All posts by Jonathan Chevreau

Early retirement? Half of us in trouble if we miss a single paycheque

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | September 7, 2016

Patrick_Mar05web — CPA CEO Patrick Culhane

As my Financial Post blog today summarizes, far from being confident about a comfortable or even early retirement, almost half of working Canadians (48%) say it would be hard to make ends meet if their paycheque were delayed even a single week. Click on the highlighted headline for full story: Nearly half of Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque — and that has big consequences for retirement security.

Almost one in four (24%) don’t think they could come up with $2,000 if an emergency arose in the next month, according to the Canadian Payroll Association (CPA)’s eighth annual Research Survey of Employed Canadians, which is being made public on Wednesday.

The survey of 5,600 employees across Canada (conducted by Framework Partners between June 27 and Aug 5) found 40% spend all or more than their net pay, while 47% are able to save only 5% or less of earnings. Little wonder that 75% have saved a quarter or less of their retirement goal. Even among those aged 50 or more, a “disturbing” 47% are still less than a quarter of the way to their retirement savings goal.

Half think they’ll need $1 million to retire, and will need till 62 to do so

Can “RoboTrader” take the emotion out of picking individual stocks?

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | August 29, 2016

My latest Financial Post blog looks at a new term, RoboTrader. You can find it by clicking on the highlighted text: VectorVest-Questrade partnership brings unemotional ‘robo’ to retail investing.

As I point out in the piece, the better-known term robo-advisor is well entrenched as a shorthand description of automated online investment services, and generally refers to semi-automated portfolio management systems built on low-cost exchange-traded funds or ETFs.

The idea is to build low-cost well-diversified portfolios and benefit by gradual dollar-cost-averaging of the underlying ETFs, as well as regular rebalancing. This takes a lot of the emotion out of building and monitoring an ETF portfolio.

By contrast, RoboTrader attempts to do a similar thing in the realm of individual stock-picking. RoboTrader revolves around 23,000 individual stocks rated every day by VectorVest Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., which provides investors with both tools to help them with both technical and fundamental analysis of stocks, as well as ETFs. VectorVest has announced RoboTrader as part of a partnership with Questrade Inc., the Toronto-based discount brokerage service.

VectorVest describes RoboTrader as a “powerful new trading tool that solves the biggest problem for many traders: executing a trading plan without letting emotions cloud judgement.” RoboTrader lets clients implement a trading plan that requires only client confirmation for fast, accurate execution, with results monitored in real time.

VectorVest says RoboTrader leverages the intelligence of its fundamental and technical analysis, making it easier to manage portfolios. RoboTrader sends instant alerts to investors’ VectorVest accounts, phone and email, “letting traders know exactly which trades to make, when to make them and in what order quantity.”

Similar deals with US-based TradeKing and TradeStation

Victory Lap Retirement now available

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | August 26, 2016

Coauthors Mike Drak (L) and Jonathan Chevreau (R).

As the accompanying photograph of me and coauthor Mike Drak shows, the book Victory Lap Retirement has finally come off the printing presses.

It will be a few weeks before it is available in bookstores but it can be ordered and delivered now directly through the web site VictoryLapRetirement.com.

The photo was taken Thursday at Mike’s Toronto home. As you can see from our casual poolside attire, we’re trying to live the lifestyle described in the book, and summarized by the subtitle Work While You Play, Play While You Work.

You can also see the yellow book cover is now in rotation on the front page of the Hub, along with the US and Canadian editions of Findependence Day and the summary Kindle ebooks titled A Novel Approach to Financial Independence.

Retired Money: Why I won’t defer my OAS past age 65

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | August 18, 2016

My latest MoneySense Retired Money column is about when to take Old Age Security (OAS) benefits and has been posted at MoneySense.ca. Click on the highlighted text to access the full version here: Why I’m taking Old Age Security right at 65.

As the piece goes into in more depth, the Government incentivizes those in their 60s (including Yours Truly) to defer the date for commencing receipt of benefits of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security. The longer you delay between 65 and 70 (or in the case of CPP, beyond age 60), the better the ultimate payout: wait till 70 instead of 65 and OAS will be 36% higher and CPP 42% higher.

Reasons for Deferring CPP may not also apply to OAS

However, the circumstances surrounding CPP and OAS are not identical, so in my own case I plan to take OAS as soon as it is on offer, less than two years from now, while I will endeavour to defer starting the receipt of CPP for as long as I won’t need the money.

Sorry Boomers, as FinTech rises, Millennials now main focus of financial industry

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | August 12, 2016

As I recount on page FP3 of today’s Financial Post, the baby boomers are fast becoming supplanted by the Millennial generation when it comes to attracting the attention of the financial services industry and in particular the rise of the fintech industry.

For online version, see Sorry boomers, the focus is shifting: Millennials are fast becoming new apple of financial industry’s eye.

Certainly, much of the action around so-called “Fin-Tech” is oriented to the Millennial market, with many of the firms also founded or cofounded by Millennials. The big three fintech categories are online lending, robo-advisers and payment technology.

Note the New York Times had an interesting piece this week on fintech and blockchain: Envisioning Bitcoin’s Technology at the Heart of Global Finance. Also note my Hub review of Don Tapscott’s groundbreaking book on blockchain, with a link to a video: Book Review: Blockchain Revolution.

YOLO: the new Millennial motto?

Also in the FP package today is a review of a book written by a Millennial that addresses Millennials: You Only Live Once, otherwise known as the popular millennial slogan YOLO.

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