Bombarded with a 24-hour news cycle and social media, almost everyone I know feels that their world is already moving too fast and believes that things are going to continue to accelerate. How you cope with this challenge will determine a great deal about your future. The consequences for your family, friends, hopes, and dreams are hard to fathom. Fortunately, you can make decisions to ensure your financial future by understanding how to keep time on your side.

Kabir comes from a family that has done well and highly values education so is one of the less than 10% who was able to complete undergraduate and medical school with zero debt. In addition, his doting grandparents gave him 120K to invest with the sole recommendation that he “speak with a banker”. Although relatively well off, Kabir has no personal experience with financial management so simply put the funds in the bank and asked an advisor in the branch to open a TFSA and “do something with the money”.  The advisor told him that the maximum he was eligible to put in a TFSA was 90K and suggested that he start an RSP with the remaining funds.

Aleandro is a proud young man who declined any financial assistance from his parents beyond the small RESP they purchased for him as a child but never fully funded as they were well intentioned, but not financially adept. In his family, it was considered uncouth to speak about money matters and hence he was even a bit embarrassed to admit he was struggling, let alone ask for advice.

Maria had a well-paying job before Medical School and thus has investments managed at her old company and now only modest debts in her fourth year of residency. She is not impressed with the returns on her investments and wishes to manage them herself. We discussed her goals which included more direct control over all her finances.