November’s Top Reads
This time of year can often amplify our anxiety. How do we create the best holiday experience for ourselves and for our families? What’s the right way to express our love and gratitude in the form of gifts?
Market 2020 Clinic
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...
2020 October Update
Happy October! We hope you’re adjusting well to the season and all the ambiguity that comes with it. We know that you have a great deal on your plate and may not have had much time to read about personal finance. Not to worry! Sandi has done all the reading for you.
Helping Parents Achieve Retirement: A Case Study
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...
2020 September Update
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...
Portfolio Review and Investment Manager search: A Case Study
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...
Money Smart Kids – September’s Great Reads
This month's top reads from Karen Richardson focuses on providing parents and teens with the tools to help create money smart kids! As a mom of a busy family, September is a month full of new beginnings for me each year. Kids are heading back to school (or some form...
August 2020 Update
In Canada, we often think that summer is over when August is over. However, we like to remind ourselves (and anyone else who might listen) that the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere is absolutely not over until Tuesday, September 22nd. That’s right: the summer...
Disabled Child: Financial Planning for Long Term Care
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...
Cross-Border Finances: A Case Study
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...
Intentional Money Management – July’s Great Reads
Sandi’s Great Reads have been legendary here at Spring. We always look forward to her list of reads - she’s such a great curator. She’s also reading a lot more than the rest of us, so we thought we’d start giving her a hand. Going forward, the rest of the planning...
June 2020 Update
What a month, what a year. It’s hard to be a person right now, and it’s hard to be mindful, goal-oriented, and thoughtful about our futures. It’s times like these that, more than ever, we need to rely on our plans. We gave our thoughts on all of that in last...
Portfolio Second Opinion: A Case Study
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...
May 2020 Update
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...
Variable Income Case Study: Terri
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...
April 2020 Update
Has it only been a month since our last update? It feels like several decades have passed. The sheer volume of information we’ve received and amount of change that has occurred since the beginning of March 2020 has easily outstripped what we would have experienced in...
CERB and COVID-19 Cash Flow Clinic
Note: For more information on the coronavirus and how it relates to your finances, see our dedicated COVID-19 resource page. Cash Flow Clinic Transcript Kathryn Mandelcorn (KM) 0:16 Good afternoon everybody, everybody’s admitted in, we are recording this call. So...
March 2020 Update
We hope this newsletter finds you as well as you can possibly be. It’s only been a month since our last regular newsletter, and so much has changed. Things are changing on a daily basis now, and there’s a great deal of uncertainty in the air. At Spring Plans, we have...
Financial Markets & COVID-19
Note: For more information on the coronavirus and how it relates to your finances, see our dedicated COVID-19 resource page. Financial Markets and COVID-19 Q&A Transcript 0:00 Thanks for joining this call to review what’s going on in the financial markets, and...
February 2020 Update
If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that we spent a few days at the end of January and beginning of February reviewing our 2019 and thinking about our 2020. We were lucky to be able to bring together seven of our team members from across the country for strategy,...
Renovation, Kids, and Cash Flow: Case Study
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...
What We Want for You in 2020
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...
January 2020 Update
Happy 2020! Happy Year of the Rat! Happy EVERYTHING! If you’ve been reading along with us for a few years, you’ll already know that Julia is of the opinion that the time between January 1st and the Lunar New Year (January 25 this year) is our “practice run”. It can...
Big Shiny Numbers 2020
Welcome to 2020! Each new year comes with a new set of numbers and this year - which is either the last year of an old decade or the first year of a new one, depending on who you’re talking to - is no different. Here are some Big Shiny Numbers for Canadians this...
December 2019 Update
Your Spring Plans newsletter arrives a little earlier than usual this month because we are very hopeful that you have the opportunity to walk away from your email and enjoy some relaxation in the last few weeks of the year. Of course, we know you’ll want a few things...
Your Design Thinking Action Plan
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...
November 2019 Update
The last few weeks of 2019 are upon us! We hope you’re feeling less stressed and more in control of your life and your finances this season than you’ve ever felt before. If not, please know that you’re not alone and our cash flow planning team is here to help you...
October 2019 Update
Well, that’s it. We are truly in the thick of it now. It’s holiday season. If you’re here with us in Canada, you’ve just packed away your Thanksgiving dishes, cast your vote in the federal election, and may have already started carving pumpkins for Halloween. If...
Introducing Darryl Brown
We are so excited to announce - as you may have seen already on our home page and in our social media channels - that we have another great expert on our team at Spring Plans. Please join us in welcoming: Darryl Brown, Director of Portfolio Strategies Darryl is a...
Design Thinking: Charitable Giving
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...