The Most Important Hour of My Financial Year

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I’m going to guess a lot of marriages end up having the same routine as mine has.

Typically, each spouse will settle into their own individual roles. One might be in charge of the cooking and cleaning, while the other cuts the grass, does routine maintenance, or takes care of the finances. These roles typically don’t change a lot as the marriage matures either, because spouses usually compliment each other. We naturally gravitate to the things we’re good at — or are at least interested in.

While each spouse has their own domain, big decisions are then made jointly. A vacation is planned together, and then it’s up to the money spouse to figure out where the cash will come from.

In a more traditional marriage this is often the husband’s role, with the wife having some input on big money decisions. Every marriage will be different, of course, but I remember growing up that most fathers ran the money aspect of things.

My marriage is a little different. My wife makes all the day-to-day financial decisions. She pays all the bills and she figures out how we’re going to get the money to save for our next vacation. Dividends leave the various investment accounts and immediately get shoveled over to her.

My role, meanwhile, is to take care of all the investments. I choose what stocks to buy, how to maximize our passive income, and worry about investing in a tax-efficient manner. I like to tell people she’s the household CEO and I’m the CFO.

She’s mostly happy to outsource this to me, but sometimes she has questions. These usually happen when the market is down, or when I mention some stock around the dinner table. I’m always happy to answer because:

• It’s her money too

• It’s interesting to me

• She needs to know what’s going on

• It gives me validation that we’re on the same page

But a few years ago, I realized it wasn’t enough. Answering questions is fine, but in order to be an effective household CFO I need to do more than that.

So I made a decision to hold a household meeting, once a year, where I’d present the State of our Investments. This meeting happens every January (usually the 2nd or the 3rd of the month), and it’s probably the most important hour of the year — at least from this CFO’s perspective.

As the New Year is rapidly approaching, let me take you through my presentation — including what what I cover, the kinds of questions it brings up, and, most importantly, why I do it.

What to cover

I like to keep my presentation ridiculously simple. I do this for a few reasons:

• Simple is almost always best

• Especially when you’re presenting to someone who doesn’t love the game as much as we do

• The details don’t especially matter anyway

So much of financial planning goes back to your goals. Our goals dictate everything. I wanted a secure retirement that would be funded by the earnings of solid Canadian stocks. They’re the bedrock of our economy, and investing in them is essentially betting on Canada. I want those earnings to be paid back to me in the form of dividends so I can enjoy the tax benefits of such a strategy, and because dividends are lazy. I don’t have to make any sell decisions, dividends just show up in my account.

This is incredibly important. I know so many investors who don’t have a financial plan at all. They’re just making it up as they go along.

Once you’ve identified the plan, the next step is to figure out what metrics matter the most. Since our plan is more focused on passive income, dividends become the most important element. They are the largest aspect of the portfolio review.

I don’t stop with just the dividends, however. I keep track at how the underlying stocks are performing. I just don’t give it as much weighting as I do the dividends, since I know stock prices can be fickle.

The second thing I track is how well our collective portfolio performed against the index. What I’ve found is that some years we beat the index (2022), and other years (2023, 2025), we don’t. This is because our portfolio is intentionally built to take less risk than the overall market, and will react accordingly. That means outperformance in weaker markets and underperformance in stronger markets. We’ve had excellent markets over the last couple of years, so the result has been predictable.

I continue to think that beating the index isn’t a great measuring stick for most DIY investors. They should track their progress compared to their goals, since that’s the most important metric.

But that doesn’t mean self-directed investors should ignore how the index performs. If you’re underperforming the index year in and year out, or if your portfolio is experiencing wild swings from one year to another, then it might be time to admit active stock picking isn’t for you.

This will include more of you than many first assume. The average investor gets crushed by the market. They do stupid things like chasing meme stocks, selling when everyone is freaking out, and blindly buying stock tips they see on Twitter.

Finally, I’ll share our goals for the upcoming year. I don’t try to predict how stocks will perform — that’s a fool’s bet — but I will go over things like:

• The amount of new capital I’d like to put to work

• Projected dividend income for the year

  • And how it’ll look for next year assuming dividend growth rates and new capital invested

• Any large purchases we’re saving for

• Any other portfolio goals, like say getting the portfolio up to a new round number

I put a lot of emphasis on income goals, and will make sure I track those religiously. At the end of each year I’ll go back and make sure that I hit each one. It’s also not that hard to predict how much dividends will increase each year. I’ve been able to get it pretty close in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

The amount I invest is also a key metric, although I’m aware that often life will happen throughout the year. So that part is a little bit less important, but it’s still something I’ll monitor.

