10 Things That Are Worth the Money

In this episode of the Canadian Money Roadmap, Evan and Sam each draft 5 things they each believe are worth the money. Ranging from Toyota vehicles, paying off your credit cards, to a day at a Nordic spa, their selections spark conversations about how spending fits into financial plans. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

With most money podcasts, ours included, we often focus so much on accumulation and growth and investment. But spending is the whole reason that we're doing that in the first place. So this episode is not overly serious. We're just trying to have a little bit of fun here. Sam and I are gonna have a quick discussion on some things that we believe are worth the money. Some of them are cheap, some of them are expensive, and some of them you're probably gonna disagree with entirely, but that's the point. We're just having some fun here, but the things that we believe are worth the money. So I hope you enjoy this fun episode of the Canadian Money Roadmap Podcast. Okay, Sam, some of my favorite podcasts over summer, they often take a little bit of a break to do some more offbeat types of formats. And one of them that I like listening to, they do this uh a concept called a draft. If you've never seen this before, we they have a just a general concept, and everybody goes back and forth and they draft their favorite thing from within there. So they might do a movie draft. So, okay, first one is gonna be your favorite World War II movie, and then you go around and you pick your favorite World War II movie, and the next one is your favorite buddy cop movie, and the next one is favorite art film, you know, like these kind of concepts, and then at the end, everybody has their list of what they've drafted, and it's just a fun way to have some conversation around it. But I thought we could do something similar here with an idea that I've seen on social media a lot recently with uh people listing off things that they think are worth the money. And that could be a lot of money, it could be a small amount of money, but in many cases, some people are gonna disagree with it because like I don't think that's worth it. So that's where the conversation I hope will come in here. And I hope you and I can have a little bit of a back and forth and not necessarily agree on everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

What do you think about that? Well, I I like that idea, and uh yeah, the draft will work. We decided we we settled on each picking five different things that we think are worth the money. I've got a big old list. Well, I got tons, but uh we'll see if some there's some overlap as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

These aren't necessarily the absolute pinnacle either. Or maybe that's where I'm gonna go. Just I've got someone here that depends on where the conversation goes, I might go somewhere else next. Well, exactly. So maybe there's enough meat on the bone for another episode here.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yeah. And so we'll go we'll go back and forth for uh five picks each and see where we get to and have some discussion around each of the picks and kind of why we think it's worth the money and perhaps agree or disagree and and go from there. But we haven't decided on who has the first pick. Oh my goodness. Are we gonna spin a pen? Flip a coin, spin a pen.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

I don't have who has coins these days. How do you spin a bitcoin?

SPEAKER_00 2:48

I actually have a quarter right here, Elvin.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

I was gonna say, how do you flip a bitcoin? That's all I have.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

So I'll call I'll flip it and you'll call it. This is real time. This is good podcasting here.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Right in the area. Here we go. Three, two, one, flip heads.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Oh, it is heads. You can take the second pick if you'd like. Absolutely. All right, so Evan of the first pick. I'm curious to see where this goes.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

I'm gonna pick one that I know we're gonna agree on first. Okay. This one is very top of mind for me because I made one of these purchases just this past weekend. The first pick for me in uh in the things that are worth the money draft summer 2026. Toyota Vehicles.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Wow, throwing some shade on all other vehicles, perhaps.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

