Decumulate & Downsize

Most of your investing life you and your adviser (if you have one) are focused on wealth accumulation. But, we tend to forget, eventually the whole idea of this long process of delayed gratification is to actually spend this money! That’s decumulation as opposed to wealth accumulation. This stage may also involve downsizing from larger homes to smaller ones or condos, moving to the country or otherwise simplifying your life and jettisoning possessions that may tie you down.

Seeking Financial Freedom? 9 Tips for Escaping the Traditional Job

Posted By |
Photo by Juan Mendez on Pexels

Discover practical strategies for achieving Financial Independence beyond the confines of a traditional job.

This article presents expert-backed advice on creating multiple income streams and aligning work with personal goals. Learn how to leverage your skills, build value-based income, and take concrete steps towards your vision of financial freedom.

  • Leverage Your Skills for Side Income
  • Transform Evenings into Venture Capital
  • Build Value-based Income Streams
  • Adopt a Side Hustle Mindset
  • Future-Proof your Professional Value
  • Align Work with your Core Purpose
  • Build a Financial Foundation first
  • Get Specific about your Goals
  • Cut Expenses to Create Options

Leverage your Skills for Side Income

In today’s evolving job market, many professionals find themselves tethered to traditional 9-to-5 roles: secure, yes, but often creatively or financially stifling. The desire for financial freedom is not just about escaping the office; it’s about reclaiming time, purpose, and the ability to design life on your own terms. We’ve worked with countless individuals who once felt exactly this way: stuck, uncertain, but ready for a change.

If you’re feeling trapped in a conventional job, the most important first step is to acknowledge that your desire for more isn’t selfish: it’s strategic. Financial freedom isn’t just about money; it’s about choices. And that journey starts by understanding your own value in the marketplace.

Step 1: Audit Your Skills and Strengths

Take stock of what you’re naturally good at and how those skills can translate into high-demand, high-autonomy industries. Digital skills like coding, copywriting, digital marketing, or consulting are especially valuable in today’s freelance and remote economy. Ask yourself: If I had to solve someone’s problem for a fee: what could I offer today?

Step 2: Start a Low-Risk Side Income Stream

This doesn’t mean quitting your job immediately. Start small: freelancing on Upwork, tutoring online, offering resume reviews, or starting a blog or YouTube channel around a niche you know well. Build proof of concept without jeopardizing your current income.

Step 3: Invest in a Career Coach or Mentor

Working with a coach can help you shortcut the confusion. We help clients identify the right path forward based on their lifestyle goals, not just job titles. Our structured guidance has helped people launch side businesses, shift into more flexible roles, or double their income by making strategic pivots.

According to a 2024 report by LinkedIn Workforce Insights, over 60% of professionals under 40 are actively seeking roles that offer greater flexibility and autonomy. Additionally, Harvard Business Review found that professionals who pursue “career portfolios” — multiple income streams from various skill-based services — report 43% higher job satisfaction and 31% faster income growth than peers in static roles.

Feeling stuck isn’t the end of your story: it’s a signal. A signal that you’re ready for change. We believe that financial freedom isn’t just for the lucky few—it’s for anyone willing to make bold, informed moves. — Miriam Groom, CEO, Mindful Career inc., Mindful Career Coaching

Transform Evenings into Venture Capital

If you’re feeling stuck in a traditional job and craving more financial freedom, you’re not alone: and you’re not broken. That restless feeling? It’s your internal compass telling you that what you’re doing no longer aligns with where you want to go. My advice? Don’t silence it: study it.

The most powerful first step I ever took was treating my evenings and weekends like venture capital. Instead of doom-scrolling or complaining about my 9-to-5, I built skills that made me valuable outside of it. I didn’t quit blindly. I audited my strengths, explored high-leverage models like consulting and digital products, and tested small bets until one clicked. It was less about passion and more about leverage: where can I help people, solve problems, and get paid well for it?

