Tag Archives: Financial Independence

Mother’s Day and your future role as Mom’s money manager

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Depositphotos_6869353_s-2015By Josh Miszk, Invisor.ca

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Most of us will care for our aging moms at some point in our lives, but helping our parents maintain their independence as they grow older can be a juggling act, particularly when it comes to their finances.

Before we are thrown into the overwhelming responsibility of managing Mom’s investments, it’s important to do some advance planning. For many, starting the conversation with Mom is the biggest hurdle, and what better time than on Mother’s Day?

Whether it’s day-to-day or long-term investments, here are a few things to consider when helping Mom with her finances:

Get a holistic view

Start by getting a complete picture of Mom’s current and expected cash flow needs. Look at her sources of income (like pension and CPP) and her living expenses to get a better idea of any cash shortfall her investments will need to cover.

Next, get a holistic view of her investment portfolio, including what investments she holds and where. Continue Reading…

You say you want a (Blockchain) Revolution?

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Alex Tapscott at Rotman School Thursday evening

My latest Financial Post article can be found by clicking the highlighted text here: Bitcoin and Blockchain could be the start of a revolution bigger than the Internet itself.

My actual words in the lead to the piece were “as big or bigger” but no matter. That’s the gist of a new book by author and technology guru Don Tapscott, and his investment banker son, Alex.

The duo launched their co-authored new book, Blockchain Revolution, to a standing room only audience at Toronto’s Rotman School of Management on Thursday evening. It was the first stop in a ten-city book tour.

9781101980132_Blockchain_final process.indd Blockchain is the Trust Code

The famous Bitcoin is based on blockchain, which meant that for the first time in history two or more parties don’t need to know or trust each other in order to transact or do business online. They don’t need powerful intermediaries because “Trust is programmed into the essence of the technology so blockchain is the trust code.” The book (shown to the right) says big banks and some governments are implementing blockchains as distributed ledgers to speed transactions, improve security and lower costs. These ledgers reside on millions of computers provided by volunteers, so there is no central database that can be hacked. Using heavy cryptography, transactions are time-stamped and validated by a community of miners who are rewarded with more bitcoins. Every time a new block is added to the chain, it must refer to a previous block to be valid: hence the term blockchain.

Real FinTech is based on Blockchain

Continue Reading…

Debuting today: my new “Retired Money” blog at MoneySense.ca

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happy businessman with passive incomeToday and every two weeks or so, MoneySense.ca will be running a new online column by me they’re calling “Retired Money.” You can find the first instalment by clicking on this highlighted headline: Ways to Pay Less Tax in Retirement.

This first piece looks at some tax credits that working folk will probably be unfamiliar with: The Age Credit for those who are 65 with relatively low incomes, and the Pension Credit.

So what do we mean by “Retired Money?” What happened to Findependence and Victory Lap? Well, those will remain a focus of this website and my forthcoming book with Mike Drak: Victory Lap Retirement. Here’s how MoneySense bills the new column:

Retired Money …. will explore smart ways to draw down income in retirement and semi-retirement. 

Here at the Hub, we usually house topics like this under the Decumulate & Downsize section. A typical guest blog will be something from Doug Dahmer, such as Debt is a Four-Letter Word during your drawdown years.

MoneySense Portfolio Event this Saturday

Going back to MoneySense, this coming Saturday morning, May 7th, MoneySense is hosting a special event. Continue Reading…

Book Review: Ernie Zelinski’s Look Ma, Life’s Easy is a primer on Success

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ZelnskicoverErnie Zelinski is a successful Edmonton-based author who has sold more than 900,000 books in 29 countries around the world. He has just published his latest book, titled Look Ma, Life’s Easy, which passes on his secrets for success, primarily to the millennial generation. .

Zelinski is best known for writing The Joy of Not Working and How to Retire Happy, Wild And Free, both of which sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

The new book takes a pseudo-fictional approach like the one famously used by David Chilton in The Wealthy Barber (or less famously, in my own Findependence Day!).

Zelinski’s subtitle is “How Ordinary People Attain Extraordinary Success and Remarkable Prosperity.” The story revolves around two characters, a young adult named Sheldon and his soon-to-be mentor Brock, described as a successful middle-aged man.

The Easy Rule of Life

Over the 200-plus pages of the book Brock imparts to Sheldon his secret of success, which he calls The Easy Rule of Life.

This is the main takeaway, which has a certain amount of paradox in it: Continue Reading…

What every woman needs to know about Retirement

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Akaisha Kaderli

By Akaisha Kaderli

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

The other day I read an article about women and retirement. In this piece, the number one premise for motivation was that we should be afraid. Very afraid. It said that for the most part, men did the planning for retirement and that we as women rely on them blindly.

I dislike reading articles such as this, first, because it is fear-based but second, it doesn’t take into consideration the talents women contribute to the mix of partnership and planning. While it might be true that men are “wired to provide for the household,” women have moved into professions which pay grandly. Many marriages today are a different blend of partnership than what our own parents or grandparents enjoyed. Along with their jobs, many women still run the household, so why not get involved in retirement planning in a proactive manner?

Retirement is a boring word

The word “retirement” conjures up images of old people on pensions or perhaps pictures of those who no longer contribute powerfully to society with their expertise and knowledge. I prefer the description “financially independent” for the freedom, influence and self-reliance it implies.

One can choose financial independence at any stage of life and it’s an exciting and worthy goal. The younger a person begins on this path, the more you have in your favor.

Women, listen up

Continue Reading…