[SPEAKER_01]: Hello.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hello.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hello.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the Vancouver Weather State podcast.

[SPEAKER_03]: And welcome back to Vancouver Real Estate podcast.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm your host, Adam Sclina.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm your other host, Matt Sclina.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I should say host, but also realtors with open realty.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm so excited for today's guest.

[SPEAKER_03]: And just on a quick side note, episode 496 this week.

[SPEAKER_03]: If you can believe it, we're almost at the 500 milestone.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's only taken a decade or so to get there.

[SPEAKER_03]: But a lot of fun.

[SPEAKER_02]: What does it all mean?

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's a question from my counselor.

[SPEAKER_02]: But my therapist, I'm a counselor.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but we're counselor.

[SPEAKER_02]: That suggests that I don't spend enough time on the couch.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, more you're actually at a camp.

[SPEAKER_03]: Here we go.

[SPEAKER_03]: We've got a great episode.

[SPEAKER_03]: Adam Bowdoin Balls on this show.

[SPEAKER_03]: Adam's, he's a really, he's a really great guy.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's a financial advisor, senior financial advisor at Raymond James.

[SPEAKER_03]: Adam is looking at kind of, [SPEAKER_03]: big picture financial planning, which is really fantastic.

[SPEAKER_03]: So there's tons of takeaways, not only today for people that are looking to structure their finances for retirement, but also amazing advice for first-time home buyers and buyers in general.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I think really it's a great kind of, you know, we've we've talked on this show a lot about the cocoa life, Adam's a guy to get you to the [SPEAKER_02]: That's right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Adam is the guy to get you to the coconut life.

[SPEAKER_02]: What I love about this is it's all things kind of strategies around tax-sheltered instruments.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's say first home savings accounts, RESPs, obviously RSPs and TFSAs.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're talking all the tools that Canadians have in their arsenal to build wealth.

[SPEAKER_02]: But also housing security and retirement, how you should think about diversifying if you're real state heavy, which a lot of people in Vancouver are by definition, I think, with the cost of housing.

[SPEAKER_02]: So lots, lots going on in this conversation, and there's nothing like getting an hour with an experienced planner to help you sort through the mess.

[SPEAKER_02]: And this is a clarifying conversation, [SPEAKER_03]: absolutely map a before we get to our conversation with Adam.

[SPEAKER_03]: Of course, we've got the segment that remains nameless.

[SPEAKER_02]: The segment that remains nameless, Adam, we're coming up on episode 500.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're also coming to the end of the year.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're in the last week of November.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I was I did a bit of a deep dive on the stats.

[SPEAKER_02]: Actually, you've been doing some heavy lifting on the stats, looking back over the year, [SPEAKER_02]: thinking about trends and kind of what 20-25 has become.

[SPEAKER_02]: So this might be an easy one for you, but an interesting one for the listeners.

[SPEAKER_02]: Adam, which property segment or which type of property, I'm thinking town home, I'm thinking single-family home, I'm thinking condo, [SPEAKER_02]: So which type of property was the only one to reach seller market territory and that's like you know we're coming push and close to 20% sales ratios so nothing not an exciting but there was one yeah okay [SPEAKER_02]: Well, we get to that out of, but before we get to that, you know, usually we highlight a listing, sometimes we've highlighted some some sort of recent sold that we're excited about this week, I want to highlight a listing that's coming on Monday.

[SPEAKER_02]: We have a two bed one bath.

[SPEAKER_02]: It is not on the market yet, but this is a screaming deal.

[SPEAKER_02]: for the what is it called black friday black friday this is cyber monday i don't know what we'll we'll call this but this is an exceptional deal for the end of the year a two bed one back with views.

[SPEAKER_02]: parking, five, ninety nine.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: And this this floor plan.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's like the quintessential Swiss army knife, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: Like it's, it's a, well, this is the thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, in other markets, I would say this is attractive to investors.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think this is still makes a ton of sense for investors.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to, especially at the price point.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like we're talking, we're listening below a thousand dollars of foot for a downtown building near Skytrain near all [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Incredible.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is exceptional.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's coming on Monday.

[SPEAKER_02]: It will be featured at Vancouver Real Estate Podcast.com.

[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't think I'd ever see a deal like this in my career Adam, but it's coming.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a cyber Monday condo deal at Vancouver Real Estate Podcast.com.

[SPEAKER_02]: And while you're there at them, click sell with us because we have the sole plan.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is start on launch date to get your property ready for market.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm not, and just to be clear, this is not a bait price.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're not, this is $5.99 is not a bait price.

[SPEAKER_02]: This isn't, we're not playing games.

[SPEAKER_02]: This isn't the market to play games in Adam.

[SPEAKER_02]: But download, start on launch date, sold plan.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ed van Cooverill, stay podcast.com.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just click sell with us.

[SPEAKER_02]: But let's get back to that quiz question.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, Matt, I'm going to go with, and I think a lot of people probably have been thinking, [SPEAKER_03]: through the various property types, houses, condos, town homes.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to go town homes.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think they were the, uh, and I'm basing this not on my deep dive in the stats, but just my feeling in the market.

[SPEAKER_03]: If you were a listing agent this year, you probably had best shot at kind of the entry level townhouse market for getting stuff sold in a very reasonable time frame.

[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, that was kind of the shining light, the beacon of light.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think in the market this [SPEAKER_02]: makes a lot of sense what you're saying because also it was it was definitely a market where people were moving through the market, right, up-sizing, you are right, town homes, the town home product type was the beacon as you put it at him hovering at at the best of times between [SPEAKER_02]: But it was, and in fact, prices slid in the town hall market over over the course of 2025.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, so didn't necessarily hold value from from January through to the end of November, but whether to storm a lot better than most, and speaks to the missing metal product that we all talk about, and I'll get excited about, and is always a safe bed in the Vancouver market.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, so good guess, I thought it was a bit of a softball, but as usual, you hit it out of the park.

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, here's the thing Matt, if you've been listening to this show for the past decade for the past almost 500 episodes, you've heard us talk about town homes becoming almost the new single family detach for a lot of people right it's still a relatively affordable product.

[SPEAKER_03]: But it gives people ground oriented living, often you get some decent outdoor space with it.

[SPEAKER_03]: So it's not quite the single family to touch with.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's a white pick and fence, but it's in this market.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's it's it's as a closest a lot of people are going to get.

[SPEAKER_03]: And it's a great product type for families.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm not surprised to see that.

[SPEAKER_03]: It is a great lifestyle, and so anyways, hopefully more town homes being built in the future.

[SPEAKER_03]: We need more, of course, in the city of Vancouver, so hopefully more coming.

[SPEAKER_03]: Matt, let's get everyone's ducks in a row here, and let's talk to Adam, who is a phenomenon he's a force.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's a great, he's got a great understanding of how to look at finances, and you might be surprised [SPEAKER_03]: to pull the shoot in a high cost of living city like Vancouver.

[SPEAKER_02]: That is true.

[SPEAKER_02]: As long as you're mortgage free, let's get started.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is a great conversation.

[SPEAKER_03]: Enjoy.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so we're here with Adam Bowdoin Ball.

[SPEAKER_03]: He is the Senior Financial Planner at Raymond James.

