Today’s post comes from my friend Kyle Prevost over at MillionDollarJourney.ca. He recently created an inexpensive retirement course that can help you plan out your financial future. Many people wonder if these investment courses are worth it, so here’s Kyle explaining how his course works and the value you get.
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“Will I be OK in Retirement?”
“Do I really need $1.7 Million to retire?!”
“When do I have to start worrying about this stuff – will I ever be financially prepared for full retirement?
In response to questions like this, most mutual fund salespeople from major Canadian Financial institutions (you can usually find them in big banks and strip malls) generally respond something along the lines of:
“Look, investing is the key here. Saving more is always better. Look at this chart – now here’s another chart that shows how awesome your life would eventually be if you saved more. Finally, here’s a third – really fantastic chart – and it shows that you’ll have [fill in # of millions here] if you invest with us, because we pick by far the best investments. After all, we help thousands of Canadians across the country everyday, we’re pros at this stuff.”
As we circle back to ‘RRSP Season’ each year the annual ritual of meeting with a financial advisor begins anew. In these meetings, amidst the complimentary coffee and casual conversations about family, local weather, or the latest in local sports, the conversation is inevitably steered back to investments. Here, complex financial jargon is often exchanged, assurances given, and the cycle, invariably, continues.
All the while, 2%+ is being funneled out of the client’s entire nest egg, and into the company’s earnings.
I know I’m not the first person on Money We Have to point out that Canada’s actively-managed mutual fund options kind of suck. But given that there is still over 5x as much money in Canadian mutual funds as there is in ETFs, I don’t think the message is getting through to too many people.
Wait – Who Is This Guy Again?
My name is Kyle Prevost, and I’m the high school teacher your Retirement plan wishes you’d had back in the day.
Big thanks to Barry for giving me a space to talk to Canadians about everything from withdrawal rates to RRIFs!
I’ve been writing and talking about personal finance in Canada for 16 years. You might have seen Barry and I chatting at the Canadian Financial Summit, and read some of my writing at Moneysense or MillionDollarJourney.ca over the years.
And after 16 years, my newest project is the one I’m most proud of. It’s simply the most complete and well-researched resource that I’ve ever created.
I’m talking about the first ever online course for Canadians looking to get their retirement plan on track – whether retirement is two decades into the future or set for next year. Whether those golden years involve days on a beach, or leans more toward part-time work and travel – I’ve got you covered.
It’s called 4 Steps for a Worry Free Retirement – and you can find it here.
I’ve Read Some Articles and Investing Books – Is This Course Worth It?
Sure, there is some really solid information out there on blogs and in books. But here’s the advantages that 4 Steps to a Worry-Free Retirement has over those products.
- Everything – all in one place. No more saving specific articles to come back to. Now it’s all tied together for you in a logical order, and you can come back to the information whenever you need a refresher or want to double check something.
- It gets instantly updated. For example, I just went through and filled in all of the new 2024 tax and CPP/OAS information. Any book you buy is out of date a few months after you purchase it.
- Passively reading something is not the best way for most people to thoroughly understand a topic. My course comes with original explainer videos, 25+ full-length interviews from the Canadian Financial Summit, a downloadable/printable workbook, and bite-sized action steps.
- Access to our online Worry-Free Study Hall. (Which is really a teacher’s attempt to name a private discussion group. It kind of looks like a Facebook discussion wall that only people in the course can see. Questions or answers can be posted anonymously. I answer all questions in this area, so that everyone can benefit from reading through other’s inquiries and even post their experiences for others to benefit from.)
How Do I Know This Thing is Any Good?
Don’t take my word for it. Hear what these Canadian personal finance experts had to say about 4 Steps to a Worry Free Retirement:
- Here’s a podcast with longtime Toronto Star columnist and university instructor Ellen Roseman – who thoroughly reviewed the course.
- If you are still in a podcast state of mind, I chatted with Kornel Szrejber on the Build Wealth Canada Podcast and Mike Heroux on The Dividend Guy Podcast.
- Multi-decade retirement expert from Moneysense and the Financial Post, Jonathan Chevreau also took a look. You can read his review here.
- I was even on the TV show Money Matters with Mike Braga. You can check out the episode here.
