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.

Relying on Inheritance: Retirement Cash Flow Review

Posted By |

 

By Dale Roberts, Retirement Club/Cutthecrapinvesting

Special to Financial Independence Hub

The Globe & Mail offers ongoing real-life retirement funding (cash flow plan) scenarios. They also invite a financial planner to offer their opinion. They call the series Financial Facelift. A recent article caught my eye. I thought I would give it a go using a popular free use retirement software that allows DIY retirees and near retirees to run their own plans.

The following is a cash flow review from the Globe. I was curious, so I started to enter the details at MayRetire:  a very intuitive, easy-to-use (free use) retirement cash flow calculator.

And I’ll show you how:  you can join Dale for a …

How to use MayRetire Intro Zoom Call Session

You can join a 12 pm or 7 pm EST session this Thursday, April 16th.

Time: Apr 16, 2026 12:00 PM Eastern Time

Join Zoom Meeting: Click on this Zoom Call LInk

Enter this Passcode: 156627

Meeting ID: 865 0137 0741

Time: Apr 16, 2026 07:00 PM Eastern Time

Join Zoom Meeting: Click on this Zoom Call Link

Enter this Passcode: 828943

Meeting ID: 585 884 9710

The Financial Facelift scenario

Ennis and Kara are planning to retire soon, leaving behind joint family income of more than $340,000 a year. Ennis is 61 years old and earns $220,000 a year in senior management. His wife, Kara, is 54 and earns $120,000 in research.

Both have defined-benefit pensions. Ennis’s will be $27,960 a year, while Kara’s will pay $9,000 a year. Both pensions are only partly indexed to inflation, his 50 per cent, hers 60 per cent.

“We’ve received no shortage of advice on how to prepare for this transition, but are interested in getting an experienced, objective view on whether we can retire on our timeline or are being overly optimistic,” Ennis writes in an e-mail.

Both anticipate receiving inheritances at some point.

Their goals are to travel and help their three young adult children buy first homes when the family cottage is sold. Their share will be about $150,000.

Two of their children are still living at home.

Check out Retirement Club for Canadians

The couple’s home in an Ontario city is valued at $1.1-million, and has a $300,000 mortgage. Their retirement spending goal is $135,000 a year after tax.

The G&M asked Ian Calvert, a certified financial planner and head of wealth planning at HighView Financial in Oakville, Ont., to look at Ennis’s and Kara’s situation.

What the expert says

Ennis and Kara have a net worth of about $2.18-million, Mr. Calvert says.

“They have a healthy asset base, and their pensions are a strong component of their retirement plan,” he notes. “However, without any non-registered assets or tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs), all of their withdrawals in retirement will be treated as taxable income, with the exception of their cash savings.”

To fund their cash flow requirements, they will need to withdraw about $129,000 a year from their combined RRSPs and locked-in retirement accounts, or LIRAs, the planner says.

“Before they start consistent withdrawals from these accounts, they should consider converting their RRSPs to registered retirement income funds (RRIFs) and unlock 50 per cent of their LIRAs,” Mr. Calvert says.

Unlocking 50% of the LIRAs

The unlocking of retirement assets adds more flexibility: They are moving assets out of LIRAs, which have annual withdrawal maximums, into RRSPs, which do not.

Moving assets from RRSPs to RRIFs makes sense because they are entering their withdrawal phase and need consistent income from these accounts.

“It’s important to remember that the 50 per cent unlocking is a one-time option that should be completed at age 55 or older when you are completing the transfer from a LIRA to a life income fund (LIF) and starting to withdraw.”

The couple’s $129,000 withdrawal, plus combined pension income of $37,000 a year, will give them a total family income of $166,000 a year, less $31,000 in income taxes. This will meet their after-tax spending target of $135,000.

“The required annual withdrawals from their retirement savings represent about 10 per cent of their portfolio,” the planner notes. “It would be challenging to maintain their capital at this withdrawal rate, and they should expect a decline in capital over time.”

Fortunately, they have two items that will reduce the withdrawal rate. “First, they are expecting a combined inheritance of about $1.3-million in the next few years,” Mr. Calvert says. “Second, they will both be getting Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security benefits.”