[SPEAKER_03]: How you doing Adam?

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm through the next one.

[SPEAKER_02]: How are you guys?

[SPEAKER_02]: Very good.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us.

[SPEAKER_02]: Adam, really appreciate it.

[SPEAKER_00]: No worries.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if we're going to have to do like Adam one and Adam two, but you're following those, like, like I said in my email, your parents had great taste and name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Adam, can you maybe start by telling our listeners a little bit [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I grew up in a well-born Montreal grew up in Vancouver, though, for predominantly on my life, attended high school here and ended up going to university in commerce and finance at University British Columbia.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ever since the age of 12, I've always knew that I wanted to deal with finance and and money was a bit of a geek and that sense and yeah, so here I am, you know, you know, I started and obtained my sort of health financial planner designation in 1999 after UBC and kept getting designations after that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, no, it's been it's been a great ride, great career.

[SPEAKER_00]: So highly, you know, if there's any young listeners out there, I recommend it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: on.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just had a curiosity, this might be a total tangent, but the role of AI in your world has it impacted things?

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I'm thinking specifically when you say to young people, hey, this is because it seems like, you know, at least I'm peppering ChadGPT with questions on an ongoing basis right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's been more of a, it's been more of an enhancement than [SPEAKER_00]: You know, we're talking earlier about, you know, I'm licensed or I'm doing a lot of cross border business with Americans and Canadians.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, if there's something that I have my CRPC designation in the States as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so if there's just something that, you know, I just need to double check or something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: just to make sure I'm committing some, you know, correct information.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be able to check on on that artificial intelligence or AI, as well as, you know, obviously textbooks in whatnot, but, but yeah, I know it's been an enhancement, you know, there are some implications, you know, I would say anyone entering the field.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, wanting to go down more of the analytic analyst field, you know, when I talk to, you know, investment firms and the like they are, you know, what used to take a week to produce a report is now done in minutes.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, that the question is, is do we need as many analysts, for example, on a team?

[SPEAKER_00]: So, from that perspective, you know, I think it made change a direction that some [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think, you know, when you're dealing with people, people just want that human connection and the experience of working with somebody's gone through the experience of buying a home prior so that, you know, they can, they're comfortable with just knowing that, you know, there's just some things that you can't get from a computer that you can get from, say, a real [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, no, I think there's a lot of value in the person line that things for sure.

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, Adam, one of the reasons we want to bring you on the show today is because we've been talking a lot recently about, I mean, the show has centered a lot around real state investing over the past 10 years that we've been doing this show.

[SPEAKER_03]: And it's an interesting time in the moment.

[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, we're watching the stock market doing really well.

[SPEAKER_03]: We're watching it downturn in the in the Vancouver real estate market.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I know you've always approached your business with real estate and as a part of your financial outlook for people.

[SPEAKER_03]: Can you maybe kind of talk just a little bit about your process when you're working with new clients from the beginning?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, essentially what it's, it's not complicated.

[SPEAKER_00]: We just basically start with a discussion around what's going on in clients' lives, around their family, work, self-employment if it's applicable corporate planning, if that's applicable lifestyle, their health, and legacy planning.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, really I set off the conversation if money was no object, what and when would retirement look like for you and, you know, I think that real estate plays a tremendously important role in a retirement plan.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think [SPEAKER_00]: This might sound weird coming from an investment guide, but I think that real estate over the long term is a tangible asset that will appreciate and value.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's one of the last, at least for your principle residents, or where you're living.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the last tax free assets, your tax shelters for, for an individual for your average joke-knock.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and I just think it's super important as you're hitting into retirement.

[SPEAKER_00]: you know that that people have a roof over their head because you know like if you're entering into a time and you're renting and you know some of those advocates this but I think that owning your own house is extremely important in retirement because if you're renting you're at the whims of a landlord [SPEAKER_00]: And the last thing you want to be doing at age 80 is being renovated and having to move.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think owning real estate just gives you options that aren't available to other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's no real reason why you can't have the best of both worlds like have a balance between investments and real estate in a portfolio.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's basically it, and I'm not sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: It makes a lot of sense for sure.

[SPEAKER_02]: When you talk a little bit out of my boat, you mentioned the principal residence exemption.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, how do you, can we kind of unpack that a little bit in terms of how you think about that for retirement planning?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: So most of the time, and most of the financial plans that I do for clients, you know, if you're engaged, services of a financial plan or like myself, [SPEAKER_00]: We usually have like even if it's a small amount like, you know, just getting client people in the habit of regularly saving and having access to the markets and having that compounding effect over decades, you know, and at the same time getting them into their first room as soon as possible, so that with every mortgage payment, they're building up equity on the other side of the balance you there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think at the end of the day, like if you're looking like 10, 20 years down the road, you're going to have this, you know, paid off house and you're going to have an investment portfolio in sync with each other and it just makes for a great plan.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other thing too is what I'm finding is that most people at the end of the day with just the fact of sheer compounding in the [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you've got your investments, you've got your, you know, government pension programs, maybe some company pension programs as well, you know, but you [SPEAKER_00]: You know, with regards to setting up that plan and drawing an income from it over time, the investments you eventually draw down the investments, but down the road, you've got your house, which, you know, for most clients who want to lead a legacy for their kids, the house and, you know, your tax receivings accounts in my mind or or the two best assets that you can actually lead to your kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: just because they are tax-free and so your principal residence as a tax-free asset, when you pass on, there's no knock on the wood, so far there's no capital gains tax on that and while there may be a little a small amount of probate fee to transfer it to the next generation, [SPEAKER_00]: There is in a couple gain on that, which is taxable.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just passes to your airs tax free from that perspective.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a very efficient way to create a legacy for your future future beneficiaries, so down the road, or charities that that's important to you.

[SPEAKER_03]: So it sounds like getting into the market sooner than later for most young people is important.

[SPEAKER_03]: There seems to be a mainstream belief out there that young people can't buy homes in Vancouver.

[SPEAKER_03]: What are you seeing on the ground that challenges this narrative?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's hard for for young people because our politicians and I don't mean to go out on a soapbox here, but you know, when you listen to media outlets and so-called experts and academics and and whatnot, and they say that it's impossible for young people a bit buy into the market here in Vancouver, or Victoria, Colona, Toronto, or even Montreal now.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't quite believe that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that the [SPEAKER_00]: listeners to this podcast, that might apply to the average young person maybe, but I don't think that the caliber of people that are working with you as clients or the people that are listening to this podcast would necessarily fit into that mold.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that I work with, well, I'll give you two examples.

[SPEAKER_00]: One is a young, a young client.

[SPEAKER_00]: You started working with me when [SPEAKER_00]: In the early 20s, blue collar worker, like blue collar job, not earning a ton of money, a good job, good income, but yet a side business, that eventually became its main business.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we just basically worked out a plan and we sat back, we stood back and we said, okay, what do we have?

[SPEAKER_00]: What are the tools that we have?

