Help with anything that has a dollar sign attached to it
This column will be a forum addressing your questions about any aspect of your financial affairs
MY
POOR MOTHER can attest that, when I was a little girl, every time she sorted the laundry before a washing she had to empty the pockets of my jeans. And she would consistently find two kinds of items. One was rocks.
We lived in Sudbury, on the Canadian Shield. This was Big Nickel country. I loved the pretty granite rocks with their pink feldspar, shiny mica, ruby red garnets, milky calcite and sparkling quartz.
Go figure that some 10 years later I would go on to attend McMaster University and graduate with a bachelor of science degree in geology.
It seems my mother’s laundry sorting was more predictive of my future endeavours than a crystal ball would have been. I started my career in the far north of this great country, looking for every gal’s best friend: diamonds. I was an exploration geologist and diamonds were my area of expertise.
The other item my mother would consistently discover in my pant pockets? Money. I was fascinated by copper-coloured pennies, shiny nickels and thin dimes, as well as bigger quarters, half-dollars and silver dollars.
I could reach into my pocket and determine the denomination by the size, texture, weight and edges. I’d line up the coins, stack them and study their imprinted dates, markings and coats of arms with a little magnifying glass. I even loved the smell of the coins.
In a little square tin can, I stored a collection of paper money. There were green one-dollar bills and orange two-dollar bills. The fives were a pretty blue, the tens were funky purple and twenties were emerald green.
For one birthday in my early teens, I was given a crisp, red $50 bill from my paternal grandparents. Susie – a girl who lived across the street and was invited to my summertime birthday party – was so excited about the beautiful50 that she ran away down the beach with it.
I also had different versions of certain denominations, some with pictures of a young Queen Elizabeth and others depicting a more mature-
What I’ve noticed is that the financial services industry has become very complicated over the past quarter of a century.
One thing remains the same: many Canadians don’t have a trusted resource who can answer their financial questions to help them achieve financial success.
looking monarch, but always with the same stylish haircut, of course.
And wouldn’t you guess that after my first career as a geologist, I went on to be accredited as a financial advisor. (To my disappointment, my clients never bring me stacks of one-, two- and five-dollar bills to sort and study with my little magnifying glass!)
Today, I’m a local wealth advisor with nearly 30 years of experience and numerous professional designations, including the R.F.P. (registered financial planner) and the CFP (certified financial planner).
As a comprehensive wealth advisor, I create wealth solutions for life. That is, I help folks with anything in their life that has a dollar sign attached. And what I’ve noticed is that the financial services industry has become very complicated over the past quarter of a century. But one thing remains the same: many Canadians don’t have a trusted resource who can answer their questions to help them achieve financial success.
But that’s about to change. This column will be a forum for you — as a
Hamilton Spectator reader — to ask questions about any aspect of your financial affairs. Then you’ll have the some of the best information available in one of the most important areas of your life.
We’ll cover everything from retirement funding, debt reduction and tax planning to life insurance, investment strategies and education funding for children or grandchildren – just about anything that has a dollar sign attached to it.
My goal is to help you make wise decisions about your current and future financial situation. Whether you’re retired, planning for retirement or just getting started in your savings or career, I’m here to help.
Send your questions to TheSpecMoney@gmail.com. Your name won’t be mentioned, nor any other identifying information.
You may even gain financial wisdom from other Spec readers’ questions and the answers you’ll find in this column. Whether you’d like to focus on building wealth or you feel you need help keeping up financially, go ahead and ask away. I’m thrilled to be able to share my expertise.
Thie Convery, R.F.P., CFP, CIM, FMA, FCSI, is a Dundas wealth advisor. Her column appears bi-weekly in The Hamilton Spectator. You can reach her with questions at TheSpecMoney@gmail.com or by visiting www.ConveryWealth.com.