A Simple Way to Plan Your Ideal Life

On this episode of the Canadian Money Roadmap, Evan and Sam reflect on their summer highlights and use them to walk through a four-step framework — awareness, priorities, feasibility, and a to-do list — for aligning your spending and time with what actually matters to you as you plan for retirement.

📱 Book an intro call - Cedar Point Pathway retirement planning service

📝Financial Foundations Scorecard - See how you score in the areas of cashflow & spending,  saving & investing, debt & risk protection, and retirement readiness. Instant feedback and recommendations on how to improve your finances.

💰Get your money organized - Full Financial Picture Spreadsheet

Transcript

Copy

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I gotta be the bearer of bad news. We are nearing the end of summer. Yes, for all of us, even uh those that don't have kids at home, but those of us that do, the end of summer looms large, and it's a perfect time to reflect on the time that we spent, the money that we spent, and the ways in which we wish perhaps that would be different. So, on this week's episode of the Canadian Money Roadmap, we're gonna discuss a four-step framework for evaluating your life and your money looking back at one of our favorite times of the year. So I hope you'll enjoy this episode. Sam, we had an interesting summer. It was kind of a wet June, hot July, kind of a weird August here, but that's just weather. What were some highlights for you?

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Oh, highlights? That's a great question. Spent some very nice time at our friends' lakes and things like that. And another highlight, we are getting our patio redone in the backyard. We at party. Exactly. So that was uh we stayed relatively close to home, um, but got some good projects done.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

What was the costing like on concrete? On concrete? I've heard it's crazy these days. We don't need specific numbers here necessarily, but it's expensive. Yeah, boy.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Yeah. But worth well, we'll get into that and uh a theme from previous week's episode, but very much worth the money in our case because uh we needed to get some water moving away from the house, and we decided to kind of splurge a little bit and actually get the patio that we ideally wanted in our backyard.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

The old necessity plus you know, ideal situation, hand in hand.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Exactly right, exactly right. But uh yeah, I was I was out golfing yesterday and it was a blustery day here in Saskatoon. Oh, you mean every day? Most days, but the leaves were fallen, and I was really I was thinking I was thinking like, oh, we're we're on our way.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Yeah. Oftentimes, you know, January 1st is the obvious new year new me type of time, but I've often found that even if people don't have kids going back to school or anything like that, coming out of summer is a time to reflect and look back on all sorts of different things. My wife and I, we did this over the weekend and we talked about summer and the things that we really enjoyed, some of our highlights. This year we didn't have any regrets. Sometimes there's um some things that we wish we would have done, or we talked about doing all years. Like, we gotta do this, we gotta get it together with these people, whatever. And this year, I'll just say it was kind of nice. We didn't have a big list of those. So you had the perfect summer. Yeah, kind of. Like it's yeah, anyways, lots to be thankful for. I'll say it that way. Yeah, we were able to make a couple of purchases that were nice. Hot tub and a van, if we're gonna be specific. Not everybody loves a van. I thought this morning, looking back on it, like there's a lot of times where I thought, boy, I'm glad we bought that van. You know you don't have to convince me.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

You know, I'm I'm itching to get a van.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Let's get some sliding doors in our life. And you're laughing at that point. Okay. So in this week's episode, we're gonna just talk about a simple framework for how we can look at our life and our money together. And again, summer is a great time to do that because it's often a time spent on ideal things in many cases, right? Going the places that we want, doing the activities we want with the people we want. And so for those that are focused on retirement or an upcoming retirement in particular, that's most of the people listening to this podcast. We're gonna try to frame some of these decisions around, you know, how we experienced the last few months and how we want to look going forward. So, Sam, where do we get started here? Well, we'll start at the beginning. A very good place to start. We've got the kids listening to the Sound of Music soundtrack in the van the other day.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Boy, it just it still hits all these years later. Top of the pile. Um so yeah, we've got this four-step framework, and the first step that we detailed was just an awareness of our summer experience, I suppose. So uh this could be an awareness of the actual spending that was done, but also an awareness of and a reflection on what you did and the relative value of those things in your mind.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

