All posts by Jonathan Chevreau

Happy volatile New Year! How to cope with turbulent markets

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | January 6, 2016

As I observe in my latest Financial Post blog, it’s not been the happiest of new years for investors heavily invested in equities. See How to play the market’s ugly start to the New Year: Top up your tax-free savings with ‘Bargains for the Brave.’ It ran on Wednesday.

Coincidentally, earlier that day the Hub ran the latest FWB TV video, on the timely topic of the difficulty of timing the markets, even if you’re a major economist like John Maynard Keynes.

See No one can time the market consistently.

That said, global shares have now been falling for six days as of Thursday and futures looked bleak for US markets, as Shanghai shares fell 7% and Chinese stock trading was suspended in less than a half hour after the market open: the second suspension in a week. European shares were down too. It certainly looks “ugly,” as one hedge fund manager told Reuters.

Watch my Twitter feed over the day for market updates. You can also see my latest tweets off to the right side of the Hub’s main page.

In the meantime, it may time to take a deep breath and put things into a long-term perspective. Here’s what regular Hub contributor Adrian Mastracci has to say on the current volatility.

Reduce effects of market jitters

“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.”
— Jonathan Kozel, writer and educator.

Continue Reading…

Time to top up your TFSA by another $5,500

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | January 4, 2016

Here’s my first FP blog of 2016: How to find the money to max out your TFSA in January to make the most of your tax-free savings.

As intimated in the Hub’s New Year’s Day post on Friday, it’s about the first major investing action you can take in 2016: topping up your Tax-free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) by an additional $5,500 (down from $10,000 in 2015.)

On a personal note, since we eat our own cooking here at the Hub, I made contributions for myself and my wife on Friday. Depending on how you execute the transfers, this may or may not be an instantaneous process.

Transfers may not be instantaneous

Review: The Longevity Revolution

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | January 2, 2016

One of the most useful books I read in preparation for a recent talk I gave on longevity was The Longevity Revolution, published in 2008 by Robert N. Butler, M.D. Apart from being a Pulitzer Prize winner, Dr. Butler is also the founder of the International Longevity Centre.

The book is subtitled The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life. Butler observes that in less than 100 years, human beings have made greater gains in life expectancy than it did in the preceding 50 centuries. From the Bronze Age to the end of the 19th century, life expectancy grew by only 29 years or so, from 20 to just under 50 years. But in the 20th century, Life Expectancy surged another 30 years to reach over 77.

The paradox of a downside to what should be good news

Happy 2016 and a few financial resolutions

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | January 1, 2016

To all readers of the Financial Independence Hub, we wish a very happy — and Findependent! –2016. If you count the last few month of 2014 when the Hub launched, then 2016 will be the third calendar year for the Hub and we look forward to many more.

A reminder that as of today, you can contribute a further $5,500 to your Tax-free Savings Account or TFSA. That’s the first thing they remind you of at RBC Direct Investing, one of the main two financial institutions our family uses.

I have to admit that personally I’ve made no formal list of New Year’s Resolutions, although I have declared that I’d like to take my stress levels down a tad, perhaps by using the word “No” a little more often. We’ll see.

In the meantime, for a good formal list of financial New Year’s Resolutions, the Financial Post’s Angela Hickman recently published a good starting point. Click on Five financial resolutions for 2016, and how to (really) make them happen.

Below, I’ve taken the liberty of summarizing the 5 points. Again, click the red link above for the full piece.

1.) I resolve to figure out my finances

2. I resolve to stick to a budget

3. ) I resolve to get out of debt

4.) I resolve to save more

5.) I resolve to stop wasting money

These are all valid suggestions and especially useful for younger folks for whom financial independence is still a faraway goal.

7 eternal truths can also become New Year’s Resolutions

For more ideas, see my series of 7 “Eternal Truths of Personal Finance” that ran in the FP the past summer. Continue Reading…

The Greatest Prospector in the World

Posted By Jonathan Chevreau | December 27, 2015

The Greatest Prospector in the World is the title of a new work of “Business Fiction” focusing on the six “secrets” of sales prospecting success. The author is Ken Dunn, CEO and Founder of Las Vegas based Next Century Publishing.

The six secrets are slowly revealed over the course of a charming tale that begins in the year 1910, a story Dunn describes in the book’s subtitle as “A Historically Accurate Parable on Creating Success in Sales, Business, & Life.”

For those who wish to skip on to the six secrets, they are laid out in the short Afterword, in which Dunn acknowledges a literary debt to Jim Stovall’s Ultimate Life Series and Og Mandino’s classic The Greatest Salesman in the World.

Dunn himself is no slouch in the world of sales prospecting: after an early career in police work he started businesses in property management, finance, direct sales and publishing.

You can find more at the book’s web site, www.greatestprospector.com. Also check out Dunn’s recently launched ReadersLegacy.com, which is a kind of Facebook for book lovers. In an interview in his Toronto offices, Dunn described Reader’s Legacy as “Facebook meets Amazon.” The site even features a kind of literary currency called “Lit Coins,” (reminiscent of Bit Coins).

wv821wSp_400x400 — Kenn Dunn (Twitter.com)

The 6 secrets of Sales Prospecting

I’ll reveal the titles of the secrets but you really need to read the story to get the context. As the cover image shows, it’s all about prospecting for gold nuggets.

Here are the six secrets:

1.) Dress for the Weather

2.) Know what you’re looking for

3.) Use the right tools

4.) Get in the River, Even when you don’t want to

5.) Make it Fun

6.) Work Hard for Six Days, Rest for One