Jan 22nd - How Financial Stability Impacts Health & Wellness

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Wellness and Healthy Lifestyle show on your VOCM.
Now here's your host, doctor Mike Wall.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the show. I'm your host, doctor Mike Wall.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Often on our radio show we talk about physical health,
mental health, and social connection. But there's another dimension of
health that has a massive impact on our stress levels,
our relationships, and even our sleep, and that's financial help.
When our finances are in order, life feels more stable,
more predictable, and frankly a lot less stressful. But when
money becomes a constant worry and re living paycheck to paycheck,

(00:36):
juggling bills, or losing sleep over debt, it can quietly
undermine every part of our health. Today, I'm joined by
someone who spent his career helping individuals, families, and businesses
navigate exactly these challenges. Brian Henley is with the Allergy
Henley Group, an independent financial advisory and employee benefits consulting
firm here in Newfoundland and Labrador that has been in

(00:57):
business for over eighty years. Their work spans everything from
personal planning to family enterprise to businesses and organizations of
all sizes. They're helping people not just manage money, but
long term stability and peace of mind. In this conversation,
we're going to explore what financial health actually looks like,
what happens to our bodies and minds when we're under
financial stress, and help building good financial habits, just like

(01:19):
building good exercise habits, can change your life over the
long term.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
And there's a lot to cover, so let's get to it.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
Hey, Rian, welcome to the show.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
Thank you, Mike.

Speaker 6 (01:31):
It's been good to get you here today. We've been
chatting about this for a little while. This is one
of the areas of health that we haven't talked about
an awful lot on the show, and that's financial health.
You were exactly the first I wanted to chat with
about this. Maybe you could give our listeners a bit
of a background on yourself.

Speaker 5 (01:49):
Okay, Well, I work with the Ali g Hanley Group,
which is an independent financial advisory and employee benefit consulting firm.
We are currently in our eighty first year in business.
I'm not here that long, but we are an independent firm.
We provide advice to individuals, to families, to family enterprises,

(02:11):
to NGOs to businesses, all different shapes and sizes in
the various areas of our expertise.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah, you said eighty one years.

Speaker 6 (02:19):
So what drew you to this, because you guys have
been around for a long time.

Speaker 5 (02:25):
Well, my father started the business in nineteen forty four
and I joined the firm in nineteen seventy nine. I
actually had graduated and thought I was going to become
a charity's accountant, and I went to Toronto to do
such a thing, and I do German for really quickly.
That no disrespect to my friends in the CPA profession,

(02:47):
but it was a little too boring for me, and
so I had to chat with my father and my
mother because it would be family enterprise, and we had
some parameters that we set, and in August of seventy nine,
I started with the firm and I've been here ever since.

Speaker 6 (03:06):
That's fantastic, And you know, you've been navigating and helping people,
both personally and with companies for an awful long time,
which is why I really wanted to talk to you
about this. But I think that people don't really understand
how important managing our financial health is for our overall health.
Maybe we could start off with a positive side of things,
and you could share what happens to our health when

(03:28):
we're able to manage our finances appropriately.

Speaker 5 (03:33):
Okay, Well, I believe in the positive approach to life.
So let's start with the key indicators of financial health.
So I'm going to give you a list, and I'm
going to assure you that if any one of your
listeners is doing all of the above, they are good
emostly and physically because of their finances, and they're the

(03:55):
exception rather than the rule.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
Okay, so what's this list.

