Tag Archives: Financial Independence

Reflections From The Early Days of Spending In Retirement, Part 1

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Patricia Gass

By Patricia Gass, CPA, CFA

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

I need to get this right. I’ve only got one chance.

Running out of money in retirement is NOT an option, especially for the “conservative accountant” in me. I refuse to be a burden to my children (or anyone else for that matter)!

It’s been 10 months since my husband and I received our last “official” corporate paycheque. Early retirement has been a true blessing: complete control over our life, time and money. We know there will be bumps in the road but so far so good. We are both happier than we’ve ever been. Life is great! Continue Reading…

Managing Inflation in Retirement

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Roger Wohlner, The Chicago Financial Planner

By Roger Wohlner,

Special to the Financial Independence Hub 

Inflation may seem like a tame or even non-existent threat. We are actually witnessing deflation in the price of oil and other commodities as I write this. Even so, it’s highly unlikely that inflation is dead. The U.S. economy continues to recover from the financial crisis and times of economic recovery are often a trigger for higher inflation.

An annual inflation rate of 2 per cent or 3 per cent over a period of years can seriously erode the purchasing power of your retirement nest egg.  At 2.5 per cent inflation, US$1 today will be worth approximately 78 cents in 10 years, 61 cents in 20 years, and 48 cents in 30 years. This could have a major impact on those entering retirement and those already in retirement.

Managing inflation in retirement is crucial;  here are some thoughts you need to consider. Continue Reading…

Retirement, Findependence or Unretirement?

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Chad Smith (FinancialSymmetry.com)

Certified financial planner Chad Smith has written a piece called Retirement, Findependence or Unretirement. Which path are you on?

Safe to say we all know what the word Retirement refers to. Those coming to this website will also know Findependence, a contraction for Financial Independence. Smith credits financial planner and blogger Michael Kitces for pushing for Financial Independence as a more useful term than Retirement, especially for Millennials.

This observation was also made by Alan Moore of XY Planning Network at this blog here at the Hub late in 2014.

I had also made a similar recommendation at a blog I wrote about the same time for Roger Wohlner’s The Chicago Financial Planner.  And on the same theme, I gave a little talk for Toastmasters on this, which I later expanded here at the Hub. Continue Reading…

How Ernie Zelinski retired Happy, Wild & Free

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How-to-Retire-Happy-Cover-3D-2-2-AI have a lot of books about Retirement and Financial Independence in my personal library, but I seldom go through any one twice. Today’s review is an exception because of a lunch I had with a friend we’ll call Albert (not his actual name).

Albert is a former client with whom I’ve kept in touch. He’s now 70 and just begun to retire. Because of various circumstances, he was unable to engage in most of the basic practices described here at the Hub, so no taxable or non-registered savings for Albert.

Fortunately for him, he bought a house in Toronto at something like a third of what’s it’s worth now, and it’s that home equity that has allowed him to finally stop working. He has no dependents and after going over the pros and cons took out a reverse mortgage. Continue Reading…

Expect mortgage price war to be sparked by today’s interest-rate cut

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Romana King (MoneySense.ca)

Good news for homeowners today with the surprise announcement interest rates in Canada are being cut by 0.25% (to 0.75%).

In her MoneySense.ca column today, real estate columnist Romana King predicts there will be an imminent price war among financial institutions offering home mortgages.

That can only be good for those renewing mortgages or about to buy their first home. One of the charts Romana describes shows five-year fixed rates could even fall below 5%.

Of course, as someone who preaches that the foundation of Financial Independence is a paid-for home, I’d still rather have no mortgage at all. But rock-bottom rates are the next best thing and it seems they will continue for as long as the eye can see.

My only caveat: be wary of buying more house than you really need. Use the gift of continued low rates as a way to accelerate the paydown of your mortgage.  Because ultimately we value Financial Independence more than having a monster home in which to store more “stuff.” Don’t we?

As I say in my book, “Freedom, Not Stuff!”