But uh, absolutely, intentionally. Toyota Vehicles, I have owned a number of them over the years, and recently, my wife and I, very recently, like just this past weekend, my wife and I, we won the lottery. We were able to track down a new Toyota Siena. And if you don't know why this is such a big deal, let me enlighten you. These things are impossible to track down for years. They've the the demand for them has far outstripped the supply because they're awesome. Very reliable vehicles, very comfortable. They have hybrids across the entire trim level lineup. Uh, they have all-wheel drive. I think they're the only minivan in Canada that is all-wheel drive. And uh here in Saskatchewan, all-wheel drive is something that is worth paying for. So, no, these are not the cheapest vans by any means. Probably the opposite, but for so many reasons, reliability being one of them. And honestly, the sales process that I've dealt with for new Toyotas so far has been great. Part of the reason is they don't need to oversell you on it, they could just be nice people to deal with. Uh so you kind of know what you're dealing with when you're talking with the dealer about um different stuff there. Anyways, Toyotas. I think I am in line with the majority. Uh I've seen some studies where it's like, what kind of cars do millionaires drive? And the number one is always like Toyota, Honda. Sometimes Lexus creeps in there, but that's also Toyota.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Toyota. Yeah. Yeah. I think they're worth the money. Well, I'm not gonna be shocking to you, Evan, but I agree with you. Yeah. But we are kind of on both ends of the Toyota spectrum at the moment. I'm driving a 1998 Toyota Corolla at the moment that uh has been, despite the age, been a incredibly reliable vehicle for getting around the city. My wife and I also have another vehicle, so it's just kind of a vehicle to get around the city a bit if you need it during winter. And I have probably put in the last five years, I don't know, six hundred dollars total into new tires and oil changes and everything. And you're getting you're getting absolutely hustled on that. Six hundred dollars. But yeah, I think reliable vehicles and in certain cases you might pay a bit more for you know a new Toyota up front, but hopefully the reliability component uh, you know, makes it far uh worth that in the long run.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

I'm gonna tell you something crazy here. So most people talk about new vehicles, and the biggest cost of it is depreciation, and this is this is true. In the case of Toyota vehicles, brand new Toyota vehicles right now, especially the ones that are most in demand, so like the larger SUVs and the minivans. So you can get a Corolla, Camry, Tacoma, Tundra all day long. So depreciation right off the lot is going to be there. But for these other ones, like your Grand Highlanders, your Sienas, your Sequoia's, these ones have this very bizarre phenomenon. This is in Canada and the US, where right now used vehicles, and it's been going on for the last couple of years, used vehicles of those models are actually more expensive than a new one. I kid you not. And so here's one version of proof of this. This is something that you can buy from a dealer when you buy a new vehicle. It's called gap insurance. Essentially, the idea is if you total it driving it off the lot, shoot, you just lost 15% of your value because the insurance value on a used vehicle is so much different than a new vehicle, what you just paid for. And so you can buy some insurance to cover off that gap between what you purchased it for, so that you could actually turn around and afford to buy a new vehicle if you happen to get in an accident very soon after you purchase the thing. The dealer did not even quote me on it. He said you would be a fool to even consider this because as soon as you drive it off the lot, this car has actually appreciated by about 10%.

unknown 7:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

I made money on a new vehicle this weekend. We're making money every day.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

We're doing it here. Um and so part of that is obviously the scarcity of these things. They're hard to come by new ones. So the line demand rules, everything. Having one in your possession is very valuable because they are very hard to come by at the moment. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

And so, anyways, my wife and I we we searched high and low across the entirety of Western Canada. We found one in Prince Albert, so an hour and a half north of Saskatoon. They had one that was already coming in that wasn't claimed yet. We put our deposit on. Two and a half months later, we got it. Anyways, we're gonna take way too long if this is pick number one.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Well, I can see you're passionate about that, but I you know what I will say. I mean, I think uh probably uh could have got that a bit later. What do you mean? You could have got that pick a bit later. Really? Yeah. Not not on my board.

unknown 8:31

Really?

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Not on my board, but I've gone in quite a different direction than you have, so I'm not sure how much we can adapt.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

We can adapt to that.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yeah, how much um overlap we'll ultimately have. But I think I'm gonna go with my first pick, paying off your credit cards. Okay, we're going on the the financial route here. Okay. I've got a bit of both, okay, but I was thinking more that way. But yeah, um some of mine might be a bit more specific to the financial world, but I still think this plays in, plays in nicely. We know the the interest that you pay on holding a credit card balance, so I think that prioritizing that is very important and just paying off your credit cards. And if you're using your credit cards, paying them off every month. And um yeah, I think that's a very valuable use of money because specifically you're you pay such high interest on any balance you hold.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah, I guess the opposite is also true of like what's not worth the money, carrying a balance on your credit card. So I used to work at TD when I was in university, and you see people coming in to pay off their credit cards or whatever other bills they have. And I saw people with very significant cash balances in their checking account and carrying hundreds of dollars. This isn't like a massive credit card bill, but they just keep a few hundred dollars just rolling on that credit card, thinking that that's actually a good way to build credit. Nope. Paying it off and being a good steward of your credit is perfectly fine. Carrying a balance does not do you any favors at all, especially in a financial sense. So yeah, I would agree with that one. Wasn't on my list because we we went different directions here a little bit, but uh yeah, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yeah, I think I mean there I maybe went a bit more objective with some of these things, and you know, objectively, if you can save, you know, 20% interest on anything, that's a valuable, uh valuable use of money to save money because you know you can't make that anywhere else, really.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

