- Listen to it on Apple Podcasts.
- Listen to it on Spotify.
- Listen to it on YouTube Music or YouTube
- Listen to it on Audible and Amazon Music
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 she’s seen over the years—from overspending traps to financial fears we rarely talk about—and the simple, practical strategies that can truly make a difference.
We’ll also unpack powerful insights from her new book, “The Hidden Barriers Between You and Financial Freedom”, including why even those who are financially secure can still feel stressed about money. You’ll learn how to spot the invisible forces that keep you stuck, and more importantly, how to move past them.
Plus, if you’re in a relationship, this episode is packed with real-world advice on managing money as a couple—without the fights and resentment.
By the end of this episode, you’ll walk away with actionable tips and the clarity you need to take control of your financial future—without losing your peace of mind.
A Big Thanks to Our Sponsors:
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Many of us don’t know that our personal, private data is packaged and sold on the open market, resulting in us getting things like spam phone calls, junk email, and drastically increasing our chances of identity theft, not to mention compromising our personal security by others knowing exactly where we live.
There is an entire industry of data brokers that buy and sell our personal information, oftentimes this is used for spamming us with marketing calls and email.
We actually had this happen to us where when my daughter was born, we ended up on these lists and were repeatedly called by some of these less than reputable investing companies who knew that my daughter was just born, and so they started pitching us to set up an RESP for my daughter’s education. And of course they left out the part about charging exorbitant investment fees, for their service.
How’s that for a breach in privacy?
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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.
Sun Life MyRetirement Income:
Learn more at: BuildWealthCanada.ca/myretirementincome
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Introducing Sun Life’s MyRetirement Income solution. This is available for those who have, or have ever in the past had a Sun Life group savings plan through their employer.
This solution is created for those who are nearing or in retirement and want to receive income tailored to a target age.
How MyRetirement Income works is that you pick a target age you want your money to last until: Such as ages 85, 90, 95 or 100.
Then, the solution offers a unique blend of income and growth potential to help your money last until your chosen target age.
This automated process eliminates the need for repeated reassessment.
With this solution, your payments will be deposited directly into your bank account while still having the opportunity for your investments to grow.
It provides flexibility, allowing you to have access to your money at any time without fees or penalties, along with an easy transfer to leave a legacy for your loved ones.
Sun Life’s licensed retirement consultants are ready to guide you through the process.
To learn more about if Sun Life MyRetirement Income is right for you, visit BuildWealthCanada.ca/myretirementincome to schedule an appointment with a Sun Life retirement consultant today.
“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:
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.
Questions Covered:
- Jess, you’re an accredited financial counsellor, and you’ve been specializing in this for over a decade now here in Canada. Over that time, after speaking with hundreds of Canadians about their money problems, what sort of patterns have you noticed about what Canadians tend to struggle with when it comes to money? and can you share some best practices that you found tend to help people in getting past those struggles?
- Your new book is called, “The Hidden Barriers Between You and Financial Freedom”. Can you take us through some of these hidden barriers, and what can we practically do, in our day-to-day lives to overcome them?
- One topic that you talk about that really hit home for me personally, was the subject of money as a source of stress in our day-to-day lives.
One personal insight that I had in the past year regarding this, is that you can still be stressed about money, even if you are financial independent and have enough. That’s a situation that I found myself in about a year ago, and so that led me to notice that just seeing your investment portfolio be large enough to retire doesn’t automatically remove all money stress, and so there’s clearly something else psychologically at play here.
From your experience, what do you think can be the cause of this and how can we all work on this, so that we don’t end up on this financial treadmill of always trying to earn more and thinking that having more will automatically remove any stress relating to money in our lives? - When you were conducting research for your book, did you run into any interesting studies that others have done that you think really have some practical implications that we can apply in our lives?
- Money seems to be one of, if not the most common subject that couples fight about. As a married woman, and an expert on the subject, what systems or processes have worked well for you and your husband when it comes to managing your household finances? and in addition to that, what are some best practices when it comes to managing money as a couple to help prevent fights, resentment, and still have everything run efficiently?
- Going through the book, it becomes evident that you’ve definitely put in a lot of work on improving yourself, to really optimize and try to fix the different components that were keeping you from being that best version of yourself (not just financially but also psychologically, your thinking patterns, and mental health in general). What were some of the things that really moved the needle for you when it comes to self improvement, where you really got the highest return on the effort and time that you invested?
- Tell us more about your book, where can we get it, and where else can we learn more from you?
Disclaimer:
This podcast presentation is for informational purposes only. No part of this presentation may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of BMO Investments Inc. or BMO Asset Management Inc. (collectively, BMO GAM).
For greater certainty, no part of this presentation may be provided to investors and/or potential investors without the written permission of BMO GAM. The information contained herein is not, and should not be construed as, investment advice and or tax advice to any individual. Investments should be evaluated relative to the individual’s investment objectives and professional advice should be obtained with respect to any circumstance. This communication is intended for information purposes only. Any statement that necessarily depends on future events may be a forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although such statements are based on assumptions that are believed to be reasonable, there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from expectations. Investors are cautioned not to rely unduly on any forward-looking statements. In connection with any forward-looking statements, investors should carefully consider the areas of risk described in the most recent simplified prospectus. BMO GAM undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statement or information whether as a result of new information, future events or other such factors which affect this information, except as required by law.
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