When their inheritance comes through, they should use part of it to fund their TFSAs to the maximum available limit at the time, Mr. Calvert says. Currently, the lifetime maximum TFSA contribution is $109,000 each, increasing by $7,000 each year.

This will leave a substantial amount to be invested in their non-registered portfolio.

“Investing the remaining non-registered funds to generate steady and reliable income would be beneficial for a couple of reasons,” the planner says. With $1-million or so to invest, “they should build a portfolio structure that not only will participate in growth, but will generate a consistent dividend yield of about 3.5 per cent, or $35,000 a year.”

Relying on inheritance

The inheritance money will give them much more flexibility, the planner says. They will have funds they can access without adding to their taxable income. However, the new investment income from the funds they can’t shelter in their TFSAs will be reported and taxed every year.

“Once their inheritance is received, they could withdraw $35,000 per year from the non-registered portfolio and reduce the withdrawals from their RRSPs and LIRAs to about $89,000 a year. This, combined with their pension income of about $38,000 (with inflation), would bring their total income to about $162,000 year while reducing their taxes to $27,000 per year, he says.

When to take CPP and OAS will depend on the timing and amount of their expected inheritance, the planner says. Without the inheritance, starting their benefits at age 65 would help reduce the annual withdrawals from their portfolio, the planner says.

Because of the seven-year difference in their ages, Ennis and Kara have time to think about when to take benefits. “They could take a hybrid approach,” the planner says. “For instance, if no inheritance was received by 2029 when Ennis turns 65, they could start his CPP and OAS payments to reduce the withdrawals from their savings,” he says. “They would still have lots of time to make the decision for Kara because she won’t turn 65 until 2037.”

They also ask about helping their children. “The challenge in their current position is they don’t have the after-tax capital to do it today,” Mr. Calvert says. “Large withdrawals from their RRSPs would not be tax-efficient and would further hasten the decline in their capital,” he says. “Their only other option is to pull equity from their house, which would come with additional debt servicing.”

The situation

The people: Ennis, 61, Kara, 54, and their three children, 20, 24 and 26.

The problem: Can they afford to retire soon and still meet their retirement spending goal?

The plan: A lot depends on the anticipated inheritance. They’d be drawing heavily on their registered savings in the early years. Ennis could start his government benefits at 65 to keep the withdrawals to a minimum. Continue Reading…

Your 12 Good Years: Retirement Manifesto

Posted By |
RetirementManifesto.com

By Dan Haylett and  Fritz Gilbert, TheRetirementManifesto.com

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

On rare occasions, I read something so powerful I have to share it here.

Today is one such occasion.

Dan Haylett is one of my favorite writers, and a heckuva nice guy.  His podcast, Humans vs. Retirement, is the #1 retirement podcast in the UK for good reason. (Sign up for his free weekly email here)

While his podcast is great, I can’t get enough of this guy’s writing.  Every week, I read his email as soon as it arrives.  Recently, he published “Your 12 Good Years” on his Substack feed.  The following comment from a reader is indicative of how good it is:

“Maybe, if not probably, this is the best retirement article I’ve ever read.”

As soon as I read it, I asked Dan if he’d allow me to republish it here.

Fortunately, he said yes.

Prepare to be challenged by some of the best writing you’ll ever read, from one of the best minds in the business….

The healthy, active years you have left are shorter than you think Share on X

Your 12 Good Years

Here’s a number that should change how you think about retirement: 12.

Not 30. Not 25. Not even 20.

12.

That’s how long the average healthy 60-year-old has before their mobility, energy, and independence start to significantly decline. Not before they die… before life gets noticeably harder.

You might live to 90. You might even make it to 100. But the version of you that can hike the Inca Trail, chase grandchildren around a park, travel independently, or even just get through a full day without fatigue? That version has a shelf life.

And it’s shorter than you think.

The Data Nobody Wants to Hear

I want you to be clear about what I’m talking about here. This isn’t about morbidity or scaring you into action. This is about healthy life expectancy, the years you have before chronic illness, disability, or physical limitation becomes a daily reality.

