Achieving financial security and independence are top priorities for women regardless of their life stage. Learn important strategies to guide your financial journey in an insightful conversation with Carissa Lucreziano, Dr. Rumeet Billan and Margaret Adaniel.
Women’s financial journeys are shaped by unique milestones and challenges ranging from navigating career transitions to planning for retirement. In this special edition of Smart Advice, we break down the results of a groundbreaking Women of Influence+ survey conducted in collaboration with CIBC, on Women, Money, and Wealth
This episode offers expert guidance and practical tools to help you navigate your financial journey.
You won’t want to miss this roundtable discussion featuring CIBC financial advice expert Carissa Lucreziano, Dr. Rumeet Billan, CEO of Women of Influence+ and Margaret Adaniel, Vice President of Wealth Digital, Marketing and Communications at CIBC.
[3:33] Margaret: “Retirement is not a point of arrival… It's actually a journey within itself”
[19:42] Carissa: “In any relationship, first marriage or partnership or second communication is key. That is the foundation.”
[25:18] Margaret: “We think about it [estate planning] in the legal document terms, not the emotional side of the conversation. It's both. It really is both of those and we have to balance them out.
[27:55] Carissa: “You've worked a good portion of your life, working so hard to accumulate these assets… You want to be able to protect that, and you want to be able to preserve as much as possible to go to the next generation ”
Carissa Lucreziano has over two decades of experience as a Certified Financial Planner. She is the Vice President of Financial and Investment Advice at CIBC, where she aims to simplify complex financial concepts to give people the ability to make informed decisions about their money.
As CIBC’s financial advice expert, Carissa leads a team dedicated to empowering Canadians through accessible financial education and smart advice.
Connect with Carissa Lucreziano on LinkedIn.
Margaret Adaniel is the Vice President of Wealth Digital, Marketing, and Communications at CIBC, where she leads strategic initiatives to enhance client engagement and financial education.
Margaret is committed to fostering financial confidence by creating tailored solutions that address evolving client needs, leveraging her expertise in wealth management, financial literacy, and strategic communication.
Connect with Margaret Adaniel on LinkedIn.
Dr. Rumeet Billan is the founder and CEO of Viewpoint Leadership and former CEO of Women of Influence+. Her approach to entrepreneurship, business development, and leadership training prioritizes trust, belonging, and resilience to elevate the quality of her work.
Dr. Rumeet has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 10 Power Women. She showcases a commitment to giving back to communities by helping improve access to education through schools and libraries and funding scholarships.
Connect with Dr. Rumeet on LinkedIn or her website.
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Carissa: Welcome to Smart Advice, a podcast connecting you with real financial advice, investment strategies and economic trends, empowering you with insights you need to make smart decisions about your money. I'm CIBC financial advice expert, Carissa Lucreziano.
As women, we can face unique circumstances and also have great opportunities when it comes to building and managing wealth. Early life experiences, family and relationship dynamics and exposure to tools and resources for building financial acumen all shape the views and attitudes towards money that we carry into adulthood. Over the last several decades, women in Canada have made monumental milestones in workforce participation and more household wealth is in the hands of women to manage today than ever before. By 2028 women in Canada are expected to control nearly 4 trillion in assets, which will equate to 45% of Canada's total wealth, according to a report from CIBC capital markets.
But a new study by Women of Influence in collaboration with CIBC reveals that many women still face hurdles in turning that growing influence into financial confidence. The survey, Canadian Perspectives, women, money and wealth revealed that 68% of women report feeling in control of their finances. But 42% are concerned about their long term security, leaving many feeling stressed and overwhelmed over their current financial situation.
The study also revealed that when women seek expert financial guidance, it's usually due to a life event or transition in life. About 63% of women surveyed said that retirement motivated them to reach out for professional support. While nearly 40% pointed to other major life changes, such as marriage, separation, or divorce, as reasons for seeking professional advice.