100% guaranteed returns there. Yeah, pretty solid. Okay, Sam, I'm going back to the subjective here. Maybe I'll give give you a little bit of brain time to to hit me with something controversial. I'm gonna go with warm weather family vacations. I live in one of the coldest places on the planet. We both do here, but here in Saskatchewan, and I hate winter. Why do I live here? Well, this is home. There's there's there's a lot of reasons why we're still here, but winter is something that I dread every year, and I wait for it to be done every year. And one of my favorite things to do is escape it and go down south somewhere that's a little bit warmer, and you can just have a nice reprieve from the freezing cold, your the hard seats in your Toyota that you just bought, you're plugging it in, block heaters, winter coats, all that kind of stuff, and you can just have a little bit of relaxation time. And uh one of the nice things now that I have a couple of kids is that I don't know, I'm trying to I'm starting to think a little existentially here, you know, like big picture, the family time aspect. It's like you're together 18 hours a day, pretty well, however long the kids are sleeping these days. Hopefully a few more than six hours. Some days it's crazy. Some get really excited about getting up in the morning. Anyways, I seem to sleep about six hours. So anyway, let's call it 12 hours. You're you're your waking hours, you're all spent together all the time. These are the things that I look back on uh from my childhood as being some of my favorite times. There's a bit of nostalgia there because my grandparents they had a small condo down in in Palm Springs that we'd go visit them at, and that was our time to connect with grandma and grandpa and each other and just have some fun in the pool. Um, so there's a bit of a nostalgia factor there, but I also hate winter so much that I love getting away. I like the warm weather, I like the family time together. I think it's a great use of money, and I'm happily picking this as number two on things that are worth the money. Warm weather, winter vacations.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

So I think all the stuff that you're saying resonates with me about family time and kind of building those experiences, but the choice of destination and timing, I would choose something completely different. I actually really enjoy winter in Saskatchewan. Get outside. Sometimes it's a little bit overbearing when you get those stretches of minus 30, but I uh really enjoy cross-country skiing and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

So I would almost got the skis. I got the skis, and I just never use them because I hate it so much.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Well, let me give you a little tip. And this may, well, this may come up later on the list, actually. So I'm gonna save it. But yeah, so for me, the actual specifying uh winter getaway warm weather vacation would not be you know a place I would maybe focus on, but the family time and getting together in whatever context that is, fantastic use of uh use of resources, I think.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah, and then you don't have to go to the states, you can go to Mexico. There's other places that you can go to. Plenty of great options if you live near an international airport. Yeah, I'm looking forward to our next trip already. This that that to me, no brainer for lots of people, not in the cards financially. I I totally understand that as well. But for me, in our situation, warm weather, vacations, worth the money. Sam, number two, hit me.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Number two, I'm going to go with spending money on tickets to an event that you are excited about. This is something that I'm more specific.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Concert tickets?

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Well, I would so the reason I frame it like that is because I want both sporting events and concert tickets.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Oh, but I think you gotta make a pick. Oh, geez. So then I can fight you on one of them. Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Or you want to take the other side. No, I don't no no. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Not on my list.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Okay, well, I would say this might surprise you actually, because I would say out of the two, I would uh I would say spending money on concert tickets over sporting events. Yeah, I can see that.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

I've been more disappointed at sporting events.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

