Protecting Your Future | Financial Planning with Alyssa Anderson

This month, I sit down with Alyssa Anderson from Desjardins Insurance for a powerful and practical conversation about financial security at every stage of life.

We talk about holistic financial planning, retirement strategies for individuals and business owners, risk mitigation through life, disability, and critical illness insurance, and why estate and legacy planning should never be an afterthought.

Alyssa shares why financial literacy matters, how to structure your finances intentionally, and why “every dollar should have a purpose.”

If you want to protect your family, your business, and your future, this episode is for you.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Introduction to Financial Wellness
03:02 – Personal Finance & Budgeting Foundations
06:03 – The Importance of Retirement Planning
09:00 – Risk Mitigation & Financial Protection
12:04 – Financial Literacy & Education
20:50 – Teaching Financial Literacy
24:00 – Business Planning & Protection Strategies
28:40 – Generational Wealth & Legacy Planning
30:03 – Having Financial Conversations
32:03 – Tax Efficiency & Business Structure
36:00 – Travel Insurance & Protection Planning

Real estate is one part of your financial picture. Understanding how it connects to retirement, protection, and legacy planning is what creates true long-term stability.

🎧 Watch or listen now. The links to YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts are in the comments section.

If you’re serious about securing your financial future, this is a conversation worth hearing.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello everybody and thank you so much for joining me on my podcast today. I am very excited because I am here with Alyssa Anderson. She is with the Jardins and she is actually my financial person that I deal with. And she has so much amazing information for you, whether you're just single on your own, if you're married, if you have kids, if you don't have kids, or if you're a business person.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Right?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

So we're gonna kind of touch on all of those aspects today. But first off, Alyssa, tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here and share more about how I can help our community. So I have now been in the industry going on seven years. Actually, on Wednesday was my six-year business anniversary. I saw that on Facebook. That was awesome. So it was like perfect timing for us. Thank you. And yeah, so I take more of a holistic approach, and being partnered with the independent network here allows me to do what's in the best interest of my clients genuinely. And that's what I love is the relationship building side of things, helping my clients make informed decisions and knowing how these different products align with their specific goals. It's one thing for me to understand that, but I want to make sure I understand each client because we all have different goals, right? Yeah. And we're at different life stages. So I usually work with 18 to about mid-70 year olds at this time, which is a very wide range. Um, but I typically prefer to work with more younger families or business owners. So I would say that's typically who I find myself having conversations with, especially with being involved in networking, right? I'm around a lot of business owners and I love that space because I myself am a business owner, right? So I can relate to a lot of those different aspects, but making sure that we are looking at all these different financial components. Cause I find that a lot of people sometimes have this over here, we have this over here, and we don't really know how everything kind of looks together. And that's where I help put together those puzzle pieces and making sure that everything is making sense with your overall financial plan and a bigger picture in mind. So whether it's starting with where's your money currently going, maybe you have a budget. If not, then establishing one. And that's not a bad thing. I actually like to say it's you being the CEO of your money, right? You telling it where it should go instead of wondering, oh, where did it, where did it go? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Now, I have a question. Yeah. Do you find that most people know where their money goes, or are they kind of coming to you and being like, oh, like, yeah, what do you find you get a little bit more of?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

It's kind of like a little bit of a mix. I feel a lot of people, especially families or individuals, don't really look at all those details, right? They're like, money comes in and it goes out, I pay my bills, so it's fine. Yeah. Right. And I feel like a lot of times if I'm sitting down with a business owner, they probably have a little bit more of an understanding than your average um family or individual. Not that we don't have an understanding, but often we're just so busy and we're like, the bills are paid, that's fine. Yeah. Right? It is what it is. But then we don't look at all those fine little things like buying a coffee every single day adds up. Can we afford that? Or are is our money just going here and then we can't achieve this goal now? Yes. If we're achieving our goals, go treat yourself, right? I love that aspect. But it's just more of a mindset shift, I find, right? You being in control and telling your money where it should go. Yes. Right. And allocating every dollar. Every dollar should have a purpose. Yes. And that's where I find it's really empowering for clarity and confidence in your overall financial plan. Because it first starts with you make money, how can we efficiently and best use that?