If you’re after financial freedom, don’t chase quick wins. Chase agency. Build something that compounds. Start by learning one monetizable skill: something you can offer tomorrow. Package it, test it, refine it. You don’t need to be loud online or have a business plan that wins awards. You need to take the first step: and then the next.

What I’ve learned from growing multiple businesses and coaching founders is this: freedom doesn’t arrive fully formed. It’s built in the margins before it becomes the main thing. So if you’re reading this wondering if it’s too late or too risky: it’s not. Your current job might pay the bills, but it doesn’t have to define your ceiling. — John Mac, Serial Entrepreneur, UNIT

Build Value-based Income Streams

If you feel stuck in a traditional job, it’s because your income is locked to your hours. Financial freedom begins when you earn based on value, not time. The fastest path is building a side income that proves you’re worth more than your salary. That means selling a skill — marketing, coding, design, sales strategy — directly to people who need results, not resumes.

I replaced my paycheck by packaging my experience into targeted offers. One client became two. Two became four. The process wasn’t complicated. I identified a problem, built a simple solution, and sold it. The first $1,000 didn’t change my life. It changed my mindset. From there, scaling was execution, not hope.

Most people stall because they’re waiting for the perfect idea or ideal conditions. Neither exists. Start by solving one problem for one customer. Build income that’s not tied to your boss. Cut costs, track results, and reinvest profits. Don’t romanticize the idea of freedom. Make it measurable. Give yourself a deadline to match and then exceed your job income.

You’re not trapped. You’re unproven. The solution isn’t to quit. The solution is to validate your value outside the structure you’ve been conditioned to depend on. You move forward the moment you stop waiting. — Steven Mitts, Entrepreneurial Coach, Steven Mitts

Adopt a Side Hustle Mindset

Traditional jobs are great for many reasons, but I completely understand. I was stuck in a normal or traditional 9-5 job, and the only thing I was dreaming about was freedom. This feeling is more common than you might think, so anyone who is experiencing it, you are not alone. The best advice I can offer is to change your mindset, more specifically, to adopt a side hustle mindset.

Think about what you currently have in your job: stability, which hopefully provides a decent income. This is a huge asset. Use this stability to your advantage; don’t think of it as a cage, but rather as your investment stream to financial freedom. Then, make a list of the skills you have, things that you like (passions) that could be monetized, or if you’ve noticed a problem that many people experience and you may have the solution, it could be your golden ticket.

Once you have your idea, don’t quit your day job. Dedicate a small but consistent chunk of your time each week to your new adventure (5 hours to start with will do). When it comes to the steps I’d recommend you take, there is only one: validate your idea. Do your research; you don’t want to waste countless hours on something that is already thriving. Once validated, begin your journey. Draw up a business plan, get a name (register it), open a bank account (do not use your personal one), then start. Take that first bold step. It is incredibly exciting, and it can induce a whole heap of fear, but you will never know if you don’t take it.

My encouragement is this: every great entrepreneur started with a tiny step. No one jumps into success; it is built from the ground up. — Aiden Higgins, Senior Editor and Writer, The Broke Backpacker

Future-Proof your Professional Value

Honestly, the biggest shift for professionals feeling trapped isn’t just leaving a traditional role: it’s strategically future-proofing their value. Research shows 65% of workers who feel ‘stuck’ actually suffer from skill obsolescence, yet those who dedicate just 5 hours weekly to learning in-demand capabilities like automation fluency or data-driven decision-making see a 47% faster transition to higher-paying, flexible roles.

Start by auditing daily tasks for automation potential: this reveals immediate efficiency gains and highlights valuable skills to develop. Platforms offering certified, applied learning in operational tech turn that insight into tangible leverage. That frustration? It’s actually a compass pointing toward untapped potential.

Financial freedom isn’t about escaping the grind; it’s about equipping yourself to command the work that matters. Every expert was once someone who decided their growth couldn’t wait for permission. — Anupa Rongala, CEO, Invensis Technologies

Align Work with your Core Purpose

First, define your freedom.