So you you were golfing, you know, a lot of people spend a little bit more of their summers golfing. In particular here in Saskatchewan, our window is quite small, but a lot of people think of their retirement like, oh, I'd like to spend some more time golfing. It's like now that we're coming out of summer, it's like, was that actually enjoyable? Do you actually want to do that? Or do you just dream about doing that in the like depths of February, right? You know, and so now as an awareness factor of like, oh, okay, well, maybe I don't actually want to do that. We started doing paddleboarding or whatever the thing was that you were doing this year, just an awareness of like the the time, uh, the way that you spent your time and who you spent your time with and planning for not necessarily next summer, but your next stage of life, you know, are these things that you actually want to do?

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Yeah, and I think it cuts both ways from the standpoint. I was out on the South Saskatchewan River here on Friday with my dad. We did a little paddle board, stopped at some sandbars, and it was really nice. And one of my reflections was like, this is awesome. And it's an awareness of, ah, it's the first time I've been on the river this summer as we're we're kind of winding down. So it can be an awareness of, oh, that I really do like doing that, and maybe I want to devote a bit more time to that going forward.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

In a financial sense, a lot of the fun things that we want to do, I'll just speak in generalities. Oftentimes it's like, okay, well, we'll just do it and then figure out the cost later. Now is later, right? Now is the time to kind of go back and see like, was that trip actually reasonable to consider doing again, or are we in trouble as a result of that? Is this lifestyle that we really enjoyed, is it actually sustainable based on the actual cost? So this isn't a budgeting exercise, but a good thing to do for step one awareness here, just see what did our ideal lifestyle cost this summer. You don't have to nickel and dime it necessarily, but like if you go out for restaurants a little more often, a few more drinks on the patio, hosting more people at your place, this all sounds great. But if it's gonna put you in the poor house because you just didn't have the financial capacity to do it, it's good to know that in advance for next time and try to plan accordingly for that. We're we're jumping ahead in the steps here, but just be aware of how much that lifestyle cost and some of those trips that you went on. Was it more expensive than you thought? Did you plan for it already, or just wing it? You know, these kind of things. Just start building a general awareness of what has happened and what you hope for in the future.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Yeah, and so that brings us nicely into our second step, which is from the awareness, establish your priorities. And so this could be spending priorities, but could also be, you know, value-based on what you how exactly you want to spend your time and what is our priorities in that way, you know, spending time with family or traveling or these kind of different things.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Yeah, we uh were up at Waskazoo a couple of times, and some family friends of ours, they're very generous with their, you know, the investment, the investments that they've made into boats specifically. And so they've got a couple of boats, and uh, me and my friends, we don't have boats. And so they brought theirs over. And uh, anyways, the kids were just loving it. And I said to to Brian, I said, These kids are gonna make me buy a boat someday. And he looked at me just he thought about this for sure, and he says, you know, this has been the best investment in family that we have ever made. He didn't say best financial investment, but the best investment in family, right? And so if in that case, for them, and I know this is true, that's not just window dressing, but that that's you know an actual priority for them is spending money on spending time together as a family. That's awesome. And so for them, it could be a boat for other people, it could be, you know, uh a camper or something like that. It could be some dedicated time at home, improving the backyard, maybe a patio, you know, all these different kinds of things. And so nailing down those priorities for the things that you really want, you know, that's a good place to start shaping your lifestyle and putting some shape around what that's actually going to cost you in terms of dollars.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yeah, for my wife and I, uh a big priority for us is our travel. We're very fortunate to have a lot of good friends, but they've moved across the country in lots of cases. And so travel to reinforce those friendships with people we really value spending time with. And so that's where this kind of there's this financial and personal values that coalesce. So we this is not a costly trip, but we drove out to Calgary. We have many friends out there and to spend a weekend with them in August. And so those kind of things are on my mind when I think about this values or priorities category.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