In the UK, a 60-year-old man can expect to live, on average, to around 84. A 60-year-old woman to around 87. Those are the headline numbers. The ones that make retirement planning calculators tell you to prepare for 25-30 years.

But those numbers don’t tell you that most of those later years aren’t healthy years.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that healthy life expectancy (the years lived in good health without limiting illness or disability) ends much earlier. For someone who is 60 today, you’re looking at roughly 12-15 more years before health limitations start to intrude in meaningful ways.

That doesn’t mean you drop dead at 75. It means that by your early to mid-70s, things start to shift. Energy declines. Recovery from illness takes longer. Long-haul flights become less appealing. All-day adventures turn into half-day outings. The body you’ve been living in for six decades starts sending you clearer signals about what it will and won’t tolerate.

Research on retirement spending patterns backs this up. The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that retirees’ spending on travel and leisure increases through their 60s, peaks around age 75, and then declines, not because people run out of money, but because they run out of the physical capacity to do the things that money would buy.

You have more time than you have energy. More years than you have vitality. And if you don’t understand that distinction, you’ll waste the good years preparing for the declining ones.

What “Good Years” actually means

Let me be specific about what changes.

In your 60s and early 70s, if you’re reasonably healthy, you’re still you. You can travel. You can be spontaneous. You can handle long days. You can manage your own life without help. You have the energy to start new projects, learn new skills, and take on challenges.

You’re not invincible (you’re not 30), but you’re still fundamentally capable.

By your mid 70s and into your 80s, things shift. Not dramatically. Not all at once. But gradually, consistently, undeniably.

You might still travel, but not as far or as often. You might still be active, but you need more recovery time. You might still be independent, but you start needing help with things that used to be trivial, like changing a lightbulb, carrying heavy shopping, and navigating airports.

The things you do become smaller. More local. More cautious. Not because you’ve lost your spirit, but because your body has started setting the terms.

And this isn’t pessimism … it’s just biology. Muscle mass declines. Bone density decreases. Balance becomes less reliable. Chronic conditions accumulate. The resilience you took for granted starts to fray.

None of this means your later years are worthless or joyless. Many people find deep satisfaction and peace in their 80s and beyond. But they’re different years. Quieter. More reflective. Less physically expansive.

The good years, the ones where you still have the physical capacity to do most of what you want, are finite. And they’re shorter than the total lifespan numbers suggest.

The Spending and Activity Decline

Here’s where this gets practical.

One of the most robust findings in retirement research describes how retirees’ spending patterns change over time.

Spending is relatively high in the first few years of retirement, the “go-go years.” You’re active, you’re travelling, you’re finally doing all the things you deferred while working. Then it declines through the middle years, the “slow-go years,” as energy and interest naturally wane. And then it potentially rises a bit again in very late life, the “no-go years,” as healthcare and care costs may come into the equation.

But here’s what that misses … the decline in spending isn’t driven by frugality. It’s driven by physical limitation.

People in their late 70s and 80s aren’t spending less on holidays because they’ve suddenly become careful with money. They’re spending less because long-haul flights are exhausting. Because hotels without lifts are a problem. Because they don’t have the stamina for full days of sightseeing anymore.

The spending decline tracks the activity decline. And the activity decline tracks the erosion of those 12 good years.

The Trap of Deferral

The cruel irony is that most people spend the first decade of retirement living as they did in the last decade of work: carefully.

You saved for 40 years. You delayed gratification. You were prudent, responsible, cautious. And that got you here. It built the nest egg. It secured your future.

But if you keep living that way, you’ll waste the very years you saved for.

I see this constantly. Clients in their early 60s, financially secure, agonising over whether they can “afford” a holiday. Whether it’s “sensible” to upgrade the car. Whether they should help their grandchildren with something meaningful.

They’re optimising for a 30-year retirement. Planning as if every year is equivalent. Treating their 60s the same as their 80s.

But they’re not the same.

Your 60s are not a rehearsal for your 80s. They’re the main event. And if you don’t spend (not recklessly, but intentionally) during the years when you can still fully enjoy it, you’ll reach 78 with a big bank balance and a long list of regrets.

