It has been busy this past week. Preparing for the retirement trip was quite a bit of work. Along with packing, we had to make sure everything was in place to have the house and, more importantly, the cats looked after. Cats are funny animals. They seem to have an innate sense to know when something is changing. The suitcases come out, and the cats get suspicious. Their personalities take a dramatic swing, from being the rulers of the kingdom to little furry balls of love, who want for nothing more than snuggles, neck scratches and belly rubs. The jig is up. The cats know we are going to be leaving. Fortunately, we have family who are as concerned about our feline children as we are and who will visit daily to ensure dishes are full, treats are doled out, and litter boxes are cleaned. We are extremely fortunate.
In my last post, I mentioned that we were introduced to “financial planning” many years ago. Our first attempt to set ourselves up for financial success happened when we were young parents trying to figure out life in general. Some folks we knew had a financial planner from the Investors Group, who were a growing player in the market, visit them. Wanting nothing but the best for us and our future, they referred us as potential clients. Following the script, Fred called and asked if he could visit us in our home. He dropped the names of our mutual acquaintances, and I got very excited and convinced my wife that we should meet. He came to the house and spent a couple of hours showing us charts and using words we really didn’t understand to explain how we could invest our money and build a nest egg that would guarantee our financial future. It really did sound great! For a small monthly contribution, we would be setting ourselves up for life. Obviously, against my wife’s better judgement, I said yes. We signed the paperwork, gave him the cancelled cheque for direct withdrawal and we were all on our way. Him, to collect his commission and us to securing a future for our family.
Over the next year or so, we might have heard from our “personal financial planner” a couple of times. Then, one evening we received a call from his associate. He introduced himself and said Fred gave him our names and said he should follow up with us. He asked to come to the house for a visit. We found out that Dave had recently left his job in construction to become a financial planner with Investors Group and Fred would be his mentor. We were young. We still did not understand how the world worked. If Fred said it was okay, it must be okay. Dave also said that our growth fund that Fred had initially set up would better serve us if it were an RRSP. But Fred said our money would be available to us if an emergency happened. No problem, Dave said. It is your money, and you can have it anytime you need it.
Long story short, several months later I had to replace the transmission in our vehicle. We didn’t have a separate emergency fund, but we had our RRSP! I called Dave, our new financial planner, and said I needed the money. He asked if there was any other way to get it. Could I borrow the money from family? I said I’m not borrowing the money from anyone. I have the money in my RRSP, and I need it now. He did everything he could, using his construction background, to convince me not to withdraw from the account. He explained that this was a registered plan, and we would have to pay a withholding tax. I told him to do what he had to do and to close our account and send me a cheque.
Attempt #1 was a definite fail but very educational. More on our adventure next time.
