In this conversational podcast episode, retiree Stan recounts his personal investment journey, highlighting three major drawdowns in his RRSP—$135,000 in 2016‑2017, $91,000 during the pandemic, and $130,000 in the post‑pandemic inflationary period. He describes the emotional toll of watching his portfolio dip repeatedly at age 61 and attributes the volatility to geopolitical events, federal policy decisions, and central‑bank actions. Frustrated with the lack of control, Stan explains how a conversation with his financial advisor led him to withdraw roughly $160,000 from his RRSP to fund an “infinite banking” whole‑life insurance policy through Ascendant. He details the shift in mindset from traditional equity‑based retirement planning to a policy‑backed cash strategy that promises stability, guarantees, and the ability to keep wealth within the family for future generations. Host Neal guides the discussion, probing Stan’s motivations and goals—security, protection from market swings, and multigenerational wealth preservation. The episode also includes a promotional plug from author Richard Canfield for his book Don’t Spread the Wealth, which advocates family banking meetings and keeping wealth in‑family. The overall narrative moves from describing loss and uncertainty, through the discovery of infinite banking, to the intended outcomes of financial security and legacy building.
Chapters
We don't know what's going to happen out there geopolitically or health-wise. Do we think the world is going to be a more stable place or a less stable place? You know, they're probably going to disrupt the oil shipping routes and, you know, we're probably going to get a spike in oil and, you know, it's just going to wreak havoc on the world.
You're doing retirement planning based on the outcome of a foreign government's election.
I have no control whatsoever what the federal government's going to do. It's something that we really can't control. I was checking my portfolio online quite a bit, and I used to hate it when I'd log on and see a dip. It's like, damn it, you know, it's down again. And there's those— there was a lot of periods, Neal, and we'll show— I've got a slide here coming up that shows that sideway movement right before I started this. And it's a very disconcerting feeling. Like, I'm 61. You don't want to see things like that happening at this age. You know, it's a sinking feeling.
Well, you know what? Let's rip the Band-Aid off here, Stan, and let's pull back the curtain and You tell me what we're looking at here.
Okay. So this is a slide of my investment portfolio that my wife and I had. So I contribute into my own RSP and a spousal RSP. And this data goes back to 2016. And that's all I could get, unfortunately, because prior to that it was with a different firm and they merged with another one. So that's as far back as it goes. So you can see here, it's getting a little bit of growth up into 2017 and Then the market started to kind of go down a little bit. And I think, you know, personally, my thoughts are some federal government policies that we had kind of had a little to do with that. But I won't make this into a political discussion.
We can always speculate, can't we, Stan?
Yeah. So you can see here, dip number 1 from the peak over here down to about here, that was a $135,000 drop. Okay. That's hard to make up because now I've broken the compounding effect from back here. Now I'm starting here, so I have to have a lot of growth growth to make up for that. So we're flat from that period. On to here, well, that was the pandemic. You know, that slide before showed you— I don't know when something like that's going to happen again. So another dip here. That dip was of about $91,000 in my RSP. So we can see some recovery here. That's when the government started flooding, you know, the economy with money and dollars. So there was a lot of spending going on. You know, we get up to the peak here And after that, you know, central bank and everyone figures out, uh-oh, we've put too much money into the system. We gotta tighten things up. Inflation was running out of control. You know, now you've got this dip in the market. So there's another $130,000 drop. You know, got lucky. 2024 was a really good year. And you know, I started the same time as you did, Neal, with Ascendant. And that's where I really started to understand what infinite banking was and how to properly design a policy. And I just had to wait for a little bit of recovery. Right here at this point was right before the federal election in the US. And I remember having this conversation with my financial advisor. I said, I want to pull my equities out. I want to put them into like a cash account, you know, a high-performing cash savings account. And he looked at me, he goes, why do you want to do that? It's crazy. I said, well, I don't know what's going to happen, but whatever happens down in the US is going to affect us up here. We're tied at the hip. I thought, well, if Harris gets elected, I don't, I don't have a lot of good hopes for the economy. It's going to kind of be more of the same. But then I thought Trump might be better for the economy, but you never know. Nobody forecasted that tariff war coming. I never saw that coming either. And that's had a really bad effect on us up here and down there, in my opinion. So this drop here, that was my first withdrawal out of my RSP to start playing the policy.
