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.

How to Balance Spending Now & Saving for the Future

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From opening two different savings accounts to giving your money a job, here are 12 answers to the question, “Give your best tip for how to balance the need to save and invest for the future with the desire to enjoy my life and spend money on things that are important to you?” 

  • Open Two Different Savings Accounts
  • Consider Your Housing Costs
  • Focus on The Three Aspects of Great Personal Finances
  • Use Financial Aggregators to Monitor Spending
  • Spend Money On Your Passions; Avoid Pointless Purchases
  • Invest in Things That Will Last
  • Understand Your Cash Flow
  • Consider the 50-50 Rule
  • Create and Follow a Budget
  • Use Fixed Percentages for Saving /Investing
  • Schedule a ‘Spending Period’ in Your Life
  • Give Your Money a Job So It Has a Purpose

Open two different Savings Accounts

Most people have a checking account and a savings account. If you want to save for the future, open up a second savings account and put your long-term savings in that pot. Find the best interest opportunities you can find for that account and leave that money alone to the best of your ability.

For the money that you want to use in the shorter term (shopping, traveling, buying gifts), manage that money in a separate savings account. Your checking account should cover all of your expenses while your primary savings account should be your “fun-spending” money.

The third account should be your long-term savings and that should be the money that you take to your financial advisor for the best long-term investment opportunities. Let that build up for a while and then try to make smart investments with it. — Brittany Dolin, Co-founder, Pocketbook Agency

Consider your Housing Costs

If you’re struggling to save and invest for the future while also enjoying life, consider your housing costs. Housing is one of the biggest monthly expenses, so if you’re living in a home that’s too big for you, or you’re paying more than you can afford for it, you may want to consider downsizing.

Consider your needs and wants when choosing a home. Do you really need a five-bedroom home if you’re a family of two? Can you live somewhere with fewer amenities if it means you can save money on your monthly housing costs? Homeownership is an investment in yourself and your future, so it’s important to find a balance between spending on your housing and investing in the future. — Matthew Ramirez, CEO, Rephrasely

Focus on the three Aspects of Great Personal Finances

I’ve learned from my mentors that great personal finances can be broken down into three areas: Budgeting Expenses, Creating Income, and Developing Cashflow-Producing Assets.

With any money-related goal, identifying which area(s) to focus on is key. For example, getting out of debt requires stricter budgeting and increasing income. Meanwhile, retirement has to do with areas 1 and 3. This also makes it simple: budget a percentage of your income to save and invest based on your long-term goals.

Then determine your priorities. Perhaps you need to be strict with some other living expenses to be able to spend money on what’s important to you and set savings and investment goals for larger purchases while you also work to increase your income. — Eric Chow, Chief Consultant, Mashman Ventures

Use Financial Aggregators to Monitor Spending

The balance between saving and investing for the future, while also enjoying life and spending money on what matters to you, is a difficult one to achieve.

One uncommon way to reach this balance is by using financial aggregators. Financial aggregators are tools that allow you to connect all your accounts, such as investments and bank accounts, into one place in order to get a better look at where your hard-earned money is going. This makes it easier for you to budget wisely and allocate money towards satisfying both savings goals, as well as needs or wants for immediate enjoyment.

With this knowledge in hand, you’ll be more aware of how much flexibility you can have with your monthly expenses since both needs are being fulfilled simultaneously. — Carly Hill, Operations Manager, VirtualHolidayParty.com

Spend Money on your Passions; Avoid Pointless Purchases

The best way to save money and enjoy life is to spend money on your passions and cut back on everything else. For example, you might grab a Starbucks drink before work every day. But does this really add value to your life? You can make the exact same coffee at home for a fraction of the price. This is just one example, but most people are spending thousands of dollars a year on unimportant things.

Once you’ve cut expenses out of your life that don’t provide value, spend this extra money on your passions. Let’s say you’re a big fan of motorbiking. You can use this money to buy a sport bike and go to your local racetrack every weekend. Or, if you love hiking, buy quality hiking gear and hike with friends and family. This strategy allows you to cut back on unimportant expenses, save money, and spend more on things that bring happiness. — Scott Lieberman, Owner, Touchdown Money

Invest in Things that will Last

A great way to balance the need to save and invest for your future while still enjoying life is mindful spending. This means considering each purchase you make, big or small, and evaluating if it will add long-term value and benefit you; an uncommon example of this would be investing in a massage package.