I had the pleasure of being a guest speaker for an incredible LinkedIn live event that unpacked some of the insights from this survey, centered around the importance of financial well being. This event was hosted by Dr. Rumeet Billan, the CEO of Women of Influence. I was also joined by my colleague at CIBC, Margaret Adaniel, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, to discuss top of mind financial management considerations like managing money through transitions, like marriage, new relationships, starting a new business and planning out the exciting chapter of retirement. In this episode, we'll be showcasing some of the highlights from the event and the advice and investment strategies specifically designed for women.
Rumeet: Margaret, I'm going to come to you first. Why do you think that these milestones like retirement and starting a business play such an important role, especially when we're looking at seeking financial advice, and how do you see women's needs shift over time when navigating these significant life changes?
Margaret: So what I would start with is, so you asked two very important questions. One, the “why is it so important?” But two, “How has the landscape changed for women?” Where I'll start is, why is it so important? So when we think about a scenario like retirement, we talk about retirement a lot from the time we start work, it's a work for retirement, save for retirement. Everything is about getting to that point. But the reality is, retirement is not a point of arrival. It's actually, there's so much more to it. I think there's a big mystery around well, what's on the other side of that? It's actually a journey within itself. Not just “Oh, I made it. I arrived. I've achieved the thing.”
If we think about schooling, when we get our degree, we get our degree, Yay, we're done. It's that point where we can, we can celebrate. But retirement is not that. So I think for a lot of women, specifically, the significance around these moments is it's not just the moment of. It's everything that goes with that moment and helping to have support and understanding of well, what does my vision for retirement look like if I'm starting a business? Well, where do I start? How do I go on this journey?
I'm not just starting, but I'm doing it successfully. Because I don't think anybody wants to get to retirement and they're like, “Okay, I'm tapping out. I'm done.” They actually want a successful retirement. What does that look like? So it's so much more about the depth of that journey and that it's a journey on its own, not just a point of arrival. I think it's a bit of a mind shift and a lot of people are going “Well, I need that help. I need professional advice and I need that support.”
As it pertains to needs changing when we look at the demographic shift over the last 75 years. When we look at just the labor force participation rates 75 years ago, men were at a point of about 86% participation rate. Where women were actually sitting at a much lower participation rate. Right? Obviously, times were very different, but if you look at the swings and how things have changed, women's increase in the labor force and their participation rate in the work world, it has actually been called 25% where men's have decreased by 19%. But, women have not actually reduced the… and I'm going to say it as a burden, but it's not. It's not a burden.
They're still carrying a large amount of the burden from a care perspective at home. Well, the participation rate from labor so, you know, I'm now in the workforce. I'm working full time. I have a career, I have a business. Often those aren't just within parameters of eight to four or eight or nine to five. It's much more intensive than that, but they're still carrying a lot of the requirements of supporting children and parents. So that pressure point for women, I think it's ongoingly increasing, but it's also there's more needs.
That's where the needs have shifted because their role has shifted. So that's been a massive change over, you know, the last 50 to 75 years.
Rumeet: Margaret, thank you so much. Every time I speak with you, I'm always nodding and smiling, because there's just so much in what you just said. I love that you compared that idea of, you know, you get your degree, yay. That's kind of a finishing point, but you don't stop learning, right? Or maybe we look at retirement end point, but you're not going to stop making an impact, but it's redefining how you're looking at that. So thank you for that piece,
Carissa. I'm going to come to you. What foundational steps would you recommend for women to stay financially resilient through these major life transitions?
Carissa: Yeah, it's a great question. Financially resilient, and that's something we all strive for. I think Margaret said something really important, and she's mentioned it a few times. It's about a journey. So it's staying connected through that journey, and there's going to be bumps along the way, for sure. It's staying connected and staying committed to your plan. A few fundamental pieces to consider. Get really comfortable with your financial situation, whatever it is at the moment, because that is the fundamental.
You need to know that first and you need to be comfortable with your current financial situation in order to plan for the future. Some ideas around, like ensuring that you have a budget, what is the cash flow that's coming in and what's the cash flow that's going out. That difference is going to tell you how much that you can save at this point. And when obligations kind of lessen, for example, you know, maybe you can put a little bit more aside. So the foundation is cash flow and budgeting.