You're you're much more likely to get disappointed at a sporting event, but I actually like the the kind of randomness of it or the kind of uncertainty, unscripted nature of it, because then when you do get a really great event, it kind of even hits a bit different, but you definitely get more consistency from a concert of those kind of things. But the general point I'm I'm making, like I have reflected on this over the last few years. My wife and I lived in Montreal for a while and had an opportunity to go to a bunch of shows and really amazing kind of world-class things that were there all the time. And some of them were quite expensive, and we never regretted it after. You know, initially it can, you know, it can feel like a big outlay of cash to get the tickets. But once I got into the venue and experienced the thing, uh, the event, no regret whatsoever. And then you have these cool memories that last forever. And so the reason I wanted both is because I made an outlay to go to game seven of the World Series last year, as we talked about in a previous podcast, which was uh expensive, but also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that's hopefully not. Well, go Jays go. Go Jays go. Well, let's say uh it's not happening this year, it doesn't look like but a game seven in Toronto for the World Series, very unlikely that I'll get to another one of those. So seizing those opportunities and spending a bit of money for those events, I think, is really worthwhile. Favorite concert? Oh man. I was at um And then hit me with your least favorite. I would say individual concert. A few years ago, a bunch of friends came out to Montreal to go to Oshega, which is a three-day festival in Montreal on the islands, kind of in the St. Lawrence. And it was just a wall-to-wall great opportunities, but there was a day that had the national outside in Montreal on the islands, and it was just fantastic with all my friends. So that's probably the one that really stands out. Any bad ones? Name names. I feel like I've seen some bad ones. I was having this conversation the other day about I've been to some hip hop and rap concerts, and I think more consistently, the more kind of band-oriented stuff that isn't as reliant on a DJ or a track behind, I find it's better. So I've had a few. I ended up at a festival with Ray Schremmer. Oh, wow. If you if you remember them, Ray Schremmer, and they were horrendous. There was no musicality, it was just yelling, and I was like, I have no interest in any of this. I ain't about that life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

You okay. In that same vein, in a former life, I was a much larger hip hop fan. One of my favorite artists that I've seen, I've had there's been a lot, so naming my all-time favorite would probably be a challenge here. But small venue uh here in Saskatoon called Amigos. Amigos puts on a number of shows, but I've seen Shad. Are you familiar with Shad? Shad's great. Yeah. Shad is awesome. I've seen him perform at Amigos specifically, I think three times. Um always have a great time there. He's a clean artist, he's very thoughtful. I think he's got a master's of philosophy or something like that. So he's got some really great lyricism. Objectively good guy. Comes from a cool background too. So, like uh, I think his parents are first generation Canadians. Anyways, Shad, fantastic show. If you have a chance to see him perform, go do it. The worst show that I've ever seen was Sean Paul. He was not the headliner, but he was part of a Sean Nepal. Sean Nepal. I thought his show would be so much fun, just given that's his like style of music. I don't know what was going on. He might not have been feeling it that day. He stood at his microphone stand and didn't leave his post for the duration of his set. I was like, this is the opposite of what I was expecting from a Sean Paul show. Anyways, that there's more to that whole story, but that was one of the worst performances I've seen. Okay. Pick three. Pick number three. Entering round three. I think I'm dominating this draft. Oh my goodness gracious. Things that are worth the money. Boy, I got a lot of good ones on here, but it's it's tough to know what direction to take, the uh the whole list. I'm gonna go with a pellet smoker. So if you live in a condo and you only have a you know little patio, probably not gonna be an option. But if you've got a backyard, summertime, back to a weather-based decision here, cooking outside is just an absolute joy. And grilling, like high heat direct grilling, yeah, it's fine. You get lots of flare-ups, you know, it's you know, it's fast. I love it. I'm just trying to make an argument here. It's I like a pellet smoker because there's a little bit of a uh process to it, there's a little bit of an ongoing art to it. There's, I don't know, some some nuance into it, and you can do some things that you can't do with high heat as much. So doing your your pulp work and your ribs and all that kind of stuff. It's like you can do that otherwise, but doing a smoker allows you to cook for more people, so having people over, being outside a little bit more, cooking over wood instead of propane, even though the wood is is in pellet form. Um it's a little bit nicer that way. I just really, really enjoy it. My wife got me a pellet grill for I think it was combination birthday, Father's Day, um, about three years ago. And uh yeah, really enjoy it. We end up using it three, four times a week during summer, um, weather permitting, and uh yeah, I think it is worth the money. Not cheap. Um, we didn't get the most expensive one or the fanciest one or anything like that. We got a nice Made in Canada model, but for our use case, I think it is definitely worth the money.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

