Hub Blogs

Hub Blogs contains fresh contributions written by Financial Independence Hub staff or contributors that have not appeared elsewhere first, or have been modified or customized for the Hub by the original blogger. In contrast, Top Blogs shows links to the best external financial blogs around the world.

The 7 eternal truths of personal finance

The print edition of today’s Financial Post (June 10, page FP9) is running the first of a series of seven articles by me entitled “The Seven Eternal Truths of Personal Finance.”

Eternal Truth No. 1 is Live below Your Means.

The online link is here.

Note there is also a short video accompanying the online article, and a growing number of comments below the piece.

Here is a preamble I wrote for it:

Series Rationale: One of the most experienced personal finance writers in North America is the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Zweig. As he wrote here after writing his 250th Intelligent Investor column, he confessed that there are only a handful of personal finance stories out there:

“I was once asked, at a journalism conference, how I defined my job. I said: My job is to write the exact same thing between 50 and 100 times a year in such a way that neither my editors nor my readers will ever think I am repeating myself. That’s because good advice rarely changes, while markets change constantly.”

In this seven-part series, I look back on my two decades plus of writing about money to distill it all down to these “seven eternal truths.”

As far as I know, the second instalment will run a week from now.

We may be saving enough, yet still not be ready for retirement

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Lisa Taylor

By Lisa Taylor, Challenge Factory

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Recently, Malcolm Hamilton’s C.D. Howe Institute paper, Do Canadians Save Too Little?, challenged the prevailing view that Canadians are not financially prepared for retirement. His Financial Post column summarized the key findings of his paper and highlighted that many of the assumptions made about retirement are not accurate. Canadians are saving and the determination of how much saving is enough is dependent on many non-financial factors. [See also the Hub’s blog on this: JC]

Indeed, the question of “retirement readiness” is more complicated than calculations predicting financial security.

Meaning of “Retirement” has changed

Retirement has changed. Every formal definition of the verb “to retire” focuses on retreat, withdrawal and conclusion. The original meaning of the word included a complete withdrawal from work, a focus on rest or seclusion, a retreat from battle or the time to go to bed. We retire equipment when it is taken out of service. We retire a bond by taking it out of circulation. Continue Reading…

Retirement Reflections Entering our 25th year of Financial Independence

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Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

By Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

In January we began our 25th year of Financial Independence. Few people can say they have 24 years of self-funded retirement by age of 62, and have a higher net worth after spending and inflation than when they started. This is something of which we are quite proud.

As we have aged one thing we have learned is that the long term is getting shorter every day. Life is to be enjoyed now, not someday – the older we get, the more we appreciate that view. Life is continuously full of opportunities and we want to take them.

Opportunities abound

retirement_reflections7For example, last year we were approached by a startup company that sponsored us for several months in Saigon, Vietnam. Continue Reading…

Weekly Wrap: We ARE saving enough for retirement; CPP & Social Security Redux, frugal millionaires

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Malcolm Hamilton at MoneySense’s fall Retiring Rich event

Retired actuary and retirement guru Malcolm Hamilton this week released a C.D. Howe paper entitled Do Canadians Save Too Little? The Hub’s initial take ran Thursday here: It’s an exaggeration to say we are saving too little for retirement.

Hamilton also wrote a summary of the paper in the FP Comment section of the Financial Post on Thursday, bearing the title False pension assumptions on Canadian savings.

We at the Hub have always said frugality is the key to saving and ultimately building wealth. But according to the most-emailed New York Times article this week, it’s tough for millionaires to dump the frugal habits that got them there: Millionaires who are frugal when they don’t have to be.  Shades of the book, The Millionaire Next Door!

More (much more!) on Voluntary CPP Continue Reading…

Where to Travel to Stretch Your Canadian Dollar the Farthest

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Sean Cooper

By Sean Cooper

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

After a second straight brutally cold winter, spring is finally here. February was the coldest month in Toronto history – what better way to celebrate than a summer getaway? Many Canadians on a budget choose to travel to our neighbours to the south, the U.S.

“With the Canadian dollar having lost 25% of its value over the last two years and the Canadian dollar below 80 cents, you’ll need to be more frugal with your money this year” says Rahim Madhavji, President of KnightsbridgeFX.com.

Here are some places to consider travelling to stretch your Canadian dollar the farthest in the U.S. and internationally:

USA

  1. Yosemite National Park

Cost: $30 per vehicle ($25 from November to March) for a seven-day pass Continue Reading…