Do you remember that movie from the ‘90s, Groundhog Day? It’s the one where Bill Murray was stuck in a time loop, waking up every day being forced to re-live the same day over and over and over again. Do you feel like that sometimes? Like you are stuck – emotionally, spiritually, financially? February 2 is officially Groundhog Day – thirty-three days into the New … [Read more...] about Be willing to do the thing poorly, in order to learn to do it well
Arnold Machel, CFP®
Arnold Machel lives, works and worships in the White Rock/South Surrey area and has been writing articles for the Light Magazine for over 10 years. He is a Certified Financial Planner® with Visionvest Financial Planning & Services.
Futurecasting your life
The new year is here and many of us have already broken most of the resolutions we’ve made. This month, I want to encourage you to take a good hard look into your future and re-think some of those resolutions and goals in the context of what’s coming down the pike for you. It is called future casing your life. This exercise is valuable from a financial perspective, but because … [Read more...] about Futurecasting your life
A taxing time
The government fully admits it. It’s there in black and white on the Government of Canada website (canada.ca) on the History of Taxes. “In 1917, as a temporary measure to help finance the war, the federal government introduced the Income Tax War Act, covering both personal and corporate income.” It then took 31 years for them to finally admit that “…income tax was no longer … [Read more...] about A taxing time
The danger of avoiding probate through the use of joint accounts
Avoiding probate is a topic that regularly comes up in conversations here in my office. Unfortunately, all too often the tail (probate fees) is wagging the dog (estate planning). Proper estate planning takes the cost of probate into consideration and, where it makes sense, proper estate planning will take steps to avoid those costs, but cost savings shouldn’t be the main … [Read more...] about The danger of avoiding probate through the use of joint accounts
All that glitters – investing in Gold
Gold holds an unusual and fascinating allure in the investment world. Admittedly, even to me, the thought of gold ingots stored in a safe house just sounds kind of cool. It’s times like these that I start fielding questions such as, “should I have some gold in my portfolio?” At the time of writing, an ounce of gold is priced at $1,499.23. That’s an increase of $313 … [Read more...] about All that glitters – investing in Gold