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.

What You Will Learn in This Episode

• The Core Pillars of Personal Finance: Discover the critical components of financial literacy that we should all focus on mastering.
• The Power of Expense Tracking: Why budgeting and/or tracking your expenses is essential, regardless of whether you are a lower-income earner or a highly paid professional.
• Practical Systems for Busy People: How Dr. Steph manages her finances as a doctor and mother, and the exact strategies she teaches her students.
• Debt vs. Investing Frameworks: Practical approaches to answer the classic question of whether you should pay off your debt first, invest, or do a combination of the two.
• Rethinking the Emergency Fund: How to best view your emergency fund, especially if you struggle with the opportunity cost of leaving cash on the sidelines instead of earning a higher return in the markets.

About Dr. Steph Zhou

Dr. Steph Zhou is the founder of the annual Physicians Financial Wellness conference, a national philanthropic event focused on financial education and practice management for physicians. Her work in improving economic mobility through financial literacy earned her Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women award and the Ascend Canada Social Impact Award. You can find more of her financial education content on her popular Instagram and YouTube channel, Breaking Bad Debt.

Links from the episode:

Dr. Steph’s YouTube Channel: Breaking Bad Debt

Dr. Steph on Instagram

Canadian Physicians Financial Wellness Conference

Adjusted Cost Base Tracker: Adjustedcostbase.ca

A Big Thanks to Our Sponsors:

TELUS Online Security

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BMO Asset Allocation ETFs: One of the Lowest Cost Options in Canada:

Do you keep hearing about these “All-in-one ETFs” lately? Well, I have some exciting news:

BMO ETFs just cut the fees on their flagship all-in-one ETFs to 0.15% making them one of the lowest cost options in Canada. That’s right – more value, same smart diversification, all in a single ETF.

Whether you’re just starting out, or simplifying your portfolio, BMOs all in one ETFs make it easy to invest with confidence.

Just Zed it and forget it by considering ETFs like ZEQT, BMO’s All Equity ETF or ZGRO, BMO’s Growth ETF.

“Views from the Desk” Podcast

On this podcast, we often cover best practices that can not only help you now, but will also be relevant throughout your investment lifetime. But what if you also want an update on what is happening with your investments, the markets, and the economy right now?

To help me stay up-to-date on these topics, a great Canadian podcast that I listen to weekly is called “Views from the Desk” (Apple, Spotify, Direct).

They provide timely information for us Canadians on what is happening to our investments right now, as well as other key factors affecting us like changes to our interest rates, our inflation, and regulatory changes that we should know about.

The podcast is hosted by BMO ETFs. I’m a huge fan of theirs, I own a lot of BMO ETFs myself, and it’s a great free resource for both new and existing ETF investors.

I hope you check them out. All episodes are available for free in your favourite podcast player. Just search for “Views from the Desk” or click one of the links below:

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Directly from their Site

ETF Market Insights and BMO ETFs

Catch the latest episodes on YouTube Here.

There are so many opinions on how to invest your money today, but it can be hard to find credible voices to rely on in the world of finance and investing.

One resource I turn to every week is the ETF Market Insights YouTube channel, led by today’s episode sponsor, BMO ETFs.

Market Insights brings in industry experts and their weekly episodes cover the hottest themes like inflation, infrastructure, healthcare, and more. Tuning in helps me stay up-to-date on what’s happening so I can be a smarter investor. You can also submit your own ETF questions, to be answered on the show.

Do yourself a favour and subscribe on YouTube to ETF Market Insights, or visit ETFMarketInsights.com so you can be notified when future episodes go live.

BMO Asset Allocation ETFs:

Asset allocation explains over 90 per cent of the variation in a portfolio’s quarterly returns, so it’s no wonder Canadian investors are turning to these ETFs!

Today’s sponsor, BMO ETFs, offers these innovative all-in-one solutions with the BMO All-Equity ETF (ZEQT), BMO Growth ETF (ZGRO), BMO Balanced ETF (ZBAL), BMO Conservative ETF (ZCON), and more. BMO developed these to help provide investors with ETFs that offer broad diversification and are also low-cost and simple to use.

These ETFs invest in a number of underlying index based ETFs and are rebalanced automatically back to your set asset allocation or mix of stocks and bonds. They offer a hands free approach to investing that is built on disciplined weights to provide exposure to different geographies and sectors all in one solution.

BMO actually offers eight asset allocation ETFs. Learn more at BMOETFs.com.

Disclaimer:

This podcast and video is for information purposes. The information contained herein is not, and should not be construed as, investment, tax or legal advice to any party. Particular investments and/or trading strategies should be evaluated relative to the individual’s investment objectives and professional advice should be obtained with respect to any circumstance. Commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investments in exchange traded funds. Please read the ETF Facts or simplified prospectus of the BMO ETFs before investing. Exchange traded funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. For a summary of the risks of an investment in the BMO ETFs, please see the specific risks set out in the BMO ETF’s simplified prospectus. BMO ETFs trade like stocks, fluctuate in market value and may trade at a discount to their net asset value, which may increase the risk of loss. Distributions are not guaranteed and are subject to change and/or elimination. BMO ETFs are managed by BMO Asset Management Inc., which is an investment fund manager and a portfolio manager, and a separate legal entity from Bank of Montreal. BMO Global Asset Management is a brand name under which BMO Asset Management Inc. and BMO Investments Inc. operate. “BMO” is a registered trademark of Bank of Montreal, used under licence.