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The Abundant Retirement Summit and Victory Lap Retirement

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Depositphotos_71592703_s-2015As readers may know, Hub blogger Michael Drak and I have just finished co-authoring a book about life after Financial Independence. It’s titled Victory Lap Retirement, and describes a new post-corporate lifestyle that combines work and play, much like the illustration to the left.

The book has just gone through its second editing pass. Next we’ll be sending out pre-release PDFs to media and influencers, looking for testimonials: if you’re interested please let me know at jonathan@findependencehub.com or Michael at michael.drak@yahoo.ca.

The finished product should be in book stores and available online by mid-summer.

Half-hour interview will be at Abundant Retirement telesummit

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Financial Gerontology, Part 1: Murky waters in an aging world

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fusionBy Marie Howes & Suzanne Cook, PlanetLongevity.com

 

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

As general public awareness of the evolutionary story of aging demographics has increased over the last ten years, so too has the hyperactive dialogue about the social challenges we may face as a result. Yet the narrative of an aging world has spun new knowledge and innovations, positive attitudes and approaches to living a healthier longer life, and along with all that – new market opportunities.
It has also brought a new hybrid of language and, if not quite a fusion of professional fields of practice, certainly collaborations. One of the benefits of our Planet Longevity panel is that we have created a platform where the expertise and insights we bring from our individual practice areas helps inform each other in this fusion; and ideally helping others, we distill the complexities in the discussion on aging and longevity. Sort out the confusion of terminology if you will.So where can we start here, to examine where some of this fusion and confusion exists?
Financial + Gerontology = ?

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Video: How to Win the Loser’s Game, Part 6

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Screen Shot 2016-01-26 at 4.04.15 PM copy-2The latest video instalment of How to Win the Loser’s Game (Part 6) has been posted at SensibleInvesting.TV and will also be housed shortly at Findependence.TV.

The fund management industry won’t tell you this, but all the evidence points to the humble index fund being the most appropriate investment vehicle for the vast majority of people. And there are few advocates of indexing as staunch as Warren Buffett — the most famous active stockpicker of all. The video includes the following quote from Buffett:

“When the dumb investor realizes how dumb he is and buys an index fund, he becomes smarter than the smartest investors.”

In fact (although this isn’t in the video) even former hedge fund manager and TV personality Jim Cramer often tells his Mad Money audience that the first $10,000 of young peoples’ portfolio should go in an S&P500 index fund or ETF before venturing into picking individual stocks. Continue Reading…

How to supercharge your RRSP

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Vector illustration of the engine. Gradient mash.By Robb Engen, Boomer & Echo

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

The idea that an RRSP loan can boost your savings and generate a higher tax refund does not sit well with most people. If you can afford the loan payment then why not just budget and save that amount in the first place instead of borrowing?

In The Wealthy Barber Returns, author David Chilton describes a strategy that can increase your RRSP contributions without putting you out of pocket any more than what you’d already planned to save. He explains how most of us save from our after-tax income, but when we contribute only those after-tax dollars instead of their pre-tax equivalent, we shortchange our RRSPs.

So how do you get the full, pre-tax amount into your RRSP? The answer is to use something called a “gross-up” strategy where you borrow a small amount equal to the tax refund that will be produced by your RRSP contribution. Here’s how it works:

Let’s say you are in a 40 per cent tax bracket and had $3,000 after taxes to invest. How much should you contribute to your RRSP?

The Smart Debt Coach

If you’re not sure of the answer, you’re probably like the majority of Canadians who unknowingly invest less than they could into their RRSP, according to Talbot Stevens, author of a book called The Smart Debt Coach.

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Weekly Wrap: MoneySense’s 2016 ETF All-Stars; BMO and Horizons ETF Outlooks for 2016

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ETF word on the green enter keyboard image with hi-res rendered artwork that could be used for any graphic design.Lots of ETF developments to report as we close out January. The February/March 2016 issue of MoneySense magazine includes the latest edition of a feature I spearheaded called the ETF All-Stars.

The focus is on low-cost broadly diversified “plain-vanilla” ETFs but we also included several “Satellite” picks, some of them low-volatility products covering Canada, the US, EAFE and Emerging Markets.

Our six panelists strive not to change  the “All-star” lineup too often, since the idea is to minimize turnover and taxes, while having low-cost portfolios that can be bought and held over the proverbial long run. Even so, each year there there are inevitably a few substitutions and replacements and this time around we modestly expanded the number of “All-Stars.”

BMO’s ETF Outlook 2016

Meanwhile on Friday, BMO Global Asset Management released its ETF Outlook 2016. It noted the ETF industry had another record-breaking year in 2015: globally it grew to more than US$2.9 trillion as of December 2015, with a record US$372 billion in new assets the last year.

The Canadian ETF industry also had an historic year, with a record $C16.3 billion in inflows, and assets hitting just under $C90 billion, which is twice as much as five years ago.

Market volatility and ETFs

The report reprises the market volatility of 2015, notable the China-centric selloff of August 24, the surprise non-hike of interest rates by the Fed on Sept. 16th, and its finally raising them by 25 basis points on December 16. And of course there was the continued slide in the price of oil, which hurts resource-based economies like Canada.

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