You did a bit more of an expensive version of the same thing out to San Francisco.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

In in April, yeah. We have two friends that live in San Francisco with their partners. So we we made a uh trip out there, which was lovely, and and we're fortunate that our friends live in some desirable places to visit. No kidding. Um but um anyway, just having those defined can be very helpful because it can direct some of that spending goals and and we planned ahead to budget for some of those trips as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

For sure. So step number three from here is evaluating the financial logistics of these priorities. So for us, I'll put this back. So one of our priorities is spending time together as a family. Our kids are gonna be six and four here shortly, so this is kind of a nice pocket of time where we can really spend some dedicated time together as a family. And we have a trailer that we've used on a decreasing basis because it's a little bit too small for us. And so for us, the priority is still the same. However, how we've spent our money on it needs to change. And so, actually, in our process of going through this, my wife and I, we decide we're gonna sell our trailer, probably come spring when we can probably get a bit of a better dollar value for it. Um, and as a result, we can probably sell my truck that I don't need to be driving the other 99% of days. And so for us, the priority is still the same. We still want to spend time doing this, but evaluating the actual cash outlay and the things that we own to make that happen, that probably needs to change. So for us, this was a really valuable exercise to kind of go through. And we got on the same page because we've kind of gone back and forth on this for like a couple of years, and it's not like we've had so many problems or anything like that. It's like, ah, for us to be able to do this, it could probably look different. Like, I hate towing, I just don't enjoy it. It's something that stresses me out, and I don't like owning a trailer that has constant maintenance but is also depreciating. Like, I'd like the idea of a small cabin or something like that where the effort that you put into it will hopefully appreciate in value over time. It's not just a financial thing, but it's a permanence versus plywood box on wheels kind of trade-off there a little bit for us. But anyways, evaluating that, it wasn't unaffordable for us, but we thought that we could probably get some better value in renting a trailer, renting a small cabin in the same area where uh we like to go camping, all those kind of things. We can still accomplish the same family priorities while making a switch in the financial outlay for that. Or buy a tent. I've tented. I've done the tenting.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

You're over the tenting? I've I've moved on from tenting. Okay. You've uh well, not gonna say upgraded, because I I love a night in a tent.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

I've had some great, great times tenting for sure. But I feel like I've been there, done that.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

I'm not I'm not I'm not going back to tenting. We did lots of camping when I was a kid, and at one point my mom just said, I'm not sleeping on the ground anymore.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

She's done.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

I'm done. It's like, no, that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

She evaluated the priority in real time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Yeah. I'll just add to the evaluation step that there's certainly there's a large financial component to it, but I think um there's a time component to it as well, particularly vacation days. Yes. Many people in Canada will use a number of their vacation days in the summer. And so allocating those or being aware of how you're allocating those, because some people, you know, they like a winter vacation to escape the cold or those kind of things. So I think evaluating those resources as well is valuable from a time standpoint.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

That's a great point, Sam. And uh the evaluation of this stage is the combination of time, was it worth it, money, was it worth it, and then also how do we do it again? Right. Right? Like, how do we need to pre-plan for the time that it's gonna cost, the people that you want to do it with, and the cash it's gonna take to do it? So right now, I really like automating. I love automating savings and things like that. If you look at your your past summer or the big trip that you wanted to do again in the future, or whatever the case is, is there a way where you can say, you know what, if I just set aside 50 bucks a week or 200 bucks, whatever your number is on a regular basis, and you just started pre-saving for that? A lot of you listening are like, you're already there for sure, but this is just something that I really like to re-evaluate from time to time. So I have a Christmas fund that's like the additional expense of Christmas. Every year it's like, boy, that was probably like an extra thousand dollars that I just wasn't anticipating. Like you're hosting more people and you have an extra gift for the preschool teacher that you weren't, you know, you were forgot about all the additional gifts, you know, all these kind of things. So I said, I'm just gonna set aside a few bucks every month, and it's just gonna go into my little Christmas fund and it's gonna sit over there and come Christmas time, it's gonna be like, oh, that's fantastic. You can do that with your vacations, you can do that with all sorts of different things. Maybe now, if you're not already setting aside some specific cash for specific things, it can add a little bit of freedom to the ability to spend it because you've pre-allocated for that specific thing now that you've determined that that's a priority for you and your family.

