From Debt to Dream Retirement

Paul & Margaret - Ontario East & North Region

Our clients are in their 70s. They worked hard their entire lives but had made a number of investments that didn't turn out so well. On top of that, family members were taking advantage of their goodwill and borrowing money from them. When they joined the Paladin Program, Paul and Margaret dreamed of buying a motor home and touring North America, but they didn't know how they would afford it. To help them realize this dream, we first had to help them put their finances in order.

Over several decades, our clients had bought a number of homes in order to benefit from the rental income. The problem was, they bought the houses with lines of credit, loans and mortgages. Given the mix of debt tools, rental income did not cover their payments. They had also invested roughly $300,000 with a financial planner who steered them into investments too risky for their stage in life.

When they came to us they had lost much of the $300,000. We crystallized their losses and divided the remaining money between a GIC and an investment fund that gave them some income. We helped them to put family members on a payment schedule and consolidated their real estate debt into a low-interest blanket mortgage. That turned rental income into positive cash flow and allowed our clients to finance the mobile home of their dreams. We eventually helped them sell several of the less profitable properties in a good market. Now the happy couple goes south in the winter and travels Canada in the summer. They still come in to see us a few times a year just to make sure that they are still on the right track.