I’ve sat across from many successful people who feel completely trapped by their traditional jobs. My advice is always to stop focusing on the financial spreadsheet and start with a psychological one. The feeling of being “stuck” is rarely about money alone; true freedom comes from aligning your work with your “why.” Continue Reading…

Rethinking Retirement Income

Posted By |

How real Spending Patterns challenge Traditional Retirement Income Planning  

Canva Custom Creation: Lowrie Financial

By Steve Lowrie, CFA

Special to Financial Independence Hub

Here’s a contrarian thought.

When most people imagine retirement, they picture steady cash flow from their investments to support their lifestyle.

The common assumption is that they’ll preserve their financial nest egg and live off the growth” drawing a consistent amount each year while keeping the principal largely intact.

But there are actually three broad approaches. At one end, some plan to spend their entire portfolio over their expected lifetime (as one client joked, “I want my last cheque to bounce.”  At the other end is the idea of preserving capital entirely. Most people, in practice, end up somewhere in between.

But what if that assumption is only part of the story?

The reality is that real-life retirement spending isn’t flat. It fluctuates unevenly and unexpectedly over time. And those patterns can have a big impact on your retirement income strategy.

Retirement Planning has changed. Have you?

For decades, retirement planning has focused on Saving: building a nest egg, maximizing RRSPs, and making the most of tax-advantaged accounts.

But the real challenge begins after you stop working. Then, the question becomes:

How do I turn my savings into reliable, lasting income?

This is where traditional models often fall short. Most assume spending stays constant throughout retirement. But as recent research from J.P. Morgan Asset Management shows, that’s not how real retirees actually spend.

For more on how conventional rules can mislead, see Debunking Retirement Financial “Rules.”

What the Data shows

J.P. Morgan studied anonymized spending data from more than 5 million U.S. households, offering a detailed picture of how retirees actually spend in retirement. These findings closely align with what I’ve observed over 30 years of working with Canadian clients.

Three key Retirement Spending patterns:

  • Spending Surge: Many retirees experience a spike in spending right around the time they retire. This is often due to lifestyle changes and delayed goals coming to fruition in the early retirement years, like travel, home upgrades, or helping adult children.
  • Spending Curve: Over time, overall spending tends to decline. For example, households with investable assets between $250,000 and $750,000 saw an average inflation-adjusted spending decrease of about 1.65% annually through retirement.
  • Spending Volatility: Perhaps most important, spending is anything but steady. According to J.P. Morgan’s 2025 Guide to Retirement, 60% of retirees saw their expenses fluctuate by 20% or more in the first three years of retirement. And this volatility often continues well into later years.

These findings show that retirement income strategies need to be flexible enough to accommodate spikes, declines, and everything in between.

Why it matters

Most financial plans assume a flat, inflation-adjusted income for 25 to 30 years. That’s a very good place to start. However, based on both this research and my practical experience observing hundreds of client habits over three decades, here’s what can happen:

  • You over-save early, delaying retirement unnecessarily
  • You under-spend during healthy years, missing out on the freedom you’ve earned
  • You get caught off guard by spending spikes, leading to early withdrawals or tax surprises

J.P. Morgan’s data shows retirees typically need about 92% of pre-retirement income at age 65, but just 70% by age 85. That is a significant shift and a reminder of why you want healthy exposure to equities, which is the only asset class that has historically given the best chance of outpacing inflation over the long run.

A better way to Plan for Retirement Income

Here are a few ways to build a more adaptable, evidence-based retirement plan: Continue Reading…

Ideally, what does a diversified portfolio look like? Here are some top examples

Posted By |

What does a diversified portfolio look like? A well-diversified portfolio balances risk by spreading investment holdings out across industry sectors and more

TSInetwork.ca

What does a diverse portfolio look like? It’s a question we hear often from the Pat McKeough Inner Circle. We believe a well-diversified portfolio has a few specific qualities, including holdings spread out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors, geographic diversification, both conservative and more-aggressive holdings, and both market leaders and laggards. These asset allocation strategies help ensure long-term stability.