SPEAKER_01 3:41

That's right. And I love that you said like every, like I say, every dollar has a name, right? So we have money and it's like, okay, this is for this, this is for this, this is for this. We're we're pretty structured with with how we spend our money, me and my husband, right? And part of that is that you've helped us with that, right? But I feel like especially, and I I really think that they should be teaching financing and budgeting more in the school system. And I mean, it's not the school system's to teach like job to teach everything. The parents have to do that too. But I I I also think that it would be really good for these younger kids at a young age to kind of start learning that every, you know, quarter that they make or dollar that they make has a name and goes to something. Um, when I was a kid, my parents had, we would get our allowance, we'd work for our allowance, right? Yeah. And then they had like different cups of where like things went down. Yeah, that's what they did. And they were like, you know, 10% goes to God, right? And then 10% goes to savings. And then they had one where they were like, and 10% goes to mom and dad because we've been paying for you your whole life. You can contribute to the family now that you're making money. And uh, and then the what you have left over could be for the fun things that you want.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Yeah, right. And if you're enjoy life too, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:54

You need to enjoy life too. And if you're saving up for something, they were like, Well, what do you like? My brother, he was like, I really want um uh like a nerf gun, these big nerf guns that were like super cool. Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Oh, my brother talked about that all the time growing up. Yeah, it's the big thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

It's the big thing was nerf guns, and so like he had a cup that said Nerf gun, right? Oh my gosh, it'd be like 50% into the Nerf Gun fund.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Yeah, yeah. But it's working towards a goal.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

But it's working towards a goal, and it's teaching good financial like lessons, yeah, you know, and I I I don't think there's a lot of that, and then we grow up and we're adults, and all of a sudden we have a house and a car and kids, and and it's like, oh my goodness, where's all my money going? Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

And you're expected to know that too, right? It's like, oh, okay, yeah, I'm just supposed to figure out life, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah, yeah. And my husband says complicated. It's it's complicated. Your finances can be super complicated, and like you said, especially if you own a business. For sure. Right?

SPEAKER_00 5:47

And now you've got two sides of things.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Now you've got two sides of things, and we're gonna get more into the business side um about halfway through, but even um retirement is huge right now. Retirement for our age group. So I'm in my 40s, you're younger than me.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

I'm 30.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Yes, there's a big difference, but we don't live in an age anymore where you get out of high school and you go to a job and there's a pension plan for that job, and there's investments made for you in that job, and you're gonna stay there for your entire career until you retire. And when you retire, hey, here's here's your money, right? It comes every month. That's not that's not something that really happens anymore. So you have to step aside, think outside the box, and and create that. And that's something that we met with you, me and my husband, and that is really what we set out um to be able to do. So, can you tell me a little bit about like those types of products to be able to set up your retirement and um just have that security that you don't have to work till you're 80? Yeah, right? And yeah, and you can still support your family and have kind of the same lifestyle that you're living now.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Yes, absolutely. That's a huge part of overall financial planning is thinking long term. And sometimes it's really, really hard to do that, being honest. Trust me, when I say even to even 20-year-olds that I have these conversations with, I'm like, imagine yourself when you're 80 years old. This is the weirdest thing to do, right? It's so hard to think that way. But I'm so far off. Oh, absolutely. It's like, but if you're not putting on that different thinking hat, you're not doing strategic financial planning.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Right? Because yes, we're planning for now, but if we're having a plan, we want to have a plan for all those different life stages, right? And a big part of that is planning for your retirement. We don't want to work until we're old and gray. We work hard so that we can maintain our lifestyle. And that's also something that a lot of people I find are planning for retirement, but they're not expecting maybe to live long. Right. And that's something that's like, well, I'd rather plan that you live a very, very long life. And if you don't, well, then life happens, right? But if we're not doing strategic financial planning, we're not actually accounting for all these different components. And I feel a lot of people are also really good at building wealth or um having a lot of investments, but that's only one component. The other component is making sure we're protecting that, and that's how we can be even more strategic. So a lot of times we're familiar with like RSPs. Well, commonly there's pensions that used to be utilized by a lot of the major companies. We're seeing actually them transition to more of a group RSP structure.

