PENSION & FINANCIAL WELLNESS

Ron Thompson Member, Pension & Financial Wellness Committee ARTA

At the time, we didn’ t have much knowledge when it came to financial matters, so we decided to seek help from a debt counsellor. Sometimes known as credit counsellors, they are a kind of financial adviser who specializes in helping clients better manage their debt.

Many reasons might cause someone to struggle with debt: unexpected bills, a sudden and costly emergency, spending habits that don’ t align with income level, high interest rates— the list goes on. Even if you’ ve successfully managed your finances your whole life, big changes in expenses or income( like during retirement) may leave you feeling overwhelmed.

Before arranging a meeting with a debt counsellor, it’ s worth doing some research to make sure they are legitimate. There are a lot of scams out there that prey on desperate people under the guise of helping them. The Government of Canada lists several tips and trusted resources that can help you find a legitimate counsellor: bit. ly / goc-dept-help Fortunately, our debt counselling experience was a positive one. At our first appointment, we started out by giving the counsellor an extensive list of our debts and our revenues. Depending on the source of your debt, a counsellor might offer you a range of possible solutions. We were only given three possibilities: reduce our monthly outflow of cash, look for a second source of revenue or, ideally, do both.

With the professional advice we received, we felt confident about our next choice: going to our

bank and asking for an extension to our mortgage to provide enough money to cover all our debts. When we got the new mortgage, we followed these steps:

• My wife and I sat down together once a month to review our budget.

• We totalled all the bills we owed to various businesses.

• We withdrew the amount of money from the bank that we needed to pay all the bills for each month.

• We paid each business in our community in cash. By withdrawing only enough cash to cover our planned expenses, we limited our ability to overspend.

• Where the business was not in our community, we paid them through our bank.

We followed the lessons and strategies our debt counsellor shared with us even after our financial situation improved. They formed a foundation for a deeper level of financial literacy within our family. We set up an RRSP account, emergency rainy-day funds, tax-free saving accounts, and wisely invested windfalls rather than spending the unexpected money immediately.

To this day, we follow our counsellor’ s recommended process for paying our bills, and it has worked well for us. If you are finding you have more month than money, consider talking to a debt counsellor about your options. There’ s no harm in asking for help!

SPRING 2026 | 13