Speaker 5 (03:59):
First of all, is managing your debt. You should have
a low debt income ratio of approximately fifteen percent of
your gross income excluding your mortgage payment. You should have
an adequate emergency fund, and depending on your income level,
it should be three months to six months savings that
is there for emergency purposes and emergency purposes only. You

(04:21):
need to have a consistent pattern of savings and investing,
dull boring, Start early, methodically. Do so, and you will
be miles ahead of someone who waits twenty years before
they start planning. You need to monitor your net worth,
not daily, not weekly, and not monthly, but let's say
twice a year. And if your assets are growing faster

(04:45):
than your liabil leeds, then you're building wealth, and that
means you'll be financially stable over time. The other thing
that's very important is paying your bills on time, and
that makes a big difference rather than having to drawing
on boring to pay your basic bills. The most difficult

(05:07):
one is man maintaining a budget and spending control. You've
probably heard your parents or your grandparents say you have
to live within your means. Well, that is so true. However,
it's very difficult for a lot of people, no matter
what their income levels are, to do so. And the
other thing that's important is having a good credit score.

(05:30):
And a good credit score is through the credit agencies,
and it's normally considered to be six hundred and seventy
year higher. And you should check that from time to
time if you're not sure what you're doing, but I
would caution you that don't check it too often. Actually,
checking your credit score too often can actually have hurt

(05:51):
your credit score because it shows a sign of concern stress.

Speaker 6 (05:57):
Interesting when you were listing of those things, I was thinking,
of course, like making sure we stay on budget with
the cost of living and things like that. When you
talk about savings, for example, that could be done by
a kid who's working their first job. So are these
types of habits exclusive to people that have good salaries
or are these sort of things that everybody, regardless of
their income, should be looking at trying to achieve.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
This applies to everybody, and frankly, somebody at the lower
income level, they're probably need to be better at it
than someone at a much higher income level. But remember
we're all human beings and we get used to lifestyle.
So whether you're making fifty thousand dollars a year or
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, you cannot

(06:41):
adjust that very quickly, so you better plan and work
around that.

Speaker 6 (06:46):
Yeah, and when we look at New flann and Labrador,
what is the average income for somebody in this province
of how do we sort of stack up with the
rest of Canada.

Speaker 5 (06:54):
We have one of the lowest average incomes in the country.
The average income is approximately fifty five thousand dollars dollars. However,
we don't like to use average incomes because if you
have someone like a doctor or a professional or very
successful business person and they have a very high earned income,
they're going to distort the averages. So we look at

(07:17):
median income, and the median income in Newfoundland and Labrador,
which means fifty percent make less and fifty percent make more,
is about forty one thousand dollars.

Speaker 6 (07:30):
So that fifty five is being skewed by the higher
earners in some cases, so it's not representative of everybody.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
We have about two hundred and thirty five thousand people
in our workforce in Newfoundland and Labrador, and to be
in the top one percent of income earners, you make
about two hundred and twenty two hundred and twenty five
thousand dollars. Yeah, and there's probably not fifty five hundred
people in that category, yeah, out of two hundred and
thirty five thousand, but they will skew the numbers.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
I'm speaking with Brian Henley for the Allergy Henley Group
about why.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Financial health is such a critical and often overlook part
of our overall well being.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
When we come back, we'll talk more about how financial
stress shows up in our lives and what people can
do to start taking control of it. We'll be right
back after the break.

Speaker 4 (08:21):
Welcome back.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
I'm here with Brian Henley from the Allergy Henley Group,
and before the break we were talking about why financial
health matters just as much as physical and mental health.
Let's pick up where we left off and dig into
how people can start building more stability and confidence with
their finances.

Speaker 6 (08:37):
Let's talk about the negative side of things and what
happens when we're financially stressed. You, I'm sure you've helped
individuals be able to improve their financial health like somebody
would help improve physical health. What happens to folks when
they're dealing with this financial burden of having poor finances.

Speaker 5 (08:54):
Over their head. Well, normally, when people finally come to
us or are referred to us to get help, they've
normally made the decision that I have a problem and
I need to get some advice, which is a good scene.
But let me just give you a few indicators that
show you that you should be concerned. So one is

(09:17):
daily cash flow indicators. So again old saying, living paycheck
to paycheck, and that's not a good sign of a
healthy individual financially having lack of emergency savings or no
emergency savings. I mean, the world has always thrown us curves.