unknown 8:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

So that's where being a business owner, though, none of that is really available to you. So that's where we gotta get a little bit more creative, right? And honestly, when I started my business, that was the first thing I started was thinking long term, right? I'm young now, but I'm not always going to be, and I want to maintain the lifestyle that I'm working towards building. How can I do that? So structuring your investments properly, being most tax efficient, but even for business owners is key, right? I see a lot of business owners that have a lot of retained earnings, but they're not using it tax efficiently or strategically. Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

So it's just sitting in an account, not doing anything, maybe gaining a little bit of interest, but like it's peanuts.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

And it's not a bad thing, but if we can be more strategic, that's where partnering with an advisor such as myself can be a huge asset, right? I always say, and we talked about this before, you don't know what you don't know. So that's right, you have your own expertise. I would never try to go sell a house because people would probably be like, she's no idea what she's talking about because I don't, right? But that's where sitting in front of and partnering with that specific advisor or in each different field, like myself, I partner with lawyers and I partner with um making sure that we have estate planning taken into account and just looking at all the different components, and that's where having a team working for you is most important. But structuring things most tax efficiently is key. I don't think anyone wants to pay their government more than we have to. We're already paying too much. So if we can be smarter about it, uh what it's a no-brainer to me. Why would we not do that? Right. So there's many different ways that we can structure actually even retirement planning in and through your corporation as a business owner, which is becoming more prominent. But I feel like it's most underused concept. And a lot of people just don't know, right? We you mentioned this earlier. Financial literacy is honestly something that's kind of like a jargon term, right? People are like, uh, I'm adulting and things are kind of working, but they're not. But I don't know what's out there. Um, and a key thing that a lot of people say to me, Oh, I I've never heard of life insurance as an example. Or I didn't know that I should be protecting what I'm building. I thought financial planning was just investments.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Right. Yes, that's true. There, there's a lot of there's a lot of components and and moving pieces that we're not even aware about. I mean, even I'm pretty business savvy. And when I sat down with you, there was parts that I was like, oh, we can do that. Let's do that. Like, I didn't even know that we could do that. And I do find that as adults, there's a lot of talking about money, see it's very taboo, right? And in my business as a realtor, I mean, I come in, I sit in your home, and we start talking about money. Yeah. Right? Yep. You're a financial advisor, you sit down with people, you start talking about money. But the average family doesn't really talk about money. And a lot of times, too, like I'm related to my dad's a pastor. And he said, People get married and they're sitting down and he'll do marriage counseling, and they don't even know what each other makes. They don't even know what kind of savings that they have. They they haven't actually talked about it because it's kind of a taboo thing. This is my money and this is my financial stuff. Like, I don't really need to talk about it, right? But we do, it's you do need to talk about it so that you can protect yourself and you can set yourself up um in the future. And sitting down and talking with an advisor um like Alyssa, that doesn't cost you anything to come in and sit down. No, right? To gain that kind of knowledge is is completely free. And that's something that I think everybody should be doing is they should be able to, you know, take a look at their finances, find out what's best for them, what's gonna work for them, and then and then go from there. I know that when you and I first met, uh, we met on Zoom because I'm busy and I'm running around. So for me, I couldn't just come in, but she was very accommodating and we met on Zoom, which is great. Um one of the things that I was concerned about is that if something happened to me or happened to my husband, right? Because I I'm an I'm a business owner, uh, I own an incorporation, and it's like, okay, if I'm not making money and I'm not working, now what? All of a sudden there's a a chunk of income in our home that's just that's just not there anymore, right? So and I've seen it when I grew up. I mean, I'm a 90s kid, not born in the 90s, but I actually lived in the 90s and where parents, it was the mom stayed home and the dad went out to work.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Very common. It was very common back then, and everything financial was just based on what the father made in the family. And I had a friend whose father had a major accident and he was no longer able to work, and the mom had no education, she had no job experience, and I mean their entire life changed because the main beret winner of the home wasn't able to bring money into the home, right? And I had said to you, that's not what I want.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Right? So, how do you protect people in those types of situations? Because I'm sure that you see it, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Absolutely. And that's something, even relating back to marriage or relationships, right? I think it first starts with being aware and then having someone facilitate. I kind of sometimes joke and say I'm a financial therapist sometimes. Yeah. Um, but really I am. I'm a third party, right? I I'm not here to judge anything, I'm here to help make sure that you're on the same page, we're all on the same page, so I can align those different products that help you achieve these goals and concerns. So, relating back to your question about that, that's a key thing that's important. And that's what we call risk mitigation. That is a core component of any financial plan. If you do not have these components in place, then we technically actually don't have a full holistic financial plan. So, to give you context, life insurance is a key aspect. That's an example. If something does happen, typically in a relationship, a marriage, a business even, you rely on more than one income to make sure that you're maintaining that lifestyle, that business, and structuring it properly. So that is a main component of a financial plan to ensure that your family's lifestyle can be maintained and continued. Nothing has to change. They don't have to sell their house or move or all of these things and can focus on being there for their family when it matters most. Yes. That is what I'm extremely passionate about is making sure that we are protecting your family. We work so hard for our money. We want to make sure that we're protecting it. And that's a key aspect of a financial plan. But also a few components that people often kind of don't think about or maybe assume is already covered in their group benefits, also relates to critical illness insurance and disability insurance. Yes. Those are things that sometimes people don't think about. They're like, ah, well, I have EI, or maybe I'm off for a little bit of time. That's fine. My partner, my spouse, whoever it might be, should be okay. Like we've got an emergency fund. We should be sufficient for some time. But that's commonly an unknown. We don't know for how long. Maybe that's three months, maybe that's three years, maybe that's indefinitely.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Well, and EI only covers for a certain period of time. Um, and there's devastating things that that happen in your life. I I know a girl, her child unfortunately was very sick with cancer. Yeah, right. But she could only take so much time off. And then after, and so her daughter, what she needed, the medication she needed, was covered under her group benefits.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Right. But if the mom stayed off work, all of a sudden it was no longer covered because she had to go back to work to be able to get more hours, to continue the EI, to be able to stay on. And so you work all that time to have those benefits, and something happens. Now you need the time off work, and you also don't have those benefits. Right. Right. And that is people are like, what do you mean I don't have those benefits? I I thought I had them. This is what I work for. I pay into this group benefit plan, right? Where you come along and she sits down and she says, Okay, here's what we can do so that doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Exactly. Yeah. And that's a key key aspect is the disability insurance commonly is included with group benefits, but critical illness is not. I've seen maybe very few group benefit plans that cover some form of critical illness, but that's commonly overlooked. And that actually is what protects what you're building, that protects your emergency fund, that protects all of your investments that you've worked so hard for and allows you not to push off other goals in the future. Retirement being a key aspect. Critical illness is the number one cause people deplete their savings and investments. I believe that. Average age is 48 years old.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

