Originally Posted by
tonytiger55
$200k is a lot of moola.
The reason you may not have heard from the RBC advisor is that they have brought your money in. Their job is done.
Just an alternative viewpoint.
To be fair it's hard to say what you should do without looking at the entire picture. The general rule I follow is a arse backwards approach.
For example. How old are you? Which life stage are you at, i.e are you married, kids, have a mistress etc. If you have kids, how old are they? Do you have a mortgage, how much is left to be paid off, and how many years..? How old is your car? Do you have a TFSA, short term and medium-term funds..? Do you have any goals for the next few years..?
What would you like to do? How do you want to retire or do you want to take care of anything before that (pay off the mortgage early etc), take a nice holiday, renovate the home etc.
That now gives a picture of how the $200k RRSP fits into all that. Think of your financial profile like lego tool box. The RRSP and LIRA are just some of the pieces.
It also gives a idea of the potential life events and problems you will face in the next 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 years. Its not that you wont hit them. You WILL have life events/problems. Its just how hard you want to hit them or avoid them at all. You can start planing your funds around that. So when you hit those life milstones or events. You can reach into your tool box eg. TFSA, RRSP LIRA and find the relevant tool to deal with it. Because you planned it a bit. You know which tool to reach for rather than blindly scrambling to find something that fits to solve the problem, but really makes it worse later.
The next part is your risk tolerances are assessed.
Then that gives an idea of where you should put your money rather than what you want. There is a difference.
Now that has been figured out. From this point If you place your funds in a ETF, wealthsimple, index fund, or a mutual fund. Its not a blind investment. It has a VALUE NOW as the investment is serving a PURPOSE towards your goals.
You financial advisor/planner should be asking the above questions.
A good advisor is not an order taken. They will challenge you as they see people every day in various age groups, life stages and income. After seeing so many people, a pattern will start to emerge. Hence the advisors can see potential problems coming up that you may not have seen.
There are waay too many lazy advisors that do not do that and just rely upon spreadsheets, stats and the blind belief that TD comfort portfolios are the best thing since sliced bread.
I'l give another example to give context. I have had so may advisors give me all the great speach how some funds are making %% and I should invest. Yet none have asked me about my vehicle and how I might want to replace it in the next year or so, or maybe I might buy a home with my gf and have kids, or I need a bit more emergency funds than the average person as my elderly parents are in the UK. None have asked or calculated the potential problems I may face if I loose my job or asked about my lifestyle as I have a long term illness. That has a profound effect of my need to access my investments and day to day spending.
When I advise clients, dumping your money into a fund or getting life insurance has no intrinsic value unless it is solving a problem.
So yes, wherever you put your money. Just be aware of the bigger picture of how that fits in as that equation is really important.