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Achieve Financial Independence with a Franchise

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By Joel Bissitt

(Sponsored Post)

Are you looking for a smart and easy way to achieve financial independence?

Investing in a franchise may be the perfect solution. Franchises offer an established system with great potential for success and are a great way to get into the world of business ownership.

With the proper support, a franchise can help you reach your financial goals and provide a secure future for you and your family. This blog post will discuss why investing in a franchise is a great way to achieve financial independence.

The Benefits of Investing in a Franchise

Investing in a franchise is a smart way to achieve financial independence because it has many benefits. Firstly, you will have a low-risk, high-reward investment. Franchisors provide an established business model that has been proven to work. You also have access to resources and support from the franchisor, including training, marketing, and ongoing assistance. Building a resilient business with a proven track record increases your chances of success. Finding franchise opportunities is relatively easy, as many franchisors are actively looking for new investors.

●     Low-Risk, High-Reward Investment

Investing in a franchise is a low-risk, high-reward investment opportunity. Franchisees benefit from a proven business model, an established customer base, and ongoing support from the franchisor. The initial investment required to start a franchise may seem high, but the risk is significantly lower compared to starting a business from scratch.

●     Established Business Model

The established business model is one of the biggest advantages of investing in a franchise. This means the franchise has already figured out what works and what doesn’t, saving you the time, money, and effort required to establish a business from scratch. Franchisors have honed their processes and systems to create a winning formula that franchisees can easily replicate. This saves you time and effort and ensures that you start your business on a solid foundation with a proven track record of success.

●     Access to Resources and Support

Investing in a franchise comes with the unique advantage of accessing a network of resources and support. Franchisors provide extensive training and support to ensure franchisees have the necessary knowledge and skills to run their businesses effectively. Continue Reading…

My 5 picks for classic books on Financial Independence and Retirement

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A book discovery service called Shepherd.com has just published a multi-book review by me about my recommendations for some of the best all-time books on Financial Independence and Retirement. You can find the full review by clicking here. Shepherd.com is a year old; an alternative to older services like Goodreads, it helps readers and authors share and discover books in various genres.

Picking just five books is of course a tricky exercise and having seen this published late in July, I soon thought of several other books I might have included as well or instead, notably David Chilton’s classic The Wealthy Barber. But it’s safe to say that with more than 2 million copies sold, that would not exactly be a ground-breaking new recommendation.

Chilton of course created a monster with the genre of the financial novel: a hybrid that combines a story and characters with an overlay of enduring financial insights and strategies for achieving financial freedom. He has spawned many imitators, such as Robert Gignac’s Rich is a State of Mind and my own Findependence Day, which is also flagged in the Shepherd reviews.

For this exercise, however, I opted to go with straight non-fiction financial books. My thinking was what books influenced me in my own journey to Semi-Retirement and Financial Independence, or the so-called FIRE movement, for Financial Independence Retire Early.

Here are the 5 books I did pick: go to the original link to get my analysis and reasons for each pick. Below I offer just a line each but each explanation is closer to 400 words so be sure to click on the original Shepherd link to get the full take on each. The five titles below each include hypertext to the Shepherd book store where you can order directly.

1.)

Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence

By Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez

Probably first for most other proponents of the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement is this classic, subtitled Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence.

 

 

 

2.)

Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life

By John C. Bogle

The late Jack Bogle, founder of Vanguard Group, published this excellent book in 2009. To me, the title speaks for itself. The sooner you realize you have “enough,” the sooner you can quit the rat race.

 

 

 

 

3.)

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won’t Get from Your Financial Advisor

By Ernie J. Zelinski

Edmonton-based author Ernie Zelinski is probably best known for this self-published international bestseller and several others, all on the theme of escaping from full-time employment as soon as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

4.)

Pensionize Your Nest Egg: How to Use Product Allocation to Create a Guaranteed Income for Life

By Moshe A. Milevsky, Alexandra C. Macqueen

This book by the famed Finance professor and a certified financial planner caters to anxious would-be retirees who do not have the luxury of having an inflation-indexed, guaranteed-for-life Defined Benefit pension plan offered by an employer.

 

 

 

 

5.)

Work Optional: Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way

By Tanja Hester

The phrase “Work Optional” describes the state of being financially independent enough that you don’t have to work for money anymore, but nevertheless choose to for reasons like having a purpose, or structure. As the subtitle suggests, it’s about retiring early without having to be a miserly penny pincher.

The great migration to Cash: Money Market and Short-Term Fixed Income

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Image from Pixabay: Alexander Lesnitsky

By Matt Montemurro, CFA, MBA, BMO ETFs

(Sponsor Content)

One of the biggest trends in the market, thus far in 2023, has been the flurry of inflows ($AUM) into money market and short-term fixed income. We have seen a “great migration to cash” as investors are literally being paid, handsomely, to park cash on the sidelines. We are now 6 months through the year and flows into the short end do not seem to be slowing down. Thus far YTD, we have seen $5.7bln flow into money market and ultra short-term fixed income ETFs, accounting for over 50% of all flows into fixed income ETFs in 2023 (Source: NBCFM ETF).

Money Market and Ultra Short-Term Fixed Income:  after years of being a forgotten segment of the market, how and why are they the leading asset gatherer?

With the accelerated path of rising rates, we have seen in the short end of the yield curve; (the overnight rate) the yield curve inverted. An inversion of the yield curve is caused when shorter-term rates rise faster than longer-term rates. Generally, this is something that occurs but reverses quite quickly.