(09:40):
It could be you're working in rural Newfoundland, you're working
in a fish plant or a mine, or wherever and
the company gets into financial difficulty and all of a sudden,
no fault of your own, but you're out of a job. Okay,
you could have health issues with you or a family member,
so you know you need to have savings, emergency savings.

(10:04):
The other sign is that you're dipping into your savings.
So for example, there are people dip into their savings
or even their retirement accounts to pay the grocery bill
or to pay the rent. That's somebody who needs to
get some advice. You also can take a look at
people that are currently being charged outrageous overdraft fees and

(10:29):
late payment fees by the financial institutions or the credit
card companies that they're using. That's an indicator that it's
a problem. And you know, if you're at bank A
or credit union B and they're charging you five dollars
or ten dollars every time you have an overdraft payment,
that can add up in the runal a month, and

(10:51):
it's a sign that there's cash flow issues. Yeah, so
that's cash flow. Then we look at debt and credit warnings.
So there are some people who make the minimum payment
only how many people do we know, no matter what
their income levels? Are they make the minimum payment on
their credit card? Well, at eighteen ninety twenty one percent interest,

(11:13):
they will never ever get out of that hole. How
many people are maxed out with their credit cards or
close to maxed out? Okay? And you know you have
to be careful with your financial institutions because they'll automatically
increase your credit limit on your credit card. And the
question should be asked, do I really need that limit?

(11:35):
And how disciplined am I to make sure I don't
max out that limit because of all the things that
I want? And also if you're using credit cards or
cash advances or the things that I can't stand, or
these payday loans to cover basic living expenses. And then

(11:56):
the last one is juggling bills. I I pay this
guy this month versus that guy next month because I
don't have the money to pay all the bills. Now,
some of these circumstances are not We can't go blaming
people for them. Something's just happen. But they have to

(12:17):
take charge of their own affairs and say what do
I have to do to get myself back in order? Yep.
And then of course we go to what they call
psychological or behavioral issues, and you know relationship strain. Number

(12:38):
one reason there are couples to split is normally money. Okay,
I'm not surprised about that, because people have bad spending habits,
and you have to remember, with a couple, you normally
have one who's good with money and the other who's
not good with money. But you have to make sure
that they work as a unit. And you know, when

(12:59):
you see people people hiding expenditures from their significant other,
that's normally a pretty major sign. The other thing, too
is even with the limited mail service we get today,
avoiding your mail, not opening those envelopes that come in
from the people you owe money to, okay, and not

(13:24):
showing it to your partner. That's a real true sign.
And then the other thing as well. And COVID caused
a lot of problems psychologically for people, but awful lot
of people have removed themselves from socializing. And one of

(13:45):
the reasons they removed themselves from socializing is because they
don't have the financial capacity in their in their minds
to participate and they're embarrassed if people figure it out.

Speaker 6 (13:59):
I was just gonna ask a question around a shame
with this. A lot of people struggle when it comes
to their finances. But there's a stigma or a shame
that comes around not having enough. Sometimes I've heard tons
of stories of people buying expensive things that have a
brand name on it just so they can demonstrate that
they're doing okay in public, but yet they don't have
the funds to cover it.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
Is Is there anything for people to be.

Speaker 6 (14:21):
Ashamed of if they're facing these types of financial stresses
or should they acknowledge it and then start to do
positive actions to try and fix it.

Speaker 5 (14:32):
Well, they should not be ashamed. But yeah, we are
human and if someone's an alcoholic, you can't do much
for them until they admit they have a problem and
they need to get some help. If someone has mental
health issues, you know, historically there was a stigma in

(14:53):
our society. Today that stigma is not nearly as great
as it used to be, but again you have to
recognize it and you have to go get the necessary help. Well,
there's no difference with the financial and remember we can't
survive in our society today without money.

