Q. I farm in Saskatchewan and own 3,100 acres of grain land. I’m

planning to retire this spring. Do I sell the land or lease to a neighbor? How will the

trade war affect the value of property in the short term or a year from now? If I sell, what will the money in the bank be worth in a year or two? What is the right decision: sell or lease? And how do I decide?

—John in Saskatchewan FP Answers: I’m afraid many of your questions, John, are for specialists of a different kind. For instance, you need an economist’s prediction to know what might happen with

tariffs and how the value of money may be affected. I can, however, answer your question: “How do I decide?”

To know if you should be leasing or selling your farm, talk to a collaborative professional who will guide you through a process so that you can confidently make the decision of leasing or selling.

Why work with a collaborative professional? Because the professional will share their knowledge and at the same time you will gain valuable experience. Combining knowledge with experience gives you the power to confidently solve tough problems such as the one you are facing, and new learning opens new possibilities, both financial and lifestyle.

You will know when you are collaborating with a professional when you are using a shared workspace, such as computer simulation, and both of you are contributing to solve your problem. Computer simulation allows you to compress time to quickly learn and gain experience within a safe place, when gaining real world experience isn’t practical.

John, my thoughts on this problem-solving approach comes from Patrick Sullivan and David Lazenby’s 2005 book, Scenario Selling. Their ideas transformed the way I deliver financial planning and I believe if I give you a summary of their thoughts on solving problems you, too, will see the value in the collaborative approach.

They classify problems using these dimensions and then place them into a quad box which I have put together in an accompanying chart:

  1. Information versus. Experience;
  2. Certainty versus risk;
  3. Linear vs. Non-linear.

Simple problems are the “no brainers” you face every day which you don’t need help solving.

Complicated problems don’t require a lot of experience but require knowledge and information. The thought process is linear in nature: Solve A, then B, then C, etc. to get to your answer. A complicated question may be, “Which equities to purchase?” You could hire a knowledgeable consultant to do the research for you or you could take the time to acquire the knowledge yourself and become a do-it-yourself investor.

Complex problems don’t require a lot of information but they require experience. Think back to when you learned to ride a bicycle. You learned from experience, not book knowledge, and you probably had a parent or counsellor providing feedback and holding the bicycle.

To solve hypercomplex problems, such as the one you are facing, you need both knowledge and experience. As you think through the problem, linear thinking doesn’t work. You have to employ systems thinking because of all of the different interactions and possible outcomes. It requires working collaboratively using a shared workspace that brings this all together.

Systems thinking involves looking at the big picture so you can see how your decision will impact all other variables connected with your decision. I often see people simplifying things to solve hypercomplex problems, such as depleting a registered retirement income fund (

RRIF ) before death to avoid paying a lot of tax. This linear thinking completely discounts the benefits of leaving money in a RRIF, the tax impacts on early withdrawals, and so on.

  • Should Bob be withdrawing more than just the minimum from his $550,000 RRIF?
  • My father married his caregiver but then wrote her out of the will. Is she entitled to anything?

John, I am sure this is not the answer you were looking for. But I am a believer in solving problems collaboratively. You learn faster and you will have more belief and confidence in your decision making after having played it out through computer simulation.

Allan Norman, M.Sc., CFP, CIM, provides fee-only certified financial planning services and insurance products through Atlantis Financial Inc. and provides investment advisory services through Aligned Capital Partners Inc., which is regulated by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization. He can be reached at alnorman@atlantisfinancial.ca.