I have been the beneficiary of uh a few of your ribs and pulled pork and such that you made. I very much agree with this. I think for me, so we actually went with a black stone, there we go, uh, which I think also is worth the money. Not my pick, but uh uh just because of its versatility. So that would be a flat top griddle rather than a grated barbecue. And so you can do pancakes and eggs and things like that, so it's a bit more versatile. So my dream, and we'll see if my wife allows this to occur in the next few years, but we've got the blackstone. I want to get the pellet smoker next to it, and then you've got lots of versatility and options in the backyard. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

You've got a nice yard. You you've done a little bit of landscaping back there now.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

That's right. Yeah, and we've got a bit more coming this uh this summer. So looking forward to having a bit more space and adding landscape.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Landscaping is the pick number three.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Nope. Nope. Okay, you're up. My third pick is a day at a Nordic spa.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Oh, very nice.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

This is one of my again, I we're kind of more in the, let's say we're in the kind of luxurious, you're splurging a bit. But you know, uh, there's lots of these across Canada and obviously the world. You know, there's a really nice one in Canada, um, in the mountains and things like that. They usually include some cold plunges and hot tubs, uh, saunas, steam rooms, eucalyptus steam rooms, very nice. Clear out those sinuses. But eucalyptus, Icalyptus. We all calyptus. But this is one of the things uh there's a few really nice ones in Montreal. And so on birthday. And anniversaries and things like that. This was something my wife and I just love to do. Very relaxing. You can kind of go through, have a good few hours going from hot to cold, and they have these great relaxation rooms too with like hammocks and stuff, and you can just post up. Ooh, we want to relax like that. It is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

I I haven't done um in Nordic Spa many times, literally only once. My wife and I, we we went to Scandinav in Whistler for our uh first anniversary. We happened to be out in BC, and so we uh we went up there, and I recall at the time saying, I'm the most relaxed I've ever been in my life. I loved it. In that case, it's that one was more of like a silent one, so you can't have your phone, you're not supposed to be talking. You're just hot and cold in it.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Lots of them are silent, and I'm here for it. The ones I like the best though are when you can transition between there's like a talking area and a silent area, so you can kind of have a bit of both, which is very nice. I once entered there's a bunch in kind of rural Quebec, and I went with a few friends, and I set I'm a little bit loud, as you may have uh gathered from this podcast, and I literally stepped foot on the deck of the pool, and I was already being told I was too loud. So it's good for me to also have those moments of quiet reflection anyway. So that's uh that's a strong pick, Evan. I know how you come back from that.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

That's that's fantastic. That's a good one. Oh boy, man, I got a good list. So good. I got a lot of like winter-based ones and food-based ones. Here's one off the beaten path. Okay, being generous with others, in particular, easiest way to quantify that is charitable giving. I think for so many reasons, having generosity be part of your daily life and relationship with money, I think is incredibly worth it. You know, there's a lot of different ways to look at this. I've talked about on the podcast a few times. This is where the the worlds of science and faith kind of come together when and both agree on the value from a psychological standpoint, the way your brain works, uh, but also you know, an altruistic standpoint of giving back to others. It's just it's one of those things that's hard to do because you don't necessarily see an immediate benefit. But if you're engaged with a local charity or if there's somebody that works in nonprofit that you're able to support financially or any number of different things that uh could use the money more than you, even just a small amount of money can really make a big difference. My wife and I, we and our kids, we just came back from a family camp. It's a nonprofit organization up in northern Saskatchewan, and we spend uh some time there. Uh, this is our second year as adults, and we we grew up going there when we were kids too. And organizations like that, it's like we've had such a positive experience going there, and without donations, they wouldn't exist. And so being able to support them above and beyond the cost of attending was something that we were really glad to glad to do. Being generous shows up in a number of other ways in my financial life, but it's something that I've tried to really intentionally include as as part of my outgoing cash flow. And I think it is definitely worth the money.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

Yeah, it's a great one. I I don't know if you've come across this, and I'm I don't have the name of the author off the top of my head, but I had seen some researcher, uh, a prof from I believe Harvard was talking about the various values of giving money. And one of the points he was making was there's both an emotional benefit to that, and you know, and building community and those kind of things, but there's actually some at least some correlation between giving money and then it kind of coming back financially in a positive way as well. For example, like building a connection and then maybe getting an opportunity out of that. So there's there's both, yeah, a personal but also like a practical reason to do this, it is the point he was making. I was like, Oh, that's really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Yeah, there's uh again, that's that's kind of where you know the fields of academic research and ancient scripture have uh have overlapped, you know. That that is something that has been uh tail as old as time essentially were giving back to others, will will come back to you in some some way or another and in very practical ways here in Canada. You get a tax credit if you are uh making a donation to a registered charity. So for that and many other reasons, I think being generous with others and making charitable donations is a great use of money, and uh I think it's well worth it.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