Speaker 6 (15:10):
Yeah, I remember I was one time I was in
Costa Rica and a photographer said to me, he goes
you know, it's funny, we're the only animals that pay
to be.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
Here and that never left me.

Speaker 6 (15:20):
But I also think that sometimes you know, number one,
we made buy into different things that we think we
need when we don't really need them. But also I
think people might be surprised about how much money we
waste or we don't even know where it's all going sometimes,
and that they may have more if they had a
bit of guidance to somebody to walk them through what

(15:41):
a good financial picture looks for them. Do you guys
ever see that with folks that like they realize they
have a little bit more than they thought.

Speaker 5 (15:49):
We see it all the time, whether it's dealing people individually,
or we do a lot of seminars for employee groups
for our group corporate clients. And I dare you, Mike,
I challenge you, okay to go home and do a
budget and if need be, we can give you a
list of items to consider, okay, and then track your

(16:12):
paycheck and tell me, can you account for every dollar
you spend?

Speaker 4 (16:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (16:18):
I'm going to suggest to you that about twenty percent
of your take home pay disappears and you don't even
know where it goes. Yeah, even with debit cards versus
cash today and it is. As an example, you have
a friend selling tickets for their childs for a hockey team,

(16:40):
a scout troop, a figure skating team. Okay, next minute,
you're buying tickets or giving donating money to help your
fellow co workers and their children. You don't track if
you go to a dry cleaner. While you spend at
a dry cleaner, you go to your local coffee shop

(17:03):
and get your coffee brow twice a day. Yep, who
tracks that.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
I'm speaking with Brian Henley for the Allergy Henley Group
about why financial health is such a critical and often overlook.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Part of our overall well being.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
When we come back, we'll talk more about how financial
stress shows up in our lives and what people can
do to start taking control of it. We'll be right
back after the break.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
Welcome back.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
I'm here with Brian Henley from the Allergy Henley Group, and.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
Before the break we were talking about why financial health
matters just as much as physical and mental health.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Let's pick up where we left off.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
And dig into how people can start building more stability
and confidence with their finances.

Speaker 6 (17:54):
If somebody is struggling with finances, or if I was
stressed with finances, then I would would love to be
able to remedy that by looking and finding twenty percent
more right.

Speaker 4 (18:05):
But it's challenging. Fortunately, you say as interesting as a couple.

Speaker 6 (18:09):
My wife is an accountant, so I'm lucky to have
a bit of a coach at home and colleagues like
yourself that have grained this in me. But for a
lot of people, I don't think they realize this how
significant it can be. And when you talk about things
like savings and investments and credit scores and things like that,
that can be a little bit scary for people, almost
like when we talk about big.

Speaker 4 (18:27):
Terminology and medicine.

Speaker 6 (18:29):
Where are the areas that people feel most confused and
lost and when they feel.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
Lost and they kind of shut off sometimes.

Speaker 5 (18:37):
Yeah, lack of education has been the problem, and to
be fair, I think society and governments deserve some of
the criticism for this, and possibly us as parents or grandparents.
People haven't been educated how to handle money, how to live,
plan a budget, how to make a budget. And today

(18:58):
with technology, the internet and all, that's fantastic, but it
also can be very dangerous because go clean out your
solicitation list of all the different people that are hitting
you up for this gadget or that gadget, and it
adds up.

Speaker 6 (19:17):
If you want to buy something you could litter. We
should be supporting local. I know you're a huge advocate
for that, but you could go order it online from
your favorite store downtown, or you could get a ship
right to your house in four seconds. That's the problem.
You can literally buy anything you want at any time.
Now that barrier of getting up, going in the car,
go to the bank to get some money out and
then purchasing something is completely removed.

Speaker 5 (19:39):
Well, yes, and yes, I am buased. I openly admitted
I'm biased to shopping local, buying local and supporting family enterprises,
which is the majority businesses in if Nina Labrador like
by Miles and I agree with that too. But it's
called the convenience factor. You know, sitting on your couch
or in your favorite chair and having your laptop or

(20:02):
your iPhone. You can do things, but you better be
disciplined there because you can end up spending money. I mean,
I've seen people and I know their financial circumstances, and
I watched the courier packages that come to their office.
Forget going to their home and even their colleagues are noticing.

