Here’s my latest MoneySense column, titled Is Investing an Art or a Science? It may serve as a primer about DFA index mutual funds, which was last addressed at the Hub in March by financial planner Paul Philip in this interview with Peter Grandich.
For convenience and one-stop shopping purposes, you can also find the piece below, with a photo and subheads added: Continue Reading…
The third of the seven-part series on the Eternal Truths of Personal Finance is in the Wednesday Financial Post today, as well as online under the headline The No. 3 eternal truth of personal finance: Pay off Your Debt First.
Part 1 ran last Wednesday and Part 2 on Saturday. You can find links both in the Hub’s weekly wrap on Saturday.
As I noted this morning on Twitter, it’s ironic that Christie Blatchford’s piece on Mike Duffy today revealed that the beleaguered former broadcaster was unable to live within his means, despite drawing a not-inconsiderable salary of $120,000 a year: Audit shows Mike Duffy was unable to live within his means.
Not for nothing did we kick off the Eternal Truths series with Live within your means!
By Michael Drak,
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
“I want you to get up right now. Sit up – Go to your windows – Open them and stick your head out and yell – I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!
Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first, get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”
The above scene is from the 1976 film, Network, and my mother thought it might be an appropriate response to Jonathan [Chevreau]’s recent article on TFSAs: “Memo to Liberals: lots of older middle-class Canadians have $10,000 TFSA capital “lying around.”
Here is her story.
‘I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everyone knows things are bad.”
My mother currently resides in a retirement home and is able to afford the hefty monthly rental payments via a combination of CPP/OAS and unregistered savings. Continue Reading…
By Rick Hyde
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
Most articles about identity theft will offer practical insights and steps that you can take to protect your self. But what about all the other people that handle your personal data – the financial advisors, accountants, lawyers and health professionals, to mention a few – what are they doing to protect YOUR privacy?
Identity theft and fraud is growing
As the use of digital systems for storing personal financial and health data has grown, so has the problem of fraudulent access to that information.
Identity theft and fraud has been growing steadily in the past 10-20 years, according to reports in the US and Canada. So far in 2015, the US-based Identity Theft Resource Center reports almost 300 incidents involving data on over 100 million individuals.
You are your account numbers
By Jack Crew,
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
For the majority of young adults, the most common New Year’s resolution is to earn financial freedom. Unfortunately most of them fail to achieve what they set up as a goal on New Year’s Day.
That’s because they have only a vague idea about what financial freedom is all about. For most of us, financial freedom means having enough money that we can us spend on whatever we want. While earning a lot of income and enjoying control over expenses are important financial objectives, this by itself cannot be a true definition of financial freedom.
A precise definition is not universal, as many pundits have different takes on the subject. Here ’s what I think about ‘Financial Freedom’:
Winning Fear
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