Build Wealth Canada Podcast

What are the most critical personal finance pillars that have the greatest impact on our financial wellbeing? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Steph Zhou, the creator of the mandatory financial literacy curriculum for medical students at the University of Toronto. Dr. Steph shares the core components she identified through her research that have the greatest impact on our financial well-being...

Today's episode is going to be especially useful if you're a Canadian DIY investor and you want to build an optimized, passive, low-cost portfolio, but you still have questions about some of the practical details. For example, should you just buy one all-in-one asset allocation ETF, or is there a benefit to buying the underlying ETFs individually? How much should you care about ETF trading volume?...

As the markets hit all-time highs again, one of the things that has become top of mind for me personally is how to make sure that our investments are actually secure. If you're a long-term passive, total market index investor like me, then you've definitely seen your portfolio grow quite substantially over the years. With this, one begins to wonder: What can be done to ensure the security of those...

In 2026, it is estimated that nearly half of all Canadian mortgages will be up for renewal. This involves over 1 million households here in Canada. Because of the change in interest rates, some of these households could see their monthly payments jump by 15% to 20% on average—and in extreme cases, even higher. That's the bad news. The good news is that if your mortgage is coming up for renewal, th...

One of the most common questions I get, and honestly one of the biggest sources of anxiety for anyone nearing financial independence is: "How much can I spend without running out of money once I quit my job and start living off my investments?" It's one thing to see a big number in your investment account; it's another thing entirely to hit the "withdraw" button and start taking money out. Researc...

With the new year kicking off, investing is top of mind for many of us, especially with all the new contribution room that many of us just received in our different registered accounts here in Canada (TFSA, RRSP, RESP, FHSA). Now before we decide what to invest in with our contributions this year, I thought it would be wise to look into: -What are some of the major and common mistakes that Canadia...

One of my favourite types of interviews is when I get to interview someone who has hit their financial independence or retirement number early, and then picking their brain on how they got there, what worked well for them, what didn't, what mistakes they could have avoided, and learning what makes them feel happy and fulfilled both before and after hitting financial independence. Well this time, I...

Today, we have a Canadian guest who has literally done over 400 interviews with different personal finance experts over the years, many of which were specifically for Canadians. Today, I pick his brain on the common conclusions, best practices, and recurring advice he's heard after interviewing so many personal finance experts. My guest, Kyle Prevost, is also part of the FIRE (financial independen...

In this episode, my goal was to make it relevant for both types of listeners: First, for those who are just getting started in do-it-yourself investing or are looking to transition to becoming passive index investors instead of trying to beat the market by stock picking or owning expensive actively managed funds. We're going to build a strong foundation for you here to help you get started, such a...

Links to speak to today's guests: Thuy Lam: buildwealthcanada.ca/plan Alanna Abramsky: broadmoney.ca After conducting hundreds of interviews over the past 10 years with different financial experts and those who have been able to hit their financial independence number early, one of the common themes and best practices that I've noticed emerge time and time again is that those who are wealthy actua...

Have you ever felt that knot in your stomach watching the stock market tumble, especially after you've just invested some of your hard earned money? Have you ever wondered how seasoned investors with large amounts invested handle those gut-wrenching portfolio drops?  Well in this episode, we're tackling market volatility head-on. Our guest Marc Beavis is a seasoned investor who's lived through mul...

Today's episode is a must-listen for anyone who's ever felt confused, anxious, or just plain stuck when it comes to money. We're diving deep into the emotional and psychological side of personal finance with Jessica Moorhouse, an accredited financial counsellor who's spent over a decade helping Canadians untangle their money struggles. In this conversation, Jess reveals the most common patterns sh...

Today I'm excited to have a panel discussion with some of the largest personal finance and investing personalities, here in Canada. Together they have over 46 million views on YouTube (that's more than the entire population of Canada), and in this episode, I thought it would be great to pick their brains on how they actually invest their own money, what types of investments do they actually buy? w...

Today, we're going to cover what you need to know from a tax, investing, and financial planning perspective as all our taxes become due here in Canada on April 30th, 2025 , and as we get well underway with 2025 in general. As you know, the government makes changes every year in these areas. The implications of these changes can have a pretty substantial impact on how much you pay in taxes, your ne...

If you own a home, are thinking about buying or selling a home, or have a mortgage renewal coming up, today's episode is here to help you make the best financial decisions in this changing market. Ultimately my goal is to save you some money when it comes to all this, or at least make things less stressful for you. We're bringing back our trusted mortgage expert and best-selling author, Sean Coope...

Have you ever wondered how financial planners in Canada plan their own retirement once they decide to retire? Our guest today is a recurring guest that we've had on the show many times. He's a fee-for-service financial planner with decades of experience in the industry, and while he's not retired yet, he's gotten to that age where he's getting really close, and so it makes sense for him to do a mo...

With the end of the year arriving and the new year starting shortly, there are certain deadlines that you should be aware of every year , from an investment and tax optimization perspective. There are also some elements to keep top of mind as the new year begins. These happen every year, so even if you are listening to this episode years from now, it will still be relevant to you, as these are thi...

Today, we tackle one of the most intricate financial puzzles faced by Canadians: transitioning from accumulating wealth for retirement to effectively managing it during the decumulation phase—when you're actually living off your investments. In this episode, we'll explore why this shift can be so complex, even for seasoned savers and investors. You'll gain insights into balancing financial securit...

On today's episode we have another Canadian guest, Kyle Prevost, who achieved financial independence at an early age (he was able to pull it off in his 30s). He's also done hundreds of financial talks and interviews over the years with both regular Canadians, and some of the most highly respected financial experts in both Canada and the US. In this episode, we discuss what he's learned from these...

We all spend decades accumulating and growing our net worth, along with many hours of research and studying to optimize our investments and minimize our taxes as Canadians. But what if a single incident wipes all that out? or even just a large portion of it out? Wouldn't it be completely irrational to not eliminate that risk? The best solution that I can think of for accomplishing this is insuranc...

This interview will be a bit different as I was recently interviewed by Financial Journalist, Ellen Roseman from Canadian MoneySaver Magazine where she asked me some great questions, and so I thought it would be great to also publish that interview, here on the Build Wealth Canada Show. In the interview, we cover what lessons for Canadians I have learned after doing close to two hundred interviews...

In this episode, I interview two professional financial planners to discover what are the most common questions that they receive when working with Canadians. Our two guests are also going to cover what the most important and frequently occurring blind spots are that we Canadians tend to make in our own finances. We also cover how to know if you are on-track to reach financial independence and ret...

When we first hit our financial independence number 8 years ago, one of the financial planners that I asked to look at our numbers before my wife and I quit our full-time jobs was Ed Rempel. At the time, I asked Ed if he could do his own math and analysis on our numbers, to make sure that I didn't miscalculate something when I was doing it myself, and this way I could be certain that my wife and I...

Having your investments pay you large dividends or yield sounds great. It's truly passive income where money just shows up in your account without you having to do anything, and without you having to sell off any of your investments even when markets are down. But what if you get too focused on maximizing dividends or yield in your portfolio? After all, there is no free lunch when it comes to inve...

A big thanks to RBC for sponsoring this episode. We talk a lot about growing our net worth as Canadians, but what about actually protecting our assets from threats like fraud? So, I thought we'd get some security experts on the show to teach us some best practices when it comes to protecting ourselves and our family, especially when it comes to our finances, here in Canada. They are part of the se...