All in all, you will improve your chances of making money over long periods, no matter what happens in the market, if you diversify your holdings as we recommend, and so successfully answer the key question: what does a diverse portfolio look like?

What does a diversified portfolio look like? Holdings in the five main sectors

As we recommend to the Pat McKeough Inner Circle, we believe you spread should your money out across most, if not all, of the five main economic sectors: Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; and Utilities.

Here are some tips on diversifying your stock portfolio by sector:

  • When it comes to answering the question what does a diverse portfolio look like? remember stocks in the Resources and Manufacturing & Industry sectors expose you to above-average share price volatility.
  • Stocks in the Utilities and Canadian Finance sectors, however, entail below-average volatility.
  • Consumer stocks fall in the middle, between volatile Resources and Manufacturing companies, and the more stable Canadian Finance and Utilities companies.

Most investors should have investments in most, if not all, of these five sectors to successfully answer the question what does a diverse portfolio look like? The proper proportions for you depend on your investment temperament and circumstances. These asset allocation strategies should be reviewed regularly.

The Pat McKeough Inner Circle, like most conservative or income-seeking investors, may want to emphasize utilities and Canadian banks for their high and generally secure dividends. Regardless, it always pays to look closely at a company’s recent acquisitions and the risk associated with that growth strategy.

More-aggressive investors might want to increase their portfolio weightings in Resources or Manufacturing stocks.  However, at the same time, you’ll want to spread your Resource holdings out among oil and gas, metals and other Resources stocks for diversification within the sector, and for exposure to a number of areas.

What does a diverse portfolio look like? Balanced across geography

As it’s a mistake to focus your portfolio on a company that relies on a number of recent acquisitions for growth, one of the worst things you can do is invest so that your portfolio would suffer a great deal due to a localized downturn in any one city, province or state. Good portfolio management also means balancing your investments geographically.

Like the Pat McKeough Inner Circle’s most successful investors, you should avoid focusing your portfolio on any one country or region. And a lower-risk way to add international exposure to your portfolio is to hold multinational U.S. stocks such as, say, IBM, McDonald’s and Walmart. We cover all three of these companies in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. Continue Reading…

Retired Money: An online Canadian Retirement Club

Posted By |

My latest MoneySense Retired Money column looks at a recently launched Retirement Club devoted to Canadians in or near the cusp of Retirement.

Primarily online, Retirement Club was launched by occasional MoneySense contributor Dale Roberts and a partner, Brent Schmidt. You can find the full MoneySense column by clicking on the highlighted headline:  Retirement planning advice for people who don’t use an advisor.

Roberts, who once was an advisor for Tangerine, is known for his Cutthecrapinvesting blog and in the U.S. for his contributions to Seeking Alpha. While I have no financial or business interest in the club I did become a member. There are regular Zoom calls where (mostly) recent retirees exchange views on topics like the 4% Rule, RRSP-to-RRIF conversions, ETFs, Asset Allocation in the age of Trump 2.0 and many of the topics this Retired Money column often attempts to tackle.

            You can find Roberts’ own announcement of the club – which charges an annual fee of $250 – on my own site earlier in mid-April. (+HST, but it may qualify as an Investment Counsel fee deductible on your personal tax returns). As always check with your accountant, advisor or tax professional).

            My initial impression is that the club seems to involve a lot of work for someone who describes himself as semi-retired. But that seems to be par for the course for financial writers approaching retirement. I’m in a similar boat, as is the American blogger Fritz Gilbert, who recently announced the similarly ironic fact that he was retiring from Full-time Blogging about Retirement. (also in April).

Aimed at self-directed investors

            In his introduction, Roberts wrote that many of his audience are self-directed investors. That jibes with his site’s campaign against high-fee investment funds, in favor of low-cost index funds or ETFs purchased at discount brokerages. While some, like myself, may also use the services of a fee-for-service advisor, many DIY retirees are in effect running their own pension plans. In theory, one of those much-written-about All-in-one Asset Allocation ETFs can do much of the heavy lifting for such investors, but in practice, there’s a fair bit of anxiety about markets, the Canadian government’s rules about TFSAs, RRIFs etc., Asset Allocation, the ongoing Trump Trade War and much more. So it makes sense to gather in one place and exchange views with others going through a similar process.

