General

Is your investing style to preserve or perform?

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Many investors tell me they want the highest returns for the least risk. However, savvy investors know that to be a myth.

A periodic reassessment of the facts is time well spent for every investor. One where plenty of frankness prevails.

For example, step back and revisit your investor style. Even rethink if it truly fits the financial goals you seek.

My question helps:
“What drives your investing style: “preserve” or “perform” ?

Let’s define these two types:

1.) “Preserve” investors care first about risks they incur. They lean toward capital conservation.

2.) “Perform” investors seek high returns with less concern for risks. They prefer more exciting growth strategies.

Rightly or wrongly, my observation is that the majority are clearly driven and sold by performance. Their exuberance too often chases fleeting past performance, a mugs game at best.

Wise investors know that some portfolio preservation is desirable strategy. However, performance just has far more cachet and always will.

Every family needs to find their acceptable investing balance. That is, between becoming too conservative and throwing caution to the winds.

Establishing your profile

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The Mind-Body Connection: How Stress affects your Health

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Beautiful positive girl clothing in white sit at the seaside on the rock and meditating in yoga poseBy Sandy Cardy

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Researchers have long known that there is a strong link between stress and overall health. In fact, the American Psychological Association suggests that we’re on the verge of a stress-induced public health crisis. The American Medical Association has also noted that 80 per cent of health issues are stress related! So how does stress affect your health?

It’s no secret that the mind plays a key role in health. Internalized stress equals dis-ease. But it actually goes beyond just stress. At the core of every symptom is an emotional pattern; the body speaks the mind. Trapped emotions in the nervous system are at the root of what ails us. Some sources believe that the liver is known to be connected to anger and the lungs produce emotions of grief. The emotions that we do not respect, honour and release are stored in anatomical sites and consequently can affect physiology, often leading to dis-ease and dis-comfort.

Did you know that the seven chakras are associated with specific body parts? Modern literature from both Western and Eastern cultures highlight the connection between each chakra and the endocrine and nervous system as well as organs. Additionally, each chakra is connected to mental and emotional issues as well as physical dysfunctions.

The first chakra, which is located at the base of the spine, is connected to the physical body by the spinal column, legs, bones, feet, rectum and immune system. This is emotionally and mentally connected to physical family and group safety and security, the ability to provide for life’s necessities, the ability to stand up for self, feeling at home and social and familial law and order. The physical dysfunctions associated with the first chakra are touted to include chronic lower back pain, sciatica, varicose veins, rectal tumours/cancer, depression, immune-related disorders. Continue Reading…

Pokemon Go/Augmented Reality revolutionizing small business marketing

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pokemon-4By Kollin Lore, Hub Staff

We are entering a new era in technology with Pokemon Go kick-starting the permeation of Augmented Reality. There are many sceptics who scoff at the mobile game, claiming it’s just a fad and Pokemon Go may very well be just that.

However, the bigger picture, what matters, is that Pokemon GO is the start of a revolution – augmented reality that is here to stay.

There is much discussion to be had regarding the mobile game, but one crucial and interesting point to raise is the effect it has on small businesses.

Down at a little known restaurant called Nova Ristorante in Scarborough, I noticed a big sign out front as I pulled in: “Rare Pokemon Inside!”

I was not aware at the time that there are many businesses across the country that are implementing the same tactic to draw in customers. Quite suddenly, a new strategy in small business marketing has risen, one that businesses, if you haven’t already, should strongly consider as this craze evolves.

How does it work?

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Slap Shot: How pro athletes can (legally) “skate by” high tax rates

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Cartoon-style illustration: a shooting hockey player Uniform similar to Montreal's oneBy Trevor R. Parry,  M.A., LL.B,LL.M (Tax), TEP

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

For many Canadians, the state of our beloved national game reached a nadir when none of the seven NHL franchises qualified for last year’s playoffs. This wholesale failure has given rise to the over-analysis and questioning that only a nation of amateur general managers could produce.

What’s the armchair consensus about the source of Canada’s poor performance? Some would-be GMs decry economic maladies they believe are unique to the Canadian franchises, while others bemoan the current lacklustre state of the Canadian dollar — while still others point to punitive rates of taxation introduced by federal and provincial governments in recent years.

While the first two factors may be the likely cause in the delay in awarding an expansion franchise to Québec City — which, as a Habs fan, I am particularly distressed by as we await the return of our primordial enemy — the latter factor, whilst a reality, can largely be eliminated through recourse to a financial strategy that has now existed for fully 30 years.

Introducing the RCA

In 1986 the federal government amended the Income Tax Act to include the Retirement Compensation Arrangement rules. Better known as an “RCA,” this is the only structure available in Canada that allows supplemental retirement benefits to be funded on a tax-deductible basis. Continue Reading…

Investing is a Marathon, not a Sprint

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Depositphotos_21614265_s-2015By Fraser Willson

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

The 2016 Summer Olympics is just getting under way in Rio de Janeiro. One of the most compelling events is the marathon, a 42-kilometre endurance contest with roots dating back to ancient Greece. It may be that we’ve kept our interest in the marathon because it can teach us much about life – and it certainly has lessons for investors.

In fact, if you were to compare investing to an Olympic sport, it would be much closer to a marathon than a sprint. Here’s why:

Long-term perspective

Sprinters are unquestionably great athletes, and they work hard to get better. Yet their events are over with quickly. But marathoners know they have a long way to go before their race is done, so they have to visualize the end point. And successful investors, too, know that investing is a long-term endeavor, and that they must picture their end results – such as a comfortable retirement – to keep themselves motivated.

Steady pacing

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