There is a lot of confusion when it comes to retirement planning. How much will a family need to retire comfortably? Are RRSPs the best answer? Can the stock market be trusted? The standard answers from the "experts" include: start an RRSP early and maximize your contributions, use the stock market and mutual funds for the best returns, put faith in a financial adviser. But what if those answers are wrong? The problem is that much of the common advice is from people with a conflict of interest. Many are simply trying to sell financial products that make them money at your expense. This course is designed to cut through the sales pitches and get to the simple truths.

Topics Include:

• If I had $1,000,000 I could retire. Why much less than a million might be sufficient.
• RRSPs are the holy grail of retirement. Explore an alternate strategy that is guaranteed, has no-risk, and eliminates fees.
• Don't worry about your investments: You'll be fine in the long run. Why you may not be making the 8 to 10% a year they often talk about. What your adviser doesn't want you to know, and how to calculate your own investment personal rate of return.
• Income taxes are the enemy. How tax schemes and shelters sabotage your personal finances and why they should be avoided at all costs.
• Buy permanent life insurance to secure your financial future. Who really needs it, who doesn't, the perils of whole and universal life and how to get term life cheap.
• Mortgages: All about the different types, how to optimize your mortgage strategy and find the lowest rates.
• Behavioural Economics: Why we seem to be wired to be bad at finances and what to do about it.
• Car Strategy: Whether to buy or lease your car and how to incorporate other options including ride hailing (Uber, Lyft), ride sharing (Zipcar, Car2Go).

The course comes with seven free spreadsheets including the "Retirement Optimizer" to help you figure out how much you'll need to save to retire well, the "Personal Rate of Return Calculator" to calculate your money-weighted personal rate of return on any portfolio, the "Mutual Fund Fee Calculator" so you can see how fees eat into your returns and the "Car Lease vs Buy Analyzer" so you can make your car decision with confidence.

This course is a completely updated and enhanced version of David Trahair's prior 7-hour archive broadcast of the same title.

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Upon completing this course, you will be able to:

• Calculate how much you'll need to retire using a FREE spreadsheet.
• Calculate the money-weighted rate of return for any portfolio for any period.
• Discover the advantages of paying off debt over investing in RRSPs.
• Find out about the effect of the stock market crash on short- and long-term returns.
• Identify why so many people are addicted to tax shelters.
• Uncover the dirty details of permanent life insurance and why term is better.
• Get all the latest figures for CPP and OAS.