Street Cents’ Creo Walters on the dangers of debt, why LeBron James is a finance hero and more + MORE Mar 24th

My nine-year-old, Matilda, has a piggy bank filled with coins she doesn’t know what to do with. And since I’m not role-modelling how to manage physical money very often, I’m not incredibly surprised.

Not to say I’m bad with money, but like most parents in 2022, I rarely carry actual cash. She watches me make nearly all purchases either in-store with a card or online, and often with my phone. And although Matilda has started to take note of how well I can spend money (and truly, I am gifted in this area), I’m finding it much trickier to explain concepts like financial security or fiscal goal-setting to her.

Like most parents, I want my kid to have a solid sense of financial literacy and good money habits in adulthood. So, with this in mind, I asked two money professionals for their advice on teaching kids the basics around earning, saving, spending and giving. Here are their top six tips.

1. Share your spending strategies

To start, it can be as simple as explaining your day-to-day spending decisions, says Robin Taub, author of The Wisest Investment: Teaching Your Kids to Be Responsible, Independent and Money-Smart for Life…

Remember Street Cents? The award-winning TV series ran in the 1990s/early 2000s, and it featured very doable money tips for kids. Well, CBC has rebooted it—with a twist. Instead of a traditional TV format, it’s coming back on TikTok (@streetcents) and it’s targeted to teens. Through short daily videos, the new series focuses on making financial literacy useful, relatable and entertaining while remaining rooted in facts and journalism, just like the original show.

For our brand-new column, My MoneySense, we chatted with Creo Walters, one of the show’s four young content creators, about his own journey in learning about personal finance.

Who are your money/finance/investing heroes?

Nipsey Hussle, Jay-Z and LeBron James. They all invested in themselves. Watching the way they all built—and continue to build—their empires pushes me to do better.

How do you like to spend your free time? 

With my circle of friends and with family. I live at home with my parents, and we have an open-door policy…

Who is Duane Ledgister? As vice president and portfolio manager at investment counselling firm Connor, Clark & Lunn Private Capital in Toronto, he helps clients achieve their long-term goals. We asked him about his personal money values for this installment of My MoneySense.

Who are your investing heroes?

Those with whom I’ve worked in my career—some of the brightest, most practical and sensible people, both in life and in their approach to investing. The lessons they taught me were to always keep a perspective on what is happening around me when everyone is losing theirs. Tune out the noise. Also, to have a discipline—mine is diversification—and focus on your process and stay committed to it through markets’ ups and downs.

How do you like to spend your free time? 

Travel foremost, and spending quality time with friends and family. Sports, like skiing, snowboarding and physical fitness, are a big part of my routine. I’m committed to volunteering. I sit on the national board of directors for Ronald McDonald House Charities…

If your financial goals include putting more money into your registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) and tax-free savings account (TFSA), here’s a strategy that can help: making year-round contributions to high-interest registered savings accounts.

Whether you’re a saver or a stock picker, this simple strategy can help you max out your RRSP and TFSA contribution room every year—even if you haven’t decided how to invest the cash.

How to grow your savings faster

Money grows faster in tax-advantaged accounts. Not only do you save on taxes, but your savings compound over time.

RRSPs and TFSAs are two of the easiest accounts Canadians can use to benefit from tax-advantaged investing. Interest, dividends and capital gains are not taxable when your investments are held in these accounts. Plus, RRSP contributions earn you a tax deduction.

Not sure which investments you want to hold in your RRSP? No problem—while you decide, you can put money into a high-interest RRSP savings account, and it counts as an RRSP contribution for the tax year in which it was deposited…

Who doesn’t love one-stop shopping? With consumers seeking faster, easier ways of investing, it was a logical next step for investment managers to develop more products that are bundled, easy to use and affordable, such as all-in-one exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

ETFs already have a reputation for being a simple, more cost-effective way to obtain a diversified portfolio. They are usually passively managed, which keeps fees low, and investors can choose from a range of options, such as conservative, balanced or growth products.

ETFs have surged in popularity among DIY investors. Canadians poured a record $53 billion into ETFs in 2021, according to the Canadian ETF Association. While the performance of ETFs is often similar to that of mutual funds, ETFs are easier to buy and sell, and they have lower fees.

All-in-one ETFs go one step further. Essentially, they are collections of low-cost ETFs. Investors don’t have to select, track or manage them—the pros take care of that. All-in-one ETFs can be passively or actively managed, and fund managers will rebalance your portfolio back to the strategic allocation when necessary…