All posts by Financial Independence Hub

Paper-heavy financial industry will go from 10 to 50% digital in 3 or 4 years

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Financial Independence Hub.photoBy Anthony Boright

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

We live at a time when electronic communications is making rapid advances in many walks of life, but surprisingly, the financial-services industry still has a long way to go.

Incredible as it may sound, less than 10 per cent of documents in the industry are delivered electronically today. I refer to client statements, trade confirmations, bills, and a variety of other disclosure documents needed for regulatory requirements. Indeed, the industry and those who work in it are drowning in paper.

From my vantage point, three prominent trends in the industry right now are:

  • The migration from paper to electronic communications
  • An ever-increasing environment of regulation
  • A growing need for technology innovation and the cost savings that brings.

I have worked in the technology side of financial services for 20 years and been involved in lots of innovations. This includes providing Internet and custom web solutions for the industry, developing products that address what were then new Point of Sale (POS) regulations, and in the late 1990s creating the Fund Library, which was Canada’s online mutual fund resource centre, and also f/A Connect,  the Internet workplace for financial advisors.

The benefits of digital

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Trading ETFs can just make dumb moves cheaper

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patmckeoughBy Patrick McKeough, TSINetwork.ca

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Trading ETFs can work just as well in facilitating dumb moves as it does with smart moves.

Most investors would agree when we say that Exchange Traded Funds or ETFs started out as the most benign investment innovation that has come along in our lifetimes.

The problem is that ETFs work just as well in facilitating dumb moves as smart ones. And there are all sorts of dumb moves that ETFs can facilitate.

In fact, if you get an urge to invest in oil stocks, or gold stocks, or Swedish stocks, or windpower stocks, or any of hundreds of other stock groups and themes, you can act on that urge without doing any messy and time-consuming research on individual stocks—research that may give you pause and keep you from investing.

Manage your portfolio successfully into retirement

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Three Credit Cards to help combat soaring food costs

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Sandwich and euro money. Expensive food

By Alyssa Furtado, RateHub.ca

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

A University of Guelph report predicts Canadians will spend an additional $345 on groceries this year. However, there are ways to help offset the rising costs using certain types of credit cards.

Food is getting more expensive and the weak Canadian dollar hasn’t helped. The report notes that for every cent the dollar drops over a short period of time, fruits and vegetables are likely to rise by more than 1%. Unfortunately, more than 80% of all fruit and vegetables are imported.

Going out for dinner is also expected to cost more this year. Food prices in restaurants are forecast to rise between 1.5% and 3.5% in 2016.

RateHub.ca has found a few cash-back credit cards that can help neutralize these rising food costs. Here are our three favourites: Continue Reading…

Sensible Investing TV: How to Win the Loser’s Game, Part 9

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Screen Shot 2016-03-09 at 1.44.02 PMSensible Investing TV has posted part 9 of its How to Win the Loser’s Game series of videos, which you can view by clicking here. This 9-minute segment is the second-last episode of the ten-part series.

You can also find it here at Findependence.TV, where all the earlier episodes, plus those of FWB TV, are housed.

David Booth, co-founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors (pictured), says this:

“One of the big difficulties is getting people to stay the course when results are disappointing. It should come as no surprise to people that markets go up and they go down. When they go down, there’s a tendency for people to go, ‘Gosh, Are we on the edge of an abyss? Will things really get bad from here?’

In 2008-2009, it was difficult to get people to stay the course. My heart goes out to these people that were invested in equities, lost half their money then got out and missed the rebound. It may take quite a while for them to get back even again.”

We need to stay the course, and this video shows why …. the culprits will be familiar to many investors: buying low and selling high, panicking at the worst possible time, listening to media noise. There’s also a good segment featuring Vanguard founder John Bogle and the long-term returns that come from dividend yield and earnings growth, as opposed to speculation.  Continue Reading…

Shape your retirement lifestyle vision

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AdrianBy Adrian Mastracci, KCM Wealth

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Over the years I’ve summarized many financial strategies for your successful retirement. Today I delve into shaping key “lifestyle” factors for your retirement happiness.

Definition of lifestyle is a very individual combination of activities. There is no one-size-fits-all scenario.

For example, try to diminish your work life gradually, say over two to five years. A series of short sabbaticals is another way to sample your new lifestyle.

Your retirement road map is a very personalized and unique process. Where there is a spouse, both should be involved in the planning.

Developing 5-year road maps within the money comfort works for many,
such as activities for age “60 to 64,” “65 to 69” and so on.

Lifestyle questions to answer

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