Book Review: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
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...
September 2019 Update
Phew! What is with September? All that back to school/back to work/questioning where time even went after much lounging (we hope!) throughout the brief but spectacular Canadian summer can be A LOT. Thankfully, your team at Spring Plans is here to help you wade through...
A Week in the Life of Karen
Tuesday, September 3rd 5:50 am I wake up because it is pouring outside and I sleep pretty close to a big window. Even though it is Tuesday, my schedule dictates it is more like a Monday. Labour Day was yesterday, and in the part of Ontario where I live, the first day...
Book Review: The Financially Empowered Woman by Tracy Theemes
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...
August 2019 Update
Are you READY for September??? No, neither are we. In a work sense, absolutely, but are we done with summer? Not at all. For that reason, your team at Spring Plans brings you… a newsletter with the goal of extending that warmest of seasons for just a little bit...
Design Thinking: Business & Money
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...
July 2019 Update
We love, love, love summer. It might seem odd, given that our name is “Spring,” but there is a method to the madness. See, we love summer so much that we spend a lot of time planning for it, to get it right and to maximize our enjoyment. It is the same approach we...
June 2019 Update
You made it! You’re halfway through 2019, and by the time this newsletter reaches you, will have already experienced the longest day of the year. Your sunshine time is shrinking now - get out there and take advantage! After all those start-of-summer, Father’s Day, and...
Spring’s 2019 Summer Reading List
We love, love, love reading at Spring Plans. Immersing ourselves in data, research, and stories about people is how many of us spend our downtime. We vigorously wave our nerd flags, and each summer build our own individual reading lists to trundle through on our...
Design Thinking: Estate Planning
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...
May 2019 Update
It has been an eventful month of May here at Spring, with tax season at an end and multiple statements, returns, and updates flowing in from all of you and your accountants. We hope you are as invigorated as we are about all the planning that you can do now that you...
Design Thinking: Your Business and Disability
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...
Values
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...
April 2019 Update
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...
Book Review: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
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...
Design Thinking: Taxes
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...
March 2019 Update
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...
2019 Federal Budget Summary
Every spring, the Federal Government comes out with their budget for the year - all the ways they’ll be putting our tax dollars to use and running this national operation. They often have a news release in fall that telegraphs some of the things they’re thinking about...
February 2019 Update
Happy Lunar New Year! If you’re a regular reader, you already know that some of the team got together at the end of January to retreat and discuss what we did in 2018 and what we’re hoping to do in 2019. Our annual executive retreat, facilitated by the fabulous...
Design Thinking: Income & Cash Flow
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...
Introducing Karen Richardson
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,...
What We Want for You in 2019
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....
January 2019 Update
Happy New Year!! Feel free to attack this month’s blog content in bits. Like everything else in January, it’s just best to take it at your own pace, as we have lots to talk about, starting with the markets and moving into tax updates, TFSAs & RRSPs, CPP...
December 2018 Update
MERRY HAPPY!!! We hope that by the time you’re reading this, you’re feeling well-prepared for the holidays, however you celebrate them. Regardless of whether you partake of religious, non-denominational, or just no activities throughout this season, we hope you...
Cash Flow Planning – Building Confidence into Your Retirement Plan
When you think about retirement planning, your mind may start to fill with acronyms: RRSP RRIF TFSA LIRA CPP OAS Just think: that’s only the Starter Pack of Financial Jargon. It gets a whole lot worse. You may think you’ll have to earn a Master’s Degree in personal...
Money Mindset: Scarcity vs. Abundance
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...
2018 Spring Financial Gift Guide
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...
Finding the RIGHT Financial Advisor
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...
Where to Start Saving First
The following article is an excerpt from our ebook “Women & Money”. You’ll note some gender-specific language here, but don’t let that deter you. Our advice is the same regardless of the chromosomes you carry. You can download the entire book for free here. Let’s...
October 2018 Update
For many of our clients, one of the most frustrating moments of working with expert advisors is when you have this realization: There is rarely one “right” answer. Even when you process this initial realization, and think to yourself, “Sure, everyone is...