[SPEAKER_00]: What are the levers that we have that we can make this work for you?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he started off at 25 to 50,000 and I'm trying to remember, but all I know now is that he's 29 years of age and has $380,000 saved up towards the, you know, down payment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And his, you know, it's, say, it's come on board as a client and, you know, took a look at her and I said, you know, and I said, look, you've got a great employer matching program.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's no way I'll ever make a hundred percent on your contributions max out your employer contributions get them to pay part of your down payment down the road and then over and above that and we've built her up to about $170,000 so this is just an example of a young couple and their late 20s in Vancouver who have you know over half a million dollars put towards you know down payment on the first one I'm in the same boat I mean I I remember.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, when I was sitting in commerce class in commerce that had to take urban land economics, and this is I graduated in 1996, so wait, I'll want them go, but if you're to take the headlines then and transport them to today, it's the exact same arguments that I remember sitting in my urban land economics course and and.

[SPEAKER_00]: the professor was complaining, you know, like, you know, I'm earning, I'm a professor, I'm earning acts and I'll never be, you know, I'm having trouble finding home.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you guys will never be able to afford a home.

[SPEAKER_00]: And fortunately, I was sitting there and I said to myself, I said, rather than off history and enough biographies to know that that might apply to the average person, [SPEAKER_00]: there are always outliers and I wanted to be an outlier.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I just basically did what I could.

[SPEAKER_00]: I read what I could and I saved and saved and it took me eight years, but I saved up enough to put a down payment on a home.

[SPEAKER_00]: And oddly enough, when I disemure that I bought the house, I was walking along Spanish banks and I ran into them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just off out of the blue and I said, very professor's also I, you know, I bought a house.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was in your night.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was in your class in 1994 and and I, or 1994 and I bought a house and I was, I was not doing it to a salt and his fate or wound, but I was genuinely happy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, he's, he's like, oh my god.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, how did you get that?

[SPEAKER_00]: it's not rocket science.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was just like a maximize my, you know, it was working for a bank at the time and I just maximize my savings program at the bank and if they had a matching program that if you put in 8% of your salary, they would take in 3% less free money, you know, and you over time, it just compounds and grows and.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm living proof that, you know, that, you know, it's it's possible and my clients I do I do that all every day that there's clients every day that [SPEAKER_00]: you know, we're defining the odds and making it work.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think now, especially with interest rates coming down and and you know, they're being a surplus, I mean, you're the experts in this field.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, I would think that maybe prices are softening a bed in the city.

[SPEAKER_00]: you know, I tend to think that, you know, and then the advent of the first home savings account and increasing the RSP first time home bars withdrawal plan to $60,000 and the tax free savings account, you know, and even I've, you know, employed some unique strategy even with a couple of clients with using the RES.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are the education savings plans for some clients to get their kids into their first home.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's a lot of levers at our disposal now that that simply didn't exist 30 years ago and so I think just working ignoring the noise working with good professionals like a good realtor who can help you to find where.

[SPEAKER_00]: what type of property you want, where you want it, to have that goal in into work with somebody who's actually been through the experience, him or herself, and to leverage those tools like the first home savings account and the RSPs, and just make it work.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, and Adam, can we, can we kind of talk about those tools?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because, yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, one thing that of course strikes me about when you were saving in the in the 90s into the early 2000s is there wasn't the TFSA no there wasn't the FHSA the deduction or the the ability to use your RS.

[SPEAKER_02]: He was different than it is today.

[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously everybody's different, but if at first time home buyer or an aspiring first time home buyer is listening Shep, how would you think about those tools and how to maximize them in the pursuit of a home?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the first thing that I would do is just basically say, okay, what's your timeline?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think that within the next 15 years, your goal is to buy a home and your first home and if the answer is yes, I would say your first stop is the first that the new first home savings account.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was introduced a couple of years ago by the federal government.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so basically, it starts at 18, but unfortunately in British Columbia, the age of majority is 19.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you can't open up these accounts until you're 19, unfortunately.

[SPEAKER_00]: But having said that if you're 19 years of age, you can set this up and like every institution has it, Raymond James, where I work, you know, any bank credit union should have it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you basically set up this account, it's called the first home savings account.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wish it was called the first home investment account because it doesn't necessarily have to just sit in the savings account earning peanuts.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can invest it in whatever you want, but essentially what happens is you open up this account and you can put up to $8,000 in that first year.

[SPEAKER_00]: into this account.

[SPEAKER_00]: The growth that happens within that account is tax-free.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it compounds tax-free and not only that, whatever amount you put in up to 8,000 dollars, that's actually a tax deduction off your income.

[SPEAKER_00]: So just to keep them as simple, if you're [SPEAKER_00]: earning $100,000 a year instead of taxing you on $100,000 the $8,000 comes off so the government's only taxing you on $92,000 so you're getting a tax savings right off the bat the money gross tax free and then you can keep contributing up to $40,000 in total over the subsequent years.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then, yeah, within 15 years, you can take that money out towards the, you know, your down payment on your first home.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's stop number one.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would say if you're a medium turn goal, if you're overriding goal is just to get into your first home as fast as possible.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I would probably advocate that that's probably a smart thing to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's number one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Number two would say is, this is a toss up between some advisors would say, you know, go for the tax-free savings account because you put money in and they can compound tax-free and you can take it out for whatever you want.

[SPEAKER_00]: But my recommendation would actually be, if you're overall objective is to get into your first home as quickly as possible, this actually opened up and registered retirement savings plan or an RRSP as the acronym [SPEAKER_00]: And then what you do is once you've maxed out your FHSA, you've start keep maximizing your RRSP.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then basically for every goal you put into your RRSP, that's also a tax deduction if you're income.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the kind of way we need to see is not between your FHSA and your RSP.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're getting a lot of tax deductions.

[SPEAKER_00]: They see RA is not going to be happy with you, but whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's their rules.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could play with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you basically, I would say, you know, when and again, that money grows in your RSP.

[SPEAKER_00]: Once you went, you get up to that $60,000 figure in your RSP.

[SPEAKER_00]: What I would say is that's the time to really sink back to somebody like myself, like a financial plan and say, okay, relaxing maximizing my first home savings account, or we've already tracked 60,000 on my RSP.

[SPEAKER_00]: now comes the decision point, you know, to start putting money into your tax receipts account, you won't get the tax deduction on your tax receipts account contributions, but what's nice about it is that it compels tax free, and you can use it in combination with your first home savings account, your RSP, the 60,000 in your RSP, and whatever's in your tax receipts [SPEAKER_00]: to put together a down payment to get into your first home as fast as you can.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's kind of the order and the benefit of a beach one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, if your income is relatively low and you're not going to be getting a significant tax benefit by deducting all that money that you're putting into your first home saving the counter your RRSP, you don't necessarily have to claim it in the [SPEAKER_00]: to a year in the future where your income is higher or, you know, you can kind of spread it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, you know, so that's another piece of advice there.

[SPEAKER_02]: So Adam, if I understand for the the average person, it's FHSA RSP, then TFSA, for somebody who's aggressively saving and has gotten [SPEAKER_02]: Would you, the many say you need a hundred grand?

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you have a hundred grand accessible in these accounts?

[SPEAKER_02]: Is that the moment you would you go out and buy a property?

[SPEAKER_02]: Or do you want to build a buffer in these accounts?

[SPEAKER_02]: How do you think about, you know, when to actually, how much is enough, I guess, or when to kind of pull the trigger on a property?

