All posts by Jonathan Chevreau

Why Boomer & Echo’s Robb Engen dumped stocks to be 100% an indexer

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Robb Engen, Boomer & Echo

By Robb Engen, Boomer & Echo

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

For a while now I’ve dithered over when to sell my portfolio of dividend stocks and implement my two-fund ETF solution.  The tanking stock market didn’t help – particularly with oil and gas stocks plummeting and a few of my holdings underwater.  Behaviourally, I badly wanted to wait until oil prices recovered so I didn’t have to sell those stocks at a loss.

But last Thursday I finally took the plunge and sold 24 dividend stocks, worth roughly $100,000, and immediately replaced them with two ETFs from Vanguard.  I’m not going to lie; it was hard to sell my babies:

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Retirement planning would be so much easier if we knew when we’re going to die

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By Jonathan Chevreau

My latest MoneySense blog is on the pros and cons of Extreme Early Retirement, or its opposite, which one reader dubbed “Extreme Working.”  It was in response to my recent column in the magazine about extended longevity, a theme we regularly explore here at the Financial Independence Hub’s “Longevity & Aging” section.

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David Davidson

As mentioned in the MoneySense version of the blog, one of the readers highlighted — Oakville-based David Davidson — also sent along a photograph of himself, which we’re running here (on the left).

What this all comes down to, and as I commented on Twitter after the original MoneySense blog was posted, is that “Retirement planning would be so much easier if we just knew the exact date of our death!”

Of course, few of us know that so there’s always going to be a tradeoff between planning for a long life that never materializes; and under-saving and living in the present, only to find yourself running out of money before you run out of life.  Personally, I’d rather err on the side of the first possibility but as you can see below, some readers (including David shown above), make the case for the second possibility, or a balance between either extreme. Some on Twitter are in the same camp, including Ryan (@simplemoolah):

“LOL.  Since we don’t — Don’t blow it all today. Live in the present & enjoy every moment but also plan for your future.”

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How to protect your biggest asset: the ability to earn an income

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Ermos Erotocritou, CFP

By Ermos Erotocritou, CFP

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

When a person suffers an illness or injury, it may take some time to know how long it will last, and how long it will keep the person from earning an income.

Hopefully, the disability will last a short time. However, in many instances, the disability can last for a long period of time, perhaps for life. The consequences facing an individual will tend to vary with the length of time a person is disabled.

The consequences will also extend beyond financial concerns. While every everyone is different, and will react differently to events in life, there are some commonalties that tend to occur among people who experience a disability.

Possible consequences of short-term disability

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Rethinking Retirement and Home Ownership

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Gary Gorr, CHFC

By Gary Gorr, Chartered Financial Consultant

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Recently I have been doing retirement assessments for several new customers. What amazed me as I spoke with them was how resigned to defeat the clients were. It was like they knew in their guts that they had started saving too little and too late to attain the retirement they wanted.

One answered my question on when do you want to retire by saying “around 120 is the only way I could.”

After the initial meetings I reflected on other circumstances from planning for customers in 2014 and noticed some commonalties.

  • Age range: 45-55
  • They own homes with attractive Fair Market Values
  • Had fairly decent equity positions in homes
  • Most would carry a mortgage into retirement
  • All had projected incomes at retirement far less than their desired outcome

Many Canadians, including these clients, have grown up with the belief that home ownership is an important goal. The home represents a significant part of their net worth.

Not easy to unlock home equity

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Why do we invest?

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Aman Raina, Sage Investors

By Aman Raina, Sage Investors

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

One day as I was perusing the world wide web, I came across a posting about DRIP investments, which ran in the new blog by PWL Capital’s Justin Bender.

What caught my eye had nothing to do with DRIP investments but more about a comment made at the end of article that really got me thinking. It said:

“…Investors should be focusing their attention to more important investment decisions that are likely to have a bigger impact on overall success (such as savings rate, expenses, risk, fees, taxes, and behaviour)…” 

Make no mistake, these are important factors in developing your investment ideology or strategy. However, these elements just get you into the game of investing; on their own they are not going to guarantee you will be successful. Continue Reading…