Inflation

Inflation

Financial Independence: While you’re still young enough to Enjoy it

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Image by: Averie Woodard on Unsplash

By Jordan McCaleb

Special to Financial Independence Hub

Financial Independence (aka Findependence) is a dream many hope to achieve, the freedom to live the life you’ve always dreamed of, pursuing passions or simply choosing to work on your own terms. While these are all great reasons, what about achieving this earlier?

This article will explore key investment strategies and asset allocations to accelerate your path to early financial freedom, including the role of precious metals investments.

Traditional Investments & their Limits

It’s important to acknowledge that traditional investments (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs) will always be the building blocks when it comes to financial independence. 

However, when it comes to achieving Findependence earlier in life, traditional investments may have potential limitations and risks involved.

Potential Limitations and Risks:

  • Inflation: Inflation erodes the real value of your accumulated savings over time.
  • Market Volatility: Unpredictable swings and downturns can threaten your gains and potentially delay your FI (financial independence) timeline.
  • Economic Uncertainty: Geopolitical risks and unforeseen crises can increase risk and cause market corrections, impacting even the safest portfolio.

While traditional investments form a crucial base for any Findependence strategy, they may not be enough to achieve the resilience and growth required. Achieving financial independence early requires specific and powerful assets to drive your portfolio, providing a balance to your financial ecosystem.

Accelerating your FI Timeline: Beyond just Investing

Accelerating your Findependence timeline requires additional steps. A crucial part is increasing your savings rate, aiming for 50% to 75% of your income, creating a powerful snowball effect that reduces your time horizon. This pairs with increasing your income through career advancement, salary raises, or profitable side hustles.

Simultaneously, optimizing expenses and embracing a frugal lifestyle in areas like housing, transportation, and food can further boost investment growth over time. A key step is defining your (FI Number) typically 25 times your desired annual expenses ($50,000). This lifestyle-specific figure provides a clear target.

Diversifying for Resilience: Beyond the Basics

Beyond traditional investments and accelerating your timeline, diversification involves not just different stocks, but asset classes as well (equities, fixed income, real estate, and alternatives). Each behaves differently under various economic challenges. Diversifying across geographies and industries can protect against downturns in a market or sector.

A crucial concept to know is asset correlation: You want your assets to not run in the same direction. According to Stock Rover, this reduction in volatility can significantly impact overall returns. For example, a portfolio experiencing wild swings of +20% then -20% loses money, while reducing it to +10% then -10% swings leads to a healthier outcome. In essence, a low correlation portfolio better withstands economic turbulence.

Strategic Allocation: The Role of Precious Metals

When aiming for early Findependence, strategic alternative assets are crucial. Gold and silver stand out as a hedge against inflation and economic uncertainty due to their low correlation nature. Historical data from Investopedia reveals that while the S&P 500 dropped almost 10% (2007-2010) during the 2008 financial crisis, a 1971 gold investment significantly increased in value. Gold IRAs also offer tax advantages for those interested in physical metals. Continue Reading…

Canada’s first ETFs using Daily Options

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Hamilton ETFs

By Hamilton ETFs

(Sponsor Blog)

The world of options trading has seen a meteoric rise in a new, fast-paced instrument: the Zero-Day-to-Expiration (0DTE) option.

These options contracts, which expire the same day they are traded, now account for a significant portion of daily options volume. Since their emergence in 2022, 0DTE options have seen their trading volume grow more than fivefold, with over $1 trillion in notional value trading hands each day[1] — underscoring both their rapid adoption and deep liquidity.

Hamilton ETFs is proud to introduce Canada’s first suite of ETFs employing daily options. The DayMAX™ ETFs are designed to deliver higher and more frequent tax-efficient income through the use of 0DTE options and modest 25% leverage, offering a compelling complement to more traditional covered call strategies. The DayMAX™ suite includes:

What are 0DTE Options?

0DTE options refer to options contracts that expire at the close of the same trading day they are traded.

The defining characteristic of 0DTE options is their ability to support income generation every single trading day by monetizing intraday volatility. While the premium on an individual 0DTE option is typically lower than that of a one-month option, the key difference lies in the trading frequency: monthly options can only be written 12 times per year, while 0DTE options can be written ~250 times annually.

Hamilton ETFs

We believe DayMAX™ ETFs are a powerful complement to longer-duration covered call strategies such as our YIELD MAXIMIZER™ ETFs. By combining daily and longer-duration covered call strategies, income investors can diversify across time horizons, helping to smooth cash flows and tap into a wider range of income opportunities. In essence, DayMAX™ adds another tool to your income toolkit, enhancing flexibility and supporting more frequent income generation.