The things you can do at 65, you often can’t do at 75. The trip that sounds ambitious but achievable today might be off the table in a decade. The time with grandchildren while they’re young and you’re energetic doesn’t come back. Continue Reading…

Could Bitcoin fall to Zero, where this Crypto skeptic argues it belongs?

Posted By |
AlainGuillot.com

By Alain Guillot

Special to Financial Independence Hub

Every day that passes, Bitcoin gets closer to its true intrinsic value, which is $0.

During October 2025, it reached its highest delusional price of $126,198.07 USD. Today, it sits at $68,038.19 USD: approximately a 46% drop in about six months. And this is just the beginning.

Bitcoin is nothing more than a sophisticated pyramid scheme designed to take money from naive people who have seen too many get-rich-quick schemes on social media. It’s also a fantastic tool for terrorists, drug dealers, and money launderers who need to move money around.

The price of Bitcoin has been maintained by the “Greater Fool Theory.” Someone buys it because they think there is a greater fool willing to buy it later. But guess what? The world is running out of fools. It’s a huge turn-off when Bitcoin investors haven’t seen any gains during the past two years.

Bitcoin drops 46% in six month.

Bitcoin drops 46% in Six Months

The Trading Platforms are Bleeding Out

With the price decline of Bitcoin, fewer people are eager to trade it. That’s a bummer for companies that depend on gullible traders for their profits. The most obvious victims of this decline in Bitcoin trading are Coinbase and Robinhood.

Coinbase is down 54% during the last 6 month.

Coinbase operates much like an online stockbroker, except instead of stocks, users buy and sell crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

It serves two main groups:

  • Retail investors using its app or website
  • Institutional clients such as hedge funds and asset managers

The company earns a large portion of its revenue by charging transaction fees every time someone buys or sells crypto.

This is the engine of the business, because people are trading less Crypto, the revenues are dropping quickly.

Robinhood, down 53% in part due to the decline of Bitcoin
Robinhood, down 53% in part due to the decline of Bitcoin

Robinhood’s crypto business lets users buy and sell assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum directly in the app.

Unlike stocks:

  • Crypto trades are not routed via PFOF in the same way
  • Robinhood earns money through a spread (markup on buy/sell prices) and transaction-based revenue

The key point: crypto is a revenue amplifier

Crypto has historically contributed a large and highly variable share of Robinhood’s revenue:

  • In peak periods (like 2021), crypto generated 40%+ of transaction revenue
  • In quieter markets, it can fall to single digits

This makes crypto:

  • Not always the largest segment
  • But often the most volatile and cyclical driver

Why crypto matters so much to Robinhood

Robinhood’s user base skews:

  • younger
  • more speculative
  • more reactive to trends

Crypto trading fits that profile perfectly. When crypto heats up:

  • trading frequency spikes
  • new users join
  • dormant users return

When crypto declines:

  • engagement drops sharply
  • revenue contracts

When the price stops going up, the “get rich quick” crowd disappears. This creates a liquidity crisis that makes it harder for remaining holders to exit their positions without further crashing the market.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy: A Leveraged Nightmare

The most precarious domino in this collapse is Michael Saylor and his company, MicroStrategy. Saylor has famously bet his entire balance sheet on Bitcoin, but he didn’t just use cash: he used massive amounts of leverage.

The Strategy Math is Failing:

  • Average Cost: Strategy’s average purchase price is approximately $76,052.
  • Current Value: With Bitcoin trading near $68,000, Saylor is officially “underwater.”
  • The Collateral Problem: Strategy’s debt is secured by the Bitcoin itself. As the price drops, the value of his collateral shrinks.

If the Bitcoin price crash continues, Saylor will be forced to sell to meet debt obligations. Because his holdings are so massive, his forced selling would trigger a “death spiral,” flooding the market and tanking the price even further.

Strategy is now down 62% during the last 6 months.
Strategy is now down 62% during the last 6 months.

Strategy is now down 62% during the last 6 months. I be Michel Saylor is having some sleepless nights.

Five years of Underperformance

While “crypto bros” promised generational wealth, the data tells a different story. Over the last five years, Bitcoin has significantly underperformed the S&P 500.