So, in short, the presentation really only goes over three things:

1. How the accounts did last year

2. How passive income stacks up versus estimates

3. What the next year will look like

Like I said, this doesn’t need to be complicated.

What kind of questions will it bring up?

The whole point of this exercise is to communicate how the overall family finances are looking. Because your spouse doesn’t look at the portfolio on a regular basis, they’ll have questions.

This might seem like a pain in the you-know-where (ankle!), but they’re actually doing you a huge favour.

The fact is if you can’t explain your investment plan easily to your spouse, then either a) you don’t understand the plan very well b) the plan is bad or c) the presenter is a bad communicator.

Most people are able to communicate with their spouses fairly easily, so most misunderstandings are from the plan itself.

Think of these questions as stress tests. If you can’t explain things easily to your wife, then chances are you’ll forget these principles right when you need them most. 

Let me help with the questions. Here’s a list of ten that anyone on the receiving end should be asking. As the CFO (and presenter), I make sure I can answer these questions before the presentation even begins:

1. Why do we invest the way that we do?

2. Why do we have this portfolio instead of a simple portfolio of index funds?

3. Why did (the manager of the portfolio) make ‘x’ move when it doesn’t get us closer to our goals?

4. Why did our portfolio outperform/underperform?

5. Why are we taking less risk/more risk than the overall market?

6. How are potential new investments chosen?

7. What’s the selling process? How does the manager decide to sell a stock?

8. Does the portfolio have a large fee drag? If so, why?

9. Does our portfolio have enough international diversification?

10. What big changes have been made to the portfolio? Have those moves worked out?

Those are just a few of the questions that should be asked. The receiver should think of their own.

The tough questions are the most important part. My wife is excellent at this, and she really keeps me on my toes.

Why do it?

The simple reason to go to all this work is to keep your spouse informed. Marriage is a partnership. Each partner’s thoughts and feelings are important, even if they’re not involved in the day-to-day management of things.

Communication strengthens marriages. Plain and simple.

Another reason to do it is once your spouse understands your investment philosophy, it increases their chances of taking over the portfolio if you get pancaked by a bus.

My wife knows that we take a long-term approach and put our cash in solid, boring, lower-risk stocks that pay dividends. She has instructions that if I were to die, she shouldn’t touch a thing. The portfolio will continue to pump out dividends, and it should largely match index returns over time — but with lower risk.

If she doesn’t understand the thought process, then she’s more likely to make a bad decision. She might liquidate everything and create herself a large tax bill for no reason.

It’s also motivating. The spouse who manages the investments has a good idea what’s happening, but the other one is often clueless. It’s a great opportunity for some reassurance. Don’t worry dear, we’re on track. Here are the details.

The bottom line

There’s a reason why I chose this topic for January. The start of the new year is the perfect time to have this conversation with your partner, and it gets you both on the same page for the upcoming year.

I’ve been doing this for my wife for years now, and it’s insanely valuable. It forces a discussion on topics that can be a little bit uncomfortable for both of you.

It’s not always going to be easy. She might ask why you’re underperforming, or why you abandoned last year’s goals in the middle of the year. And you’d better have an answer. You owe her that much.

When done right, this exercise not only strengthens your marriage, but it also helps the presenter become a better investor. Each person benefits, and your collective financial situation will only improve.

Steal my template

Rather than coming up with your own presentation template, feel free to steal mine.

All you have to do is fill in the blanks.

It covers:

• A snapshot of how spouse A’s portfolio did

• A snapshot of how spouse B’s portfolio did

• Including reasons for over or underperformance

• A snapshot of last year’s total portfolio income

• A look forward at next year’s portfolio income

• Total portfolio goals for 2026, including projected savings amounts, upcoming big purchases, etc.

That’s it. It’s six slides, and my art skillz aren’t great, but it makes up for that by being direct and to the point. There’s zero filler.

And it’s yours, for free. Just follow this link to my Google Drive and it’s there, waiting for you. Just download the file to your PC and you’re in business.

One more thing

I’ve decided to open the comment section back up. So if you have anything to say, head to the site and give it a try.