Now we know the last few years have been really challenging for Canadians and people globally. Everything is so much more expensive than it was yesterday. We really have to think through where our priorities are, and everybody's trying to balance that. So if you haven't looked at your expenses in a while, it's a really good time to do it. You'd be surprised if you haven't in a while to say, wow. Here are some things that have really increased, and then you can make some good decisions and some smart decisions about where you want to allocate some of that discretionary spending.
The second piece, really is setting goals for the future. Now there could be a list of goals that you have, like, short term, maybe you want to buy a car long term, maybe you want to buy a cottage, a saving for your children's education. Be comfortable and okay, like give yourself a pat on the back.
It's very hard to do everything at once. What can you do today? What are your priorities? If your priority is, for example, to send your children to school and build up that savings, well, then you may have to scale back a little bit on other savings, whether that's retirement or TFSA. That's okay, as long as you can redirect that for a while. Setting goals is really important. What's important to you, what's important to your family.
The third thing is building an emergency fund. Now we all know during COVID and the pandemic that this became really important. It became really important for things like all across the board. As you know, prices started to increase, you'll probably see out there there's rule of thumb to say, you have to have three to six months of your income in savings in a bucket. Now that's easier said than done sometimes. But if you focus on chipping away and adding a little bit by a little bit into an emergency fund.
There's rainy days out there. We all have rainy days, whether it's an air conditioner that goes or something that you need to help the family. Even having a cushion, even having 50% of that expense there is going to help one big piece. We'll talk a little bit more about this. It came up in the survey, where one of the biggest barriers for women is market knowledge and tax planning. It can be overwhelming for anybody across the board to really try to follow markets and see, you know, where should I invest, how should I invest? But it's very important that you're investing to build long term wealth.
Now, how you will invest and what you invest and what you invest in is going to depend on your current situation, your risk tolerance. How do you feel about investing in certain areas? However, we know over the last few years and now, even with the interest rate environment that it's now decreasing. You want to ensure that your savings, long term savings, rather, is earning a rate of return higher than inflation.
Investing for the long term is really important. Traditionally, women are really great at sticking it out for the long term. They actually don't go in and out of the market too much. So really, having that investment plan is important and taking time to know what is and how you feel about that. It doesn't mean you have to know everything about the market. Not many people do. It's you know, that's a day job. It's just about being comfortable and what your plan and your strategy is for the long term. And then kind of going back to the top is keeping focused on your goals.
You're always pivot, you'll always amend based on life changes, and work with a trusted advisor that you can communicate with or feel good about that's going to help you along the way.
Rumeet: Carissa, thank you so much. There's so much to unpack there and I love that you're talking about goal setting. But what you started off talking about is really building our awareness. What are our expenses? As I'm thinking through what you're saying, it's also understanding that over the course of a year, your expenses may be higher, maybe closer to the holidays, or maybe during the summer, because you're planning that trip or vacation. But it's building that awareness across the year of what your expenses are in specific months and how that changes, and making a plan on that. So thank you.
We're going to talk about another transition stage, which I highlighted a bit earlier, which is starting a business, because this came out in the survey. Carissa, I'm going to stick with you with this question. So starting a business is another important milestone, and for women looking to start their own business, what key considerations should they keep in mind, especially when balancing personal and business finances?
Carissa: Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, there's a lot of stats out there, but more and more females are becoming entrepreneurs. That means that more and more women will own their own businesses, and really lead a lot of the trends out there in specific industries and it's happening now. First things first is, you want to create a business plan. Really that is, you know, there's a couple components in a business plan. It can sound overwhelming. It doesn't have to be a 40 page document. What it really needs to be is organizing your thoughts around what your business is today and where you want it to go.
So, first things first, what is your business idea? What is the kind of executive summary? What's also important is doing some market research, who are the industry competitors? You know, where are you going to play? Are you going to go into a niche market? Are you going to play at a level playing field to your competitors?
Another good component and what you want to focus on, is your business model. How are you going to earn income? How are you going to earn revenue? And also, what product or service are you going to sell? Marketing strategy is really important. How are you going to do that? Now, you know, there's a lot of entrepreneurs. A lot of the marketing is social media. How does that play out versus traditional marketing?
