Wealth Management

This article is based off our podcast episode “Paying Down Debt vs. Saving with a Wealth Advisor”. If you prefer to listen rather than read, you can find it here . It’s been about two years since Central Banks started increasing interest rates to combat inflation. For anyone with debt in their lives, the question has likely become “Do I put extra money towards paying down debt, or do I save it?”. There are three ways to use your money. The first is spending it on goods and services. Once it’s spent, it’s gone and is replaced with an item or a service. Many of those things you need to do just to survive – you need to keep food in your tummy and the lights on at home. The other two forms of spending are investing and paying down debt. Investing and paying down debt are both forms of spending that improve your net worth. If you’re investing, the value of your assets increases. If you’re paying down debt, your liabilities decrease. Either are a good choice when it comes to increasing your net worth, but one may be better than the other depending on your personal situation. How do you weigh the options of paying down debt versus investing? When you pay down debt, you’re reducing the amount of interest you’ll pay in the future. For example, if you have a $100,000 loan that has a 5% interest rate on it and you pay off that loan, you will have saved yourself $5,000 in interest expense. There is less certainty when you invest, unless you’re choosing a GIC or similar investment. If you’re putting funds into a balanced portfolio with stocks and bonds, you are hoping to earn investment income including interest, dividend payments, and eventually price appreciation. However, as with anything in the markets, the value of that initial investment can go up and down. Your rate of return simply cannot be guaranteed. In choosing to pay down debt, you are guaranteed a rate of return – unless you have a variable rate in place. Typically, though, you know what your interest cost will be annually. In choosing to invest, you are asking yourself whether you can do better than the guaranteed rate of return on your debt. Interest rates were historically low up until last year – your guaranteed rate of return on debt was maybe 2% - so it was less attractive to pay down debt. What about those who are still benefiting from a low fixed interest rate on their debt? Many people are still benefiting from historically low fixes rates today. If you got a new mortgage in 2020 or 2021, you could have a mortgage rate under 2%. In hearing that mortgage rates have climbed to 7% at the time of writing, some people are feeling panicked, thinking they need to pay down their mortgage. However, doing so right now may not be in your best interest financially. Alternatively, having a lump sum ready to pay down on your mortgage when it matures IS a good idea. If you have money from an inheritance for example and you’re not sure what to do with it, one strategy could be to put that money in a risk-free investment that could earn you 5% now, beating that 2% mortgage. As long as you ensure your risk-free investment matures at the same time or a bit before your mortgage term, you can then use that lump sum to pay down your debt. In this way, you’re able to take advantage of the higher interest rates now. 

What goes into a comprehensive Financial Plan? Financial plan is a broad term and it can be applied pretty loosely. But that’s okay, because a financial plan can be very different for everyone. Each individual situation will have different levels of focus and concentration, and it certainly isn't a cookie cutter, one size fits all. A financial plan should go back to focusing on what the specific needs of that individual are. The first and most important piece is that you must define the financial goals and objectives of the person or the people that the plan is being completed for. The second thing that you need to do is have a good understanding of the current financial position, which is understanding the person’s net worth. What do you own? Assets; do you own a house, do you have investments? What are your debts? Do you have a mortgage? Do you have a line of credit, or student loans, or loans within your business? All of these pieces are key to understanding someone’s financial position. Additionally, there's a term that we call the “financial lifecycle” that helps us understand where you are in life from a qualitative point of view. Different people reside in different places on the financial lifecycle. For example, someone who is 30 years old with a couple of young kids is in a very different position than someone who is 60 years old with grown children. So, within a financial plan, there are certain areas you can focus on, and how much work you do really depends on where you're on the financial lifecycle. The six areas of focus within a comprehensive financial plan are: protection planning (otherwise known as insurance), investment planning, tax planning, retirement planning, estate planning, cashflow planning.

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