All posts by Michael Drak

Rediscovering your Inner Child in your Victory Lap

Return to Inner ChildThe other day I was talking to a gentleman about how, in our Victory Laps, we have the opportunity to start living like a kid again. He thought that was a little weird, but I think I finally won him over by triggering some long forgotten memories in him.

Remember back to when you were a kid in school. Back then, we had no fears and anything seemed possible. We dreamt such big dreams, like competing in the Olympics or becoming the president of a large company.

Life used to be such an adventure back when we were young but unfortunately over time we tend to bury our hopes and dreams, deep down inside us. We are driven to obtain financial security for our families and save up enough for eventual retirement but at some point we allow ourselves to be assimilated by our jobs and start following the crowd.

We end up acting like everyone else, without knowing exactly where they are taking us, and live by rules drawn up by someone else. As a result, many people just sit back and watch their dreams slowly wither and die. They follow the same dull, boring daily routines, and feel overwhelmed by the pace of their lives, their jobs, debts owed and family obligations. When we allow our dreams to die our soul isn’t far behind.

Young people have little in the way of financial resources, but seem to have the ability to live where they want, travel where they want, and have no fear of doing what they want to do in life. We can learn (perhaps re-learn is a better word) a lot by watching and listening to our kids.

The challenge we boomers face is to find a way to open our minds and take a new approach to life as our past experiences and old prejudices keep getting in the way. Don’t settle for just getting by and start looking at the world with fresh eyes. We all need to start living again just like when we were kids.

If You Don’t Do It Now, You Never Will!

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Victory Lap Retirement: A Retirement book about NOT (fully) retiring

Victory_Lap_Retirement_Front_Cover The fun now begins because Jonathan and I finally get to enjoy the fruits of our labours. The book Victory Lap Retirement has been written, the website and blog has come to life and our first pre-orders are starting to trickle in.

But there is much work to be done to accomplish our goal of building the VLR tribe and helping as many people as possible start their own version of a VLR lifestyle. Great things take time but the results are well worth it once you get there!

Everyone needs a reason to get out of bed in the morning

During your primary career, when you worked for money to ensure security for your family, you had a good reason to get out of bed each morning. But in VLR now that you have achieved Financial Independence (FI) and left your primary career you will need to find another good reason and we believe that some combination of work/leisure will satisfy that need for you. If it is work for pay even better!

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The Gift of Early Findependence

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Could 14-year old Austin Drak become Canada’s next “Youngest Retiree”?

By Michael Drak

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Today there are a number of early-retirement bloggers out there doing great work, teaching people how important it is to adopt a frugal lifestyle so they can quickly regain their freedom.

They continue to preach the merits of “early retirement” but as far as I can tell none of the ones I follow are really retired. They continue to earn money from some activity but the key difference is that they earn that money on their own terms doing something they enjoy. They have earned the option to take a traditional full-stop retirement but for some reason have chosen not to. The question we all need to ask yourselves is why?

The other day I read an article in the Toronto Star about “Canada’s Youngest Retiree” and his book that outlines the strategy that enabled him to retire at the early age of 34. The article went on to say he authored six national best-selling books after retiring and became a millionaire through investing.

Why not retire at 14 and make millions revealing how you did it?

I found the article interesting and said to my son Austin (who still lives at home): “Why don’t you pack in school, and retire? Being 14 years of age we could probably get you into the Guinness Book of Records as the earliest retiree on record. Then all you have to do is write some best-selling books about how you were able to retire at such an early age, go out on the seminar circuit and preach to everyone about how you were able to do it. Continue Reading…

What’s Money got to do with it?

A vector illustration of people working in the office

By Michael Drak

Special to the Financial Independence Hub  

Recently the book Jonathan and I co-authored — Victory Lap Retirement  — was discussed on BNN.  Since I’ve described this with tongue in cheek as a “retirement book about not retiring,” one of the first questions asked by the show’s announcer was “will a person earn less money during their Victory Lap?”

I was not surprised by the question, as it comes up in almost every seminar we give on VLR but every time I hear it I tend to feel a little sad about what we have become.

Why are we always so fixated on making more money so we can buy more stuff in order to prove to others that we are worthy? Wouldn’t it be better if we focused our attention on making a more meaningful life? Or as Jonathan’s Hub slogan puts it, “While You’re Still Young Enough to Enjoy It.”

We believe most people need to keep working but we need to do work for reasons other than for just more money. The opportunity to help somebody, the opportunity to make a difference and the opportunity to create a legacy. We need to stop defining the importance of our work in terms of how much money we make or by how much stuff we can buy because of it. We need to start thinking and living differently.

For most of our lives we have been told what to do. We are taught by our schools and parents how important it is to work hard and get good grades so we can get a good job that pays lots of money. Money was and still is the focal point for most people and that way of thinking needs to change.

The deal with the “Corp”

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Halloween Musings, a book about NOT retiring, living with ZIRP

Scary Halloween pumpkin from Wall Street in 2008
Scary Halloween pumpkin from Wall Street in 2008, courtesy Horizons ETFs.

By Michael Drak

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

My family and I just love Halloween. It’s one of our favorite times of the year, second only to Christmas.

I love it for all the smiling kid’s faces that show up at your door, dressed up in their costumes anticipating the goodies that are coming their way.

Really, if you think about it Halloween is the original “Block” party. Most people in our neighbourhood participate:  either you stay at home handing out treats to the visiting neighbour kids or you take your kids out visiting the neighbours for treats. These days with all of us being so busy, it’s nice to be able to take a night off and pay some attention to all the people living close to us, share a few laughs as well as a few boos or beers! On Halloween night everyone seems happy, everyone feels safe and life for a brief moment is as it should be.

An added bonus is when Austin gets back from trick or treating with his friends. The Contessa goes through his loot checking for anything funny and I go through it soon after searching for my favorite candies when the Contessa is not looking. It’s amazing how creative some of the neighbors are in dressing up their houses for the kids. I always enjoy walking around the neighbourhood and seeing some of the shows that people put on and each year they seem only to get better. Someone is sure making a lot of money on this deal!

Would You Read A Retirement Book About NOT retiring?

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