Instead of splurging on something that won’t provide sustainable value, such as multiple nights out with friends, consider treating yourself to regular professional massages — which have medical benefits from managing pain to reducing stress — that promote mental health and well-being. Practicing mindful spending ensures money is not wasted frivolously but also allows for some indulgences now that can later prove beneficial. — Grace He, People and Culture Director, teambuilding.com

Understand your Cash Flow

Understanding your household cash flow is among the most important aspects of securing your financial future. In order to have more money to spend or save now, you must be acutely aware of your spending habits. Continue Reading…

How to address your Financial Anxieties without breaking the Bank

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Image source: Pixabay.com

By Beau Peters

Special to Financial Independence Hub

Money management is arguably one of the most stressful things that most of us deal with on a regular basis. It never fails; just as soon as you feel like you’re doing well financially, something comes up — unexpected home repairs, vehicle maintenance, emergency medical bills, holiday gift purchases. Financial worries can sit in the back of your mind and weigh on you day in and day out.

For many, financial stresses are a concern, but not a debilitating one. However, some people develop financial anxiety — a condition where worry, fear, and unease about finances causes those suffering from it to behave differently. Behavior changes can show up in different ways such as extreme frugalness, avoiding finances, excessive overspending, or even physical changes such as high blood pressure.

Fortunately, if you are someone who suffers from financial anxiety, there are steps you can take to help address it and get your life back. The first one is finding some help, the next is gaining control. As you work through the process of dealing with your financial anxiety, you will inevitably learn a lot about yourself and how to manage your money the way you want to.

Finding Help

The root cause of financial anxiety can come from a number of different places. Maybe you have an extreme fear of being in debt because you grew up watching your parents struggle to make ends meet without sinking deeper and deeper into financial ruin. Or perhaps you were never really taught about personal finance management and now everything finance seems daunting. Or maybe you’ve just given up all hope of financial stability and choose not to address the financial concerns you know you should.

Either way, there is help out there and you are not alone. Talking with professionals about financial issues is a great place to start. Numerous different types of therapists can help you identify the root of your financial anxiety and work through the issues surrounding that cause. Likewise, financial advisors can be a great resource for helping you to understand your finances and get them back on track.

Of course, it might give you anxiety just to think about paying for a therapist to help you through your financial stresses.

Don’t worry! There are still options for you. The first might be to start by talking to a trusted friend that you believe manages their money well. Another option is to dive into the multitudes of cheap or free resources that are available online. These include affordable financial help guides or podcasts that dive into all sorts of topics, from how to build a budget you can stick to all the way to how to best invest your money.

Making a Plan

If getting help is the first step, developing a realistic plan is the second step. You might be thinking great, another budget that is bound to fail, but this isn’t necessarily the case. A workable plan can come in a variety of different forms. The right plan for you to address your financial anxiety might be different than what another person needs to feel financially stable.

For example, maybe the right plan for you involves building greater financial literacy by learning some of the terminology and tools available. Perhaps your plan is to read one financial news article a day. Or maybe your plan is to build up a rainy day fund that will ease your concerns about going into debt. Or to focus more on building more meaningful relationships and focus less on having the fanciest home goods.

All of this isn’t to say that a budget isn’t sometimes a great tool. In fact, budgets can be one of the most powerful tools for getting yourself out of debt or achieving a financial goal. The crux is creating a realistic budget that you can actually live with. Cutting out all of your excess expenditures might help you save money, but sooner or later you’ll crack. Smaller changes that you can really stick to are much more valuable over the long run.

Taking Control

The final step is to enact the plan and adjust as needed to make sure you’re doing something that is really making a positive difference. Take time once a month to evaluate where you’re at with your financial anxiety. Are you making progress? Are you achieving your financial and financial mental health goals? Continue Reading…

$1.7 million to retire: doable or out of reach?

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Front page of Wednesday’s Financial Post print edition.

Plenty of press this week over a BMO survey that found Canadians now believe they’ll need $1.7 million to retire, compared to just $1.4 million two years ago (C$). The main reason for the higher nest-egg target is of course inflation.

As you’d expect, the headline of the story alone attracted plenty of media attention. I heard about it on the car radio listening to 102.1 FM [The Edge]: there, a female broadcaster who was clearly of Millennial vintage deemed the $1.7 million ludicrously out of reach, personalizing it with her own candid confession that she herself hasn’t even begun to save for Retirement. Nor did she seem greatly fussed about it.