(20:25):
You know, he or she's getting eight or nine courier
packages a week delivered to the office. Yeah, like you know,
that's mainly a sign of a problem.

Speaker 6 (20:36):
Well, you said something that's really intriguing to me, because
I've been saying this about health for a long time,
is that we really need to focus on health education
in the schools. But I was fortunate my mom was
a gym teacher, so I grew up understanding about health.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
You grew up in a family that did.

Speaker 6 (20:50):
Financial counseling for people for generations, so you had that advantage.
But for folks that have been educated on it, how
can they, at this stage in their life find ways
to be able to improve that knowledge base so that
they feel more empowered aboth things, because it can be
really daunting to start from scratch.

Speaker 5 (21:09):
Well, the younger generation, they like to go online and
learn things online initially, but a lot of people need
to go and seek out a professionally qualified financial advisor,
and I mean with proper designations, in good standing and
is independent. Okay, yeah, and that can be done and

(21:34):
then normally a good financial advisor will meet with you
initially and there will be no charge for the initial meeting,
And the reason behind that should be that they need
to determine your circumstances. And you need to determine whether
you like this financial advisor and trust this financial advisor

(21:57):
to assist you with your planning down the road. Yep.
And you should want it to become a long term relationship,
so you need to take the time. You know, if
you're going to build a house, Mike, you probably don't
just talk to one contractor or one building designer. If
you're in medicine, there's always healthy advice has always been

(22:21):
to get a second opinion, and no specialists in any
area that I know that's good will have any issue
with getting the second opinion. Yep. Yeah, what's the difference
with your finances?

Speaker 6 (22:37):
Totally well, And you gave the list of things that
people should look out for. When I'm thinking about the
health side of things, I know you are very engaged
when it comes to the health side.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
I mean, what do people complain of when they're dealing
with these things?

Speaker 6 (22:47):
So, yes, they could have no savings and living paycheck
to paycheck, but like, how does that actually manifest And
people come in and they're like, actually, health is being
directly affected by this.

Speaker 5 (22:57):
Well, You'll have people that are suffering from insomnia. You
have people that have headaches, and as you know, I
don't need to tell you what you can measure where
the headaches comes from and whether it's a strict stress
headache versus a migraine headache. Well, finances are usually major
priorer to stress. The other thing, too, is denial and

(23:20):
you know, don't want to discuss it, don't want to
talk about it. I mean, I've had some people that
I've known over the years who have been referred to
our firm and they don't want to come talk to us.
And these are good people, but you know why they
don't want to come talk to us. They don't want

(23:41):
us to know what financial mess they're in.

Speaker 6 (23:46):
Yeah, I feel like that people like that was health
though too. I mean, you know, and as somebody who
used to help with health, and the same thing with
you with finances is that any good practitioner isn't gonna
judge people. They're going to slowly bring them to a
point where they're improving. You're not going to cure something
or fix something overnight. In health, we're not probably gonna

(24:08):
do the same thing when it comes to their financial situation.
Is there an unrealistic expectation that they have to be
perfect when they walk in and talk to somebody like yourself.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
No, I don't think so. Most of it is a
lack of knowledge and understanding and they don't even know
is it even fixable? Yeah? Okay, And if you have
that level of a discomfort, you've got to get over that.
So that's why the initial discussion, at least with our
firm has to be the type of person you are,

(24:41):
the type of work that needs to be done. And
of course, remember we do this for entrepreneurs and for
self employed people as well. It's not just the employees
or people that are out earning an income working for
company A or company B, or government A or B. Yeah,
you know, And I mean I'm a long standing a
long time ago. I'm past president of Personal Care of
Counseling Service yeh, which is now Credit Counseling Newfland, Labrador.