At 40, okay, so I 100%, I 100% believe that because now that my husband and I are in our 40s, we have more and more friends that we hear of, like all of a sudden someone's had a heart attack and their husband's past. And you're like, oh my goodness, I couldn't, I couldn't imagine. No, right? And um, and then what's going on? It's working in real estate, it's terrible when you go to a family's home and the husband 48 between 40 and 50, it has passed away, and the family is like, we had nothing set up, and the life insurance isn't enough to cover it, and we need to sell this house and move into move into a rental. Those things are real and those things happen, and those things are devastating. When I have to go sit down with somebody that's heartbreaking, like the mom is just like beside herself.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Absolutely. That's the last thing you should have to think about or deal with, right? 100%. And that's where making sure that people understand there's different uses for life insurance.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Right? And making sure that it is customized based on your need. Yeah. No two families are the exact same. We have different incomes, we have different mortgages or other debts that we want to cover. We want to make sure that we're maintaining that lifestyle. And that's a huge component. I make sure that people understand that covering your mortgage balance with life insurance is so beneficial, right? It means that your family's lifestyle is maintained. For me, that's huge. The last thing I would want to have to think about is oh my gosh, I have to pick up all my stuff, move, and now start another life when I'm trying to grieve at the same time. That's horrifying to me. That's horrifying. That's absolutely horrible. Sometimes, often too late, right? They have people will come to me and they and they've gone through this. But that's where maybe if they were at a later life stage, they maybe have children that are younger. My youngest client is 18 years old. Good for him or her. Right? Like they have multiple. I don't know who you are, but I wish I knew that. I applaud you. But guess what? They already started life insurance, they have critical illness insurance, they're saving for a house, they're saving for retirement already. Yes. At 18 years old. Good. That is awesome. So that's where sometimes it's too late for yourselves, but passing that on even to the next generation, whether you have kids or not, but surrounding yourself with the people that are open to learning and want to pass that on to other people. That's where I do take a very education-based approach because I want you to know what you're doing and why. I'm not here to just sell you this product, right? Because that's not helping you. I want you to understand how that's going to work through your different life stages, but align properly with those goals that you have in mind.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Yeah, and education is a big key, right? And I I had this conversation with a lawyer the other day, and uh just talking about, I feel like if you are in business or if you have a really good, if you're an expert in some kind of field, it is, in my opinion, your job to help educate people and help people because really not everybody, I don't know all the financial financial stuff, and you don't know all the real estate stuff, and I don't know all the law stuff, and you don't know all the law stuff, right? Right. But and we don't even know the average person has no idea where to even look or start, right? So if you can get out there and you can share this information and you can educate people in a free way that helps them, I mean, that can that can change their whole life.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

