All posts by Jonathan Chevreau

Googling Financial Independence

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | May 22, 2015

When you run web sites themed on financial independence, you pay close attention to search engines, particularly Google. Curious about whether the term “financial independence” was making any headway against the incumbent term, Retirement, I entered both phrases into Google.

The results were about what I’d expect: 258 million results for Retirement but a decent showing of 18 million for Financial Independence.

And what about our pet contraction for Financial Independence, or Findependence? You had to ask, didn’t you? 43,600 results but the good news there is most of these hits come directly from Yours Truly and related enterprises (books, ebooks, websites and references to the term in other media).

Wikipedia’s definition still rules

The 5 Wealth Zones of Decumulation

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | May 20, 2015

Here’s my latest MoneySense blog, which summarizes pension consultant Don Ezra’s presentation at the most recent meeting of John Por’s Decumulation Institute. Launched in 2014, other members of the Institute include retired actuary Malcolm Hamilton, finance professor Moshe Milevsky, Black Rock Canada’s Paul Purcell, former Black Rock CEO Bill Chinery, Investor Economics’ founder Earl Bederman, Cortex Consulting’s Tom Iannucci, actuary Clive Morgan, and Michael Peskin. I attend both as an advisory member as well as the sole media representative.

As regular Hub readers may know by now, Decumulation is the opposite of Wealth Accumulation, a topic that will become increasingly important as baby boomers start leaving paid employment and start to embrace encore careers or traditional retirement. That’s why we have devoted one of our six major blog categories to Decumulation (coupled with Downsizing):

The blog can be found by clicking the above link, or below. But for the Hub only, John contributed the following summary of the meeting:

John Por

The Advisory Group discussed how financial advisors should approach retirees to maximize their income. Don Ezra has been working on a financial modelling tool that would allow financial advisors to plan individual saving and decumulation behaviour using a top down, longevity-based, multi-tier retirement income centred framework. The Advisory Group concluded such a tool would be a great step forward but warned that such a tool could be dangerous in inexperienced hands if the potential dangers of additional risk taking were not highlighted. Don Ezra and John Por discussed their work on the concepts of what a training program for financial advisors should contain. Jon Chevreau suggested a new certification program may be another useful step to tackle this issue.

Invisor.ca launches “goal-based” robo-like service

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | May 19, 2015

Invisor (CNW Group/Invisor) — Invisor Logo (CNW Group)

By Jonathan Chevreau

Financial Independence Hub

After the initial wave last year of new robo-advisers washing up on the shores of the Canadian market comes a variation on the theme — a so-called “goal-based” online investment management service called Invisor.ca.

Announced Tuesday, the service claims to offer “personalized online investment management at a fraction of the cost of a traditional financial advisor.” The service is available initially in Ontario and Manitoba and it plans to register in other provinces “in the near future.” The custodian is Credential Securities Inc.

The reference to traditional advisors is evidently to mainstream retail mutual funds, whose fees are high enough that all domestic robo-advisers can undercut them and still make money. In a press release, Invisor notes that many Canadians pay more than 2.5% a year for mutual funds and that “in some cases these costs can be s high as 2.8% to 2.9%.” Continue Reading…

Early days with the Apple Watch: so far so good

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | May 16, 2015

Here’s my latest MoneySense blog, which tells the story of my first week with the Apple Watch. I’ve added some photographs below that show the packaging.

By Jonathan Chevreau

Over the years, I’ve been both an early adopter of technology devices as well as, on occasion, a late adopter. Early with notebook computers and the first Macintosh in 1984, but late with the Blackberry and the iPhone.

As someone who didn’t even wear a traditional watch, the hype over Apple’s new Watch intrigued me. As I wrote a few weeks ago here at MoneySense.ca, I decided I’d become an early adopter of the Apple Watch, preordering it the day after it was permitted. Continue Reading…

Weekly Wrap: Work may not end after Findependence, as Encore Careers beckon

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | May 15, 2015

cf-old-and-new--timelines_500px — Graphic courtesy Challenge Factory Inc. and Retirement Redux

By Jonathan Chevreau

Financial Independence Hub

On Wednesday, the Financial Post ran an online column of mine it titled Life After Retirement: Your Working Career Probably Isn’t Over Yet — Welcome to the Encore Act.

Regular Hub readers will know that if I had my druthers, the headline would read more like “Why Work won’t end after your Findependence Day.” (that is, the day you achieve Financial Independence).

I don’t view the terms Retirement and Financial Independence as interchangeable. By definition, Retirement (or at any rate, traditional full-stop Retirement funded with a generous Defined Benefit pension) means no longer working for money. Financial Independence (aka Findependence), on the other hand, can occur years and even decades before traditional Retirement and so seldom means the end of productive work.

This very web site — which just passed six months in existence — is dedicated to clarifying this distinction. And of course the site also constitutes a big element of my own personal Encore Act: next Tuesday will be the one-year anniversary of my own Findependence Day. In my case, I define that as no longer working as an employee of a giant corporation or government entity, and having the financial resources to work if I choose to, and not if I don’t.

How to find your Encore Career

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