(25:04):
They changed the name, and I remember years ago. I'm
not going to quote the stats directly because it's it's
a long time ago, but the number of people that
were coming to Credit Counseling for Advice, which is a
nonprofit entity that were civil servants in the provincial government,

(25:24):
was huge. Yeah he had alone single moms yep. Okay, yep,
But you know what you all said, doctors and lawyers
and business people there as well. Yep.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
Yeah, it's something that's universal to a lot of folks.

Speaker 6 (25:38):
And you know something I feel like that we don't
think about when we're younger unless it's been something that's
really ingrained in us is retirement. So for young adults,
I think about, like, these days, the situations for people
are changing. There's individuals now that are for going close
to retirement and hopefully they've prepared for that. But how
important it is for younger people to plan out that

(26:01):
approach towards retirement so that they're comfortable when they get
to those golden years of life, which are supposed to
be some of our best.

Speaker 5 (26:09):
Well, it's very important. But it's like everything else. You're young,
you believe you're indestructible, and you believe the world is
your oyster, which it is, to be honest, it's just
now what you make of it. Yeah, and so those
that plan early will require less money, and money makes money. Yeah,

(26:32):
So that may sound very corny, a very old fashioned,
but it's true. Yep, and dull and boring works. And
I'm going to tell you whether it's fifty bucks a
month or one hundred and fifty bucks a month, you'll
miss it for your first two or three months, and
then after that it becomes part of your habit. Yeah,

(26:54):
and then you just adjust it over time. So I mean,
I've got people today that started as fifty dollars a month.
They're now at one thousand dollars a month, and they're
in great, great financial shape because they stuck to the
game plan that we laid out. You know, we had
to tweet. But it's a matter of where your priorities are.

(27:16):
And financial planning is like a pyramid. So in the
basement of the pyramid, you need to have a proper will.
You need to have a power of attorney or maybe
two powers of attorney depending which problems you live in.
You should also have a healthcare directive. But you also

(27:38):
then to meet to make sure that you have your
health insurance, that you have what life insurance you need
if you need any, depending your personal circumstances. But one
of the things that people don't usually do a good
job of they don't have disability insurance and if a
young person, particularly males, they have about seven eight times

(27:59):
greater chance of long term permanent disability than they do
a premature death. And then you build into your emergency
savings which we discussed, and then you have a down
payment for a house and or a piece of land
for a summer home. Okay, you got your vehicle. But
we're in outdoor land here in Newfoundland, so we want

(28:20):
our quads, we want our boats.

Speaker 4 (28:24):
Yeah, this is adding up.

Speaker 5 (28:25):
It's a lie add thought. And we don't like to share.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
Yeah, yeah, I want my own quad.

Speaker 5 (28:31):
I'm not going to share my quad.

Speaker 4 (28:32):
With you, Mike, right, So yeah, I probably trash it.

Speaker 5 (28:36):
And so it's a matter for then you get into
safer investments. And then as you go up the pyramid,
you take after tax monies above the RSP maxims or
your pension plan maxims and your Canada pension plant. And
with a proper plant, you know you can do well.

(28:58):
But I want to make it big point because often
you'll hear a forty five or a fifty year old say, well,
it's too late for me to start now because I
didn't do when I was twenty five. That's not correct.
It's never too late to start. But I will tell
you that if you start early and you stick to

(29:20):
a proper plan, you will be very good financial shape.
But you know, there are many things that can blind
side I mean, you know today not all partners are
getting married, yep. But there's still a high divorce rate
in our province and in our country and society in general.