unknown 13:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

So I like it. We're you're kind of sneaking into step number four. Oh no, uh so to uh just quick review we've got an awareness, define your priorities, evaluate the feasibility of these things from a time and financial standpoint. And the last step is create a to-do list. So the to-do list kind of has two aspects to it. What do you want to do? So maybe booking a trip, thinking about retirement, these kind of things, and then how do you make that happen? And that could be a savings goal, that could be actually just maybe developing a more concrete plan to get you from step A to step C or whatever, however many steps along the way there are. Um, but yeah, building that to-do list out for sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

And and for those of you that are looking at like a major life change, the to-do list could be pretty long, you know. If you're thinking about, boy, this was a really nice summer and we really enjoyed doing this. And I'm kind of not really wanting to work that much longer, if we can at all help it. You know, the kids are at an age where we really like spending time together, maybe got some grandkids or something like that. Now it'd be a great time to take a look at a plan for retirement, to put all these things together, evaluating what's important, you know, through your priorities and seeing the financial feasibility of all of it. When all these things with your retirement income in particular come together, it can be pretty complicated. And that's where, you know, someone like us can come in. There's many others that uh we would gladly refer you out to if our service isn't a great fit for you, but a retirement plan that's specific to your situation can really help with a lot of these things and actually put some shape around your life, not just what funds are gonna get you 7% a year on average. There's so much more to the conversation, right? So here at Cedar Point, our little slogan is that we want our clients to live fully and retire confidently. And so, you know, these are the kind of things that, you know, we put live fully first because we've just got the one life to live. And prioritizing how we're going to do that, I think, is really important. And then the retire confidently piece predominantly focuses on the financial side of things that can kind of feed into that a little bit here. But that to-do list that can start to get a little bit longer in that case. And so hiring out some help for that can be uh really valuable exercise. But for those of us that aren't retiring yet, sometimes you just need to list that trailer for sale and and and take that easy next step too.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Right. As you're saying earlier, sometimes it's just setting aside an extra few dollars a week as well in preparation for whatever it is, the the trip that you're excited about in next summer or things like that, right? So in some cases a lot of complexity, in other cases, just taking one active step towards supporting a goal or an intention or a plan that you have in the future is uh is meaningful as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

So this episode was a little bit shorter. We're so glad that you've stayed with us here over summer. We've got lots of great feedback on some of our recent episodes here. So these little frameworks I hope are helpful for you as you kind of put some shape around your life and the finances that support it. But again, this four-step framework here, as you look back on some great times over summer and as you go into fall, which can often be a little bit overwhelming, a little bit hectic, just take a few minutes to think, uh, bring some awareness to some of the things that you really enjoyed, maybe some things that you didn't enjoy as much, and then put that into your priorities, the stuff that you want to keep doing, things that you want to do less of on an immediate term basis, but also a big picture perspective, and then evaluate the feasibility of that from a time and a financial perspective, and use those three items to build that to-do list to take the next action that will inform those choices that you've made together with your family. So hopefully this was a helpful episode here. And uh, if you have any feedback for us, send us some fan mail. There's a link in the show notes below. You can send us a little message very easily. We'd love to hear from you, of course, but we but we're thankful for you being here, and we will see you next week on another episode. A guest episode, Sam. Next week. It's not just us. We've got a real guest, a real expert. So another thing to look forward to. Yeah, another another voice in the mix. That's right. We'll tease it a little bit here. This is something for those you have uh kids and perhaps some that are going to school in the future. It's gonna be a great conversation, and we're really looking forward to it. Thanks so much for being here. We'll catch you next week for that special episode on the Canadian Money Roadmap Podcast. 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.