[SPEAKER_00]: For sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would recommend that, you know, when you do have enough, like you've maxed out your 60,000, you know, maxed out your first home savings account, you've maxed out your 60,000 in your RSP.

[SPEAKER_00]: and you've aggressively saved towards your TFSA.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first order of business is if you reach that $100,000 threshold and that's like your...

[SPEAKER_00]: 20% down on the place that you wanna buy.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first order of business is you wanna shift that from growth oriented investments to safety because as realtors, I mean, you probably had stories where people have had like, you know, they're down payment all saved up, but it's in like some mutual fund and then there's a big correction and now you're like, it's in a meme stock.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I would say as boring as it is, I would say make sure and as hard as it is, I would say the trick is to just shift that to safety type investments, whatever is your mark for the house.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then basically, but I would say you know what, when you've reached the down payment that you need, plus maybe.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and you can talk to your clients more about this, you can speak to your clients more about this, you know, like maybe keeping like 2.5% a bit more as for legal fees and land transfer tax if applicable, that kind of thing, but you know, in and around that area.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I would actually seriously, you know, seriously start looking at getting your financing together talking to a mortgage specialist talking to your realtor and being and being transparent with your realtor because to me, it's just they know exactly your price point, they can stretch the value of the property for as much as they can given the parameters that they have to work with and so.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's costly to keep, you don't want to necessarily keep buying and selling property either to like because every time you do, there's, you know, realtor fees and land transfer tax and all this overhead that, you know, eats away at your wealth.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what you want to do is you want to basically buy as much house as you can up front and then just start shipping away and start shipping away at those mortgage payments and just like, and no.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that even if you're making like a, you know, just keep the mass simple again, even if you're making like a thousand dollar mortgage payment and you, you know, 990 dollars going to interest, you know, and $10 is going to equity or whatever the case, maybe at the math isn't that bad, but you're still $10 ahead than where you were a month ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, and it just keeps sliding or in your favor.

[SPEAKER_00]: So to the point where you wake up one day and just it's an automatic savings program is basically what it is and you wake up one day in your.

[SPEAKER_00]: within spit and distance of paying it off and just getting that bogey man out of your cash flow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's such a, I can tell you, you know, your listeners from personal experience and, you know, like paid off my mortgage in July of 2023, I think.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just such a freeing experience, like it's just like, it's just amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, it's, it's, and it takes time.

[SPEAKER_00]: but you're young and, you know, for your young listeners out there, you know, who might be feeling a bit despondent and might be struggling to, you know, make ends meet.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've got the most valuable asset of all, like on 51 taught, you know, I still got a lot of time ahead of me, but, you know, time was my most valuable asset.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not making the big huge income.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not making [SPEAKER_00]: You know, the picking the right meme stalker or whatever the right investment time was the most important asset or thing that had it, you know, going for me in all your 20 somethings listening that is definitely the most powerful tool that you have at your in your arsenal to get you into your first home as quickly as you can.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's a really good advice, especially in a moment where it feels like young people want to be rich instantly, like it's it's it's it's it's a moral they don't want to be patient about it, you know, a couple things you you hit on so many good points there, but.

[SPEAKER_03]: There's a, there is a fear out there about being so concerned about being house poor that you buy too little house and then you have to call your agent in one or two years and And that happens all the time and and I think because people are especially if you're in your late 20s or in your early 30s lots of potential life changes.

[SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, you meet somebody, you have a baby on the way, there's lots of things that can change, career change, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: But a lot of, we've talked about that on the show of making that mistake and then pretty soon, you're out of pocket in extra 50,000 on property transfer tax, realtor fees, etc.

[SPEAKER_03]: And you should adjust.

[SPEAKER_03]: Stress yourself a bit more to make sure that you could you could stay the course for five years or more, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_03]: So really really good points there.

[SPEAKER_03]: When we were talking actually offline Adam mentioned a strategy around [SPEAKER_03]: I think it was RESP related to for parents out there that are potentially gifting money to their kids or trying to help their kids get into the market.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: I run into this scenario twice already this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I had I'm a big believer in incorporating it all the family together when we are meetings if I can.

[SPEAKER_00]: if clients are open to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I had two instances where a child was, well, a young adult, I should say, because they're 18 graduating high school and deciding between which university to go to.

[SPEAKER_00]: And two of them were thinking about the Western or McGill.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, and I said, that's fine, you're just, you know, we had were open and, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: working with the parents.

[SPEAKER_00]: We had, you know, they put away 2000, you know, the $2500 every year for, you know, since they were born.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was on their case when the kids were born.

[SPEAKER_00]: I put away the $2500 a year, government shipped in there, you know, the taxpayer shipped in their 500 bucks.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's $3,000 a year up until the age of 14 when all the government grants were maxed out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, and so yeah, [SPEAKER_00]: each of these parties had about a hundred thousand dollars in their RESPs to fund their education.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I said to them, I said, look, I said, you've got a choice.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can either stay local and save a ton of money on tuition and event and get the same degree at the end of the day.

[SPEAKER_00]: The same letter is after your name or you can go and have the university experience in Western and [SPEAKER_00]: at 11 different city knowing though that this is going to you're going to drain that 100,000 just on tuition and housing costs and I'm not saying which one's better.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want you to make a decision here because what you have and we did the financial plan for the clients and in both cases, they didn't need their tax receipts accounts to fund their retirement.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was [SPEAKER_00]: If you stay local, one ended up at BCIT, the other one ended up at IUDC, I think.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you stay local, your tuition costs are going down.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you stay at home, your costs are even that much lower.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what we can do is the parents were open to using their TFSAs to gift to the kid to get them into a condo.

[SPEAKER_00]: One case, it was a town home.

[SPEAKER_00]: is confirmation enrollment.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't necessarily need proof that they're using it for textbooks or tuition or whatever the case may be, because technically it's housing costs, whether you're paying rent and rent or rent or all, or you know, putting it towards rent here in Vancouver, it really doesn't matter.

[SPEAKER_00]: In this case, you know, both kids, when they realize the potential of this, they said, if I can have my own condo, [SPEAKER_00]: You know, after university, after a degree of through my four, four years.

[SPEAKER_00]: And basically, we use the RESP withdrawals to make the mortgage payments on their place.

[SPEAKER_00]: All I needed, again, was confirmation enrollment that they were at BCIT and at UBC.

[SPEAKER_00]: We use the doubt.

[SPEAKER_00]: We use the parents tax receipts account gifted to, you know, for the down payment.

[SPEAKER_00]: We use the RESP payments to make the mortgage payments.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even when we compared like paying rent to interest payments on mortgage, it basically was a wash.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first year.

[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't quite work out because of the land transfer tax.

[SPEAKER_00]: The calculation wasn't in the people safer, but.

[SPEAKER_00]: from the kids perspective and the parents perspective they're like, who cares?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because, you know, the kids gonna, we're just gonna transfer the ownership of the condo or the town owned the kid once they graduated and university.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we basically achieved two goals at the same time.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've paid for their tuition, we paid for their post-secondary education and we've helped subsidize, you know, them getting into their first condo, you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: in relatively shorter.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that was just two examples of clients where we were able to leverage the RESP to basically pay the mortgage payments, which would have gone to Ranton, London, Ontario, or Montreal.

