Robyn Thompson of Castlemark Wealth Management.Supplied
Sign up for the Globe Advisor weekly newsletter for professional financial advisors on our sign-up page. Get exclusive investment industry news and insights, the week’s top headlines, and what you and your clients need to know. For more from Globe Advisor, visit our homepage.
In this new series, Behind the Advice, we ask advisors about their relationship with money from a young age, lessons learned over the years, and how their experiences shape the advice they give clients today.
Robyn Thompson, founder and wealth consultant at Castlemark Wealth Management Inc. in Toronto, talks about growing up poor and what drove her to pursue a career of helping others build and protect their wealth.
What was your first money lesson?
It was more of an experience I had when I was 10 years old, growing up in Niagara Falls, Ont. I remember the ice cream truck would come to our neighbourhood, and kids would get change from their parents and run out to buy some. I would ask my mom for money to buy some ice cream, and the answer was almost always the same, ‘Not this week, honey.’
Later at the playground, some of the mean kids would sing to me the Eddie Murphy song Ice Cream Man, which went something like: ‘You don’t have no ice cream … because you’re on welfare.” Well, you can imagine my reaction. I wanted to hide inside my own skin. It was the first time I remember feeling like I wasn’t enough. My family used to be middle class and lost its way. My parents divorced a few years later, and my dad lost his business. My mother was a stay-at-home mom with three daughters. My parents did everything they could, but I was now one of the poor kids. It had a profound effect on me.
How did it influence your money habits as a kid?
I wanted a different life where I didn’t feel poor, so I started working to make money. I did everything I could as a kid, from walking dogs and delivering newspapers to busing tables and working the midnight shift as a waitress. It allowed me to feel like I was enough. It also made me very scrappy.
What did you learn from this early life experience?
I learned that financial security isn’t about a number. It’s about creating and practising the right attitudes and actions to create wealth. Growing up, I had a front-row seat to witness what not to do. I knew I shouldn’t take on too much debt. I knew I had to make my own money and get and stay educated about wealth.
How did this experience influence your career as an advisor?
I kept this secret of my upbringing from all my clients for years because I thought, ‘Who wants to hire a welfare kid to manage their money?’ But I think helping people understand their relationship with money is at the core of what advisors do. So, I’m not afraid to talk about it anymore because we all have different experiences with money.
What’s the job you thought you wanted growing up?
I didn’t have lofty dreams as a kid. I just knew I wasn’t going to be poor. My first job was in marketing, and then I got into local television and later became a co-anchor/producer at an investment TV show. Doing that show, I always wondered, ‘Did people take this advice? Did they use it to become wealthy?’ I want to make more money and help others make money, so I decided to become an advisor.
What’s the best investment decision you’ve made?
I’ve invested small amounts of money every month since my early 20s. In my early 30s, my best friend and I bought our first house in an up-and-coming area in Toronto. It was a duplex. We lived on the top floors and rented out the bottom. Eventually, I bought my friend out of the property, and I launched my advisory business in the bottom floor of the building. My business has since moved, but I still own that property today.
Another good decision I made was buying critical illness insurance in my early 30s, knowing that I didn’t have anything to fall back on if I were to get sick. Last year, I had cancer. It’s an interesting experience to receive a critical illness cheque from your insurance company after paying into the policy for 16 years. It showed me that it is important to protect yourself from unforeseen circumstances that can derail your life. It can happen to any one of us at any time. I’m happy to say that I’m now cancer-free, touch wood.
What are you best at when it comes to investing?
Steadily growing wealth, tax-efficiently, across a diversified portfolio of equities, fixed income and real estate. The small steps we take every day can lead to extraordinary gains in the future. It’s consistency that makes a difference.
What worries you about money?
I worry about losing it like my family did. I worry about living life in reverse. After all this time, you’d think those fears would be very far away from me, but fears around money don’t disappear. You carry them with you. You just relate to them differently. I also discuss this with my clients to help them deal with their money fears.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
For more from Globe Advisor, visit our homepage.