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.

Will “Unretirement” launch your Encore Act?

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BN-ER243_bkrvun_GV_20140923135029By Jonathan Chevreau

Unretirement is a concept not unlike Findependence or Financial Independence; it’s also the title of a recently published book by Chris Farrell, Bloomberg Businessweek columnist and senior economics contributor for American Public Media’s syndicated radio show, Marketplace.

I’ve also seen the term Unretirement used by Sun Life Financial in Canada but that seems to be more a marketing term the company uses to promote its surveys on traditional retirement. That survey has been going for six years now, which certainly predates the publication of Farrell’s Unretirement Continue Reading…

How Ernie Zelinski retired Happy, Wild & Free

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How-to-Retire-Happy-Cover-3D-2-2-AI have a lot of books about Retirement and Financial Independence in my personal library, but I seldom go through any one twice. Today’s review is an exception because of a lunch I had with a friend we’ll call Albert (not his actual name).

Albert is a former client with whom I’ve kept in touch. He’s now 70 and just begun to retire. Because of various circumstances, he was unable to engage in most of the basic practices described here at the Hub, so no taxable or non-registered savings for Albert.

Fortunately for him, he bought a house in Toronto at something like a third of what’s it’s worth now, and it’s that home equity that has allowed him to finally stop working. He has no dependents and after going over the pros and cons took out a reverse mortgage. Continue Reading…

How to protect your biggest asset: the ability to earn an income

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Ermos Erotocritou, CFP

By Ermos Erotocritou, CFP

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

When a person suffers an illness or injury, it may take some time to know how long it will last, and how long it will keep the person from earning an income.

Hopefully, the disability will last a short time. However, in many instances, the disability can last for a long period of time, perhaps for life. The consequences facing an individual will tend to vary with the length of time a person is disabled.

The consequences will also extend beyond financial concerns. While every everyone is different, and will react differently to events in life, there are some commonalties that tend to occur among people who experience a disability.

Possible consequences of short-term disability

Continue Reading…

10 reasons to quit your job in 2015 (and a few not to)

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Quit job markBy Jonathan Chevreau

Via Linked In comes this insightful article listing ten reasons to quit your job in 2015.

Click above link for the full article. I’ve reproduced the ten headings below, after which I make a few additional observations, based on my own transition in 2014 from employment (21 consecutive years of it.)

The bottom line is this is what Findependence (Financial Independence) is all about, and the raison d’être of this website.  In fact, the cover of the US edition of my book on Financial Independence is very similar to the illustration to the left, except that the calendar date circled is Findependence Day.

As I note below, there may also be good reasons NOT to quit your job in 2015 but instead in 2016 or later. I wrote the original Findependence Day in 2008 but the day didn’t actually arrive until 2014, so you could say it was six years in the making. Sometimes, big life events need to be planned out that far ahead.

In any case, here are the ten reasons for quitting sooner than later:  Continue Reading…

Before you sing Auld Lang Syne: last-minute wealth and tax tips

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Christmas Eve and New Years at midnightIf you’re reading this Monday morning, you have roughly two-and-a-half days to do certain things to optimize wealth or minimize tax before they close the books on calendar 2014.

For  more, click on my latest blog at MoneySense.ca, here.

For convenience and one-stop shopping purposes, here it is below:

By Jonathan Chevreau

With 2014 destined for the record books at midnight Wednesday, there’s not a lot of time left to optimize your investing and tax health. As noted here a week ago, it’s already too late to benefit from tax-loss selling, which had to be executed by Christmas Eve.

Even so, if you’re reading this on Dec. 29th or even Dec. 30th or 31st, there are still a few actions you can take to maximize your wealth or at least minimize tax due in April but you’ll have to complete them well before you start singing Auld Lang Syne. Continue Reading…