All posts by Jonathan Chevreau

The Mathematics of Catastrophe

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | February 10, 2015

By Doug Dahmer, Emeritus Retirement Income Specialists

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

I was not the best math student in the world but I certainly enjoyed numbers. I especially liked prime numbers and their unique indivisibility. I still cannot figure out how they come to be.

In the course of my retirement-income planning career I had another math lesson that now holds my interest even more. Here is the lesson. If you halve a number, you have to double the new number to get back to the original number.

Now put your income-generating capital into that equation and you will see why it holds my interest. If you are deriving income from X and it goes to 1/2 X … well, you don’t have to be Einstein to see the problem.

When you draw a predetermined dollar amount from your investment portfolio and it drops by ½ you are about to experience the mathematics of catastrophe. Continue Reading…

Rocco versus the Banksters: Why it matters

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | February 9, 2015

graham chevreau insipid photo — Graham Chevreau

By Graham Chevreau

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Rocco Galati Versus the Bank of Canada

“I have a firm basis to believe that the Government has requested or ordered the mainstream media NOT to cover this case,” said Consitutional Lawyer Rocco Galati after winning his latest battle in the Federal Court of Appeal on January 26, 2015. He went on to say: “This case is on solid legal and constitutional grounds. It should win, but not all meritorious cases win in our judicial system.”

Reflections From The Early Days of Spending In Retirement, Part 2

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | February 9, 2015

By Patricia Gass,

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

As we return to reality from our 3-week vacation “high,” I’m hoping to make the happy feelings last as long as possible.

After all, that’s what a great vacation is all about!

So, better late than never, I’m diving in to review the state of our spending for 2014. Scary task (especially given our recent travels) but someone’s got to do it.

Yes, we really did have a “spending plan” last year and will do so again religiously this year. How else do you think one achieves financial independence? Do you know that few people realize what they’ve spent in their first year (or even few years) of retirement?

Beware overspending in the early days

Nothing can derail a happy retirement more quickly than overspending in the early days. While looking ahead is certainly important (tough to fix what you’ve already spent!), you can really learn a lot by sizing up what happened each year. To supplement my “quick and dirty” monthly reviews, an annual review will give me a better perspective of our overall, longer term habits. Continue Reading…

The Hub’s Weekly wrap: Bag lady fears, fast-casual dining stocks & more

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | February 7, 2015

Launched last week, the Hub’s Weekly Wrap aims to be a weekend read with brief commentary and links to some of the more interesting items touching on Financial Independence that appeared in North American cyberspace in the past week or two.

We aim to split these roughly half from American blogs and online media and half from Canadian. (That roughly corresponds to current traffic levels at the Hub.)

We’ll begin with this piece from Next Avenue: Unemployed, 55 and Faking Normal. This blog about the common fear of becoming a bag lady (financially speaking) was widely tweeted, including by a few women I suspect were in similar circumstances. No doubt about it, a combination of divorce and job loss can add up to a tough go, especially if you’re still not old enough to qualify for Social Security or the Canadian triad of CPP/OAS/GIS.

Fast-casual dining

Moving on to the more fortunate comes this piece from the Washington Post, mentioned on the Motley Fool’s Market Foolery podcast on Tuesday. The Chipotle effect: Why America is obsessed with fast casual food is an analysis of the trend to “Fast Casual” dining and the stocks of the major players capitalizing on this change (Chipotle and Panera to name two.) This is a threat to the old-time fast food joints like McDonald’s: ironically, McDonald’s incubated Chipotle in its early days.

4 reasons to pay your credit card bill early Continue Reading…

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