I agree with that, and I feel a lot of it comes from people don't know where to go.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

They don't know where to go.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Honestly, before I started my practice as an independent advisor, I didn't know someone like myself existed. Yeah, I never heard of that. I thought of money and I I would assume that we'd go to the bank. That's my only option. Nothing wrong with that, but that's where I like to make sure that people know that they can go to someone who's a trusted advisor. Yeah, and that's what I've worked really hard. I'm very involved in the community. Um, I actually spoke um for the school board the other week. Oh, that's educating about planning for education savings, right? About RESPs. And I feel like a lot of people just don't even know where to get this information, or there's so much information online, and then people are like, I don't know what to do with it. So we probably just push it aside and we're like, oh, I'll get to that eventually. Um, but life happens and we probably don't get to it, right? So that's where I feel the biggest aspect of where an advisor can provide value and add value is having that consistent strategy, adapting when things change and making sure we're always on the same page. Because I'm just here to understand your goals, align those products or services to make sure that we can allow you to. Work towards them and attain them, but maintaining is key. I find people feel they're very successful, they've done well for themselves, and that's amazing. But if one little thing happens, now we're taking 12 steps backwards.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

That's right. And when we work so hard to build a business, and before we started um filming here, we were talking about businesses. Yes. Right. And we were saying that a lot of people, they're just out there grinding and hustling and doing everything that they can. They're not sleeping, they're not eating. Yeah, we've been there. Because that's how you start a business. And no matter what field you're in. And then you you're doing really well. But something happens. There's there's a legal thing that happens, and all of a sudden you're like, I don't know how I didn't know this, you know, because now all of a sudden there's a legal thing. Now you've contacted a lawyer, now you've contacted a financial advisor, now you've contacted somebody who is pointing you in the right direction, and you're sitting in front of them being like, I could have done this for $12 a month, you know, at the beginning, if I would have known. And um people end up losing their businesses and starting from the ground up again just because they didn't even know who to talk to or where to start or who to pick up the phone and call about questions. So tell me a little bit about how you help out businesses because there's not just like for myself, me and my husband uh came to Alyssa, we set up stuff for our own personal life, but then we also set up uh things for our in our own corporations and stuff like that, right? And what we wanted to do in the future. And we don't have kids, right? So, like, what is gonna happen with that in the future? You know, can we give it to nieces and nephews? Like, how do we just how do we do this and how do we protect ourselves? Um, if I pass, how do these corporations keep running? If both of us pass, we want this, you know, these corporations to still make money and give it to our our nieces and nephews. Like how, you know, it was a whole big thing, and you were just like, I got this, it's what we're gonna do. This is here, a couple of different options, what works best for you. Exactly. Yeah. So if you're a business owner and you're looking for some kind of like structure, how you can protect yourself, um, how you can save for your future, uh, how you can protect your kids, your family, what would you say to somebody coming in with a business? What would kind of be your first thing to do?

SPEAKER_00 24:19

First, I want to understand why this business was built, what it wants to achieve, where your vision is going, and what that looks like in the future. Then figuring out what's important. Do you have children? Do you have nieces and nephews? Because that's something to incorporate, right? We want to make sure we're accounting for those goals. And that's something we did talk about. Yeah. How can we be strategic and make sure that this is aligning for your business specifically?

