Retiring With Confidence: BC and Alberta Retirement Questions, Answered

Artificial intelligence is becoming a common tool for financial questions, but can it replace the real experience of a financial planner when it comes to retiring in Canada? In this episode of Retiring With Confidence, Wes Forster explains why AI can be helpful for gathering information but cannot replace the judgment, coordination, and experience required for effective retirement planning. He out...

Does experience really matter when working with a financial advisor on your retirement plan in Canada? Yes.  In this episode of Retiring With Confidence, Wes Forster explains why experience goes beyond knowledge and plays a critical role in retirement planning. Retirement decisions are interconnected, and gaps in one area can quietly affect income, tax, investments, and long-term outcomes. Wes out...

Market declines are a normal and recurring part of investing, yet many retirees feel unprepared when they happen. Here’s the truth about how they impact retirement income.  In this episode of Retiring With Confidence , Wes Forster explains why market downturns occur regularly and why the real risk is not the decline itself, but whether a retirement plan was designed with those declines in mind. Dr...

In Canada, most retirees worry about the tax they’ll pay on their retirement income, but there are more ways the government might be dipping into your pockets.  In this episode of Retiring With Confidence, Wes Forster explains how taxable income affects far more than your annual tax bill. Income levels influence Old Age Security clawbacks, Guaranteed Income Supplement eligibility, provincial cost-...

If you’re in Canada and nearing retirement, you might be worried about why your mutual funds or segregated funds are underperforming. In this episode, Wes Forster explains why performance depends on a combination of the fund quality, guidance, and investor discipline. Research shows that investor timing decisions, portfolio structure, and disciplined oversight often have a greater impact on long-t...

If something happens to you, will your family be left with a financial and legal mess? In this episode, host and certified financial planner, Wes Forster, explains why having a will is not always enough. Many estate plans look complete on paper but fail because documents are missing, outdated, or poorly coordinated. Wes shares what the research shows about how many Canadians lack updated wills and...

How much money do I need to retire?  It’s the number one question people have about retirement. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong question.  In this episode, Wes Forster, Kelowna-based financial planner and podcast host, explains why retirement is not about reaching a single number. It is about building and stress testing a plan that can reliably fund your life after tax, even when markets, taxes, or...

When you retire and stop working, what replaces your paycheck? Nothing. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have income.  In this episode, host and financial planner, Wes Forster, explains what happens when you are no longer getting a steady paycheck and how retirement income is created from coordinated sources such as CPP, OAS, pensions, RRSPs or RRIFs, non-registered accounts, and, in some cases, co...

On paper, your retirement may look solid. But will it actually hold up when life doesn’t go perfectly?  Hosted by veteran financial advisor Wes Forster, Retiring With Confidence delivers calm, practical answers to the retirement questions that matter most for people living in British Columbia and Alberta.  Subscribe now to gain clarity, avoid costly blind spots, and stay in the driver’s seat of yo...