriman | March 7, 2018 | Accountability, Book Review, 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...

Market 2020 Clinic

by Darryl Brown | October 28, 2020 | Big Picture, Cash Flow, COVID-19, Front Page, Investing, Wealth Management, Webinar | 0 Comments

Note: For more information on the coronavirus and how it relates to your finances, see our dedicated COVID-19 resource page. Market 2020 Clinic Transcript: Spring Plans: Alright. Good evening, and welcome to the Quarterly Clinic with Darryl Brown. All participants...

Helping Parents Achieve Retirement: A Case Study

by Julia Chung | October 20, 2020 | Case Study, Front Page, Retirement, Retirement Planning, Wealth Management | 0 Comments

We’ve been asked fairly frequently in the past what a “Spring Plan” is like and we often find ourselves at a loss. Our work isn’t really about creating Spring plans - although this is what we call ourselves - it’s really about providing custom (or “bespoke”, if you...

Cross-Border Finances: A Case Study

by Kathryn Mandelcorn | July 23, 2020 | Case Study, Cash Flow, Cross-Border FInances, Front Page, Income Tax | 0 Comments

Cash Flow for Cross-Border Finances Leela is finally doing her dream job, consulting to international companies on how to create inclusive environments within their organizations. She also helps her clients deal with internal biases and speaks to large audiences...

Book Review: The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist

by Kathryn Mandelcorn | May 24, 2018 | Book Review, 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...

May 2020 Update

by Julia Chung | May 26, 2020 | COVID-19, Design Thinking, Monthly Spring Update | 0 Comments

The Spring team kicks off each calendar year with a post we call What We Want for You in… *current year.* For 2020, we wanted you to have practical examples of design thinking - the implementation of last year’s theme - so that you have some of the tools you need to...

Design Thinking: Income & Cash Flow

by Kathryn Mandelcorn | February 19, 2019 | Budgets, Cash Flow, Debt Management, Design Thinking, 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...

Rebuilding the Ideal Retirement: A Case Study

by Julia Chung | November 16, 2020 | Case Study, Front Page, Personal Finance, portfolio review, Portfolio Second Opinion, Retirement | 0 Comments

Two retirees find themselves rebuilding their ideal retirement after a series of market fluctuations and poor insurance advice.

Your Design Thinking Action Plan

by Julia Chung | December 16, 2019 | Big Picture, Cash Flow, Design Thinking, Investing, Personal Finance, Retirement Planning | 0 Comments

All year long, your Spring Plans team has been using the concept of Design Thinking to contemplate many different aspects of your personal finances. Why Design Thinking? The answer has remained the same all year long: because we want you to have permission to design...

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, PFP®, QAFP ™

Darryl Brown, CFA®, BComm

Connect with the team on social media

What We Do at Spring

Our Process

What We’re Writing

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