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

But the key aspect a lot of business owners don't consider is that they they do have a personal side of things too. Yeah. Right. So I always recommend protecting kind of your personal side because that allows us to know what we should be doing on the business side of things, right? And that's where even structuring corporate owned life insurance, key person insurance, right? If there's more than one business owner, if something happens to the one business owner, how does the other one step in? What does that look like? Are they now taking over all these expenses? How can we protect that? How can we make sure that this business is still running?

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

And that's a huge aspect of the financial planning side of things for business owners. But often I feel a lot of business owners aren't really actually separating personal and business. They're like, I'm in business, my business is me. I'm like, yes, but but no at the same time, right? You work hard because you want to maintain your lifestyle and do the things you like to do, whether that's travel or if you have children, planning ahead for their futures, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

All of those things kind of take account when we're looking at your overall practice, your overall operational side of things, yeah, and making sure that we are properly and tax efficiently. Yes, tax efficiently structuring all of these things. So that is something I've become a lot more passionate about over the last few years is working with business owners. Being a business owner myself, I don't work so hard just to have it all taken away or not be passed to my husband or my future family. I do this because I love what I do and because that's helping other people. I want that to help my family as well.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

So that's a key aspect of structuring even corporate owned life insurance to make sure that that can pass to the next generation, even, or to nieces and nephews, other family members, your partner in business. That is really important and often overlooked. And that's how we can actually be more tax efficient with that too. We don't want your business partner or if it's your your spouse or whomever to have to now figure out everything and then maybe put aside what their own personal goals maybe were.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Right. Yes. And even making it simple. Like my I'm a business person, my husband's not a business person. Yep. Right. So if I was to pass away and he was all of a sudden like this business, he'd be like, Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 27:09

I don't, I don't, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Right. But the way that we have it set up is easy. It just keeps running. He just doesn't have to touch it. Like, yeah, he does nothing. Contact Alyssa. Alyssa will fix it all. That's right. That's right. Because we've done proactive planning. Because we've done proactive planning. And if you're a husband, say you're an electrician or you're an arborist or a plumber, right? And your wife is like she's maybe she's at home with the kids and you've got young kids, right? If something happens and you pass, I mean, she's now what gonna run your business for you? Or she's gonna go find a job, she's gotta go find a job, who's she gonna give if you're an electrician or a tradesperson and you're licensed, right? Like she has to find somebody licensed to now run that business, you know? But if you have that business properly structured, then that all just falls into place. And again, she can grieve properly while still having an income and not all of a sudden being a business owner.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yes. Yeah. And that's a part of where the personal and business kind of go hand in hand.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Right? We want to make sure, as an example, they don't lose their home or something like this, or have to move, or now have all of this on their plate that they don't know what to do. They're so overwhelmed. They want to be able to grieve, take the time, but maybe that's not available. Then they have to deal with the whole business side of things, yeah, which is a whole nother world. Yeah. Right. So that's where properly making sure that your personal and business are intertwining, but they're not the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

Is there anything else that you want to talk about on the business side? Um, I think part of that also is even like the generational legacy planning that I mentioned. So that's a key aspect too. So even structuring it through the corporation to pass on that business or pass on even wealth that was built in that business to your children or to other family members is key. But also that's relevant for families in general. So that's something I've become quite passionate about as well, whether you're a business owner or not, is making sure that we are passing on the wealth you've worked so hard to build efficiently and effectively, but in the easiest way possible. But we want more of that money going in your pocket rather than the government's, right? Yeah. And that's something that's really, I would say that's honestly not even talked about or it's often overlooked. And the most underused concepts um in Canada, being honest.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Yeah, I do feel like the states kind of deals with that kind that stuff a lot more than than we do in Canada. And their structure is obviously set up uh differently because they're um the states, but we hear about it on movies, and I I just feel like money and wealth and security is a lot more of a conversation in the states than it is over here in Canada, just in general with families on TV, like the whole nine yards.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