Here’s the Financial Post story which ran in Wednesday’s paper: a pick-up of a Canadian Press feed; a portion is shown to the left. The writer, Amanda Stephenson, quoted BMO Financial Group’s head of wealth distribution and advisory services Caroline Dabu to the effect the $1.7 million number says more about the country’s economic mood than about real-life retirement necessities.

BMO’s own client experience finds that “many overestimate the number that they need to retire,” she told CP, “It really does have to be taken at an individual level, because circumstances are very different … But $1.7 million, I would say, is high.”

Here’s my own take and back-of-the-envelope calculations. Keep in mind most of the figures below are just guesstimates: those who have financial advisors or access to retirement calculators can get more precise numbers and estimates by using those resources. I may update this blog with input from any advisors or retirement experts reading this who care to fill in the blanks by emailing me.

A million isn’t what is used to be

Image via Tenor.com

Back in the old days, a million dollars was considered a lot of money, even if that amount today likely won’t get you a starter home in Toronto or Vancouver. This was highlighted in one of those Austin Powers movies, in which Mike Myers (Dr. Evil) rubs his hands in glee but dates himself by threatening to destroy everything unless he’s given a “MILLL-ion dollars,” as if it were an inconceivably humungous amount.

The quick-and-dirty calculation of how much $1 million would generate in Retirement depends of course on your estimated rate of return. When interest rates were near zero, this resulted in a depressing conclusion: 1% of $1 million is $10,000 a year, or less than $1,000 a month pre-tax. When my generation started working in the late 70s, a typical entry-level job paid around $12,000 a year so you could figure that $1 million plus the usual government pensions would get you over the top in retirement.

Inflation has put paid to that outcome but consider two rays of hope, as I explained in a recent MoneySense Retired Money column. To fight inflation, Ottawa and most central banks around the world have hiked interest rates to more reasonable levels. Right now you can get a GIC paying somewhere between 4% and 5%. Conservatively, 4% of $1 million works out to $40,000 a year. 4% of $1.7 million is $68,000 a year. That certainly seems to be a liveable amount. More so if you have a paid-for home: as I say in my financial novel Findependence Day, “the foundation of Financial Independence is a paid-for home.”

Couples have it easier

If you’re one half of a couple, presumably two nest eggs of $850,000 would generate the same amount: for simplicity we’ll assume a 4% return, whether in the form of interest income or high-yielding dividend stocks paid out by Canadian banks, telecom companies or utilities. I’d guess most average Canadians would use their RRSPs to come up with this money.

This calculation doesn’t even take into consideration CPP and OAS, the two guaranteed (and inflation-indexed) government-provided pensions. CPP can be taken as early as age 60 and OAS at 65, although both pay much more the longer you wait, ideally until age 70. Again, couples have it easier, as two sets of CPP/OAS should add another $20,000 to $40,000 a year to the $68,000, depending how early or late one begins receiving benefits.

This also assumes no employer-pension, generally a good assumption given that private-sector Defined Benefit pensions are becoming rarer than hen’s teeth. I sometimes say to young people in jest that they should try and land a job in either the federal or provincial governments the moment they graduate from college, then hang on for 40 years. Most if not all governments (and many union members) offer lucrative DB pensions that are guaranteed for life with taxpayers as the ultimate backstop, and indexed to inflation. Figure one of these would be worth around $1 million, and certainly $1.7 million if you’re half of a couple who are in such circumstances.

Private-sector workers need to start RRSPs ASAP

But what if you’re bouncing from job to job in the private sector, which I presume will be the fate of our young broadcaster at the Edge? Then we’re back to what our flippant commentator alluded to: if she doesn’t start to take saving for Retirement seriously, then it’s unlikely she’ll ever come up with $1.7 million. In that case, her salvation may have to come either from inheritance, marrying money or winning a lottery.

For those who prefer to have more control over their financial future, recall the old saw that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. In Canada, that step is to maximize your RRSP contributions every year, ideally from the moment you begin your first salaried job. Divide $1.7 million by 40 and you get $42,400 a year that needs to be contributed. OK, I admit I’m shocked by that myself but bear with me. The truth is that no one even is allowed to contribute that much money every year into an RRSP. Normally, the limit is 18% of earned income and the 2023 maximum RRSP contribution limit is $30,780 (and $31,560 for the 2024 taxation year.) Continue Reading…

Fixing your Credit for a Real Estate Purchase

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By Jessica Mohajer

Special to Financial Independence Hub

To purchase a home, having good credit is essential to be approved for mortgage financing.