That was number four. That's number four. I'm on to my fourth pick, and I'm gonna go with perhaps the least expensive thing on my list, but I I would just say worth the money, buying a copy of the wealthy barber. Ooh, okay. I've read it recently, we've talked about on the podcast recently. Dave Chelton's book that was, I think we're on the third edition, but it was updated for 2025.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

And this is the second edition, they had he had one in between called The Wealthy Barber Returns. It kind of revisited a number of different concepts, but this is like the original version rewritten for today's environment.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Right, and all the changes that have happened since initially published. Yeah. I imagine it's about $25. Somewhere around that. I don't have it there. But um I read it and found it for someone who's you know working in this industry, still very useful, very practical, good reminders, uh, well written. So I think regardless of the stage of your financial journey, very useful book. And there's other books you could slot in uh at different times. So maybe the more broad conversation is just, you know, a financial book that you think is interesting and engaging. There's lots of different ones we've talked about on the podcast over the last while, but I'll stick with the wealthy barber and just say not very expensive, lots of good concepts, it's engaging, good read, worth the money.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

And currently 25% off at indigo. Oh, look at that. That is not an affiliate. We are not sponsored. But uh, if you have an indigo near you, go check it out. $21.56, not a penny more. Well, plus tax. A few pennies more. Great pick. Boy, a sub-50 dollar choice. Boy, do I close with something similar?

SPEAKER_00 28:35

It would kind of be derivative at this point, but sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

That would be. So I'm not going to. He's just a big spender. Oh boy. Okay, I'll I'll finish with another financial one. I'm gonna say factor investing is worth the money. So on this podcast and many others, talk about the concept of indexing as one of the most cost-effective ways to invest. You get essentially the whole haystack instead of trying to find the needles within it by picking stocks or having funds that do stock picking for you. Indexing, uh, great strategy that can work well for long-term investors. Factor investing is also a long-term investing strategy, but tries to focus on the parts of the market that have higher expected returns based on what we've um been able to identify through academic research over the last hundred years of market data. Now, there's dozens and dozens and dozens of factors that could explain uh different amounts of performance in the markets. However, not all of them are actually worth the money because um at some point, even though they are identifiable, actually executing it on your own is so expensive that the positive alpha, so like that difference in performance between your benchmark and what you would expect to get from the strategy is actually eaten up by transaction costs, you know, tracking errors, whatever, all these different either explicit or non-explicit costs that that factors performance can only exist in academia. However, there are a number of others like value, like size, like profitability, that are actually able to be systematically invested in. So again, you don't have to get anything right, you can invest with a system. Um, however, the additional complexity that comes along with it is marginally more expensive, like like single basis points, like single dollars more expensive per thousand kind of thing. And so when you're looking at a a factor portfolio like the ones that we would often use, I'm not gonna name any names here necessarily, but they're out there. The um MER, the management expense ratio on those would be closer to like 28 points, 29, 30, something like that. Whereas an index, a similar, all-in-one, globally diversified, might be closer to 20, maybe a little bit less, maybe a little bit more. So fractions of a percent more, you know, so much of personal finance content online is about the race to the bottom. It's like as if that's the only thing that can create returns is by reducing fees more and more and more and more. No, I'm gonna say the opposite, and that factor investing is for me, and the evidence that I've seen, anyways, for a long-term investor, I think factor investing is worth the marginal increase in cost. Well, unsurprisingly, I'm going to agree with you. We're uh no guarantees, right? Yeah, there's not a guarantee of it being worth the cost. Um, but from again, the the evidence that I can and see in the history of the strategy on a go-forward basis, assuming this is a key assumption, is that we don't know what the future holds, but I I think it's compelling enough to to put a couple extra pennies towards a strategy that has some great evidence behind it.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