(29:41):
And you know there are people that stay together because
of the financial circumstances but their personal relationship is long gone. Yeah,
Or they stay together until the kids get in the theories,
until the kids get to a certain age yep. Well,
unless you're independently wealthy and you have one very very

(30:03):
tight freeing up or marriage contract, yeah, any divorce or
separation is going to be financially strenuous, let alone the
emotional side. Yeah, And you've got to balance all that out.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
I'm speaking with Brian Henley for the Allergy Henley Group
about why financial health is such a critical and often overlook.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Part of our overall well being.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
When we come back, we'll talk more about how financial
stress shows up in our lives and what people can
do to start taking control of it. We'll be right
back after the break.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
You're listening to what we broadcast of the Wellness and
Healthy Lifestyle Show with doctor Mike Wall. Listen live Thursday
nights at seven pm and Sunday's at four pm.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
Welcome back.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
I'm here with Brian Henley from the Allergy Henley Group.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
And before the break we were talking about why financial
health matters just as much as physical and mental health.
Let's pick up where we left off and digging out
how people can start building more stability.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
And confidence with their finances.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (31:06):
Yeah, it's a lot, and it's and it's universal to
all of us. I mean, what you're saying to me
right here and correct me if I'm wrong on what
you're doing is number one. We've got to educate ourselves
as soon as we can, even to understand some of
the basic things, and then start habits like we would
with exercise at a young age, you know, start exercising
so it becomes part of who you are as a person.
Even if you're only saving a little bit as a kid,
you start to learn to save and then that slowly

(31:29):
grows if your income grows, and then over time, like
you said, what Einstein say, the most powerful force of
the universe was compound interest, you know, something like that.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
So it was my father's favorite long.

Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah, yeah, good, so that you know.

Speaker 6 (31:43):
So it's about you know, it's about we're creating these habits,
just like with anything that comes to our health, when
these things happen that we don't plan for. You just
talked about divorce. People talk about illness or disability or
things like this. How does having some sort of protection
or a plan in place or some emergency help people

(32:04):
stay resilient during those really challenging moments, because, like you said,
it's an emotional toll on everything that happens to us
as well. Throwing the financial on top just just seems
like it can be devastating for folks.

Speaker 5 (32:15):
Yes, it is. The real factor here is if you
have those emergency savings in place, while the emotions are
still going to be running high, the stress level won't
be as high because of financial circumstances. Yeah, you know
that you have the breathing room to get through this

(32:36):
probably what you consider a major crisis right now, but
in three years time you will consider it as major
as you do now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it just gives
you the breathing room and the flexibility. Yep.

Speaker 6 (32:48):
Yeah, and let's bring this back full circle, back to
that optimistic aspect that we started with, because right, because
you know, we can think about finance as being a stress,
but it can also be a benefit. In particular, I'm
thinking about our young audience here that is looking at
the world and seeing it's a different type of place
than it was maybe for previous generations when it came
to getting their own first house and building financial security

(33:09):
for themselves, it might be.

Speaker 4 (33:10):
A little bit more challenging.

Speaker 6 (33:12):
What would you what would you encourage them to do
today to create that.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
Optimistic future, no matter what route they take.

Speaker 5 (33:21):
Go out and get some advice and get someone who
will ask you what your goals and aspirations are, and
then we'll help you show how you can accomplish them,
and we'll assist you to get there and then listen
to them. I guess, well, yeah, my experience is very straightforward.

(33:42):
I've never met someone who's successful who doesn't take advice. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:47):
I've always told the people don't give advice unless to
try to help.

Speaker 5 (33:51):
Yeah, So why are you wasting your time with us
and why are we wasting our time with you? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (33:57):
Well, exactly and I think that that's that's what people
are getting to this today, is that you know, it
is complicated, but there are solutions, and there are things
that we may not even be realizing we're doing. There
may be a lack of education because we are taught
about health. We are taught about finances in school unless
we choose those fields and post secondary usually.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
But that's why the education is important. Okay, I mean,
I'll give you some examples. Mike, you go to get
into your vehicle after work today, do you think twice
about putting your seat belt down? No?

Speaker 4 (34:28):
Second nature?

