Reviews

We review books that deal with everything from financial independence topics to politics, and anything in between. We may sometimes stray into films and music if there is a “Findependence” angle.

How “Victory Lap” was conceived

MOSCOW - AUGUST 08: Group Russian unknown golfers shake hands on annual open international event for professionals and fans - VI Moscow Festival Retrostyle in Le Meridien Moscow County Club August 08, 2008 in Moscow, Russia
Victory Lap: Work while you play, play while you work

How did the Victory Lap concept originate? I smile every time I think about the fact that Jonathan and I have written a retirement book about not retiring. I know it’s weird, but weird seems to work in today’s world …

It all started about five years ago: the day I woke up and realized I didn’t want to do my corporate job anymore. Thinking like this was strange for me because I had always liked my job. I was good at it and it paid well, providing security and a good living for my family.

But truth be told, over the last few years the job was starting to have a negative effect both on my health and on my personal well-being. The stress of performing at a high level year in and year out was getting to me. I was reminded of this every morning, when I took my blood pressure medication.

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Victory Lap Retirement now available

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Coauthors Mike Drak (L) and Jonathan Chevreau (R).

As the accompanying photograph of me and coauthor Mike Drak shows, the book Victory Lap Retirement has finally come off the printing presses.

It will be a few weeks before it is available in bookstores but it can be ordered and delivered now directly through the web site VictoryLapRetirement.com.

The photo was taken Thursday at Mike’s Toronto home. As you can see from our casual poolside attire, we’re trying to live the lifestyle described in the book, and summarized by the subtitle Work While You Play, Play While You Work.

You can also see the yellow book cover is now in rotation on the front page of the Hub, along with the US and Canadian editions of Findependence Day and the summary Kindle ebooks titled A Novel Approach to Financial Independence.

Victory-Lap-Retirement-Book Continue Reading…

Review — The Defining Decade: Why your Twenties matter

41UYuubxN8L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_It was a few years ago now that my mom came to me and told me about this book I just absolutely had to read.

As with most things my mother tells me, I nodded, then continued on as if nothing was said. She gave me a copy of the book but I just put it on my shelf, along with many other parental recommendations that I never quite had the time to pick up and get to.

This past January, though, I was sitting around with my friends and they were all panicking about this book they were reading, and how their lives weren’t where they should be for our age, and how their entire perspective had shifted after reading it. Naturally, I was intrigued. What is this book and why is it so powerful as to elicit such a panic from my friends?

As luck would have it, the book they were discussing was the same book my mother had tried to get me to read years before, and I knew exactly where it was sitting on my shelf. I picked up The Defining Decade as soon as I got home that evening, and didn’t put it down ’til it was done.

‘The Defining Decade’ by Meg Jay, PhD is, as cliché as it may sound, a call to action. Continue Reading…

Sorry Boomers, as FinTech rises, Millennials now main focus of financial industry

Millennials word on a product or package box to illustrate marketing and advertising to the youth in Generation Y

As I recount on page FP3 of today’s Financial Post, the baby boomers are fast becoming supplanted by the Millennial generation when it comes to attracting the attention of the financial services industry and in particular the rise of the fintech industry.

For online version, see Sorry boomers, the focus is shifting: Millennials are fast becoming new apple of financial industry’s eye.

Certainly, much of the action around so-called “Fin-Tech” is oriented to the Millennial market, with many of the firms also founded or cofounded by Millennials. The big three fintech categories are online lending, robo-advisers and payment technology.

Note the New York Times had an interesting piece this week on fintech and blockchain: Envisioning Bitcoin’s Technology at the Heart of Global Finance. Also note my Hub review of Don Tapscott’s groundbreaking book on blockchain, with a link to a video: Book Review: Blockchain Revolution.

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YOLO: the new Millennial motto?

Also in the FP package today is a review of a book written by a Millennial that addresses Millennials: You Only Live Once, otherwise known as the popular millennial slogan YOLO.

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The Mind-Body Connection: How Stress affects your Health

Beautiful positive girl clothing in white sit at the seaside on the rock and meditating in yoga poseBy Sandy Cardy

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Researchers have long known that there is a strong link between stress and overall health. In fact, the American Psychological Association suggests that we’re on the verge of a stress-induced public health crisis. The American Medical Association has also noted that 80 per cent of health issues are stress related! So how does stress affect your health?

It’s no secret that the mind plays a key role in health. Internalized stress equals dis-ease. But it actually goes beyond just stress. At the core of every symptom is an emotional pattern; the body speaks the mind. Trapped emotions in the nervous system are at the root of what ails us. Some sources believe that the liver is known to be connected to anger and the lungs produce emotions of grief. The emotions that we do not respect, honour and release are stored in anatomical sites and consequently can affect physiology, often leading to dis-ease and dis-comfort.

Did you know that the seven chakras are associated with specific body parts? Modern literature from both Western and Eastern cultures highlight the connection between each chakra and the endocrine and nervous system as well as organs. Additionally, each chakra is connected to mental and emotional issues as well as physical dysfunctions.

The first chakra, which is located at the base of the spine, is connected to the physical body by the spinal column, legs, bones, feet, rectum and immune system. This is emotionally and mentally connected to physical family and group safety and security, the ability to provide for life’s necessities, the ability to stand up for self, feeling at home and social and familial law and order. The physical dysfunctions associated with the first chakra are touted to include chronic lower back pain, sciatica, varicose veins, rectal tumours/cancer, depression, immune-related disorders. Continue Reading…