DayMAX™ ETFs — Explore the Lineup

To harness the benefits of this popular and emerging options strategy, this week we launched the DayMAX™ ETFs, Canada’s first suite of daily covered call option ETFs. Trading commenced on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, on Cboe Canada Inc., under the three tickers below.  Designed to generate higher and more frequent tax-efficient income, these ETFs write daily call options while applying modest 25% leverage to diversified equity portfolios.

* Since daily options are currently only available on select U.S. indices, CDAY will write options on the S&P 500 index to carry out its daily options strategy.

** Target Coverage refers to the average portion of the portfolio covered by written options and is actively adjusted based on market volatility to balance income and growth.

DayMAX™ ETFs — Key Benefits Continue Reading…

Simplifying Investing for Financial Independence

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By Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

RetireEarlyLifestyle.com

Special to Financial Independence Hub

Now that 2024 is in the books, I thought I would look back financially to where we started this adventure, from January of 1991. The chart below shows the ascent of the S&P 500 Index over our 34 years of retirement.

On our retirement date of January 14, 1991, the S&P 500 index closed at 312.49. It has recently closed over 6000, making over 8% annual gains plus a couple per cent counting dividends. Hard to imagine, right? With all of the market ups and downs, global turmoil, governments coming and going, businesses expanding and failing, and still producing a better than 10% annual return.

But is this really a one-off period and not the norm?

Using a calculator, we can see that the S&P 500 returns for the last 100 years, including dividends, is 10.660%.

 And recalculating for the last fifty years, total return is 11.411%. Clearly there is a trend here.

Does this mean that every year you invest you are going to have a 10% return? No!

But what it does tell us is that over longer time periods the return on your investment is handsomely rewarded.

However, if we look at the returns since the year 2000 they have been sub par at an annualized rate of just 7.817%.

And finally, since the financial crisis in 2009, the S&P 500 Index produced a total return of 14.934% including dividends.

Investing is not rocket science and does not need to be complicated.

Getting your house in order for retirement or financial independence is not that difficult. Many investment professionals, journalists, and commentators seem to complicate the issue to the point that even we can’t understand it. Safe withdrawal rates, stocks, bonds, balanced funds, commodities, options, laddered portfolios, annuities, offshore accounts, hedge funds, life insurance … are you kidding? No wonder some people are confused and scared!

What’s a person to do?

First, you need to recognize your needs. Let’s be realistic here. How much are you spending now? Not how much do you make a year, but how much are you paying out? With today’s computer online tools and spreadsheets, this is a very easy task to compute.

The longer you keep track of current consumption, the more confident you’ll become of your future spending habits.

Once you know your expenditures per year, take a look at where that money is going. If it’s to pay credit card bills or other consumer debt, you need to pay that off first. It’s fine to use credit cards as long as you completely pay off your balance monthly. And stay out of debt. I know this is not easy, but it’s your future, and the money you were paying in interest can now be invested.

With your debts paid off, you can commit to financial independence. Analysts say a guideline of 25 times your annual capital outlay should be enough to sustain your current lifestyle. With the data you’ve collected in your chart, you can easily calculate a target amount.

It’s really that simple. Continue Reading…

Harvest Low Volatility ETFs: A smoother Investment Experience

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Image courtesy Harvest ETFs

By Ambrose O’Callaghan, Harvest ETFs

(Sponsor Blog)

Canadians in retirement, or those nearing retirement, are faced with unique challenges in the present-day market. Interest rates have moved up from their historic lows since 2022. The benchmark rate for the Bank of Canada (BoC) reached its zenith of 5.00% in July 2023.

Economic headwinds forced the hand of the BoC in 2024 and 2025. The benchmark rate now sits at 2.75% as of July 7, 2025. More rate cuts are expected before the end of the year. This downward trend for interest rates means that investors who want a secure investment while outpacing inflation may have to look beyond GICs and other fixed-income products in this changing climate. Market volatility is another headwind investors are now contending with, spurred on by a new and aggressive U.S. administration.

There was enthusiasm surrounding the broader economy and the stock market coming into 2025. The previous GOP administration cultivated a reputation as a market-friendly one in the late 2010s. That momentum ground to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the perception of a market-friendly GOP largely remained.

