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Three Credit Cards to help combat soaring food costs

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Sandwich and euro money. Expensive food

By Alyssa Furtado, RateHub.ca

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

A University of Guelph report predicts Canadians will spend an additional $345 on groceries this year. However, there are ways to help offset the rising costs using certain types of credit cards.

Food is getting more expensive and the weak Canadian dollar hasn’t helped. The report notes that for every cent the dollar drops over a short period of time, fruits and vegetables are likely to rise by more than 1%. Unfortunately, more than 80% of all fruit and vegetables are imported.

Going out for dinner is also expected to cost more this year. Food prices in restaurants are forecast to rise between 1.5% and 3.5% in 2016.

RateHub.ca has found a few cash-back credit cards that can help neutralize these rising food costs. Here are our three favourites: Continue Reading…

Sensible Investing TV: How to Win the Loser’s Game, Part 9

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Screen Shot 2016-03-09 at 1.44.02 PMSensible Investing TV has posted part 9 of its How to Win the Loser’s Game series of videos, which you can view by clicking here. This 9-minute segment is the second-last episode of the ten-part series.

You can also find it here at Findependence.TV, where all the earlier episodes, plus those of FWB TV, are housed.

David Booth, co-founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors (pictured), says this:

“One of the big difficulties is getting people to stay the course when results are disappointing. It should come as no surprise to people that markets go up and they go down. When they go down, there’s a tendency for people to go, ‘Gosh, Are we on the edge of an abyss? Will things really get bad from here?’

In 2008-2009, it was difficult to get people to stay the course. My heart goes out to these people that were invested in equities, lost half their money then got out and missed the rebound. It may take quite a while for them to get back even again.”

We need to stay the course, and this video shows why …. the culprits will be familiar to many investors: buying low and selling high, panicking at the worst possible time, listening to media noise. There’s also a good segment featuring Vanguard founder John Bogle and the long-term returns that come from dividend yield and earnings growth, as opposed to speculation.  Continue Reading…

BitGold: a cure for savers frustrated with low or negative interest rates?

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gold-cubes
The ultimate store of value? (BitGold.com)

Here’s my latest Financial Post blog, which looks at a relatively new service called BitGold (not to be confused with BitCoin): A New Gold Standard: BitGold offers a fresh way to buy and sell the yellow metal.

It notes that while it’s been a tough time to be a saver the last decade,  the new phenomenon of negative interest rates combined with the resurgence of the price of gold so far in 2016 is causing savers to look again to gold as a savings vehicle capable of preserving purchasing power.

As the blog says, BitGold customers’ are credited with real physical gold, which is stored at any of seven Brinks locations in major global financial centers. Customers can also choose to take physical delivery. Through this gold-based global network, you can purchase or sell gold at a 1% transaction cost in each direction. Early customers are mining companies that let employees be paid wholly or in part in BitGold, or permit shareholders to receive dividends in BitGold. Continue Reading…

Shape your retirement lifestyle vision

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AdrianBy Adrian Mastracci, KCM Wealth

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Over the years I’ve summarized many financial strategies for your successful retirement. Today I delve into shaping key “lifestyle” factors for your retirement happiness.

Definition of lifestyle is a very individual combination of activities. There is no one-size-fits-all scenario.

For example, try to diminish your work life gradually, say over two to five years. A series of short sabbaticals is another way to sample your new lifestyle.

Your retirement road map is a very personalized and unique process. Where there is a spouse, both should be involved in the planning.

Developing 5-year road maps within the money comfort works for many,
such as activities for age “60 to 64,” “65 to 69” and so on.

Lifestyle questions to answer

Continue Reading…

Reflections on the end of Downton Abbey

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Depositphotos_22234715_s-2015Like most fans of the British period piece Downton Abbey, I feel somewhat bereft that the series has now finally concluded, after six seasons.

Mostly, however, because the season finale last night tied up so many loose threads that it was obvious there was enough material for a seventh season, and possibly much more.

It’s one thing to go out on a high note, which it did — so many plot lines and subplot lines were wrapped up with nice little bows — but quite another to end a show long before it’s time. The finale had a lot more short scenes and fast edits simply in order to accommodate the compression of the abundant material that evidently was at hand.

Tantalizing peek at the dawn of the auto industry

Continue Reading…