Then last but one of the most important, especially if you're looking for business financing, is the cost plan and budget. So what is going to be your first outlays in cash, in expenses? Are you going to have employees at the start? Of course, that'll probably grow over time. Just doing a cost analysis will be really important again, especially if you're going to ask for financing.
Keep your finances separate, personal and business. That's so important because as your business starts to grow, those are the complexities and trying to kind of balance it all. If you keep your business receipts separate, you want to have a business account and your personal affairs separate, that's very important, especially when you go and see your accountant at the end of the year. It's going to make it so much easier.
Then last, to automate your bills. There's going to be a lot going on with starting up a new business and then your personal. You don't want to have any, you know, just even by mistake, any missed payments, because that can damage your credit score and impede your ability to obtain financing for your business. So it's an exciting time. There's many individuals that, more and more entrepreneurs just getting organized at the front, and then again, a trusted business advisor. We have them at CIBC and just sitting down with somebody and ensuring that you're ticking some of those early boxes to start your business on a good foot.
Rumeet: I love that. I'm going to take your advice from earlier and also in your business plan, include an emergency fund or an emergency plan too. Because there are rainy days as entrepreneurs, we know that. So, thank you.
Margaret, let's stay on the same topic, but I'm going to shift in terms of my question to you. How can digital resources support women entrepreneurs in their early stages? Which tools are most helpful for managing the financial complexities of entrepreneurship?,
Margaret: Yeah and Carissa talked through a lot of different elements that need to be considered but to your point, Rumeet, there's a lot to sift through. It can feel very overwhelming and the digital landscape, obviously, over the past 25 years, has completely changed. But there's a lot out there. So there is, from the most basic support that the BDC actually has, where it's at, how to become an entrepreneur.
You're just starting from scratch. What does it mean to build a business plan? What actually needs to go into that? So there's a whole host of different tools that are available out in the marketplace that are really great and simplify the process. It doesn't mean hours and hours and days. Obviously, there's a lot of thinking that needs to go into starting a business. It's funny, one of my best friends is actually going through this process herself, where she's decided that she's shifting from a corporate environment and job that she's always been in to actually starting her own business, which we're all rallying around and supporting.
I've had some firsthand glimpses into, well, what do you need to think through? I will say, from a Canadian perspective, the BDC is actually a really great resource capability and capability set from a digital perspective. What's nice is it's not necessarily tied to a financial element. It's actually just very supportive in the sense of, here's what you need to do and steps you need to take. In the US, actually, there's a whole host of different businesses and companies. One that I stumbled across that I actually thought was, and I say, stumbled. I was doing some research on this, but I thought was really interesting is Zen business.
The reason that I thought it was so interesting is that Zen business actually brings in some of the state fees. Some of the things that you need to think about in the different states and what you need to consider. So again, these are all resources that are available to anybody who is trying to just start and get the right footing. I think there's some incredible things. Carissa also mentioned sitting down with a business advisor. I am going to make a shameless plug for CIBC at this point, because we are ranked, from a small business perspective, the highest in customer satisfaction. We've won that award two years in a row, which is something we're very proud of.
Even just having that trusted partner like your personal finances, sometimes having that person to just bounce ideas off of and and go through the thinking with is so essential, because they do it every day. They work with business owners day in and day out. They may catch something that you might not be aware of. I think the digital tools are incredible, but having that trusted person that you can just vet your thinking with is also really, really important. I think, as a small business owner, especially if you're stepping into it for the first time, I think it's really important to understand those aspects. But again, there is a world of digital that is available to make it so much easier than what it used to be. Completely
Rumeet: Completely agree. Thank you for plugging in CIBC. We are so thankful to CIBC for sponsoring this LinkedIn live and for partnering with us on doing the survey. So I want to get into retirement, but before I do, let's talk a little bit about partnerships.
Carissa, I'm going to come to you with this when we're entering our partnership, whether this is marriage, we're cohabitating with someone, or even a second or for some people, a third marriage. What steps would you recommend to build a strong vase?