[SPEAKER_00]: So just because we had that discussion with the kids, you know, and we had kind of like a family conference in life.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that was [SPEAKER_00]: of cover mortgage payments or down the road.

[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, and I'm just thinking with, you know, over the last.

[SPEAKER_02]: 10, 15 years.

[SPEAKER_02]: We've helped a lot of mom and pop investors by rental condos, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: This is this would presumably also be a strategy for people that bought five years ago and have tenants currently paying the mortgage.

[SPEAKER_02]: This could end with the idea that you're hopefully going to transfer that condo or help use that condo.

[SPEAKER_02]: to help your child get into the market when they're in university, the RESP can, your kid moves in, RESP goes to paying the mortgage and then, and then, yeah, same, same, same, same deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing is is the only thing that you have to be somewhat cognizant in that kind of scenario would be because of the parents had it as a rental condo first and then they're transferring ownership.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a change of abuse and so there might be a bean disposition or like a sale to the adult child.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if there is a capital game on that, there would be a capital game's implication on that for taxes.

[SPEAKER_00]: If prices haven't increased that much, then it wouldn't matter.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, and that was part of the reason why we executed that plan for these two clients here, because it was almost like a scenario of the condo market and the tunnel market in Vancouver is it has softened a bit, so we're like, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't anticipate, it may be great if prices went up a lot in those four years, but even if we think it's going to be soft for the next little while, but that's not a bad thing because then you're not paying to the nose tax-wise down the road either.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's kind of a win-win situation for parents that want to help their kids get into their first home.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I guess you could potentially pull equity out of, I'm just thinking another strategy there would be to pull equity either out of your real estate portfolio if you're a real state investor and purchase the condo just as as you outlined out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the only caveat on that is if you were to pull out equity, and then it was for a principle use, you know, that might not be tax deductible because it was used for for residents purchase.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that would be, I'd be drawn it just basically make sure that all your eyes are dotted and you tease across and there's a distinct paper trail and you're with your tax prepared, just making sure that the paper trail is there.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you're on your own board with the kind of revenue that you didn't see on that.

[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe a shift in gears.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're just a little bit at them.

[SPEAKER_03]: A lot of our listeners are real state investors in BC or homeowners in BC.

[SPEAKER_03]: They likely have watched the market do its thing over the last 10, 15 years.

[SPEAKER_03]: They have a lot of equity, but not a lot of cash flow coming in and [SPEAKER_03]: They're probably at a moment in their life where they're thinking, okay, well, maybe retirements the next 10, 10 years or so, 10, 15 years, is there, do you have any thoughts on how people can maybe strategically shift that balance as they approach retirement or some of the things that they should be considering at least?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so from that perspective, so there's two avenues that you can kind of go down.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first one is basically when I do financial plans for clients that are heavily invested in real estate, basically as we approach retirement, the first strategy is really to attack, hitting off mortgages and using all the rental sources, all the rental income to attack.

[SPEAKER_00]: The smallest mortgage is first and then basically let that compound because once some mortgage has been paid off obviously that frees up a lot of cash flow and then basically we can just use that cash flow surplus cash flow they just keep paying off mortgages down the road kind of thing and so you get the snowballing effect is reverse snowballing effect where you're paying off your if ring up to cash flow and and paying off your mortgages as soon as possible.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some people would argue that, you know, I don't want to pay off my rental mortgages that quickly because it's tax deductible.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a fair comment.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what I would say is that you can employ that strategy of that reverse noble strategy.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that you've got that rental income streamer that passive income stream in retirement to help fund your retirement.

[SPEAKER_00]: And obviously, at that point, when I do financial plans for clients [SPEAKER_00]: we can project out 10, 20 years down the road that these clients are going to have significant rental income coming in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then, you know, we can just put the car before the horse and work in reverse, basically, I say, okay, if you got all this rental income coming in, we only need ax amount of investment income coming in.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not that much that we need to actually generate from investment portfolios to supplement their lifestyle.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, on the second equation, if clients are okay with the risk of carrying that into retirement, if they want to maintain that tax deductibility of the mortgage interest on rental properties.

[SPEAKER_00]: What you can do is a lot of the mortgage products that are offered from banks right now are these home equity line of credit.

[SPEAKER_00]: So as you these umbrella mortgages.

[SPEAKER_00]: So as you paid down the mortgage, the line of home equity line of credit becomes available and only if and I usually only recommend this for clients that are actually wanting to maintain the same level of debt that, you know, they have going into retirement, what you can do if you can take that.

[SPEAKER_00]: available credit or some of it, whatever a mouth that you're comfortable doing and using that and buying an investment that can spin off income on a monthly basis.

[SPEAKER_00]: So because you've used the line of credit to buy a non RSP non TFSA just a regular investment account, you've used that to buy an investment.

[SPEAKER_00]: If there's a probability of earning a income, dividend or interesting come from that investment, that amount that you borrowed is also tax deductible.

[SPEAKER_00]: So basically the story goes that as you pay down your rental property or the mortgage is that used to buy rental property, you can reliver it to that and use that to buy an investment outside of our excuse of TFSAs.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then that monthly income, you can have that spun off and put into your bank account every month.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good news is that right now there is a couple of strategies, you know, for every 100,000 that I invest for clients.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we can generate anywhere from $250 a month up to $800 a month, just in passive income, which is quite significant when you get to the more of the alternative unique kind of scenarios.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not these are strategies that are new, but once strategy has been around for more than a decade and so they've been through different market cycles and quite, and they're considered low to medium risk.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, and the good news too on that is because it's investments, unlike rental income or employment income, a little bit of the interesting income would be fully taxable like that income, but some of that income comes in the form of dividends and some of it comes in the form of capital gains, which are taxed all over a rate.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when I say that you're generating like anywhere between $250 and $800 a month in income, some of that is coming in the form of dividends and capital gains.

[SPEAKER_03]: What's staying in your pocket at the end of the month after tax is actually more than what you would normally earn from like your regular employment salary for example, so yeah, hopefully that was an okay and that was clear that no that that is actually or I just I just want to just because somebody out there's just probably thinking okay, so the first rule you kind of mentioned is that you should start paying the lowest mortgage down first.

[SPEAKER_00]: I, you know, that might seem counterintuitive because some people say, oh, well, that's my lowest interest rate.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to preserve that first of all interest rates in general, it's really low.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I don't, you know, I mean, they're not as slow as they were during, you know, a couple years ago or five years ago, but they're still relatively low.

[SPEAKER_00]: But for me, psychologically, because finance.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is like I went into finance thinking it was all numbers all black and white, but there's a lot of psychology behind the finance as well first and what I find is that if people can attack the smallest debt first.

[SPEAKER_00]: And get that bogey man out of the closet like off their back, get that monkey off their back, that frees up cash flow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then if you discipline enough, you can take that surplus cash flow and just pay it against your next largest, you know, your next largest mortgage debt or whatever the case may be.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, and if you just keep snowballing that, I find that that's just gives people the incentive or the motivation.