          In a regular email update to Club members, Roberts explains that “the key concern of Retirement Clubbers is financial security and how to use their portfolio assets in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. That’s why we have a master list of retirement calculators (free and pay-for-service) to test.”

Delaying Government Pensions

         As you’d expect, the Club regularly addresses the major chestnuts of Personal Finance as it relates to those within hailing distance of Retirement. The most common ‘Retirement Hack’ espoused by the Club is to delay receipt of the Canada Pension Plan [CPP] and Old Age Security [OAS] past the traditional retirement age of 65 to allow for more generous payouts at age 70. Most club members lean to taking these benefits as late as possible but of course personal circumstances may dictate earlier start dates.

        To bridge the income gap (from age 60 to 70 for example) RRSP/RRIF accounts will be harvested (spent) in quick fashion: often termed an RRSP meltdown. TFSA and Taxable accounts can also be tapped to provide necessary funding as retirees delay receipt of those CPP and OAS benefits. Continue Reading…

Consider all Retirement Investment Management Options for a Financially Sound Future

Posted By |

Here’s a look at some of your best retirement investment management options and choices. These include pensions, RRSPs, RRIFs and more.

TSInetwork.ca

Your retirement investment management plan should build in contingencies for long-term medical needs and supplemental health insurance. As well, you should factor in caring for loved ones who are unable to take care of themselves.

When you work out a plan for your retirement, make sure that you aren’t basing your future income on overly-optimistic calculations that will end up leaving you short.

Retirement income can come from many different sources, such as personal savings, Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, company pensions, RRSPs, RRIFs, and other types of investment accounts.

 

Learn how your retirement investment management works in a Canada Pension Plan (CPP)

The Canada Pension Plan, or CPP, is the name for the Canadian national social insurance program. The program pays out based on contributions, and it provides income protection for individuals or their survivors in the instance of retirement, disability or death. Since 1999, the CPP has been legally permitted to invest in the stock market.

Nearly all individuals working in Canada contribute to the CPP, unless they live in Quebec, where the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) exists and provides comparable benefits.

Applicants can apply to receive full CPP benefits at age 65. The CPP can be received as early as age 60 at a reduced rate. It can also be received as late as age 70, at an increased rate.

Here’s a look at some of the pensions or benefits provided by the Canada Pension Plan:

  • Retirement pension
  • Post-retirement pension
  • Death benefit
  • Child rearing provision
  • Credit splitting for divorced or separated couples
  • Survivor benefits
  • Pension sharing
  • Disability benefits

Use a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) as a starting place when you look into retirement investment management

An RRSP is a great way for investors to cut their tax bills and make more money from their retirement investing.

RRSPs were introduced by the federal government in 1957 to encourage Canadians to save for retirement. Before RRSPs, only individuals who belonged to employer-sponsored registered pension plans could deduct pension contributions from their taxable income.

RRSPs are a form of tax-deferred savings plan. They are a little like other investment accounts, except for their tax treatment. RRSP contributions are tax deductible, and the investments grow tax-free.

You might think of investment gains in an RRSP as a double profit. Instead of paying up to, say,  50% of your profit to the government in taxes and keeping 50% to work for you, you keep 100% of your profit working for you, until you take it out.

Convert an RRSP to a RRIF to create one of the best investments for retirement

A Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) is another good long-term investing strategy for retirement.

Converting your RRSP to a RRIF is clearly one of the best of three alternatives at age 71. That’s because RRIFs offer more flexibility and tax savings than annuities or a lump-sum withdrawal (which in most cases is a poor retirement investing option, since you’ll be taxed on the entire amount in that year as ordinary income). Continue Reading…