Carissa: This is a big one, and it comes up a lot. I think you asked about whether it's a new relationship or your first relationship, or if this is a second or third. There's some fundamentals that are the same, but then there's a lot of differences. Well, again, in any relationship, first marriage or partnership or second, communication is key. That is the foundation.
We talk a lot about that with clients. Let me just focus on the second partnership or marriage for a moment. Going into a second marriage or partnership is a very exciting part of life. There's usually a lot more to consider, because you're usually bringing in a lot more than you did in terms of assets than your first. You'll likely have more fixed assets, maybe a home, maybe a cottage, rental property, and liquid assets, your investments, your retirement savings. You know that's been all built over time.
If children are involved, they're usually at the forefront of priority. There's a lot of things to consider. The other piece that you're bringing into a new relationship, and even in your first is, stronger beliefs around values about money and family. This should really be considered. So for a few things, I'd say number one, full disclosure. Again, regardless if it's your first or second marriage, open about financial obligations. So you know, credit history, the level of debt.
If you're in your second marriage, imagine that you didn't know that your partner was obligated to child support, or that their ex spouse was entitled to retirement savings. That's something you want to be able to disclose up front. Full disclosure is really important. Have that conversation. I'd say the second is, which is related is the money talk. What is yours? What is mine, what is ours? And you know, in terms of accounts.
First relationship you should start off with this conversation. Will our income or our pay go into the same account for shared access? Do we share expenses and keep our income in our own separate account? That's important to establish up front, because a lot of the challenges within marriages in general and there's a lot of stats that show financial disagreements, if you will. For second marriages, too, you may want to keep assets accumulated before you're married separate, like investments accounts or rental property. Because that could also form part of an estate planning for biological children.
Within the second marriage topic, a cohabitation agreement or a prenup is highly recommended. Again, it's sometimes an awkward conversation to have, but if you have it up front, two individuals are bringing in, maybe family and assets, it's important to sit down say, what are the things that we're reserving, possibly for our estate and our children, and what are the things that we want to build together. You'll understand very quickly, what are the feelings about money, what are the beliefs? Then starting off on a really good foot, it's really important. Communication is key and really laying out what are some of your wishes. Then you'll understand exactly where you start.
Rumeet: I love that. We've got an excellent article on our website. Me and Margaret, we were talking about unpacking tensions and we did an article on prenups. It can be an awkward conversation, but it doesn't have to be. What you're doing is you're protecting yourself and you're protecting your future because you don't know what's going to happen. Thank you for your insight on that.
Can we continue on with estate planning? I think it's incredibly important and I'm going to pause here as well, because I know we only have about 15 minutes left together. We have so much to get through, but I do want to pause to let the audience know, again, thank you for joining. If you have any questions, please pop them into the comment section. I will be monitoring them and we want to get to as many questions as possible that you have. So please pop them into the comment section.
Okay, let's get a little bit into estate planning, because Carissa, you've just mentioned that. So Margaret, I'm going to come to you. Estate planning involves more than just financial assets, so it requires careful organization of things like legal documents, right? And also our contacts. So what would help families get organized with estate planning?
Margaret: Yeah, it's a great question. I think when it comes to wills in estates in general, it's a topic that one we often avoid talking about, because it's not something that you're going to sit down on a Friday night and have a glass of wine and say, let's talk about death. You know, it's not an easy conversation and I think it has us facing our own mortality. But it also is so critical and so important to navigate through. What I would say is there's a couple things.
Yes, there's legal documents, but there's also things that aren't what you typically think about, right? So we typically think about, okay, I have to have my financial documents. I have to have my legal documents. Well, you also need to think about things like your family pet. What are you going to do? Who's actually going to get the family dog? Those are really, really emotional conversations. So simply making a list and navigating some of that to go, okay, what are some of these big decisions that I have to make?
There's an incredible book called “Willing Wisdom” and it's all about the seven questions to ask yourself or what successful families ask themselves to be able to reframe estate planning and wills and why you need them. So, you know, I love the book because they're not the typical questions that you would think about asking. It's things like, when you are actually at the end, who do you want with you? I think those are things that we don't necessarily think about because we think about it in the legal document terms, not the emotional side of the conversation. It's both. It really is both of those and we have to balance them out.