  1. Productivity vs. Speculation: Stocks represent companies that create value. Bitcoin creates nothing.
  2. Criminal Utility: Bitcoin remains the preferred currency for tax evaders and cyber-criminals.

Why you must Get out Now

If you have any holdings in this asset class, the most rational move is to liquidate immediately. The history of financial manias shows that the final collapse happens much faster than the build-up.

Waiting for a “rebound” is a dangerous game when the largest holder in the world is facing a potential margin call. Decent people should stay away from an asset that benefits only the corrupt and leaves the average person in financial ruin.

Summary

The Bitcoin price crash is the natural conclusion of a speculative bubble that lacked fundamental utility. With Michael Saylor’s Strategy underwater and trading platforms in retreat, the floor is falling out.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why is the Bitcoin price crashing in 2026? The crash is driven by a lack of new buyers, high interest rates, and the looming threat of forced liquidations from major holders like MicroStrategy.

Is Michael Saylor’s company going bankrupt? While not currently in bankruptcy, the company is “underwater” on its holdings, meaning the Bitcoin is worth less than what they paid for it, creating immense pressure on their debt.

Alain Guillot is a part-time blogger and solopreneur based in Quebec. After immigrating to the province, he struggled to find work due to his limited French, which pushed him to create his own path through entrepreneurship. That journey sparked a deep interest in personal finance and investing. Today, he lives a FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) lifestyle and shares thoughtful, opinionated insights on his blog, AlainGuillot.com. This blog appeared first on his blog and is republished here with permission.  

 

True Financial Independence

Posted By |

By Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Billly Akaisha

So you’re retired — now what? Many would say congratulations, but it doesn’t end here.

Actually, this period is the beginning of another phase of your life, and it can be as exciting as anything else you’ve done in the past. How you choose to spend your time once you no longer need the income from an ordinary job is something you seriously need to consider. Sitting around to reward yourself for work well done might be appealing at first, but once the novelty of retirement wears off, you may find yourself itching for something more gratifying. This is where the real payoffs of life come from.

When our lives are filled with work-related challenges, household duties, or health and family needs, we often have tunnel vision. Barely are there moments for conversation, and people can blur through our lives without much fanfare. We’re running on the treadmill, catching up with the TV news, and talking on the cell phone simultaneously. Hobbies take a back seat, sometimes for years. There is no down time.

The pace of retirement is less rigid. This fresh approach toward life allows us simply to sit quietly in a park or relax, leisurely having a latte in the newest coffee shop. We flip through a weekly event newspaper and notice a whole landscape of attractive options for self-expression. Discovering that there is no adequate recycling program for our town, we resolve to start one. The local school needs a drama coach, the city’s garden club wants a speaker, or the animal rescue facility is looking for a volunteer twice a week. We check our personal planner, and for the first moment in years, there’s room on our calendar.

We find this fact thrilling, and one thing leads to another.

If you are at all computer-savvy, you could help people become familiar with how to operate a computer, tablet or phone. This is a life-changing skill to those afraid of moving into the cyber world. You could coach Little League teams and discover the power and influence of service, or learn to paint on canvas and auction your work for your favorite charity.

Once you no longer need a job to pay your bills, opportunities to contribute or make extra cash will appear where you never saw them before. For instance, we’ve traded our skills as former restaurant owners to help open a Four Seasons Resort Hotel in the Caribbean Islands in exchange for dinners in their exclusive restaurant. Management then asked us to use our expertise to critique the meals and service, helping the management to prepare for soon-to-arrive tourists.

While in Mexico, as in the style of the Peace Corps, we taught the owners of a neighborhood photography shop how to make and market photos into note cards. The many travelers who visited the area eagerly bought these up, creating a side business and generating much-needed income for this local family. Continue Reading…

The Best Asset Allocation entering Retirement

Posted By |

By Mark Seed, myownadvisor

Special to Financial Independence Hub

The trigger for this post was some recent reading on vacation in Belize.

Image courtesy Mark Seed/myownadvisor

Our morning view from the villa in Belize, March 2026. 

With retirement just over a month away for me (with my wife already retired since 2025), I’ve been reading a bit more on this subject – more specifically, what might be an optimal asset allocation to enter retirement with – if there is one!?

