The Wealthy Barber, aka David Chilton, didn’t disappoint financial bloggers when he gave the keynote address Saturday to the Canadian Personal Finance Conference 2015.

In his own circle in his native Kitchener, Chilton says that when friends in their mid 50s and up compare their financial readiness for retirement, there is a great divide between those in the public sector and those in the private sector.

I dare say most of us could report the same thing: teachers and government workers may well already be retired by their mid 50s to early 60s while the rest of us: not so much. People who have good pension income also tend to be better savers, Chilton said, and there are many couples in which both spouses enjoy public-sector Defined Benefit pension plans. Late-life divorce and job loss are common but again, this is somewhat less common in the public sector.

Speaking financially across the general population, there are “still too many people in trouble.”  In the real world, “People suck at investing … People don’t know what mutual funds are, let alone MERs,” Chilton said, telling financial bloggers it’s up to them to educate their readers.

PF Bloggers are “freaks”

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Apart from the small matter of a federal election on Monday, the big event this weekend for those of us who focus on Financial Independence is the fourth annual Canadian Personal Finance Conference (aka CPFC15), being held in the Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library. On Twitter, follow along throughout the day using the hashtag #CPFC15. Subway riders: check routes, some may be closed.

Highlights include The Wealthy Barber himself, David Chilton, delivering the keynote address Saturday afternoon. You can also find regular Hub contributor Robb Engen, who plays many roles, among them spearheading the Boomer & Echo blog. Just before Chilton is the Star’s Ellen Roseman.

The event kicks off around 9 am, with the Globe’s Rob Carrick scheduled at 9:15 am. Carrick has been described in previous editions of the conference as the PF writer most financial bloggers wish they could be: many yearn to be included in his influential web roundups. Rob was kind enough to include the Hub soon after its launch late in 2014 and I can attest to the reach of his column.

As for yours truly, I’m not scheduled to appear until Sunday for a 2:45 pm panel on “How to pitch the media.” However, I plan to attend at least some of Saturday’s sessions.

Election’s impact on investors

Now about that election. Continue Reading…

Here’s my latest Young Money blog for the Financial Post, bearing the headline Web-literate millennials look beyond traditional banks for online investing and lending services.

For the Millennial generation born between 1980 and 2000, the Internet and social media comes naturally to them, as does entrepreneurship. They gravitate to services like Netflix, Uber and much more.

That makes them a prime market for both automated online investment services (aka robo advisors, which we often highlight here at the Hub) and online lending services, at least three of which have started up in Canada in the past year or two.

Go to the above link for the full FP blog.  Former mortgage broker Chantal Chapman, at 32 also a millennial, has just been appointed National Financial Fitness Coach for one of those three companies, Vancouver-based Mogo, which trades on the TSX under the ticker GO.

The U.S. model for these is San Francisco-based Lending Club.  We may look at this space in more depth in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, Chantel is co-hosting a series of Adulting 101 financial education events in various cities this fall.  The Toronto event is on October 25th:  details here.
 

My latest Motley Fool Canada blog is entitled How Monday’s federal election could impact Canadian investors.

As we pointed out Wednesday in an FP blog about an H&R Block survey, a surprisingly high percentage (70%) of voters are influenced by the personal tax implications of the various political platforms and tax is actually the “primary factor” for 28% of voters so polled.

Motley Fool wanted a “non-partisan” look not only at tax but also retirement and pensions, balanced budgets and other economic considerations. But as you’ll see, tax remains a big part of it: income splitting, TFSA contribution room and small business taxation.

Below you can find my latest Financial Post blog, which looks at an H&R Block survey released today that found 70% of Canadians of voting age say the personal tax implications of party platforms “influence” their vote. And a whopping 28% felt tax was the “primary” factor affecting their vote.

You can put me in the latter category too! How about you?

Feel free to append comments below  or in the comments section under the full FP blog, which you can find by clicking on this headline: For many Canadians, this election is about taxes.