Speaker 5 (34:29):
Okay, But I'm old enough to remember when the seat
belt legislation first came through and I had friends and
clients who needed a run, it wouldn't put the seat
belt down on the car. And I would look at
them and they say, well, we're not gonna put the
seat belt. Go get someone else to give your run,
or go get a taxi. Yeah, okay, because I'm now liable.

(34:50):
Something happened to you if you got in my vehicle.
But it's second nature today. Helmet's on bikes okay with children? Yeah,
all right. I never we never wore heleents on bikes
when we were kids, okay, but I wouldn't think twice
about it's automatic today. Yeah right, Yeah. And the other

(35:12):
thing as well is that even you know, you know
psychological factors today it's not just physical factors. We are
much more open society to recognizing people that have psychological
issues and they need them addressed just as much as
people need their physical issues addressed.

Speaker 4 (35:26):
Totally.

Speaker 5 (35:27):
But you know, the thing we have going on today,
and our province unfortunately is not good at it is
look at our waiting list for different types of procedures
and services. That adds stress to them. So they've got
financial stress, and they've got lifestyle stress, and that they
need a hip replacement and they got to wait twelve

(35:48):
months or they need to get into a CEE our
car specialist. That's adding to their stress level. Yep. So
but if they're financially okay, they're in better shape than
someone who's not financially okay. And these are people who
have genuine problems, yep. So we're in the business of advice,
but we're in the problem solving business, and most people

(36:11):
need advice, and most people that come to get advice
normally are very happy over the years and that's one
of the advantages we have with our business. We've been
around so long. I mean, we're dealing with some family
enterprises that are fifth and sixth generation now and we've
been advising them on their estate planning and the intergenerational transfers.

(36:38):
And you know, forget that we get paid for giving
the advice. It's very self gratifying that you've worked for
somebody for thirty or forty years and all the planning
that you did you now see it working. Yeah. I
mean we recently dealt with a successful entrepreneur and she's

(37:00):
turning a certain age. She has now to draw on
her pension and her RSP assets.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
Yeap is lost.

Speaker 5 (37:07):
He's turned seventy one.

Speaker 4 (37:08):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (37:09):
Well, we've been working together for a long time, so
she's financially independent from the day to day and also
her family are allowed to expand the business now without
making sure mom or grandma are unduly at risk.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
Well, I think that's it.

Speaker 6 (37:27):
Like you said, you're in the business of solving problems
for people, and I think that's a big one that
we need to maybe focus on.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
And I think that's why having this conversation this time
of year is so important.

Speaker 5 (37:37):
For folks.

Speaker 6 (37:37):
I'm always encouraging people to improve their health, but maybe
this year reflect and see whether or not the financial
health is the dimension of healthy you might think is
most important. Maybe it's social help, maybe it's physical, maybe
it's mental, but maybe it is financial.

Speaker 4 (37:50):
And that's why.

Speaker 6 (37:51):
I really appreciate you taking the time today to join us. Brian,
it's been fantastic work.

Speaker 5 (37:56):
Lifestyle balance, Mike, that's what it's all about.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
Well, that brings us to the end of today's episodes.
My thanks to Brian Henley and the alogy Henley Group
for a really thoughtful and practical conversation about financial health.
What really stands out to me is the idea that
financial health isn't about having a lot of money. It's
about having stability, breathing room, and a plan. Just like
with physical health, small habits done consistently over time make

(38:21):
a huge difference, and just like mental health, ignoring problems
and doesn't make them go away, it makes them heavier
to carry.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
If there's one takeaway from.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
Today, it's this financial stress is incredibly common and there's
no shame on it, and there is real help available,
whether you're just starting out, feeling stuck or trying to
plan for the future. Getting good advice and building a
plan can be life changing.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
So thanks for joining me. I'm your host, doctor Mike Wall.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
We'll see you back here in next week for another
episode of The Wilinson Healthy Lifestyle Show on the Stingray
podcast Network and your vocm