Victory Lap

Once you achieve Financial Independence, you may choose to leave salaried employment but with decades of vibrant life ahead, it’s too soon to do nothing. The new stage of life between traditional employment and Full Retirement we call Victory Lap, or Victory Lap Retirement (also the title of a new book to be published in August 2016. You can pre-order now at VictoryLapRetirement.com). You may choose to start a business, go back to school or launch an Encore Act or Legacy Career. Perhaps you become a free agent, consultant, freelance writer or to change careers and re-enter the corporate world or government.

Healthcare abroad: What about the Language Barrier?

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Thailand's Bumrungrad Hospital
Thailand’s Bumrungrad Hospital. Photo RetireEarlyLifestyle.com

By Billy & Akaisha Kaderli

Special to the Financial Independence Hub 

When it comes to navigating healthcare issues in a foreign country, lots of travelers or would-be Expats have a legitimate concern over the language barrier.

While there is a possibility that you could find yourself in the backwaters of Vietnam, in a lonely village in the mountains of China or Tibet, or spending the night in a hill tribe pueblo reachable only by rickety bridges, chances are you will be somewhere close to a civilized town or large city. In our decades of world travel through dozens of countries, our experience is that most medical professionals speak English or enough English to make the transaction go smoothly.

Service is Primary

In the hospitals of Thailand, we have discussed surgeries, received executive physicals, blood tests, colonoscopies, eye exams, sonograms, x-rays and more. But we are not fluent in Thai. How were we able to communicate about such complicated topics?

Not only do these professional medical personnel speak English, but we are issued a personal translator/assistant who takes us from office to office, procedure to procedure. She translates for us if necessary, keeps our paperwork together and wheels us around in the wheelchair if required. The fee for this service? About $2USD each visit.

It’s not a guessing game

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Upgrading technology in the Victory Lap

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Depositphotos_107159416_s-2015One of the key elements of the post-corporate Victory Lap Retirement lifestyle is self-employment. If this begins in your late 50s or early 60s, you’ll be living on multiple streams of income. Some of it may be passive, such as pension income (I draw from two modest corporate pensions, for example) or non-registered investment income, but a big component is continued earned income.

If you are no longer a salaried employee, it’s probably best to set up a sole proprietorship or even incorporate. I’ve always run a corporation alongside salaried employment and have found that once you’re fulltime in business for yourself, It’s hard to generate as much pre-tax income as a salaried corporate job does. However, there are significant compensations in time and flexibility, plus the net after-tax proceeds of self-employment are relatively more attractive than being a fully-taxed-at-source salaried employee.

One reason is the allowable deductions or “write-offs” for legitimate business expenses, which may include certain computer equipment, software and some services. Obviously you should consult with a tax professional and engage an accountant because you don’t want to trigger an audit from the Canada Revenue Agency. After all, it’s clear the new Liberal government regards self-employment with suspicion: my guideline is to “assume an audit” and act accordingly.

Time to upgrade equipment

I am writing this article on brand new equipment that replaces products that were as old as six years. My fiscal year-end is the end of May and it’s been a decent year revenue-wise, so it seemed like a good time to book some legitimate expenses. Those whose calendar year-end correspond with their fiscal year (i.e. Dec. 31st) would go through this process at the end the calendar year.

241362-apple-macbook-air-13-inchIn my case, apart from the tax considerations of booking valid deductions, it really was time to upgrade the single most important business tool I use, which was an Apple MacBook Air.

After six years the machine had just about used up its storage and processing capacity and I had begun to lose significant chunks of time rebooting and closing applications. Continue Reading…

You say you want a (Blockchain) Revolution?

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Alex Tapscott at Rotman School Thursday evening

My latest Financial Post article can be found by clicking the highlighted text here: Bitcoin and Blockchain could be the start of a revolution bigger than the Internet itself.

My actual words in the lead to the piece were “as big or bigger” but no matter. That’s the gist of a new book by author and technology guru Don Tapscott, and his investment banker son, Alex.

The duo launched their co-authored new book, Blockchain Revolution, to a standing room only audience at Toronto’s Rotman School of Management on Thursday evening. It was the first stop in a ten-city book tour.

9781101980132_Blockchain_final process.indd Blockchain is the Trust Code

The famous Bitcoin is based on blockchain, which meant that for the first time in history two or more parties don’t need to know or trust each other in order to transact or do business online. They don’t need powerful intermediaries because “Trust is programmed into the essence of the technology so blockchain is the trust code.” The book (shown to the right) says big banks and some governments are implementing blockchains as distributed ledgers to speed transactions, improve security and lower costs. These ledgers reside on millions of computers provided by volunteers, so there is no central database that can be hacked. Using heavy cryptography, transactions are time-stamped and validated by a community of miners who are rewarded with more bitcoins. Every time a new block is added to the chain, it must refer to a previous block to be valid: hence the term blockchain.

Real FinTech is based on Blockchain

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Book Review: Ernie Zelinski’s Look Ma, Life’s Easy is a primer on Success

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ZelnskicoverErnie Zelinski is a successful Edmonton-based author who has sold more than 900,000 books in 29 countries around the world. He has just published his latest book, titled Look Ma, Life’s Easy, which passes on his secrets for success, primarily to the millennial generation. .

Zelinski is best known for writing The Joy of Not Working and How to Retire Happy, Wild And Free, both of which sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

The new book takes a pseudo-fictional approach like the one famously used by David Chilton in The Wealthy Barber (or less famously, in my own Findependence Day!).

Zelinski’s subtitle is “How Ordinary People Attain Extraordinary Success and Remarkable Prosperity.” The story revolves around two characters, a young adult named Sheldon and his soon-to-be mentor Brock, described as a successful middle-aged man.

The Easy Rule of Life

Over the 200-plus pages of the book Brock imparts to Sheldon his secret of success, which he calls The Easy Rule of Life.

This is the main takeaway, which has a certain amount of paradox in it: Continue Reading…

What every woman needs to know about Retirement

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Akaisha Kaderli

By Akaisha Kaderli

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

The other day I read an article about women and retirement. In this piece, the number one premise for motivation was that we should be afraid. Very afraid. It said that for the most part, men did the planning for retirement and that we as women rely on them blindly.

I dislike reading articles such as this, first, because it is fear-based but second, it doesn’t take into consideration the talents women contribute to the mix of partnership and planning. While it might be true that men are “wired to provide for the household,” women have moved into professions which pay grandly. Many marriages today are a different blend of partnership than what our own parents or grandparents enjoyed. Along with their jobs, many women still run the household, so why not get involved in retirement planning in a proactive manner?

Retirement is a boring word

The word “retirement” conjures up images of old people on pensions or perhaps pictures of those who no longer contribute powerfully to society with their expertise and knowledge. I prefer the description “financially independent” for the freedom, influence and self-reliance it implies.

One can choose financial independence at any stage of life and it’s an exciting and worthy goal. The younger a person begins on this path, the more you have in your favor.

Women, listen up

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