Not this time. We are currently in a period of a prolonged yield curve inversion, which could be a leading indicator of economic weakness to come. This inversion is exactly what these money market and ultra short-term fixed income investors are looking to cash in on. Lock in higher shorter-term rates and take advantage of the inverted yield curve.

For too long, investors were forced to move outside of investment grade bonds and further out the yield curve to achieve their yield and return expectations. The market has shifted that paradigm on its head and allowed investors to truly get paid to wait on the sidelines in cash.

 Current Canadian Yield Curve

Source: Bloomberg, June 30, 2023

The short end appears to be the sweet spot for many investors, in terms of risk and reward.

Risk: by targeting the short end of the curve, investors will be minimizing their interest rate sensitivity (Duration exposure) and will generally be buying bonds that will be maturing in less than 1 year. Buying investment grade bonds, issued by high quality issuers, this close to maturity provides investors with downside protection as all these bonds will mature at par.[1]

Reward: Achieve a higher yield to maturity than further out the curve. Allowing investors to earn higher yields for lower interest rate sensitivity risk. The current market isn’t paying investors to lend money for longer periods. The front end provides an extremely attractive proposition for investors.

Today’s market is uniquely positioned and many market participants expect volatility to be on the horizon and as higher interest rates make their way through the economy, potentially causing growth to slowdown. Money market and short-term fixed income are well positioned for this environment, as investors can weather the potential volatility in the market while still meeting income and return needs. Continue Reading…

A Financial Guide for the Sandwich Generation: Navigating the Challenges of Caregiving

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By Aman Raina, MBA

 (Special to Financial Independence Hub)

As an investment coach, my job is to educate and empower people with the knowledge to make informed investment decisions and set them on their journey towards financial freedom. However, over the last several years, I’ve found myself on a unique financial journey of my own.

Several years ago, my father was diagnosed with dementia. As his ability to manage his and my mother’s financial affairs began to diminish, I stepped into the role of their primary caregiver. This responsibility, layered on top of raising my two young boys, growing my investment coaching practice, and navigating a global health emergency, placed me firmly within the Sandwich Generation.

The Sandwich Generation refers to those caught in the middle of caregiving, balancing the needs of aging parents with the needs of their own families. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, nearly half (47%) of U.S. adults in their 40s and 50s fall into the Sandwich Generation. They are responsible for a parent who is 65 or older and either raising a young child or financially supporting a grown child.

In Canada, according to a 2020 report from Statistics Canada, around one in four Canadians aged 15 and older (7.8 million people) provided care to a family member or friend with a long-term health condition, a disability, or problems associated with aging. However, these figures likely underestimate the true prevalence of caregiving, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased the demand for home care.

With an aging population, these percentages are predicted to increase in the coming years, further magnifying the importance of addressing the challenges faced by the Sandwich Generation and all caregivers. It has been and continues to be an experience that has been for me mentally, emotionally, and physically stressful, filled with difficult conversations, worries about the future, and moments of feeling overwhelmed.

Despite my financial background, there were times when the responsibilities felt like a juggling act. The multitude of financial decisions to be made, from managing cash flow and long-term care planning for my parents to ensuring the financial stability of my own family, felt daunting. If I was experiencing this, I shudder to think what others who were not as well-versed financially were trying to cope?

Support from Caregiver Groups

In seeking support, I turned to various caregiver groups. It quickly became apparent that many others were grappling with the same challenges. They, too, were struggling to tackle the unique financial demands of being part of the Sandwich Generation.

From my experience, I found the core areas caregivers need to focus on revolved around these critical financial issues: Continue Reading…

Retired Money: In Semi-Retirement, reducing stress may be more important than generating extra taxable revenue

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Pexels: Amir Ghoorchiani

My latest MoneySense Retired Money column looks at the trade-offs between leisure time and using time to generate extra but taxable revenue. Early in one’s career, there’s little choice but to generate taxable revenue but Semi-Retirement has a different dynamic. Find the full column by clicking on the highlighted headline: Is semi-retirement stressful? You bet — here’s what to do about it.

One of my philosophies of Semi-Retirement is the principle that reducing stress can sometimes be more important than maximizing revenue. Assuming you are self-employed in Semi-Retirement, as I am, you may find yourself juggling multiple clients and conflicting demands on your limited time and energy.

Given the sporadic nature of freelancing, most freelancer writers or suppliers know how hard it is to turn down paying work. I was like that in my first stint at freelancing, back in the 1980s: long before I achieved a modicum of financial independence.

This time around, I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose. I’ve even stated this boldly to some clients: “My goal these days is to minimize stress, not to maximize taxable revenue.” Another way to look at this is the age-old dilemma of time versus money. It’s been years since I read the classic book on financial independence, Your Money or Your Life (by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominquez); however I’ve never forgotten their core message that time is life energy. When we earn money we do so by exchanging our time or in effect giving up some of our life energy.

There comes a time it’s time to say “Enough” to further expenditures of Life Energy

So it follows that if you have accumulated enough money after working a lifetime to accumulate it, then at some point it may be necessary to stop and say “enough!” when it comes to requests to expend still more of your life energy.

True, not everyone in Semi-Retirement is self-employed and enjoys the flexibility to make these trade-offs. More likely though, a semi-retired person is self-employed or working part-time on one or two gigs, while simultaneously collecting some combination of Government benefits, employer pensions, and investment income. The more secure those passive sources of income are, the less you may feel compelled to take on extra work requiring your time and life energy. Continue Reading…