Step into the Investing Time Machine
“My parents always came to see Randy, but they never brought me!”
That comment came from a second-generation client of ours as she left a meeting with me. She came in with her sons, who are in their 20s, to help them set up their TFSAs. So essentially starting off the 3rd generation of clients from that family.
Her parents had been friends of Randy Olson, our founder. They’d grown up in the same community. He’d worked with them for years. But her parents never saw fit to bring her along. They did their thing with investing and saving and didn’t feel the need to share what that was. Eventually, she did her own thing too. By a stroke of luck, she worked for an organization that had a Group RRSP with us, and that’s where it all came together, and she became a client too.
When we give Retirement Presentations for our Group Investment clients, we’re frequently hit with the same comments: “Why didn’t I know about this sooner?” (this being the benefit and simplicity of the Capital Group investments) or, “I wish I had started earlier” (early investing to give way to the benefit and effectiveness of compound interest).
So, about that time machine... well, we don’t actually have a time machine (but boy, do we wish we did!). So, we can’t go back and find that earlier version of yourself and help you to start your investments sooner. But we can find the next-best thing. And it comes in the form of those younger people living in your house. Or working alongside you at your workplace. These are people that you have an opportunity to have an influence on. To get them saving – and ideally, to get them saving automatically – through their payroll or through automatic contributions.
Randy has a famous story about his mom going to the local hairdresser. Randy grew up on a family farm near Ardrossan, and his parents never really shared much about the farm finances with their kids. Like many families, they also hadn’t done that much to plan for emergencies. One day, his mom went to the hairdresser. She was chatting at the salon about trying to figure out all this financial “stuff”, when the woman who ran the salon had a solution. She pulled out a card, gave it to Randy’s mom and said “You know, maybe you should give this guy a call. He’s actually pretty good at what he does.”
It was Randy’s business card.
They did end up calling. He ended up putting some things in place for his parents. Things that suddenly made a huge difference when his dad ended up getting sick – and passing away – less than a year later.
While, you can’t change the past*, and you can’t go back and start your RRSP 20 years ago. But you do have the chance to make a difference for your kids, your colleagues – or your parents. You have the chance to be like that client we talked about at the start – and get someone started off on the right path.
Get started easily right now:
If your kids are working, they can start saving in the Capital Group RRSP here If they don’t have much income right now, or want to save for something other than retirement (and they’re over 18), then they can start with the Capital Group TFSA here Or for those of you who want to protect your families, cover your mortgages, or just have a good way to pass down money through the generations, connect with us and we're certain to help you in so many ways.
*While you can’t change the past, you can change the future.
Even if you’re getting close to retirement, you could still have savings and investments that last for decades before you access them. Do you want to wait another 20 years and wish you’d started now?