Getting organized, I would say there's some simple checklists out there. We can send some through, just to even attach in the show notes after that just will help with where do you need to go? What do you need to think about? There are some very simple, simple checklists. There's also some great online platforms. We have a partnership with Willful, and there's several other platforms like that that are actually very inexpensive. It's a couple $100 to actually go through the process, but that's when you're actually paying for the legal document at the end.
There's a lot of resources within that to say, here's what you need to get started and sometimes even that catalyst to get something in place through a digital platform is actually a very easy way to, one, get organized and understand what you need, but also just to get it in motion. I would say some of those platforms that are out there, it's taking advantage of that.
Rumeet: I love that and so Lisa who is my financial advisor, and who encouraged me to get a will a number of years ago. It's also understanding that you need to revisit your will after a period of time, because your life circumstances change, right? Things change. Things are different, and it's revisiting it. It's not just doing it once and it's done, but having that top of mind as things change in life, and you go through major life transitions.
As we're talking about a kind of estate planning and wills, I mean, it can be, as you've said, Margaret, a difficult conversation. Families need to have these conversations. So Carissa, I'm going to come to you. A lot of people don't really recognize or realize the benefits of estate planning. So when should families start to have this conversation?
Carissa: I think there's two things. And, you know, Margaret mentioned, kind of the first thing is, the first step is getting a will. In Canada, 50% of Canadians don't have a will. If you look at the research in the survey that was completed, if women, in general, are going to accumulate and be in control of almost $4 billion by 2028 that there's a real need to understand and have some of these things cemented. So, getting a will done and Margaret talked about an online will service. Even if you're not ready at the time, or you need a little bit more time to organize to get to a notary or a lawyer, you want to be able to have just the foundation.
If you think about it, we all think about Margaret's point from a mortality perspective. But you've worked your whole life, or a good portion of your life, working so hard to accumulate these assets, save, you know, pat yourself on the back. You've done a great, great job. You and your family combined. You want to be able to protect that and you want to be able to preserve as much as possible to go to the next generation. Because if you don't, the courts, government, wherever it is going to decide on how that and how that happens.
Margaret mentioned a pet, and some people maybe don't even think about that. Children, pets, where would you want them to go? Very important. But some of the things that you know you want to think about, and it has to be age appropriate. So you know, partners, if it's a husband and wife or partners together, you should start thinking about that. Get a will done. But what's important too is bringing the family into the conversation. Now it has to be age appropriate. So when your children start to get a little older, you want to have that conversation. You want to have that open and honest conversation.
It doesn't mean that you have to put your balance sheet on the table to see here, like, here's my accounts and all of that. It's more about your values, more about beliefs and understanding what they're interested in. So for example, adult children, if you have three kids, you have a family cottage, and you have maybe investments. Maybe one of the children doesn't want the family cottage. That might make it a little easier. But if one child is given the family cottage, how do you— you need to start thinking about, if this is your plan, how do you equalize your estate?
So if one child's getting the cottage, maybe the other child will get an investment account, for example. That's really important and so the children in that scenario will also understand the consideration and the planning behind it. It goes a long way. It's very important to start those conversations as early as possible. Then I would say, when you feel that the time is right, bring your children into the financial conversation, with your advisor, with your lawyer, and so everybody kind of knows what the plan is. Without having to really go through account statements, you can bring them in from a communication and considerate perspective.
Because so many families, when you're dealing with a death in the family, you're dealing with so much grief, and at that specific time to have to unravel in a state, or try to, number one, figure out where things are, or even for children, try to understand, why did mom and dad leave it this way, and it'll just alleviate so much stress and unnecessary anxiety and and kind of keep the family whole. Because we know that's one of the most challenging times.
In absence of communication, a lot of those things happen. You have to think about family dynamics and fairness, what you really want to leave and who you want to leave it to. So, getting a will is foundational and then starting to talk about your wishes and your values and your beliefs. It'll become more of a really nice conversation from a family perspective, as opposed to, you know what Margaret mentioned, which is reality, just talking about, you know that that day or that time.
