Welcome to November
November has been named Financial Literacy Month by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.
It is a six-year campaign ending November 2026 with the aim of increasing financial literacy and financial resilience in Canadians. This year the theme is “Money on Your Mind. Talk about it!” People have a hard time talking about their finances and tend to keep their thoughts bottled up. But, studies have shown that people who talk with others about their finances gain confidence in their financial affairs and end up with better outcomes than those who don’t discuss it.
Some have the attitude that their finances are in good shape and they don’t need any advice or help. But, that attitude displays inner fear or self-doubt. Can you imagine if a person only went to see a doctor when things weren’t working and didn’t bother when they perceived their health was good? Why is it that in our health we readily schedule our annual checkup but we don’t for our financial health? Is good enough good enough? What are we missing?
The answer is that for most of us, no matter what level of financial literacy, we can benefit from a review of our finances and financial plans. And, for those who don’t have a financial plan, why not? We all need a financial check up every year and no matter how financially literate a person is, we can all learn and do better in our finances. So, for Financial Literacy Month I encourage each of you to talk to me or someone about your finances and get a financial checkup. We provide free financial checkups and free coffee.
Call us today to book an appointment!
How fitting that we have this monthly segment and our government is promoting it for November.
Last month we discussed DMI’s - this month we’ll discuss MIC shares. MIC stands for Mortgage Investment Corporation, and to invest in MIC shares you are investing in the share capital of a mortgage company that is regulated by provincial and federal regulators and governments. MIC shares are my favourite investment because the average investor gets to be the bank. The majority of bank investments and not stocks or mutual funds – they are mortgages. So when you invest in MIC shares you are investing in loans to Canadians secured at land titles by a mortgage. But, not all MICs are good. All the ones that Drake offers are very good, because our product review committee is very experienced and checks them out. Next month I will talk about identifying the differences between the good MICs and the bad ones.
Monthly Quiz
This month’s quiz is just a fun one about famous November trivia. I got 7 out of 11. See if you can beat that. Next month will be the big Christmas quiz and there will be prizes so study up!