And you can see that the gray line down below that, that corresponds with that, right?
As a withdrawal. Yes, that was a withdrawal. So, you know, we backdated the policy, so I got to put in 2 years worth of premium. So I withdrew about $160,000 out of my RSP that time.
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And you know what, Stan, just for whatever it's worth, I'm just looking at the graph here. And one of the things that I'm sort of seeing here, if we start up here, this kind of feels, dare I say, maybe it's a little bit here, kind of feels like you were in a bit of a box here for a number of years, right?
I was. I was.
And I shouldn't be laughing. I mean, that's terrible, right? That's not how you want to live your retirement, right?
No, it wasn't. And it was always very frustrating to see things like this. And like I said, when I was younger, Neal, it didn't really bother me. You know, that's the, and in the industry I was in, it was like that. You know, a lot of the companies I worked for were publicly traded. So you're always trying to get that stock up. And it was like a roller coaster, you know, with commodity prices up and down and, you know, one day your stock options are worth a lot and the next day they're worth nothing. So, you know, I've always been heavily tied into that market and quite frankly, and through here, Neal, this period, I got tired of it. Yeah.
I mean, you, you're doing retirement planning based on the outcome of a foreign government's election.
Yes.
I mean, I don't know about you, but I haven't seen that on any spreadsheet of stock returns ever and the sleepless nights that that carries with it, right?
No. And same thing here, Neal. I have no control whatsoever what the federal government's going to do. Look at now. What do they want to spend? $500 billion with no budget? Like, can you guys believe that? Like, everyone in the chat, like, what do you guys think about that? There's going to be more money flooding the market. What's going to happen? Inflation again? It's something that we really can't control.
Well, I remember, Stan, in this period here, right? I mean, it was like must-see TV with the next interest rate announcement. Are they going to cut? Are they going to put it higher? What's happening with interest rates? And then the market would gyrate, right? So, at some point though here, Stan, you shifted gears, right? And that didn't start with, you know, reallocating resources here or there. I'm assuming it started between your ears.
Oh, it did, Neal. It's when I first, like I mentioned before, when I first heard about infinite banking, I just vividly remember how mad I felt that I didn't know about this before, you know, that there was a better way of doing things. And it's like you say here, rethink your thinking on retirement. I knew there was a better way, but I wasn't quite sure how to do it until, you know, I got into Ascendant and I really got a strong grasp of this.
Well, and you know, that's Nelson's fifth golden rule is rethink your thinking, right? So we've pulled back the curtain on your conventional plan. Now let's pull back the curtain on what you're doing now and the solution that you've put in place for your family. And before I pull that back, just give me the 3 or 4 top things you were hoping to achieve with this plan.
Stan? For us, it was the safety and the security and guarantee that I didn't have to worry about volatility. Like maybe go back to that slide for a sec, Neal, the building on it. We don't know what's gonna happen out there geopolitically or health-wise. I mean, I think you had this before, Neal, like, do we think the world is gonna be a more stable place or a less stable place? You know, I ask everyone, type in the chat M for more stable or L for less stable.
Let's see what we got coming up here. Got a whole bunch of Ls here, Stan.
Yep.
Big L. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. You just don't know what's gonna happen.
Triple L. Yeah.
Like, you know, right now I'm a bit of a political junkie and, you know, I've been watching very closely what's going on in the States and, you know, what if Trump decides to go drop that MOP on that reactor in Iran? What's going to happen? Well, they're probably going to disrupt, you know, the oil shipping routes and, you know, we're probably going to get a spike in oil and, you know, it's just going to wreak havoc on the world. And, you know, it's out of our control, but it's going to affect the markets, you know? Yeah. If you have your savings tied up in there, you're at the mercy of that. And for me, very disconcerting.
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