I examine some options and reference some literature in today’s post, concluding with my own plan good, bad or indifferent.

First, a primer:

Asset allocation is the mix in your portfolio amongst different asset classes — primarily stocks, bonds, and cash for most — to balance risk and reward based on an individual’s goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon.

It is a central feature to portfolio management that helps minimize volatility and align investments to an investor’s personal long-term financial objectives.

That said, asset allocation can change over time, over an investor’s lifecycle and it probably should: including entering Retirement. Consider the following options:

Option #1 – Use a Constant Equity Asset Allocation

One of the simplest strategies to enter retirement with might be using a single, all-in-one, asset allocation ETF across your registered accounts (i.e., RRSP/RRIF, LIRA/LIF) – and continue to maintain that fund for years on end. 

Consider something like a “VBAL or XBAL or ZBAL and chill” approach in a 60% equities and 40% fixed income mix. The idea here is you simply sell off “BAL” units over time to fund your lifestyle at a modest withdrawal rate of 4-5% per year.

I know a few DIY investors that do this, very successfully.

I did a case study on my site about doing just that as well.

Selling off the capital you’ve accumulated is absolutely normal and fine and largely intended: why you saved money for retirement in the first place.

The challenge with this approach becomes what withdrawal rate to sell off at.

  • A withdrawal rate lower than 3-4% is likely too low over many years: your portfolio will just continue to grow and you are likely underspending in retirement.
  • A withdrawal rate in the range of 4-5% is probably just fine.
  • A withdrawal rate higher than 5-6% could put you at risk of outliving your money.
Simple solutions are great but eventually in retirement you need to get more tactical about what your portfolio can really deliver.

I’ll link to how I can help later on…

Option #2 – Use an Age-Based Equity Asset Allocation

Unlike option #1, this one is about using your age as an anchor.

Traditional retirement income planning looks like this:

Source: For illustrative purposes only. T. Rowe Price, August 2025. 

This implies the following:
  • As you accumulate assets, the portfolio is heavily weighted towards equities. As we know by now, equities deliver higher volatility associated with stocks relative to fixed income but that’s the price you pay or have to stomach for long-term gains.
  • As you age, get closer to retirement or start retirement, traditional thinking is you might follow an “age-matches your bond or fixed income” allocation formula. Traditional wisdom also says as retirement continues, the portfolio should glide-down in equities to be more conservative: with less time on your side to recover from bad market cycles.

More conventional thinking turns the tables on this below in option #3.

Option #3 – Use a Rising Equity Asset Allocation

If traditional thinking was about lower equites as you age, a rising-equity glide path is the opposite: more equities as you age throughout retirement.

Because: investing doesn’t end when you retire. 

A rising-equity glidepath has demonstrated that a portfolio that starts out conservative and becomes more aggressive throughout retirement can deliver a few key benefits:

  1. it can reduce the probability of long-term failure starting out with secure retirement spending, since
  2. higher fixed income is available to deliver the meaningful income desired by retirees by avoiding selling any equities at all during any market dips early in retirement, such that, 
  3. by naturally increasing equity exposure over time you will earn greater capital appreciation in the latter, aging years of retirement, helping to combat inflation with any increased life expectancy.

The rising-equity approach works well since if bad returns occur early in retirement (say in the first few years) the portfolio might otherwise be prematurely depleted by equity withdrawals.

So, lower up-front allocations to equities leave retirees less susceptible to a series of bad market returns for a few years. 

Here a deep dive on rising equity glidepaths:

Here are two (2) key things to keep in mind when it comes to asset allocation in retirement, at least what I think about:

1. What do you need the money for, and when?

Saving for retirement is different than saving for a single expenditure like a Belize vacation: a one-time event. Figuring out what your annual retirement spend will forever be essential to income planning.

There is little value chasing a $1.7-million retirement number if you don’t need that much anyhow….   

I’ve envisioned and therefore created a Retirement Income Map for my wife and I to forecast our first five (5) years of retirement-spending needs. Your spending may be different. That’s OK. I would recommend you figure it out though. Continue Reading…