November 2009



	November, 2009		Volume 2, Issue 6
	In This Issue	*MFG FINANCIAL DISPATCH* A Monthly Publication of MacIntosh Financial Group Ltd.
● ● ● ●	Win One of Two $25 Starbucks Cards RRSPs 101 – When You Retire The Formula for Failure and Success Bits and Pieces	Win One of Two $25 Starbucks Cards We want to congratulate our two Starbucks card winners from our October draw - Mike Manning and Collette Beaulieu. Once again we’re giving away a $25 card to each of two lucky people. To enter, simply click on the word “WIN”, answer just four multiple choice questions based on information in the article below. If your name is one of the two drawn from all the correct entries, a Starbucks card will be in it’s way to your mailbox. This month’s draw will happen on November 20^th. All the best!
		RRSPs 101 – When You Retire Last month we went through some basics about RRSPs. In this issue we’re going to talk about what happens to your RRSP when you retire. An RRSP can be collapsed or closed out any time you wish and it must be collapsed by the end of the year in which the annuitant turns 71. There are three options at that point: 1) cash it out and pay the tax on the proceeds; 2) use the proceeds to purchase a life annuity or 3) convert the RRSP to a RRIF. Option 1, cashing it out is not normally a very good option as the full amount becomes taxable in the year you cash it out. Depending on the size of the RRSP and your other income in the year it’s cashed out, your tax bill could be quite significant. Option 2, buying an annuity is a permanent decision in which you are buying a lifelong income. There are several different options including spousal survivor benefits and inflation indexing. An annuity provides guaranteed income and peace of mind when the financial markets are going down. On the other hand an annuity will not allow the potential for future growth. It is similar to a monthly pension, either company or government, so before choosing an annuity for your RRSP funds, you’ll want to ensure that your income sources are sufficiently diversified to allow for both future growth and security. Option 3, converting your RRSP to a RRIF is the most common option chosen. It provides the most flexibility now and in the future. Unlike an RRSP, you can not contribute more money to a RRIF - only money from an RRSP can go into a RRIF. The other major difference between an RRSP and a RRIF is that with the RRIF you are required to withdraw (and pay tax on) at least a minimum amount each year. This is a percentage of the market value of your RRIF and the percentage goes up each year with your age. You are also allowed to withdraw (and pay tax on) any amount above the minimum. Choosing a RRIF allows you to continue with the same investments you had in your RRSP. It also leaves open the option of cashing out your RRIF or buying a life annuity at any time in the future. Next month we’re going to look at RRIFs in a little more detail. In the meantime, if you have questions or would like more information please call us.
		The Formula for Failure and Success NOTE: Normally, the articles in our monthly newsletter are short and can be read within a minute or two. The following article by Jim Rohn is longer than our normal articles and will probably take five or six minutes to read. In spite of that, we thought it worthwhile to pass on to you this work of Jim Rohn with his simple yet powerful philosophy of life. (By the way, none of the contest questions are based on this article so you can still answer the questions even if you decide not to read further.) If you do decide to read the article, we hope you’ll find it to be as inspiring as we have… The Formula for Failure and Success by Jim Rohn (Excerpted from The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle) Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day. Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day? The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters. On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn’t result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape from any immediate consequences of our deeds. If we have not bothered to read a single book in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn’t seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not reading the books is not even realizing that it matters! Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter. Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after year... because it doesn’t seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future time. Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices—choices that didn’t seem to matter. Failure’s most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don’t seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices. The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat. But we must become better educated than that! If at the end of the day when we made our first error in judgment the sky had fallen in on us, we undoubtedly would have taken immediate steps to ensure that the act would never be repeated. Like the child who places his hand on a hot burner despite his parents’ warnings, we would have had an instantaneous experience accompanying our error in judgment. Unfortunately, failure does not shout out its warnings as our parents once did. This is why it is imperative to refine our philosophy in order to be able to make better choices. With a powerful, personal philosophy guiding our every step, we become more aware of our errors in judgment and more aware that each error really does matter. Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It’s a few simple disciplines practiced every day. Now here is an interesting question worth pondering: How can we change the errors in the formula for failure into the disciplines required in the formula for success? The answer is by making the future an important part of our current philosophy. Both success and failure involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don’t more people take time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it doesn’t seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow. But what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the road? We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines. In other words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old. One of the exciting things about the formula for success—a few simple disciplines practiced every day—is that the results are almost immediate. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results in a very short period of time. When we change our diet, our health improves noticeably in just a few weeks. When we start exercising, we feel a new vitality almost immediately. When we begin reading, we experience a growing awareness and a new level of self-confidence. Whatever new discipline we begin to practice daily will produce exciting results that will drive us to become even better at developing new disciplines. The real magic of new disciplines is that they will cause us to amend our thinking. If we were to start today to read the books, keep a journal, attend the classes, listen more and observe more, then today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future. If we were to start today to try harder, and in every way make a conscious and consistent effort to change subtle and deadly errors into constructive and rewarding disciplines, we would never again settle for a life of existence, once we had tasted the fruits of a life of substance! To Your Success, Jim Rohn Reprinted with permission from Jim Rohn International ©2009. Jim Rohn is a world-renowned motivational speaker and success expert. For more information on Jim and his popular personal achievement resources or to subscribe to his free weekly online newsletter, visit www.JimRohn.com.
		Bits and Pieces MRS Trust Statement eDelivery Just a reminder that if you have an MRS account and have not yet signed up for eDelivery of your statements, it’s easy to do and as an incentive, you can save up to $10 per year in administration fees. For more information please click on this link http://bit.ly/TDJdr (mrs.com) or call our office.
		MFG Financial Dispatch is our monthly email newsletter designed to keep you up to date on timely financial issues that may affect you and to pass on timeless information and advice regarding financial issues. Archived issues are available in the Client Centre on our website (macintoshfinancial.com). If at anytime you would prefer not to receive these communications, please reply to the email with “Unsubscribe” in the subject line and you won’t receive another one. If you are on your smart phone you can find our contact information on our “.Tel” page at macintoshfinancial.tel. Follow us on Twitter - *MFGPlanning*