Here’s what fee-only financial planner and columnist Jason Heath (of Objective Financial Partners) had to say about the course. “Kyle’s course can be a great resource for someone preparing for retirement or already retired. There is no single “right” way to manage your finances, but what he does is distill many best practices into plain English for a layperson to help them figure out what is right for them. His background as a teacher definitely comes across in the course. Too many financial industry people do a poor job of conveying financial topics in a way that makes sense. The approach of the course is meant to teach and empower, and it definitely does just that.”
So How Much Does This Thing Cost Anyway?
In exchange for creating a resource that took thousands of hours to research and create, plus the commitment to keep updating the course AND the promise to answer your specific questions – the price tag is 500 bucks.
But – for the first 20 Money We Have readers who sign up, I’m going to take a hundred bucks off the price tag. The promo code is: money100 – make sure and click “Have a Coupon” on the order screen here, and then type in: money100
Hey, I’m aware that $400 is a lot of money. It’s about half the cost of a university course these days.
If you look through this course and can honestly say that you don’t think it’s twice as useful as any university course out there – I’ll give you your money back. Look, I’m not here to make a quick sale. If you’re not happy with the purchase, I don’t want you going around telling everyone that I’m a jerk. It’s really simple, if you don’t think the quick tax wins alone won’t easily save you the purchase price of the course – if you don’t think it’s worth your hard-earned cash – I’ll refund your order.
That’s it.
No tricks. No hidden fees, kickbacks from big companies, or percentages taken out of your portfolio. No upsells to get to the “second magical VIP tier where you’ll get the REALLY good stuff”. Just a simple upfront price tag for a resource that I stand behind 100%.
Can I Get a Few Details About What’s In the Course?
You can check out the course website here to get a full sense of everything that is included.
But just to whet your appetite, here’s a sneak peak of the topics covered:
- How Much Do I Need to Retire?
- How Much Will My CPP Payment Be?
- How Much Will My OAS Payment Be?
- Decoding Private Pension Plans
- Safe Withdrawal Rates and the 4% Rule
- Working In Retirement
- What Should I Invest In?
- How to Buy and Sell Your Investments
- Decumulation: Withdrawing From Your RRSP, TFSA, and Other Accounts
- RRSP to RRIF Transitions
- Annuities – Buying a Pension
- Can You Retire With a Mortgage?
- Downsizing vs Reverse Mortgage vs HELOC
- Long Term Care Insurance
- Life Insurance in Retirement
- Retire Sooner with More Sunshine
- Bonus Resources (including a handy retirement-specific tax breaks checklist)
I just want to quickly reiterate two things:
- There is no risk in trying the course. It has a money-back guarantee.
- The first 20 people to use the coupon code: money100 get a hundred bucks off.
Help Me Beat “Big Mutual Fund”
So I’m getting out of my comfort zone here and trying to be the type of self promoter that effortlessly communicates how their product will really make a difference in someone’s life.
The problem is that it’s harder than it looks. The world is so packed with people trying to sell you the latest “silver bullet” that will magically solve all of your problems – that’s it’s hard to “break through” with a really solid resource that can make a difference in people’s lives.
I’m a teacher – not a salesman.
4 Steps to a Worry-Free Retirement is not a magical silver bullet.
I don’t have “the one simple secret” that will solve all of life’s problems.
The heart of this course is simply about offering a helping hand to folks. I wrote this course as if I was writing it for my own parents – middle class Canadians who had some idea of what they wanted in retirement, but certainly had more questions than answers.
In addition to writing thousands of articles and conducting 500+ interviews of Canadian experts over the last decade-and-half, I read dozens of books and hundreds of articles in order to make sure the info in this course was unassailable. I endured the humbling process of asking experts to give me feedback. And, at the end of the day, I know that this course can really, really help a lot of Canadians – but only if they find out about it first!
So I’m hoping that you’ll consider clicking here to check out the course, and if you think it looks like it’s worth someone’s time, I would be sincerely thankful if you let someone else know.
One thing I’ve learned about trying to get the word out about something online: We’re all much more likely to trust a product or service if it comes from our friends, as opposed to a Google Ad or a paid influencer. Barry allowed me to reach out to you all because we trust each other. In a similar vein, if you’d reach out to a friend and say, “Hey, there’s this nerdy business teacher who spent way too much time writing about how Canadians can have their best retirement – you should check this out” – I’d be sincerely thankful.
Thanks in advance for your effort and consideration!
I’ve got a spot saved for you in my virtual classroom – so don’t forget to use the money100 coupon code, as only the first 20 signups get this special introductory rate.
