Financial Planning Simplified
I’m Robb — the guy behind Boomer & Echo. I’ve been a personal finance blogger since 2010 and an advice-only financial planner since 2015. I help regular Canadians with regular problems make smarter decisions about their money — without selling them a thing.
My philosophy is simple: Money shouldn’t be complicated.
You don’t need 17 bank accounts, 12 ETFs, or a side hustle to retire comfortably. You just need a good plan, grounded in what really matters to you.
By reading this website you're joining more than 250,000 people who stop by here every month to get tips on how to save money, invest well, and retire comfortably. And, if you choose to subscribe and receive new posts by email, you'll join a growing list of more than 12,000 email subscribers who are the first to get these tips sent straight to their inbox.
New Articles from Robb
Why So Many Canadians Take CPP Early Even When They Shouldn't
Robb Engen | November 25, 2025 |
Every financial planner has been there. You’re sitting across from a perfectly healthy 64-year-old who has more than enough saved, no debt, a paid-off home, a reasonable spending plan, and a strong likelihood of living well into their 80s or 90s. They have zero financial need to turn on CPP today. And yet, as predictably…
Weekend Reading: Your Retirement Withdrawals Edition
Robb Engen | November 22, 2025 |
One of the biggest shifts in retirement is learning how to spend your own money without second guessing every decision. After years of building your portfolio, it can feel strange to start drawing it down. That is usually when people start watching the markets too closely and stressing about every dip. The whole point of…
The Annuity Puzzle: Why Canadians Avoid One of Retirement’s Most Misunderstood Tools
Robb Engen | November 20, 2025 |
Annuities have a strange reputation in Canada. Ask economists, actuaries, or retirement researchers and they’ll tell you that converting a portion of your savings into guaranteed lifetime income is one of the smartest and most efficient ways to reduce retirement risk. Finance professor Moshe Milevsky has been writing about this for two decades. And Fred…
The Myth of the “Too-Large RRSP”
Robb Engen | November 14, 2025 |
Every few months, social media decides the RRSP is a terrible idea. The latest version? “Don’t grow your RRSP too much or you’ll get crushed by taxes in retirement.” The reality is less dramatic. A large RRSP isn’t a tax trap – it’s a planning opportunity, if you know when and how to draw it…
Before You Fire Your Parents’ Financial Advisor, Do This First
Robb Engen | November 12, 2025 |
Want to learn how to manage your finances in retirement? Go through a financial planning engagement with your parents. I’ve had several prospective clients reach out lately, not about their own situation, but because they’re worried about their parents’ finances. Sometimes it’s a son or daughter who’s been reading about high investment fees and wants…
Weekend Reading: Magnificent Concentration Edition
Robb Engen | November 8, 2025 |
A reader wrote this week asking a timely question: many of us are in that stage of our financial lives where sequence-of-returns risk looms large, and it feels like our portfolios are increasingly at the mercy of a handful of tech giants. The question was whether it’s possible to reduce or eliminate exposure to the…
