Here’s my latest MoneySense Financial Independence blog, titled How ‘findependence’ differs from retirement.
This is of course the ongoing theme of the Financial Independence Hub, aka FindependenceHub, and the reason it’s not called the Retirement Hub.
For convenience and one-stop shopping purposes, the piece can also be found below: Continue Reading…
Today in the Financial Post and online are the seventh and final installment of my series on the 7 Eternal Truths of Personal Finance. The headline and online link is Eternal Truth No. 7: Don’t say no to the few offers of free money from Ottawa.
That applies to Washington to, of course! Either way, and as the article points out, truly free money from Government is a rare thing, since money is really flowing in the opposite direction in the form of taxes.
Still, there are ways to minimize the tax burden in either country, and you shouldn’t say no to them when they’re on offer.
Here’s a summary of the entire series, with links to each of the seven Truths.
I’ve always enjoyed interviewing the managers of the Templeton Growth Fund (TGF), one of the most famous global mutual funds in the world and the basis for the famous “Mountain Chart” (shown below.)
TGF also happens to be one of a handful of mutual funds our family still owns, along with numerous ETFs and individual stocks, so when Franklin Templeton brings in its fund managers for its annual media lunch in June or July, I’m always happy to take advantage of the access.
On Wednesday, I taped an interview with the new portfolio manager of Templeton Growth, British-born James Harper, normally based in Nassua and a veteran of 22 years in the business, the last eight with Franklin Templeton. He took over the fund on April 21st of this year. Like his predecessors, Lisa Myers and George Morgan, Harper has a refreshing take on the valuations of stocks around the world.
Fund underweight U.S. stocks: “becoming fully valued” Continue Reading…
By Robb Engen, Boomer & Echo
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
There’s a popular story told by banks and financial authors to encourage people to start saving for retirement at an early age. It’s called the Parable of the Twins and it goes something like this:
One twin puts aside $3,000 every year into his tax-free savings account starting at age 22, and stops at 32 – never adding another penny to the account. His sister starts saving $3,000 annually at age 32, and continues until 62. Who has the larger nest egg?
Related: How much of your income should you save?
You know how this story goes by now. Assuming an annual return of eight per cent, the twin brother wins hands-down. He ends up with $437,320 in his TFSA, compared to his sister’s $339,850, even though he contributed $60,000 less than his sister.
It’s a ubiquitous tale, but one that resonated with me at a young age. I was drawn to the awesome power of compounding – how money grows exponentially over time. Continue Reading…
Wednesday’s Financial Post ran the 5th instalment of the 7-part series I’ve been writing on The Eternal Truths of Personal Finance.
I originally headlined this one with a title that’s long been familiar to personal finance writers and investors: Be an owner, not a loaner, which is to say emphasize stocks over bonds. The headline in the print edition today (FP5) reads Eternal Truth No. 5: Embrace Risk, pay less tax.
When I posted this blog, there was no online version available, so I took the liberty of posting my original draft, which may vary from the edited version in the paper. Here’s the link to the first in the series, and nearby should be links to at least instalments two to five. Continue Reading…
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