[SPEAKER_00]: to just keep going and and and you know if you've got a million dollar mortgage and you're throwing $10,000 a year ago as it wants some payment you feel like you're never going to get there just like this overarching like this monster beast or whatever that's sitting there and whereas if you've got like [SPEAKER_00]: You know, a bunch of a few rental properties and you got a mortgage of the 100,000 left on it and half a million and 750 year, whatever the case and be, if you attack the 100,000 first, like you're going to see some significant progress against that and you're going to be able to do that and then the means time are still paying down the other ones.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, you know, but once that 100,000's done, then you attack the next smallest one to me, it's just psychologically it's just like, [SPEAKER_00]: It's just again, but it's exactly what you said.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just that snowball and momentum.

[SPEAKER_00]: piece that just starts compounding on itself to your benefit.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: And if somebody has say two revenue properties and their principal should they be revenue first principal residents first or does it does it?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's actually a really good point and something that I, you know, forgot to mention, if you do have mortgage on your principal residents, that's not tax deductible.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, you should be attacking that mortgage first.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, regardless of the map balance, what, you know, I was thinking more along the lines of [SPEAKER_00]: rental mortgages that are available.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'd want to just attack the smallest mouse for us, but you're absolutely right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Attack your principal residence for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get that non-tax deductible mortgage off your back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Any non-deductible debt.

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to attack that first.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just thinking about, you know, this idea of leveraging [SPEAKER_02]: the property to put into another product where you're generating cash flow.

[SPEAKER_02]: What about a lot of our clients?

[SPEAKER_02]: I would say have invested in a lot of real estate and if they look at their net worth, they're, you know, 70% real estate, 80% real estate.

[SPEAKER_02]: I was talking to a realtor who made the claim that they were over 90% real estate.

[SPEAKER_02]: So diversification has not been a strong suit for a lot of people that have [SPEAKER_02]: Are there strategies to leverage those properties to diversify?

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm thinking mainly to use those umbrella products, but I'm curious as to what you would advise somebody who's not necessarily looking for retirement income, but more to diversify their net worth or portfolio.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only way to do that would basically be to use that umbrella mortgage product borrow and then invest in best it just to diversify the asset base.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't necessarily need to generate an income for say on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, actually you do to make a tax deductible with the CRA.

[SPEAKER_00]: There should be a probability of earning at least some dividend and interesting come on there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so but from all intents purposes, most investments are do qualify for that tax deduction.

[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, that would be really the only way to kind of diversify yourself away from real estate just to get some market exposure as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, but as I said, I think that real estate is a great investment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've been in the business.

[SPEAKER_00]: So long that, you know, I remember the 2000s when them what, you know, from basically the dot com bust all the way out to, you know, 2010 they call it the loss decade in the investment market because you had like the tech rack 911 the accounting scandals government shutdown.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was one thing after another and then the financial crisis, it was like, if you started investing in 2000 and you just left it, it didn't make any money.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, but whereas real estate was booming and I remember having that conversation with clients all the time, you know, like they're like, oh, just by real estate because the real estate always goes up.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it was like the flip side of what we see today, but I think that yeah, to your point, if you want a diverse fire asset base and that would basically and you don't want to sell a real estate.

[SPEAKER_00]: that would be a meat way to do it so that you're not so that you're diversifying your asset base.

[SPEAKER_00]: And still getting a tax deduction as well off the borough of funds.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I have to reinforce and I have to reiterate that for the interest to be taxed deductible, it's got a meat, it's got an A, it's got to be non-registered investments outside of TFSA, outside of RSPs.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it also has to have a probability of earning some form of dividend or interesting come on there.

[SPEAKER_03]: One of my favorite articles to read is when it's like, Jim and Judy have $3 million and owned their house outright or whatever, which I'm sure you find some of those probably annoying and some of them bang on.

[SPEAKER_03]: We hear specific numbers all the time about how much Canadians need to retire.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I know this is probably a case by case, basis, depending on spending habits and everything else.

[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: with today's higher costs and we're obviously in a high cost of living city.

[SPEAKER_03]: Can you talk about like what that number might look like or how it's kind of changed recently and it seems how you figure it out and how you figure it out and the other thing is is like with inflation kind of post-COVID like I don't think anybody really predicted the run-up we've seen you know [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you sound like John McCain, or who was it?

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if it would have been a post of milk.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a few hours, hey, I go on.

[SPEAKER_00]: So to that point, I would say, you know, your best defense against inflation is buying assets that generate income and our inflation.

[SPEAKER_00]: that move with inflation.

[SPEAKER_00]: So from that perspective, real estate historically, for example, has been a good inflation hedge.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and other assets that continually increase in value and generate, you know, that kind of an income.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's your first line of defense.

[SPEAKER_00]: expense for most people in Vancouver and Toronto and wherever, wherever people may be listening is housing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So once your mortgage payments are done, you know, there's this what I'm finding when I do from retirement plans for clients is there's this honeymoon period when they stop working or a honeymoon period of retirement usually lasts about 5 to 10 years or they're traveling [SPEAKER_00]: But what we do find is that people tend to actually get tired of airports and all the stress that comes with tap travel and they kind of sink back into a community that they're comfortable with and you know and you know mean the buddies for coffee and stuff like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So from that perspective, [SPEAKER_00]: I think most people when they they worry about retirement like am I going to have enough because what they're doing is they're dealing with reasons to buy us and what they're saying is okay in order for me to maintain my lifestyle [SPEAKER_00]: And that's why, again, while like real estate because we can work out a plan and draw down the investments, but your real estate actually is almost like a plan B or safety valve because if you do need extra healthcare costs down and late retirement, we can always sell a home or whatever the case made of fund that basically.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the way I usually do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But to give you a number, I would say that the vastments, once housing is taken care of, [SPEAKER_00]: be like $45,000 a month after tax like it's not Vancouver for all of its faults.

[SPEAKER_00]: Vancouver is a pretty reasonable place to live.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're outdoorsy, all the beaches are free.

[SPEAKER_00]: The community centers are free.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything's like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything's within walking distance.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've got your little cities within a city like whether you live in Charisdale or Kits or [SPEAKER_00]: or downtown West End or whatever the case may be like, there's all these little neighborhoods within a big city.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so what I'm finding is that with proper planning and the way like, yeah, no, there are [SPEAKER_00]: people very comfortably between the government pensions and there are any maybe work pensions but sometimes not, but yeah, half a million dollars is more than enough to cover them off for those livestock expenses.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and it depends on each individual.

[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, I got one client who retired from the RCMP.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's got a defined benefit goal-plated inflation-protected pension plan.

[SPEAKER_00]: That covers off all of his [SPEAKER_00]: day-to-day lifestyle needs, and then we've got like 100,000 in the roof that he uses to pay for his trips.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's his fun money.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I've got other people that five million that they'll never use up.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, it really is kind of all over the map as far as tense that question, but it's doable.

[SPEAKER_00]: And once they see year by year, line by line, where are the different sources of income are coming from?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's quite powerful.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you can see the relief off the shoulders.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just pretty, it's quite rewarding to see that, just that sense of relief that comes off when they see the numbers in black and white.

