Tag Archives: wealth

When Women Succeed, we all Succeed. We just need to “Embrace Equity”

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By Christine Van Cauwenberghe

Special to Financial Independence Hub

Today is International Women’s Day (IWD), an opportunity to mark the social, political, economic, and cultural achievements of women.

The day also serves as a global call-to-action to promote gender parity. This year’s theme – embrace equity – is pertinent as equity is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have.

Over the years, we’ve come to better understand the impact of gender bias and discrimination, specifically in finance where women are traditionally overlooked and underrepresented – as advisors and as clients. By investing in gender equity, we can unlock economic growth and lay the groundwork for generations of women to take greater control of their financial futures.

Stereotypically and historically, financial planning has largely been viewed as a man’s job. While progress has been made to change this narrative, we need to see a greater shift away from monolithic thinking around traditional gender roles. Now more than ever, Canadians are seeking financial advice – this is creating an exciting opportunity for women to break the gender bias and get certified as a financial planner to catalyze representation in financial services. Relationship-building, intuitive insight, emotional intelligence, and trust are all traits that differentiate a good financial planner from a great one. These are skills that many women inherently hold and could further hone, making them well-suited to excel in an advisor role. They just need an entryway.

Canadian women will soon control half of accumulated financial wealth

Today, women are playing an active role in financial decision-making – for themselves and their households. Research shows that by 2026, women in Canada will control almost half of all accumulated financial wealth, pointing to a probable surge in demand for financial advice among females. Not to mention, women, on average, live longer than men, meaning that at some point in their lives they will take on the role of sole financial decision-maker. Despite this need, many women are unable to find a financial planner they connect with and 70 per cent change their advisor within one year following the death of their partner or spouse. Continue Reading…

Wealth & Happiness, Part 2: Happiness is a Thought and can be changed

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By Warren MacKenzie, for Canadian Moneysaver

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

In Part One of this series we mentioned how ‘living in the moment’ — that is being free of ideas of self and the things we wish for — is an opportunity for happiness.

In this part we will first explain how happiness comes from our thoughts, not our financial circumstances, and how making money usually generates more happiness than spending it does. We will then look at how money can buy happiness when you give it away, and how it’s not enough to manage money wisely: we also have to use our money wisely.

For example, let’s imagine two people with the same size investment portfolio living in almost identical apartments. In one case, the individual who may have experienced a windfall is overjoyed to be living on his or her own, while the other person, who may have suffered a financial loss, is sad and embarrassed to now be living in such a small apartment. One person is happy and one is sad. The difference is not based on their different circumstances it is entirely based on their thoughts about their situation.

In his book, The Art of Happiness, Dalai Lama says, “Once basic needs are met – the message is clear: We don’t need more money, we don’t need greater success or fame, we don’t need the perfect body or the perfect mate – right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.”

Overcoming challenges

For most successful people, it’s their accomplishments that gives them the greatest happiness, whether that includes looking after their family, accumulating wealth, or showing resilience and problem solving through difficult situations. Successful people know that a happy life is not a life without problems or negative circumstances: rather it is one where we have the opportunity to overcome challenges and problems.

It’s important to realize that most often, the greater the challenge, the greater the happiness that comes from overcoming it. If parents make things so easy for their children that they never have to work hard and learn to overcome challenges, (including financial challenges) their children may not develop the positive self-image and confidence that comes from solving problems and creating their own financial security. Continue Reading…

Banking shouldn’t be complicated

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By Rick Lunny, Manulife Bank

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

 As a father of five with two 20-something daughters who recently moved out, I often hear how the sheer amount of information in this digital age overwhelms those who are entering the workforce and starting their adult lives. Somehow by default, I have become an unofficial mentor for both my kids, and their broad circle of friends, as they regularly seek my advice when facing important financial and career decisions that will shape their future.

They frequently comment how there’s always new, conflicting advice on how best to live life. Especially when it comes to money and how to make the most of it: save more, live for the moment, pay down debt, and yes, even plan for retirement at age 24.

It’s a struggle to find time to break through the noise and choose the best financial options that truly fits their needs.

And it’s not just the younger generation who struggle to make decisions and take control of their finances.

As the head of Manulife Bank, a subsidiary of Manulife which serves seven million Canadians, I know customers of all ages are looking to develop better financial habits and improve their financial wellbeing.

Canadians are looking for clarity, simplicity and value from their bank. This applies equally to technology interfaces. They expect – and deserve – from initial application to ongoing experience, products that have a human-centric design, with intuitive and easy to use interfaces.

