About
A financial planner (and retired teacher) who believes families can manage their finances in less than 20 hours a year.
I know this is possible because I manage my household finances and investment portfolio in under an hour a month. And I teach my clients how to do the same.
But my money hasn’t always been this easy to manage.
Where I started
I’ve always been a saver — to the point of being a hoarder. From a young age, I understood money could buy freedom, but I didn’t know how to actually use it for that. I just saved.
Then I met my husband, who was a spender. Together, we worked out how to commingle our finances, bought our first home, and eventually realized saving alone wouldn’t get us to financial independence. Neither of us wanted to work forever.
So we did two things that changed our financial future — and not in the way we expected. We met with a financial advisor, and we took an online stock market course. The advisor, it turned out, had her commission in mind ahead of our goals. The course made investing in the market seem so confusing that we gave up on it. We ended up in high-fee funds and the wrong life insurance.
We eventually broke up with the advisor — well after the damage was done — and prioritized paying off our mortgage. Looking back, we’d have been further ahead financially if we hadn’t paid it off so fast. But it let us sleep at night, and that mattered more to us.
Where I am
We’ve made plenty of financial mistakes. But we’ve never stopped learning. Today we have two kids, eight rental properties, and a self-managed portfolio of low-cost ETFs. My investing philosophy is simple — because as a parent, I don’t have time for complicated finances.
I went back to school to become a Qualified Associate Financial Planner™ professional because I’d always wanted to help people with their finances, and I wanted to do it with the credentials, code of ethics, and research-based approach the work deserves.
At 40, after 17 years as a high school athletic therapist and sports medicine teacher, I retired from teaching to do this full-time. All the mistakes my husband and I made now help me help others avoid them.
Where I’m going
Our plan includes annual travel, retiring my husband before he turns 46, and spending in line with what we actually value — something that used to make me extremely uncomfortable.
A big part of where I’m going also includes helping other young couples and families set themselves up. A rising tide lifts all boats. I’m on a mission to help Canadian families and couples — through advice-only financial planning with implementation support, because we could all use a little help sometimes.
Credentials
Qualified Associate Financial Planner™
Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Physical Education
Five things, simply
Good advice should be in your best interest, not the advisor’s.
The best plan is the one you actually understand and implement.
Both partners belong in the conversation.
It doesn’t have to be complicated — and as a parent, I’d argue it shouldn’t be.
Small moves now are worth more than perfect moves later.