If your credit needs some improvement, then there are steps you can take to fix it and make yourself more attractive to lenders when seeking approval for a real estate purchase.

What is the credit score, and why do you need it for real estate purchases?

Your credit score is a numerical value calculated using information from your credit report. It typically ranges from 300 to 850 and reflects how likely you are to repay debts based on factors like payment history, the total debt owed, length of credit history, and types of accounts used.

A good credit score can make it easier for you to get approved for a mortgage loan and secure favorable interest rates and terms. Conversely, a low credit score can result in higher borrowing costs and potentially even difficulty obtaining financing for a home. For this reason, it is vital to ensure that your credit score is in good shape before attempting to purchase real estate. It’s also a good idea to check your credit score regularly, as it can change based on any changes in your credit activity.

Enlist the Help of a Credit Repair Service

Enlisting the help of a credit repair service can be an effective way to improve your credit score for a real estate purchase. A reputable credit repair service can work with you to identify errors on your report, dispute information, and offer guidance on how best to handle any financial issues dragging down your score.

Look for a credit repair service that offers personalized services such as customized plans, detailed analysis of your credit report, and a team of certified professionals. It’s also important to check the credit repair service’s reputation: ensure they have good reviews from past clients and are licensed in your state.

Have a positive payment history

Your credit score is one of the key factors that lenders look at when evaluating your loan application, and a good payment history will help you get approved more quickly. Paying your bills on time every month is crucial because it shows that you are responsible for managing your finances. The longer and more consistently you can make your payments, the better. It’s also a good idea to keep track of late payments and rectify them as quickly as possible. If you have missed a payment or two in the past, work on building up your credit score by making timely payments in the future. This will show lenders that you are taking steps to repair your credit and are dedicated to staying on top of your finances.

Check for errors on your credit report

It is important to check for errors on your credit report before you start buying a home. Errors on your credit report can cause significant problems when trying to secure financing and result in delays or even denial of loan applications. While there are several ways to review your credit report, the most efficient method is to get a copy from each of the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. By getting a copy from each bureau, you can compare results and make sure all information is accurate. Continue Reading…

Digital wallets: How payment technology is dominating the future of finance

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Photo credit by Adyen

By Sander Meijers

Special to Financial Independence Hub

The payments technology industry is exploding in Canada. Due to economic indicators and progressive technology alike, consumers across the country have adopted new habits over the past few years, changing how they make payments. In particular, the adoption of e-commerce and unified commerce solutions validates that consumers are demanding more flexibility in how they use their “wallet.”

One trend to watch is digital wallets, which have become an increasingly important feature for Canadian merchants to offer. Since 2021, nearly one third (29%) of Canadians have completed a purchase using a digital or mobile wallet. With digital wallet options including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and WeChat Pay gaining in popularity, Canadians are regularly using their mobile devices to make payments in person and online. Knowing exactly how to implement a digital wallet can make a difference in how Canadians can make payments in 2023 and beyond.

Understanding what a digital wallet is

 A digital wallet stores payment information, such as credit cards, which enables the consumer  to pay both online and in person. This ultimately streamlines the payments experience for businesses and shoppers alike. A digital wallet can also be a software program on a desktop or built into an internet browser.

The most important thing to know about digital wallets is that they can completely replace the need for physical payment cards. Some digital wallets also let consumers make peer-to-peer payments, ATM withdrawals, and pre-load funds. Other digital wallets store more than payment information, including loyalty cards, vouchers, tickets, and more in the same place.

There are also mobile wallets, which work only for mobile devices  such as smartphones and smartwatches. The key difference here is that “digital wallet” is a term that includes mobile wallets. In Canada, when it comes to online payments, digital wallets are the second most popular form of payment among shoppers.

What are the perks of digital wallets?

There are major benefits for businesses to accommodate digital wallets in Canada, including expanding your consumer reach, stabilizing  conversion rates, and strengthening high security levels.

Canada is a socioeconomic melting pot, welcoming a diverse range of consumers from across the world. As such, shoppers from around the world have different payment preferences, so increasing flexibility and payment options helps ensure that today’s diverse consumer profile can complete their payments in methods with which they are most comfortable. Continue Reading…