[SPEAKER_00]: And but yeah, I know I've got people that are, [SPEAKER_00]: You know, quite comfortably living, you know, on that amount of income or that amount of assets or liquid assets, you know, from that perspective for sure, while so 500 grand you're saying, yeah, I see it all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, yeah, after after housing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, once you're housing is done, you're sitting pretty, you know, for as far as from cash flow perspective, so yeah, but again, I mean, you're not golfing a pebble beach every every week, but you know, it's, you know, it's it's it's it's not uncommon basically is what I'm talking about right, but yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have to say almost the financial industry.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think probably does a disservice in scaring people, but if you actually work with a sort of a financial planner, somebody that can work at a plan incorporate the government pensions into the mix, plus any other income streams coming in, you'd be surprised.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other thing too is, and I don't want to talk about, or I don't want [SPEAKER_00]: Depending on which bank study you read, I mean, we're within and foreseeable future, we've got a 700 billion to $1 trillion wealth transfer coming down the pipe within the next decade, I would say next decade or so, in that decade or two.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, from that perspective, as well, people, you know, you should never plan with that in mind, but [SPEAKER_00]: You know, those of the windfalls that happen, that to some people that, that, you know, help, just make that decision, you know, to retire early or whatever the case would be that much more palatable for for people.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, put some over the top, put some over the edge.

[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, presumably the answer to this is as soon as possible, but when when people are.

[SPEAKER_02]: I would suspect a lot of people that are kind of middle-age.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Don't have a financial planner, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And if they're thinking, you know, you just outlined kind of looking at the line items with a planner, uh, eases the tension of the stress.

[SPEAKER_02]: When do most people reach out?

[SPEAKER_02]: When should people reach out?

[SPEAKER_02]: you know, if they're trying to kind of figure out a plan for the next even 10, 15 years before retirement type thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I would say generally speaking, if you've got assets, whether it's house, you know, the like, you know, but you're serious about saying that's I think the key for most financial planners is that we want to work with people.

[SPEAKER_00]: who are self-modulated or disciplined and want to leverage the tools that they're disposal, they don't necessarily need to be, you know, multi-millionaires or anything like that, but because [SPEAKER_00]: So it's like I had a young client, you know, he's like, you said to me, so why are you taking me on as a client?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I only got like, you know, like 50 grand.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, number one, I said, you're young professional.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're earning a good income.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're saving a lot every month.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you've got to growth mindset.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that within the next 10 years and I showed them the calculator, I said, at this pace within the next 15 years, you're going to be a million dollar account.

[SPEAKER_00]: And to me that's, you know, if I can be a part of that, if I can get help people to get from point A to point B and as and not make the same mistakes, I did.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not, you know, and the liked and then yeah, I've done it, I've done a service.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, I know that some advisors won't take clients under a million dollars and whatnot, but there are graded advisors out there that will.

[SPEAKER_00]: They work at banks.

[SPEAKER_00]: They work at investment firms like me, like Raymond James here.

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to look for people that have credentials, certifications, CFP, or certified financial planter designation is a great one to look for.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another one is a CIM, charter investment manager, CFA, charter financial analyst.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are all really important designations.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it and you want somebody who is innovative [SPEAKER_00]: is motivating basically and and has the experience and has lived through that as well, you know, so yeah, it's, but yeah, sorry, that was a long way to win the way of answering the question is it depends on the client because, you know, the worst thing, you know, that the most frustrating thing for me as a financial planner would be to work with somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: you know, and to get that car loan paid off to get, you know, then into their first house to get that car loan paid off, you know, and then the plan, the original plan was to get them started on the on saving up for the tax receivings or paying off the mortgage.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then they go out and they lease a new Porsche for $2,000 a month to go to Vegas for the weekend, and then you're like, okay, I'll just down the top.

[SPEAKER_00]: To me, you know, I've had those clients and you just feel like [SPEAKER_00]: We've come this far and just don't have that app and it's just really frustrating so you know but for me it's it's you know you just really want to you know the industry is full of very good people that want to help and [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you just have to find, you know, you click with and use and looking out for your best interest and you know, people today have a really good BS meter and you just have to find somebody that you click with and and who gets it and [SPEAKER_00]: You can do it with mutual funds, or index funds, or exchange rate of funds, or individual stocks.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just like anything in life.

[SPEAKER_00]: You buy good quality real estate, that'll last you forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: You buy a good quality pair of shoes, that'll last you for years.

[SPEAKER_00]: You buy good quality companies, that'll last you for years, and they're great compounders.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the math just makes sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you keep chunking away, if you keep saving, and you leverage those employer, [SPEAKER_00]: matching programs and then you maximize the government accounts like the FHSA, like we talked about before in the tax-free savings account and the RRSB, and you might not have the financial means to do every one of those at the current present time, but at least get going.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care if it's like $50 a month.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like anybody should be able to afford $50 a month.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the habits.

[SPEAKER_00]: The habits are the key, and then when you have your reviews, you basically say, okay, we did have a raises here, okay, great.

[SPEAKER_00]: you know let's let's move some of that into your savings program before you know it like you know some people say oh it's so intimidating to be you know that save up to buy a home or you know million dollar home in Vancouver and stuff do you know you know listen to the so-called experts from you know politicians and throw your hands up and stick your head in the sand or you can work with great realtors like yourselves [SPEAKER_00]: Professionals like me in great mortgage brokers, and you know, start a savings program.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, you might only have like 10 grand and in the account a year from now, but you're still $10,000 ahead of where you are today.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like just, it's like running a marathon.

[SPEAKER_00]: You never think of the 42.2 clump, believe me, that 2 kilometers is a big, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: The last 200 meters, especially Vancouver, it's up to.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you don't look at the 42.2 kilometer run.

[SPEAKER_00]: You look at dividing it, you break it up into chunks.

[SPEAKER_00]: And every step you make in, you know, towards that goal, gets you on step closer to getting to your goal, whether it's buying a house or paying for your kids education or helping them out or saving for retirement.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's all just taking, it's all baby steps.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, great analogy, Tom Brady, you keep talking about making those infinitesimal marginal improvements on being a great quarterback.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's not, you're not going to be like go from zero to 10 all in, you know, on a weekend being a weekend warrior.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's those little, little slivers of, you know, of progress that actually help compound things over time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's basically it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's my soapbox.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_03]: I was just reading about a Tom Brady baseball card that somebody had signed that said something along the lines of baseball.

[SPEAKER_03]: Baseball, yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: It said something along the lines of if baseball doesn't work out, there's always football because I think it was a real pleasure.

[SPEAKER_03]: Adam, we have, we have this segment called the five wire, five light-hearted questions to end the show with, can you stick around for that?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no problem at all.

[SPEAKER_03]: Question number one, one book that you've read recently that you'd recommend.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's without the psychology of money.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's another money book.

[SPEAKER_00]: I also read the biography of Captain James Kirk as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was a tough, that was a long read.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you got to like biographies if you want to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I just like always like the underdogs.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Captain Kirk was like a total underdog.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it became like the best navigator of probably in history, actually.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, anyway, so there you go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fantastic, fantastic.

[SPEAKER_02]: Next question in the last few years out of what new belief behavior or habit has most improved your life or substantially improved your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I would say without a doubt, I picked up this book called The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and it's the, this was during, this is probably like three or four years ago and yeah, you just basically read a page a day by the date and it's just a, it's mostly quoting Marcus Aurelius who is a stored philosopher part actually.

