Category:Financial planning

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Financial planning is about defining your financial objectives and planning how to get there. This can involve saving, investing, insurance, legal aspects, tax planning, and estate planning.

The article creating a financial plan provides an overview of financial planning. A common output of the process, covering investing matters, is an investment policy statement, although for simple short term goals, an investing plan for short term goals may suffice. People who need professional assistance in these matters can consult a financial advisor.

There are several types of accounts in which Canadians can save and invest for retirements and other goals. This includes:

• Registered Retirement Savings Plans, which eventually become Registered Retirement Income Funds
• Tax-Free Savings Accounts
• Registered Education Savings Plans
• Registered Disability Savings Plan
• Non-registered accounts

If you hesitate between different types of accounts, see prioritizing investments. Note that there are important Canadian-US investing differences.

The main types of insurance are personal insurance (notably including life insurance, long term care insurance and travel insurance) and property and casualty insurance (including auto insurance and home insurance).

Tax planning is about organizing your affairs to minimize (or reduce) your tax burden. Income splitting is a tax strategy to reduce family taxes by shifting income from high income earners to low income earners and takes advantage of different tax brackets. Tax-efficient investing specifically looks at structuring a portfolio between different types of accounts in an efficient manner.

Retirement planning is part of financial planning but has its own category in finiki. Similarly, investing is often part of a financial plan, but the details of investment management are covered under a separate category. Finally, several topics such as education finances, emergency funds, mortgages or owning vs renting can be considered to belong both to financial planning and personal finance.