A group of Canadian financial professionals is sharing the money mistakes they made earlier in their careers, offering a look at how even experts in the field once struggled with the basics of saving, spending and building wealth.
Kelley Keehn, CEO of Money Wise Institute, recalled buying a Mercedes sports car in her 20s that she could not truly afford. She said she was doing well financially at the time, but not well enough to match the lifestyles of her wealthy clients, and admitted she did not fully understand the financial decisions she was making. Keehn said having a financial mentor at that stage of her life could have helped her avoid what she described as bad investments and poor spending choices.
Keehn said she has since come to believe that many people’s beliefs about money are inherited from their upbringing, and that learning to question those beliefs can help people figure out which financial habits to keep and which to abandon. She said she grew up with a single mother who worked as a waitress to support three children, an experience that made her avoid negotiating financial matters as a young adult because she associated negotiating with financial hardship. It was only later, while working at a bank, that she realized wealthy clients regularly negotiated for better terms. Keehn said it took her decades to become comfortable doing the same.
Balancing Saving and Spending
Ingrid Kucera, a financial advisor at Assante Wealth Management Ltd., said she wishes she had better understood the importance of balancing saving for the future with enjoying life in the present. She said clients generally fall into one of two camps, spenders or savers, and that finding a middle ground between the two is important. Kucera said this was a lesson she had to learn to apply to her own finances as someone who describes herself as rule-oriented.
Kucera said that for most people, striking that balance can involve saving between 15 and 20 per cent of their annual income, along with identifying personal financial goals and ensuring a financial plan reflects them. She said working through detailed financial plans allows people to see projections of how their finances could look in the future based on their current habits or potential changes.
Wealth as a Gradual Process
Nancy Grouni, a certified financial planner at Objective Financial Partners Inc., said she wishes she had understood earlier in life that wealth is typically built gradually rather than quickly. She said this understanding came from watching clients’ financial progress unfold over many years.
Grouni said people tend to overestimate what they can achieve financially in a single year while underestimating what is possible over two decades. She described substantial wealth-building as largely the product of consistent, unglamorous habits, including regular saving and investing, managing costs and taxes, and avoiding significant financial mistakes. She added that staying invested through different market cycles plays a role as well.
Grouni said that in her experience, some of the most successful investors are not necessarily the most knowledgeable people, but rather those who create a sound financial plan and stick with it long enough to benefit from compounding over time.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.
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