[SPEAKER_00]: My, you know, the folks at marketing here at Raymond James they said, do you need a you need a marketing team name like you can't be just add in food bulls.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I was like, I just call it Senaco well, you got Senaco with another store for lots of her side, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I ripped, I ripped off Senaco's name for, for this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I figured the copyright after 2000 years has expired.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so that was that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that was it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's my habit every morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: I read a sentence from Ryan holiday's book and it's a historic quote and then he reads it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has a little write up paragraph kind of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that's nice.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's great.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's great question number three.

[SPEAKER_03]: What have you been binge watching lately or a movie recommendation?

[SPEAKER_03]: I actually don't own a TV.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I binge read.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but the last movie that I saw was Nuremberg my it was like we went out for kind of like a date night kind of thing away for nice so, but we actually it was really good Russell Crow did a really good job on it, so yeah that was the last movie or so, so yeah, nice favorite band or music, something you're listening to lately.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh man, well my 15-year-old daughter has been playing Sabrina Carpenter non-stop.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the only song that's I can't get it out of my head.

[SPEAKER_00]: Man, child.

[SPEAKER_00]: But no, no, I like it all from ACDC to to Mozart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm all over the map country.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you name it jazz the whole bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing that I don't like are musicals.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just never could wrap my head around musicals like you're in a, you're, you're talking to a person and then you just break out into a song.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're talking to a person and then you just break out into a song.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're talking to a person and then you just break out into a song.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're talking to a person and then you just break out into a song.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're talking to a person and then you just break out into a song.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're talking to a person and then you just break out into a song.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're talking to a person and then you just break out into a song.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're talking to a person and then you just break out into a song.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're talking to a person and then you just break out into a song.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're talking to a person and then you just break out into a song.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're talking to a person and then you just break out into a song.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're talking to a person [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, geez.

[SPEAKER_00]: Without a doubt, I would have to say my running shoes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I, uh, yeah, I would say running, getting back in a shape.

[SPEAKER_00]: I started running again when I was 27 or no 37.

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, yes, sorry, 37 and, uh, yeah, I just love it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm addicted to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Although I've had to slow down because I rough my knee in the marathon, but [SPEAKER_00]: What one need some, you know, but I'm still doing like 10K or whatever here and there, but yeah, I know it's just really good to to, you know, stay in shape.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and then, yeah, that was it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So basically that's it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I got to say, that was a, we say rapid fire.

[SPEAKER_02]: Those were, man, you didn't even have to think about those.

[SPEAKER_02]: Those quicks, especially like Sabrina Carpenter.

[SPEAKER_02]: Adam, how can, how can people find out more about what you're up to and potentially getting touch.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: So my direct number is 604, four, six, five, four, one, four, five, five.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then basically email is Adam dot boat.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, my last name is awful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Adam Dott, Bowdoin, Heifin Ball, so B-E-A-U-D-I-N, a Heifin Ball at RaymondJames.ca, or if you just Google, you know, Raymond James or just Google, Adam Bowdoin Ball on the first one.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the only person in the world for that with that name.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so close to it, but if you look at Raymond James, you'll be able to find me on the site as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that's the one thing about unique names is the, yeah, once you know how to spell it, it's easy to find, but it's the spelling that's the thing, but well, thanks so much for taking the time today.

[SPEAKER_03]: We really appreciate it.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a lot of fun guys.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, there you have it folks, they're discussion with Adam Bowden Ball, Senior Financial Planner at Raymond James.

[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's always great having financial planners on this show who can put things in the perspective I loved.

[SPEAKER_03]: My favorite thing was the order of where what to pay off and you know, you realize.

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, and this the psychology behind it, I think it was a really smart point like that's something that, you know, somebody who's season, who's been working with people over the years, he's realized there's a psychology to getting to the finish line, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that's I think a lot of people in this market as well, like where you're where it's not uncommon to have a million dollar plus mortgage, it feels sometimes like [SPEAKER_03]: Man, I'm never going to get like it's it's not even worth insurmountable.

[SPEAKER_03]: Right.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's exactly it.

[SPEAKER_03]: So having somebody that's there that kind of guiding and coaching and psychology plays a big role.

[SPEAKER_03]: So.

[SPEAKER_02]: The other thing about that is, you know, as he was saying that it made so much sense and I, you know, I think of myself and I'm sure a lot of people do is, oh, I'm very sophisticated.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'll be paying off my lowest interest rates first, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, the smartest guy in the room.

[SPEAKER_02]: It turns out not always the best way to proceed.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's a really smart point.

[SPEAKER_02]: The other thing about psychology that I liked about this [SPEAKER_02]: You know, especially if you're, you know, you have goals, I feel like the media, especially it's to tough city to achieve a lot of things in because of the cost of living, but [SPEAKER_02]: the wallowing online is definitely not the way to to get any closer to that and I think Adam made that pretty clear, which is a nice reminder for everyone.

[SPEAKER_02]: So great conversation and and yes, some the RESP hold on.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like let's just Adam.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, he already is.

[SPEAKER_03]: I know.

[SPEAKER_03]: I've got a few more as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: The RESP to pay down your child's mortgage over four to five years when they're in school, love that, love that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that doesn't have to be in Vancouver, but that's great.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's a great way to get a starter home if you can, if you can swing the down payment.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, Matt, and real estate is supposed to be.

[SPEAKER_03]: boring right it's supposed to be something that you invest in and and you're kind of thinking the long-term long horizon outlook and and you'll do you'll do exceptionally well in your real state but this idea that like you know you're going to buy whatever coin meme coin and be a multimillionaire overnight stick to the basics put a good plan together.

[SPEAKER_02]: Fundamentals for the way and Adam that's for sure what else do we have before we cut for the day [SPEAKER_02]: Vancouver real estate podcast.com where all things real estate related live, but also at a more more importantly, right now, you know, we have buyers resources that people are taking advantage of every day.

[SPEAKER_02]: We have sellers resources that people are taking advantage of every day, especially people that are getting ready for for next year, right now I feel like a lot of people reaching out, which is exciting.

[SPEAKER_02]: But if you find value in these conversations and I feel like a lot of people will found value in the conversation today, please share with a friend or a family member, [SPEAKER_02]: reviews are always nice, but we're just trying to, you know, keep growing and keep moving into 2026.

[SPEAKER_02]: So please like share reviews at how they say and that's how they say.

[SPEAKER_02]: We thank you for that.

[SPEAKER_02]: We thank you for that.

[SPEAKER_03]: Excellent.

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, we are back next week with episode 4.

[SPEAKER_03]: 97.

[SPEAKER_03]: Very exciting work.

[SPEAKER_03]: We're almost at that almost.

[SPEAKER_03]: It just in time for Christmas almost at that 500 episode.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that's right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, if you want to talk about that or anything else, give me a show.

[SPEAKER_03]: Where you can try me at 777-866-4574 or Adam at VancouverRealStayPodcast.com.

[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, we got that coconut line, especially for this episode info at at VancouverRealStayPodcast.com.

[SPEAKER_03]: We'll have a great week, we're back here next week with another great episode.

[SPEAKER_01]: Take care.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for watching!