That’s what I love about Manulife Bank. I joined five years ago because it was different from other Canadian banks. It had an entrepreneurial reputation for going beyond the status quo with innovative banking products designed in the best interest of Canadians.   Continue Reading…

Investing for people over or under 45

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By Tea Nicola

(Sponsor Content)

Your ideal investing strategy when you’re 25 just is not the same as when you’re 52.

That’s because what you earn is partly a function of what you’ve already managed to acquire. In Canada, about 85% of all financial assets are in the hands of people over age 45. Pension assets are held in the same proportions. On the real estate front, just 32% of all real estate value is in the hands of those under age 45. Meanwhile, fewer companies today offer a pension plan of any kind. The defined benefit pension plan is on its way to extinction.

What’s a young person to do? And for older investors who are going to retire earlier, how should their investment strategy change? What are the lessons that need to sink in when it comes to investing for people over or under 45?

What’s the investment strategy for Canadians under 45? Lower your fees!

You’re finished with school (at least for now). You’ve entered the job market and you’re starting to build up some savings. You’re diligently putting between 10 and 20 per cent of your salary into an RRSP. The younger you start to contribute to an RRSP, for instance, the sooner you can take advantage of compound interest.

Regardless, you want a good return on your investment and maybe you’ll get lucky and enjoy a bull market.

You can’t actually control that return, even if you’re investing in your own company … but if you’re using an investment platform like WealthBar or a traditional firm, you definitely can control how much you pay in fees.

For instance, with a WealthBar account, an investor might pay about 0.6% in management fees to WealthBar, versus 2.2% for a mutual fund at a bank. Put another way, an investor might pay $10 a month for WealthBar to manage $25,000, versus nearly $46 per month with a typical bank mutual fund.

Fees add up! While it may seem like the older generation controls the vast majority of assets (OK, they do), young people can at least control how much they pay a firm to manage their account. The right choice can literally save hundreds of thousands of dollars in value that would otherwise pad a financial adviser’s pocketbook.

But, should you race to the bottom? Perhaps not. Ensure that your strategy is still sound and diversified in order to achieve your goals in time. So, do not invest all your money into that 0.05% US Equity ETF. Some fees are ok, if they provide value such as diversification, cash flow, currency alignment and liquidity.

What’s the investment strategy for Canadians over 45? Reduce your risk!

Perhaps you’re one of the lucky Canadian investors over 45 who has had a good run. A pride-inducing chunk of that 85% chunk of financial assets are in your account. Continue Reading…

5 small steps to improve your physical health & 5 for your financial health

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Duke University conducted a two-year study of 218 healthy adults of normal weight to determine if a modest, sustained calorie reduction would show appreciable benefits. The plan was to reduce calories consumed by 25 per cent, but participants were unable to achieve that much.

(Author’s note: I sure couldn’t do it! A 25% reduction in my 2,000 daily calories would leave me staggering around at only 1,500 per day.)

Participants were able, however, to cut calories by an average of about 12 per cent.  This smaller change allowed them to stick to the plan without any adverse effect on mood (wherein lies a useful message in itself). The results? Lowered blood pressure; decreased insulin resistance; as well as a drop in several predictors of cardiovascular disease.

But the most appreciable result concerned C-reactive protein, a substance produced by the liver and a marker of inflammation in the body. The participants’ C-reactive levels plunged by almost half: a remarkable 47%!

It’s a no brainer that poor dietary habits would exacerbate internal inflammation. But very often this is an invisible menace (see my article ‘The Truth About Inflammation’, October 2015). Most of us remain blissfully unaware of any chronic inflammation cascading throughout our bodies. Yet this exposes us to chronic health risks as a result of knocking the body out of whack. In my case, I had the aforesaid silent inflammation and observable inflammation, which I felt in my poor old joints. And I am pretty convinced that chronic inflammation was one factor in my developing cancer.

An elevated C-reactive protein level can be a valid identifier of inflammation in the body. So, if just a 12% calorie restriction can reduce this marker by almost 50%, this is as good information as that available to an insider trader.

In the blindness of youth, so many of us can compromise our health in a mad dash for wealth. But from the other end of the lifespan, a good many seniors would gladly sacrifice some wealth for even a smidgen of better health. Those who don’t make time for their health early on in life more often have to make time for illness later.

5 ways to improve your physical health

So, if you are young, young at heart, worried that you are no longer young, here is some insider information. Five smart, little investments you can make, the aggregate interest of which, over time, will have compound into positive health returns. Continue Reading…