Rumeet: Thank you so much for that, Carissa. As you both know, I have a number of questions for you. There's so much more to unpack. We have less than 10 minutes and I need to get to the audience's questions, because we've got a number of those coming in. All this means is that we have to do this again very soon.
What I want to get to, and this will be a quick one, Margaret, can you please mention the book again with the seven questions? That was my first audience question.
Margaret: It’s called Willing Wisdom. It's by Thomas William Deans and it has just some very simple questions. It's a really super easy read, like you could do it in an evening. It's a very small book, but really just good framing overall.
Rumeet: Thank you. Next audience question is, what advice do you have for 401K management at time of layoffs?
Carissa: Yeah. So when you're dealing with any sort of retirement account, you want to connect with your financial advisor as soon as possible. Because if there is a layoff that's happened, there's usually a period of time that you have to make some decisions— about how you can transition that account? What are your options? So, connect with a financial advisor you know right away and understand what your options are, so you can make that really great decision for you and your family based on your goals and based on the parameters of your employment.
Margaret: Yeah and I think just to add to that, if you hold, and a lot of people are at a time of layoff, where we're trying to deal with so many things so it can, we can hold back from doing that. I think to Carissa point, the sooner you contact an advisor, they can help you navigate. Because you don't want to lose any optionality that may be available.
Oftentimes, those are very short windows where you have to actually make an election on I'm going to go, I'm going to take the money in this way or in this way. So, getting an advisor to help you with what is the best thing for you and your family and your situation is so important. Completely
Rumeet: Completely agree. Thank you to you both. Next question, what are your views on owning life insurance as part of planning for retirement and estate planning? Great question.
Carissa: Yeah, it's absolutely a part of an overall estate plan. How that comes into the fold is really up to yourself as well as your current financial situation. Back to the example I gave with the three children, let's just take those three children again. Let's just say one child gets the family cottage, the other child gets the investment account, and then there's not much left over for the third.
You could utilize insurance in a fashion to be able to satisfy that equalization. So insurance can be used across the board. You want to speak to an insurance professional. They will do a needs analysis based on your assets, based on your income and based on your plans of what you want to leave in terms of a legacy to your children. So absolutely, it just fits in a little differently depending on your situation.
Margaret: Yeah, I would agree with that completely. When it comes to insurance and life insurance, specifically. There are different types of insurances as well, to note. But the reality is that they can be used to offset, from an estate perspective. They can also be used to offset some of the capital gains impact from properties and other elements.
There's a lot of different considerations and sometimes we use them to cover off debt. I would say again, just to reinforce, talk to an insurance specialist, but really understand what that actually looks like. Because there's a lot of different applications and it's not simply one thing. It's definitely not a one size fits all.
Rumeet: I remember when I was talking about being an entrepreneur with my financial advisor, she had mentioned critical incident insurance, which I had no idea about. As an entrepreneur, it's important for me to know about the different types of insurances. So I do love this question and talking to an expert, I think, is incredibly important.
Okay, next question that comes from the audience, when it comes to being a young woman adult, how do you start thinking about money and wealth? At the beginning, how do you start thinking about money and wealth?
Carissa: The earlier you start thinking about this, the better. But it's never ever too late. You know you want to be able, going back to the fundamentals of what I mentioned earlier in our conversation, is get really comfortable with your financial situation. As you continue to grow within your career and your income continues to grow as well, you'll be able to, if you have a plan in place, be able to, you know, save more and more.
What I will say is invest as early as possible, and again, it has to be on your you know, your terms and risk tolerance. Getting comfortable with your finances, connect with a trusted financial advisor and start to invest your money and understand how that money can grow over time. One of the things that we recommend often is to think about your money in buckets. So if you have X amount of dollars at the end of the month, you allocate a chunk, for example, to that emergency fund, and then you allocate another chunk to another bucket for long term investing.