I do find that as well, honestly. And a lot of people, I work with a lot of different age groups, as I mentioned. Yeah. And I honestly don't find that one specific age group knows more than the other, which is strange to me. Because we all know nothing. It's so funny. Not saying that we don't know nothing, right? But it's like no one talks about that. No one talks about it. If we're not talking about it, we don't know what to look for, what to ask for, what even is available to us. Yeah. So if you don't know another business owner that has used corporate own life insurance as an example, yeah, you don't know to even ask or where to look for that. If you haven't been around another family that's done this generational legacy planning and wealth transition, yeah, you don't even know that's available to you. So that's something that I encourage you to find that knowledge, but that doesn't have to be done on your own. Partnering with an advisor such as myself is where that knowledge can come from. And that's where I do pride in taking an education-based approach. Yes. Because as I mentioned, I'm not here to sell you something. That's not helping you, your business, your family. I want to make sure you know what you're doing and why. Not enough to do what I do, of course, yeah, but to know that I've structured this so that if something happens, this is going to be taken care of. It's the last thing anyone would ever have to worry about. Or I've worked so hard for every dollar I make. I want that money going in my family's pocket.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

That's right. With taxes too, especially if you're a business owner, there are so many things that you can do with your taxes to make sure that you're saving that money and that it's not going to the government. I mean, even from when I remember when I went from owning a bit, like just being uh a sole proprietor into owning an incorporation and the amount of taxes. Like I had to pay my tax bill and I was so mad. And my husband is saying to me, he's like, Well, you're just upset because you have to pay it all at once. He's like, Where I pay it, it comes off. I'm getting taxed the same. And I was like, but this is ridiculous. Yeah. This is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

What tax bracket you're in?

SPEAKER_01 32:06

It's crazy. Yeah. And when you he's right. When it's coming off your bill, off your bill, off your um saying bill, like paycheck, every every um paycheck, you really don't think about it. No. Right? It's it's like it's not even part of your income. You're not thinking about it. But when you own a business and you're setting that aside and you're watching it grow, and then you have to take all of it in. And here you go. Here you go. Like that's a whole other thing. That really gets you to think about it. Absolutely. So I I had that happen. And then when I switched over to being incorporated the next year, I was like, oh my goodness, I should have done this. I should have done this year one. Like it's huge. And then even from in there, there's a lot of things that can be done.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Absolutely. Yeah. And that's something like you gotta start somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

You gotta start.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

But that's where you can evolve and that's where it's key. And I mentioned adapting.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Right. A lot of people start one way and then they just continue. Not that it's wrong, but if there's other ways that we can structure things, whether it's your business, even your own personal financial plan, that's a key aspect that a lot of people don't think about, or they're like, ah, I have that. We're good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Well, you I mean, you want to work smarter, not harder. Yes. Right? I love that. And that's one of the things that I feel that you do for me with my money. You know what I mean? Is that I'm working, but now I'm working smarter and my money is working for me. Yeah. Um, when I first started like explaining to my husband business stuff, right? Um, I said, you know, what I want to create is these different funnels of income coming in. But I said, and he was like, funnels, I don't get it. And I was like, kind of like a different person. Yeah. Where this incorporation and this incorporation and these investments are different people that are working. There are employees, you know? Essentially, yeah. Yeah. And we're paying and they're working really hard so that we don't have to work hard. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

And having your money work for you is huge. And trust me, it's a game changer. And that's something, even with even if you're not a business owner, being efficient when you get a tax refund. What do most people do with that? They spend it. Tax season.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Yeah. But something I I kind of encourage my all of my clients, doesn't matter how old you are, what life stage you're, whether you don't have a business or you do, being efficient and actually reinvesting that tax return. Right? Your money is working harder for you. The government's actually trying to help you. Right? They're like, here's extra money. Yeah. And then people go, thank you, and throw it or give it to someone else. Yeah. Keep that. Keep that.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

You didn't know you were gonna have it anyways. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Yeah, it's not really your money.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, make it work for you. You didn't know you were gonna have it.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Even if you don't have a pension, you can use strategies, and the government actually kind of helps you in some aspects, but people aren't using it strategically. So that's something that I commonly will have a conversation around. And we actually, with our team here with our independent network in Windsor, we call it our money bag strategy. And it it really is, right? It's putting more money in there and having it work harder for you.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Using what the government's giving you and working faster and having your money work for you instead of just giving it to everyone else, right? And paying yourself first is a key um aspect and uh a learning tool that a lot of people don't really think about, right? Put yourself as a bill. You work for your money. That's right. Yes, pay all your bills, absolutely. But you work hard, you deserve that money. But how can we use that efficiently?

