Why worry?

Alfred ENeuman' from Mad magazine used to say  “What, me worry?”, and there are many things to worry about today, but a recent survey by Pollara, a Canadian public opinion and market research firm, found that there were three main life events that Canadians worry about the most, The first is saving enough money for retirement: men: 41 percent; women: 28 percent said they were worried.

The second event is the health of their partner. 23 percent and 32 percent of women were worried about the long-term health of their partner.

The third event that weighed heavily was the concern about job loss or your spouse/partner’s job loss? 33 percent of men and 19 percent of women had this worry.

The good news is that most Canadians know the value of having a financial plan, however, sometimes the plan targets are set too low. Your plan should be able to withstand a major decline in the market or have a fallback strategy to account for major life events such as death, divorce, or a major disability/illness.

These are the three “Ds” to stress test your portfolio, disability, death, or divorce

A disability or illness could have a huge impact on your long-term financial plans. Often times people are forced to retire earlier than they had planned to cause a loss of future income and impact to their savings strategy

Divorce is the third item that can blow up your financial plan, typically having a double shock effect of unplanned spending and loss of income. In Canada, the only age group that is seeing a rise in divorce rates are people over 50, now referred to as the “grey divorce group.”

There are, of course, many other events that could have significant financial impacts on a family. Career failure, bankruptcy, whatever life throws at you; try to reduce the monetary distress by proactively planning. Don’t dwell on things you can’t change, focus on the things you can, and never become a slave to your self-doubt.