Hi. My name is Thomas Cowan and I am a Financial Security Advisor for Freedom 55 Financial which is a division of the London Life Insurance Company. It is my pleasure to be a small part of this web page in the capacity to be able to offer various kinds of financial information and advice to Professional Engineers.

It is my hope that I can offer you help in tackling the day to day financial problems which develop as Engineering Students and also help Graduated Engineers with advice as they work in their profession.

Moving from the “Student” world to the “Professional” world is a transition in life. The student world may have left you with debts, some of which could be very large. These debts can be a heavy mental burden on the coming years and stressful in your day to day life. The governments involved with student loans offer you six months after graduation before the first payment on the loan(s) is required. However, you have spent many years educating yourself to enter a profession where it is hoped your income will be substantially higher than the national average salary. That is a tremendous asset for you to have and you have devoted your time and effort for a large number of years to achieve this capability. You have been making many financial decisions throughout those education years and now you must make new financial decisions with, hopefully a regular income coming in.

What then is the best approach to solving your immediate problems, enjoying the benefits of an income, and at the same time developing a plan which enables you to make larger purchases in the future and create the comfortable life style which you now desire and deserve?

A common mistake made by many students and professionals is to try and tackle these problems and at the same time set up a financial plan without at least seeking the help of a professional in the financial field. If you think back, it is easy to realize that most of your education has been focused on mathematics, science, and engineering. It is extremely rare that you have taken any classes or experienced any kind of formal education in financial planning. You have learned that your profession is quite specific in nature and certainly not everyone in society has the back ground, education, and skill which you now have today and will continue to develop during your career. You may be called upon to bring in other professionals in various fields to help you carry out areas of the project you are working on or to actually move the project from its conceptual stage to the reality stage. Therefore it should be easy for you to also realize that one of the processes in developing a financially successful life style is to also consult a professional in this area for advice. I strongly urge you to take advantage of the services which I can offer you.

And so what will these services cost you? Often individual companies will charge a fee for their advice and consultations but working at Freedom 55 Financial I have decided that planning and consulting would not be a chargeable service. This could mount up to many free hours over the years. As well investment products can also be offered at no charge. Insurance products naturally do cost a fee or what is called a premium simply because you are buying a product.

Now it is time to bring one important item to your attention. You have worked hard to develop a career and profession and at the same time give you the chance to earn a high level of income. If you were to list on one side of a piece of paper all the things you buy or pay for each month it would probably be quite a long list. Now, if you list on the other side of the page where the money comes from to pay for these items it would in most cases list one item only and that would be from your income. One of the most valuable items you now possess is the ability to make a living. People will often insure their automobiles, houses, jewelry, TV’s, computers, etc but they never consider insuring the one commodity which has one of the greatest values to them and that’s “the ability to make money”. All your hard work so far has been to put you in a position to make a decent income so why not insure it?

This type of insurance is called “Disability Insurance”. Many companies will offer this insurance through a group benefits plan. It is very important that you talk to me about this kind of insurance. It is important you have it but often people do not know what the coverage really is. Generally I can outline some of the features this kind of insurance offers over the phone, if you are interested. I will also try to be more specific about what is offered in this line of coverage in my next column.

Please feel free to call me at the numbers listed or email me at the address shown on any financial question or problem. All the very best in your life and profession.

Thomas Cowan
Financial Security Advisor

Suite 500, 5575 North Service Road
Burlington, Ontario L7L 6M1
Office: 905-332-3400, ext. 528
Toll Free: 1-800-344-6235, ext 528
Fax: 905-332-3999
E-mail:   thomas.cowan@freedom55financial.com
or:    tcowan5@cogeco.ca