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Well, and one of the things I like to say, and I've say to my husband, is I'm paying my few my future self first. Yes. You know, I love that. Yeah, I've paid all my bills, but now I'm paying my future self and the life my future self is going to have.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

I love that so much. And that kind of relates back to thinking long-term too.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Right?

SPEAKER_01 35:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

So it's okay and it's good to have shorter term goals, right? But aligning those and making sure we're not pushing off your long-term goals too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

That's awesome. Tons of great information today. One more thing I do want to touch on is travel insurance. Yes. Okay, because you guys do travel insurance, and um, my husband and I, we love travel insurance, but we didn't really know anything about travel insurance. Right. And then we had a situation while we were traveling, and we were in, it was a scary situation, right? But um, thank goodness for travel insurance and travel agents and stuff like that. And after that situation, we were like, okay, this is important. So, I mean, we get excited to go on vacation and everything like that, right? As we should. As we should. Some one of your colleagues was leaving here today and she was like, I'm going on vacation. Yeah. She's going to be like, yeah. But we also need to think of what can happen. And uh travel insurance is super duper cheap. It's not even something that you're paying for every month. Like each, I just call up Alyssa and I'm like, hey, listen. Then in like 10 minutes. Yeah, I'm leaving in 10 minutes and also forgot about insurance.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Right? Yeah. Yeah. So can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, absolutely. And I will say that's part of being partnered with the independent network that's available to us, right? I have access to multiple different companies, able to do um what makes sense for each and every client, child insurance. I have a few companies that I calmly will go to and easily can populate a quick quote. All I need is like, where are you going? What are the dates? Here you go. Boom, done. Quick application. Literally, it took us what five minutes on the phone. Yeah. Super, super easy. Um, and that's just another piece of the puzzle, right? I want to make sure that we are looking at everything and taking the bigger picture into account. So if that's a way that we can incorporate that to make sure that what you've worked hard on building is also protected, even if you're out of the country or something unexpectedly happens, that's huge. And I always want to make sure that we are protecting um what we've built, but also giving you peace of mind. That's a huge part of financial planning. All those risk mitigation products, such as like the life insurance, critical illness, disability, that's all risk mitigation. And even having health care benefits plans, that's also something that I provide. And even if you're self-employed or a business owner, incorporate a component of that travel insurance often. But then sometimes you just need a quick little top-up and you that specific trip, you want to make sure that's covered, right? Or certain little aspects. That's kind of what we did, right? Yeah, that's kind of good. And just making sure everything's good. I'd rather know that we've checked all our boxes and I can enjoy my vacation.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

Yeah, and no matter what happens on vacation, like I'm either now getting my vacation for free. Yeah, that'd be nice. Or things are handled. You know what I mean? If something little comes up.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Yeah, absolutely. And that's where having someone behind the scenes, right? Even while you're away, that can help coordinate everything is huge.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

That's right. And I mean, just to kind of end this podcast, I know we don't like to think ahead and we don't like to think that would happen to me, right? But it's a little bit better to have everything set up just in case because you never know what's going to happen.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

I agree with that. And that's all a very different mindset. And looking at things now, but also looking at what that's going to be doing for you in 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 50 years from now. And that's something really hard to do on your own. So I feel also having that partner, that guided advisor and trusted advisor, such as maybe myself or another advisor in the industry, even, and making sure that you have that relationship built because they know exactly what you want to achieve. And they're here or I'm here to help make sure that you're doing that. And that's where I do create customized financial roadmaps, financial plans for each and every client, because it is so different, right? We're all at different life stages. There's never a bad time to start. I would say the key thing is starting now. It doesn't matter how old you are, where you're at in life, if you've started certain things, but starting now and making sure you have a plan in place, it gives you so much more peace of mind. You sleep better at night, you know, all these things are taken care of. You can do what you do best. And that's where it's powerful. That's right. Better late than never.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

You got it. Well, thank you so much for your time and all of your information and education. And if you would like to be further educated by Alyssa, again, it's free and it doesn't cost you anything except that you're gaining knowledge, you know, a little bit of time into gain knowledge. Um, and it could change your life in the future. So give her a call. Her information will be up on here. And um, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

Yeah, this has been wonderful, and I'm I'm more than happy to help you figure out where to start or give a second opinion. Awesome. All right, well, thank you very much. Thank you. All right, join us next time. Have a good day.