That's where, you know, for example, it could be retirement, but it could just be, you want to build wealth outside of retirement plan, and that would be another bucket. The one thing going back to the survey, where it's what women really want— they feel a barrier, is market knowledge that, remember, it's not about understanding every single element at the market. It's about understanding where your money's being invested, where that can take you, because five years, 10 years, 20 years, and staying invested in revisiting that plan at least every single year. Having that discussion with your advisor and seeing that through a financial plan to see what the growth can be over time.
Margaret: Yeah, what I would add is, sorry, Rumeet, I was just going to say, the only thing that I would add is, and I think Carissa captured it extremely well– it's an invest first mindset, or a save first mindset. Putting money aside even small amounts. I think sometimes we look at the small amounts and say, well, $20 isn't going to get me far. In fact, if you're putting small amounts aside regularly, how those can grow in the earlier windows of investing and how that can actually help you propel forward, often sets you up for success in the long term.
Even small amounts, even if it is a “hey, I don't I don't want to talk to an advisor. I want to just put something away,” get it. Just get it going. As simple as $20 a week, or $20 ever, $25 every two weeks, don't overthink it. Just start doing it. It's more about time in the market than timing the market. Sometimes we think we have to amass a certain amount to start. It's really as simple as just starting. I have two adult daughters who I have encouraged very much, who you know that foundationally has set them up.
Carissa: Thank you for that.
Rumeet: Okay, I— we have two minutes. I have one last question for the both of you to close. If you could leave the audience with one key piece of financial advice for navigating life's big challenges with confidence, what would it be? It's going to build off what you just said, Margaret, like, just start and I love that. I love that we can start with our children as well and get them started at a young age.
Carissa, I come to you first. What is one key piece of financial advice for navigating life's big challenges.
Carissa: Yeah. Really understand your financial situation and get comfortable with it. Don't be too hard on yourself. If you know you have these goals that you want to achieve, there's a plan to get there. If you can't do everything all at once, you know you want to be able to map that out, so get comfortable with your finances. That's the best way you can start fundamentally and then get excited when you achieve financial milestones.
Margaret said something very important. It doesn't have to be big. So paying off a student loan, maybe saving that down payment for your first home. Even though you may have a mortgage that you've achieved saving a year's to Margaret's point, if you put away 50 bucks, $100, $200 whatever it is, a month, but you've been able to accumulate a year's education savings for your child. That's a big milestone.
Rumeet, you mentioned a trip. If you have a trip that you want to go on with your family and you've achieved that savings milestone, congratulate yourself and pat yourself on the back and keep on going. Stick to your plan. Stick to being invested in your future and just ensure that you're you're having those trusted conversations with an advisor to help you.
Rumeet: Awareness and celebrating wins, I love that. Margaret to close us off,
Margaret: Perfect. There's two things I would say. I'm going to go back to the thing I just said, where it's time in the market versus timing the market. Just get in, get going, just start. It's so, so important. But the other thing is, give yourself permission to have an advisor. A lot of women don't give themselves permission because they don't think that they have enough. Trust me, talk to an advisor. You are absolutely qualified to do that.
You can absolutely have that professional support and kind of rule ourselves out sometimes as saying, I'm not there yet, or I'm embarrassed. I don't want to share. Give yourself permission to have a trusted partner in your journey, because they will help see you through and help you get through the bumps.
Rumeet: Thank you. Thank you to the both of you for joining us today. Thank you to CIBC for sponsoring this LinkedIn live. Thank you to the audience for joining us. I love the engagement. All the questions that were coming in. It has been an absolute pleasure to have this conversation. Margaret, Carissa, thank you.
Carissa: As we chatted about during the LinkedIn live event, establishing a foundation of financial confidence and well-being is a journey, and there are many considerations and decisions when navigating life's roadmap. As women have come to be a larger influential force in the Canadian economy, there is also a need for more tailored advice and resources that lean into women's goals and needs as well as personal and financial realities.
If you are looking for information and advice on how to save and invest your money, a CIBC financial advisor can provide you clarity around your money questions and help you create a plan that is tailored to your personal goals.
For more financial tips, advice and tools, you can also check out cibc.com/smart advice. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Smart Advice, I’m Carissa Lucreziano. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your social network. To make sure you never miss an episode, follow Smart Advice on your favorite podcast platform.