Right. Yeah, well, I think that you've summed it up nicely, and I agree with you. Although we've disagreed a few times in the course of this conversation, we are aligned in the evidence-based strategy we both view as the way we like to invest and invest our clients' money and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Sam, close us out here. We've got your number five pick, and then we'll summarize at the end.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Well, I kind of had a similar thought and maybe getting the last one a bit more back to the financial world, but I'm I hesitate to box you out here, but I I just think I have to do it. I'm just gonna say financial plans, comprehensive personal financial plans. Yes. Worth the money. And the reason we often talk about here is it's it's hard to know what the best decisions to make are or the best path to take if you don't have your goals defined and your position defined. And so by uh going through that comprehensive planning process and defining what you want retirement to look like and how to get there and uh build the you know your nest egg to provide the the retirement lifestyle you want. The factor investing is uh is secondary in that process, right? So you need to you need to get that foundation in first, have the vision, and then implement the strategy. So, Evan, I may have boxed you out a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

No, that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Yeah, comprehensive planning. I think it is well worth it. Does everybody need a financial plan at all stages of life? I'm gonna say probably not. Um, if you're just getting started, getting some of those basics in place, like making sure you have enough income to meet your needs, great. Can you automate some savings? Great. Can you invest in something to help grow that money for the long term? Great. Then once you have enough stuff going on where you've got a little bit more complexity and time has passed, and you're getting closer to some of those major goals like retirement, kind of in the you know, the 10 to 15 years before you want to retire, great time to reach out for an overall look at your your financial life and some optimizations, perhaps, that you could be making to make sure that you increase your odds of getting to that goal on the timeline that you're looking for. Now, financial plans. There are plenty of us out there that offer financial plans, and there are some folks that are, you know, they do that exclusively, some do it alongside investment management. Here at Cedar Point Wealth, we kind of do a two-pronged approach. So we start with a plan and we charge a fee for that. It's on our website, but it starts at 3,250 plus tax, depending on the province that you live in. And then after that, if you'd like us to invest your money, we have a minimum of $500,000 for new clients that come on for that. That's how we do it. But there are plenty of others out there. You can check out adviceonlyplanners.ca. So there's all sorts of different ways to do it. Feel free to shop around, but getting a comprehensive look at your financial life if you're in your 40s or 50s, especially if you do plan on retiring at some point, having a plan for that, I think is also very much worth the money. That's why we're here. That's why we do it. That's why we do this podcast. If you made it to the end of this one, I hope you had a lot of fun kind of following along with us on our drafting, our things that are worth the money list. Sam, let's do a quick summary. Hit me with your five.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

So, my five, I had paying off your credit cards, buying tickets to uh to an experience, an event, sports, or concert. Two zigzags. Going to a Nordic spa, buying the wealthy barber, the updated edition from 2025, and personalized financial plans. Boy, that's a pretty good list. It's a strong list.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

Number one, Toyota. You name the Toyota. It's it's gonna be worth it. A Toyota vehicle, a warm weather vacation in winter, a pellet grill slash smoker, um, being generous with others, and factor investing.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

You know, I think those are both pretty strong lists. So we would love to hear from you in the comments. We've got fan mail attached. If there's any of these that resonated with you, if you had any that uh any things that you think is worth money that we didn't mention, anything like that, we'd love to hear from you. I want to hear the disagreements personally. Or the disagreements. I mean, that's with your list, of course, but let us know.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Uh head over to the fan mail and uh send us a message, and uh yeah, we we might be able to feature it on a future episode. I got a great list here. We might have to do this again. I th I think this was fun, but let us know if this was worth your listening time. Uh maybe you're on a road trip. Uh, let us know what's going on in your life. We'd love to hear from you. But we appreciate you being here and listening to this episode of the Canadian Money Roadmap, and we will catch you next week with another episode. Take care. The contents of this podcast do not constitute an offer or solicitation for residents in the United States or any other jurisdiction where Evan Newfeld, Cedar Point Wealth, or Sterling Mutuals is not registered or permitted to conduct business. Mutual funds are provided through Sterling Mutuals Inc. Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees, and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund investments. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values fluctuate frequently, and past performance may not be repeated. Financial planning services are provided by Evan Newfeld through Cedar Point Wealth and are not the business of or monitored by Sterling Mutuals Inc.