Design Your Future Financial Services - Brought to You by The Financial Engineer

When was the last time you went on vacation and didn’t even think about work? If you’re like most people, it probably seems like forever ago. Here’s an idea.  Try turning off your mobile phone. Give one person at the office the phone number of the place you’ll be staying. Before you leave, offer to take that friendly co-worker out for a nice lunch or BBQ the week you get back — they get to pick the place if you don’t get a single call. It’ll be one of the best lunches you’ll ever pay for. Hey, there's still lots of summer left!  Make the most of it!  Try turning off that cell phone while at a BBQ with friends and family too.  At the end of the summer we can chat about how to be a financial role model for your child, until then, here's the recipe for my wife's "Million Dollar Burger".  It will be a huge success! Mix: 2 lbs of Lean Ground Beef (or yummy lean Bison) 2 Eggs 1 Packet of Onion Soup Mix 1/2 Cup of Ketchup 1 Diced Onion ...

If you’re concerned about social, ethical, and environmental issues you may be pleased to learn that you can have a real, measurable impact by way of your investment portfolio. "Socially Responsible Investing" (SRI), "social investment," or "sustainable," "impact", "green," or "ethical" investing is any investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return and social/environmental good. It allows your investments not only to improve your own life, but also your community and the world. The importance of screening One of the challenges of Socially Responsible Investing is that it can be difficult to identify the investments that will truly benefit you along with contributing positively to the issues you care about. To ensure your investments are aligned with the social, environmental, and community issues that matter most to you, in-depth screenings of companies and their impact must be conducted, monito...

Saving for Your Children: Congratulations!!!  Welcome to parenthood!   Everyone reacts differently to this phase of life.  We were shocked by how much unconditional love we had for our children when they entered the world – who else would you throw yourself in front bus for?  Below are examples on how to ensure your bundle of joy gets off to the best start: even $50 - $100/month can make a HUGE difference!! Option #1 – Be a Financial Role Model for your Child(ren). Pros:   Your children pick up your good (and bad) habits. They get a head start from 90% of the crowd. Good, quality Catch:   Takes time and effort to learn what financial strategies work. I discovered that most of the research and innovative strategies you hear or read about, are just plain garbage. Fortunately, having an engineering background helped me to shut out a lot of this nonsense. I am happy to help give guidance on how to have conversations about money - I also ...

Are you Looking to Create a Positive Impact? I specialize in working with families and professionals who want to take their financial lives to the next level. I love helping those who want to focus their time and energy on their family, career and community. Let me introduce myself. I am Stephan MacLellan, my friends call me Steve. A successful engineer who solved problems, found out how things worked, and came up with practical solutions. I bring the same approach to financial management, taking the time to learn about people, their financials and their life goals before anything else.  As someone who cares about social, ethical, and especially environmental issues, I found my passion in socially responsible investing. I made this transition for one reason: to create a positive impact for you and your family . Why? Each person and family I help contributes to better, stronger, and more prosperous communities. The ability to raise our children as Maritimers, not only so t...

Did you know that many Maritimers believe they are unable get insurance? We are #1 in: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.   Would you like to see if you are lucky enough to be accepted for a policy that many do not have the honor to have? If you think you're uninsurable - think again, you just may be lucky enough to be approved! Let’s talk - it's a great way to end Life Insurance Month and to make sure you and your loved ones are taken care of!! Dedicated to helping you reach your financial potential,  Steve MacLellan, P.Eng The Financial Engineer Mutual Fund and Insurance Representative Email: steve@yourfinancialpotential.ca Cell: (902) 240-6508 www.yourfinancialpotential.ca

If you’re concerned about social, ethical and environmental issues you can have a real, measurable impact on them with your investment portfolio.  Socially responsible investing allows your investments not only to improve your own life, but also your communities and the world.  One of the challenges of socially responsible investing is that it can be difficult to identify the investments that will truly benefit you along with contributing the issues you care about.  To ensure your investments are aligned with the social, environmental and community issues that matter most to you, in-depth screenings of companies and their impact must be conducted, monitored and reviewed. The corporate structure, business practices, history, and of course, the return on your investment are examined in detail, which also offers an extra layer of risk management. Socially responsible investing ( SRI ), or social investment , also known as sustainable , socially conscious , " green "...

Ideally, you’ve been putting away money in your RRSP, TFSA, or other savings accounts. But are you overlooking ways to save money  now  so you can free up more for your financial strategy or help build your cash stash for a rainy day? 1. Pay Yourself First. If you’re making contributions to your RRSP at work, you’re already paying yourself first. But you can also apply the same principle to saving. (If you open a separate account just for this, it’s easier to do.) If you prefer, you can accomplish the same thing on paper by keeping a ledger. Just be aware that paper makes it easier to cheat (yourself). With a separate account, you can schedule an automatic transfer to make the process painless and fuhgettaboutit. Here’s how it works. Whenever you get paid, transfer a fixed dollar amount into your special account – before you do anything else. If you don’t pay yourself first, you might guess what will happen. (Be honest.) If you’re like most people, you’ll probably spe...

Ever consider starting your own business? Does anything sound better than being your own boss?  Well, maybe a brand new sports car or free ice cream for life. But even a state-of-the-art fully-decked-out sports car will eventually need routine maintenance, and the taste of mint chocolate chip can get old after a while. The same kinds of things can happen when you start your own business. There are many details to consider and seemingly endless tasks to keep organized after the initial excitement of being your own boss and keeping your own hours has faded. Circumstances are bound to arise that no one ever prepared you for! Although this list is not exhaustive, here are 5 things to get you started when creating a business of your own: 1. Startup cost  The startup cost of your business depends heavily on the type of business you want to have. To estimate the startup cost, make a list of anything and everything you’ll need to finance in the first 6 months. Then take...

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and unsure what to do to make the world a better place? One of the most effective ways to make a change of the better is to invest in social and environmental friendly companies.  Watch my video. It's a win-win. The earth wins because companies need to prove their social and environmental leadership. You win because Social Responsible Investment Funds (SRI or ESG) are outperforming funds in their corresponding category and add a layer of risk management by examining their Environmental performance (E), Social responsibility (S), and Corporate governance (G). This means your investments will increase in value while being secure and stable. Learn how to align your investment goals with your personal values, to combine financial return and positive societal impact. Learn to be a responsible investor. Stephan MacLellan  Mutual Fund and Insurance Representative Email: steve@thefinancialengineer.ca Cell: (902) 240-6508 www.thefinanci...

April 17th – 2 weeks till Taxes are due – have you filed yet?  In today’s letter, we will share with you 2 things:  1 - Where to get recommended tax software  2 - Where to find more information about deductions and tax credits  Where to get recommended tax software:  Electronic filing programs must be certified and approved by the CRA. Here are 3 great programs, starting with my favorite:  1. Studio Tax – this is the program I often use - it’s 100% free and easy to use!  http://www.studiotax.com/  2. Turbo Tax – free right now, but will be $15.99-19.99 on April 23.  https://turbotax.intuit.ca/personal-tax-software/cra/ty17/free-download-b.jsp?cid=cra_fy18_ttd_e_cra_desktop_free 3. H&R Block - Offer a free program but you will end up paying at least $17.99 per return https://www.hrblock.ca/online-tax-software/  Where to find more information about deductions and tax credits:   The best place to find all the deductions to g...