Wiegers Financial & Benefits is one of Saskatchewan’s premier locally owned family business specializing in financial planning and employee benefits consulting. Within our Financial Planning Division, we offer expert investment and insurance planning services to business owners, individuals, and families, assisting them in achieving their long-term financial objectives. Additionally, we have a Group Benefits Consulting Division which plays a vital role in helping clients become – and remain – employers of choice by providing their employees and families with the group benefits, personal insurance & retirement plans they want. In our recent blog Taylor Szeto explains how you can plan for your financial success.
If you’re like many Canadians – four out of ten of them, to be exact – you feel stressed when you think about money. And while some stress is not necessarily problematic, chronic stress can lead to:
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- High blood pressure
- Immune functioning problems
- Unhealthy habits including smoking and excessive consumption of alcohol
Stressing about money, then, can be harmful to your physical health (not to mention the potential negative impacts to your mental health, relationships, productivity at work, and a whole host of other things in your life). It’s a problem worth solving…and the sooner, the better.
How You Can Plan For Financial Success
The solution, in many cases, is working with a financial advisor who can help you plan for your financial success. Your advisor should, at minimum, talk with you about what matters to you, what your short- and long-term life goals are, and what you can realistically achieve (and in what timeframe). And it pays off, in more ways than one. In a recent survey, people who said they are financially prepared were:
- Almost 24% more likely to exercise one or more hours each week
- Almost 25% are more likely to say they are “very healthy”
So what can you do to be better financially prepared? Here are a few tips to help strengthen both your financial and physical health:
- Work with a financial advisor (a HUMAN advisor – not a robot) who can help get you from where you are to where you want to be. Don’t underestimate this step. If you decide against working with an expert, it’s akin to providing yourself life-altering legal or medical advice that could also wreak havoc on the lives of the people you love most. By contrast, if you work with a financial advisor, he or she will genuinely care to help you achieve your goals, and will have the experience and expertise to help you do it.
- Manage your debt. For most Canadians, debt causes stress – and the higher the debt, the greater the chance of depression and high blood pressure. A qualified financial advisor can help you develop a plan for getting your debt – and the resulting stress – under control.
- Save for your future. If you’re among the 70% of Canadians who worry they won’t have enough money saved for their golden years, don’t despair. You-know-who can also help you develop a plan for saving that will help ensure a retirement you can look forward to.
If you’re not sure where to turn in finding a financial advisor who will work in your best interests now and in years to come, ask your friends, family and co-workers if they can recommend someone. You can also look online for unbiased, uncensored reviews like on Google. The same as in every other industry, some advisors have more experience and better reputations than others, so it’s important you do your research. It’s worth it to invest the time, now and later, in helping to ensure your future financial success.
- Taylor Szeto, B.Comm.
Although the author is affiliated with a partner firm of Q Wealth, this publication was prepared prior to its affiliation with Q Wealth, it is not an official Q Wealth publication, and the author is not a registrant or research analyst of Q Wealth. The views expressed herein are those of the author alone, and they have not been approved by, and are not necessarily those of, Q Wealth. This publication is for information purposes only, it is not legal, tax, accounting or investment advice and should not be relied as such.