Investor sentiment soured in the spring, in large part due to the uncertainty surrounding U.S. government policy, particularly when it comes to trade. Trade tensions have remained elevated, but sentiment has improved into the summer as markets have normalized.

Uncertainty in the spring contributed to elevated levels of market volatility. Some names suffered steep retracements in the first half of April. However, the 90-day pause announced on tariffs led to a dramatic reversal. That led to a rapid recovery for the broader U.S. market. Despite the improved conditions, this market is unique in that lingering trade policy uncertainty is fueling negative sentiment. Headline risk will continue to be elevated through the second half of 2025.

A research note from Vanguard earlier this year speculated that volatility was likely to remain. This is due to factors like policy uncertainty, disruptive currents in the economy like Artificial Intelligence development, and the shifting policy of the Federal Reserve.

Demand for Low Volatility products has increased in this environment. These ETFs offer Canadian retirees a pure low-volatility play with exposure to 100% Canadian equities.

Harvest Low Volatility ETFs:  A Smoother Investment Experience

Harvest’s new Low Volatility ETF suite may be appealing to defensive and long-term investors. This approach to equity investing is factor-based, disciplined, outcome-oriented, is designed to mitigate risk, as well as provide long-term growth. Moreover, the suite includes a high-income solution that generates monthly cash distributions through an active covered call writing strategy.

Low Volatility strategies can outperform in bull or bear markets. They follow a portfolio construction and investment strategy that is built to limit downside while capturing the upside. Investors can capture gains more efficiently by minimizing risk during periods of market turbulence.

The Harvest Low Volatility Equity ETF (HVOL:TSX) holds 40 top Canadian equities. These equities will be ranked and weighted by their risk score and market cap weight, with a 4% maximum weight per name. HVOL’s Canadian equities are scored according to risk and fundamental metrics.

Low Volatility – Portfolio Construction

Source: Harvest Portfolios Group, Inc. April 2025.

Low-volatility strategies have existed in the market since the 2007-2008 financial crisis. However, these strategies have typically followed a generic approach.

The Harvest approach utilizes multiple risk metrics to achieve its stated goals. These include Beta, Volatility, and fundamental analysis. Harvest emphasizes a robust portfolio construction to achieve a defensive low volatility portfolio and superior upside capture. Continue Reading…

Approaching FIRE [Financial Independence, Retire Early] with a balanced mindset

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Image courtesy Tawcan/Unsplash

By Bob Lai, Tawcan

Special to Financial Independence Hub

I came across this article from The Globe and Mail the other day. The article profiled Jeremy Finney, who retired five years ago at age 41. Soon 46, he is dealing with regrets about early retirement.

According to the article, Jeremy worked at IT and used to push himself to the edge:  70-hour work weeks, back-to-back meetings, working 50 hours straight without sleep. His typical work week meant he was leaving home at 4 AM on Monday to fly to Chicago and returning home late Friday.

The work was so demanding that Jeremy couldn’t take time off around Christmas and from time to time, he had to work through statutory holidays. His job was so stressful that he believes it may have contributed to the breakdown of his first marriage.

That certainly doesn’t sound like a good work-life balance. From the article, my impression was that Jeremy was focusing on earning a high income, saving as much money as he could, and crossing the FIRE finish line as early as possible.  [FIRE is an acronym for Financial Independence, Retire Early.] Spending quality time with his family and having an identity outside of work simply weren’t a priority.

Since I work in high tech, I can relate to this high-pressure, high-demand situation. It’s not unusual for me to have multiple meetings back to back. Since I deal with people globally, it’s also not unusual to have meetings as early as 6 AM and meetings as late as 8 PM.

Sometimes, it can feel like I’m working constantly and the so-called work-life balance is simply not possible.

Three things I learned about work-life balance

Having said that, I have learned a few key things over the years to help me improve my work-life balance:

  1. Setting limits and boundaries. Block off early morning, lunchtime, and dinner time in my calendar.
  2. It’s OK to turn down meetings
  3. If possible, delegate the meeting to someone else

I’m not perfect, but I’m working on getting better at finding the right balance between work and life.

When it comes to FIRE, I think it’s important to approach it with a balanced mindset. The FIRE journey isn’t a sprint, it is a marathon. It takes years and years of planning, saving, investing, and dedication to achieve FIRE. If you approach it like a sprint, I believe you will burn out very quickly. Even if you end up achieving FIRE, you will regret it like Jeremy.

Some additional thoughts on the FIRE journey and approaching it with a balanced mindset: Continue Reading…