All posts by Jonathan Chevreau

An Aging World: Not to be obsessed

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We’ve mentioned Mark Venning and ChangeRangers.com several times in this site as well as sister site FindependenceDay.com. His insights on Aging and Longevity are a big reason why we have included a regular section of the Hub on this topic. One of his aphorisms is particularly insightful and directly related to financial planning and financial independence: “Plan for longevity, not retirement.”

As the previous blog in this section (by Doug Dahmer)  explained, the fatal flaw in most retirement plans is failing to take into account extended longevity. Mark also regularly writes on this theme, as in a recent piece on Financing Longevity, which also provides a nod to the Financial Independence Hub.

Below, specially for the Hub, Mark has composed a year-end reflection on these themes, based on his recent travels. We hope to run more like this in the new year!

markvenning
Mark Venning, ChangeRangers.com

By Mark Venning,

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Hardly a day goes by that there isn’t some symposium, book or report (not to mention a blog post or three like this one) about an aging world, longevity and retirement. You can even Google search longevity calculators that can project how long you can expect to live. It’s an aging obsession.

As Ted C. Fishman says in his 2010 book, Shock of Gray – “…although the aging world is the sum of choices made by large populations, how we navigate the future of this world – how we love and care for ourselves and those we cherish – will also be an intensely personal matter.”

Continue Reading…

Review: Conrad Black’s Rise to Greatness

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Companion volumes?

By Jonathan Chevreau

With Christmas just a week and a half away, the burning question about Conrad Black’s new Rise to Greatness is this: Would you like a family member to buy you a copy and place it under the tree? Alternatively, is there someone in your circle who would appreciate such a gift?

With a suggested retail price of $50, this is more than you’d spend on most books. On the other hand, once wrapped it will have an impressive bulk. Weighing in at 1,106 pages it’s at least two-and-a-half inches thick (I measured it).

And as you can see from the photo, there is a close connection between this massive book and a dictionary. If you really want to benefit from Black’s Rise to Greatness: The History of Canada from the Vikings to the Present, you need to have a dictionary at hand, as I did. Continue Reading…

The 10-year rule: what home buyers can learn from the stock market

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House With Life Preserver CrashingInteresting piece by the Globe & Mail’s Rob Carrick today about the 10-year rule. The columnist says prospective home buyers should follow the same 10-year rule that investors do with stocks:

“If you can’t wait at least a decade for a transaction to make financial sense, don’t do it.”

Carrick worries about the recent estimate by the Bank of Canada that housing here may be overvalued by 10 to 30%. With all the chaos going on in the world lately, “Houses don’t have immunity. They are financial assets, just like stocks, gold bars and gallons of oil.”

And in an example that hits home, he reminds us that after reaching $254,197 in 1989, the average house price in Toronto fell so long and hard it took until 2002 to set new highs. I recall personally buying a starter home in Toronto in 1988 for $230,000 and ultimately selling in 1996 for $182,000.

It worked out though, since we bought a better home closer to the lake: a strategy known as “moving up in a down market.” That initial $50,000 paper loss has been recouped ten or twenty times over.

On stocks, I’ve often heard experts cite a five-year rule but Carrick says a 10-year rule is more prudent and “a 10-year hold should work for housing, unless we get a crash like the one in the United States or in Toronto in the late 1980s.”

Ouch, he reminded me again!

 

The special challenges of retiring from your own business

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DelInSuit
Del Chatterson

By Del Chatterson,

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

What, no pension plan? No early retirement package for the owner?

Of course not, you’re an entrepreneur and not dependent on anybody else to look after your welfare. But have you looked at the hard realities of exiting from your business to a comfortable and happy retirement? There are some special challenges.

When you do start looking it’s hard not to be envious of the friends and family on well-funded civil servant or big corporate pension plans. How did you miss that concept? Well, it may be too late now to change career paths, but it’s not too late to plan your exit strategy. Continue Reading…

5 ways Millennials can achieve Financial Independence

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By Hub Staff

Depositphotos_46982951_xsFrom US News -Money,  Intuit Inc.’s consumer money expert  Holly Perez describes five ways Millennials Can Achieve Financial Independence. The article is a straightforward account showing five ways American millennials can and should be preparing themselves for future financial security. Take these steps in your 20s and you may even find yourself a millionaire by your 60s!

  1. Remember Budgeting 101 — Even if you don’t think you need a budget, creating one will help you become more aware of exactly where your money is going, which will help you eliminate any possible over/ unnecessary spending
  2. Ditch the Debt — Pay off all your debts immediately, starting with those high-interest credit cards. Student loans and car payments should be dealt with after.
  3. Make Savings a Priority — A habit that every millennial should get into is to save a few hundred dollars a month. for Americans, ensuring they are contributing to, and understanding their company’s 401(k) is an essential part of this step.
  4. Think About the Future — Make sure to set concrete goals about what you want from your future finances. Making these decisions while you’re young, and sticking with them will be immensely beneficial to your future self. Putting these goals in writing- either on paper or with the help of an app- will help you to follow-through and stay on track.
  5. Track your Credit Score — Your credit score will be invaluable to you when you go to make a big purchase one day, so ensuring it is the best it can be is quite important to maintaining financial independence later on. To keep this number high, the article includes tips like keeping your oldest credit cards open, paying bills on time, and avoiding maxing out cards.