General

Time to repatriate US dollar gains back into loonie?

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The Canadian dollar or loonie is under pressure amid weak oil prices and a strengthening U.S. currency. Today, the loonie dropped to 78.39 cents for a U.S dollar the lowest in a many years.
The Canadian dollar is under pressure amid weak oil prices and a strengthening U.S. currency.

My latest Financial Post blog is titled It might be time to repatriate your US$ investments and book those currency gains.

Actually, the C$ has strengthened of late, so the timing isn’t as opportune as a few weeks ago. After a long period of strength, the US$ has slightly weakened against various global currencies, even against the loonie.

Even so, we’re still a long way from par and it may make sense to book some of the gains, and if the loonie starts to sag further, repeat the process every time it falls 3 cents or so.

See also the following mid-January Hub blog by Adrian Mastracci: Falling Loonie Strategies.

The Abundant Retirement Summit and Victory Lap Retirement

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Depositphotos_71592703_s-2015As readers may know, Hub blogger Michael Drak and I have just finished co-authoring a book about life after Financial Independence. It’s titled Victory Lap Retirement, and describes a new post-corporate lifestyle that combines work and play, much like the illustration to the left.

The book has just gone through its second editing pass. Next we’ll be sending out pre-release PDFs to media and influencers, looking for testimonials: if you’re interested please let me know at jonathan@findependencehub.com or Michael at michael.drak@yahoo.ca.

The finished product should be in book stores and available online by mid-summer.

Half-hour interview will be at Abundant Retirement telesummit

kay-banner Continue Reading…

Financial Gerontology, Part 1: Murky waters in an aging world

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fusionBy Marie Howes & Suzanne Cook, PlanetLongevity.com

 

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

As general public awareness of the evolutionary story of aging demographics has increased over the last ten years, so too has the hyperactive dialogue about the social challenges we may face as a result. Yet the narrative of an aging world has spun new knowledge and innovations, positive attitudes and approaches to living a healthier longer life, and along with all that – new market opportunities.
It has also brought a new hybrid of language and, if not quite a fusion of professional fields of practice, certainly collaborations. One of the benefits of our Planet Longevity panel is that we have created a platform where the expertise and insights we bring from our individual practice areas helps inform each other in this fusion; and ideally helping others, we distill the complexities in the discussion on aging and longevity. Sort out the confusion of terminology if you will.So where can we start here, to examine where some of this fusion and confusion exists?
Financial + Gerontology = ?

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Video: How to Win the Loser’s Game, Part 6

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Screen Shot 2016-01-26 at 4.04.15 PM copy-2The latest video instalment of How to Win the Loser’s Game (Part 6) has been posted at SensibleInvesting.TV and will also be housed shortly at Findependence.TV.

The fund management industry won’t tell you this, but all the evidence points to the humble index fund being the most appropriate investment vehicle for the vast majority of people. And there are few advocates of indexing as staunch as Warren Buffett — the most famous active stockpicker of all. The video includes the following quote from Buffett:

“When the dumb investor realizes how dumb he is and buys an index fund, he becomes smarter than the smartest investors.”

In fact (although this isn’t in the video) even former hedge fund manager and TV personality Jim Cramer often tells his Mad Money audience that the first $10,000 of young peoples’ portfolio should go in an S&P500 index fund or ETF before venturing into picking individual stocks. Continue Reading…

How to supercharge your RRSP

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Vector illustration of the engine. Gradient mash.By Robb Engen, Boomer & Echo

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

The idea that an RRSP loan can boost your savings and generate a higher tax refund does not sit well with most people. If you can afford the loan payment then why not just budget and save that amount in the first place instead of borrowing?

In The Wealthy Barber Returns, author David Chilton describes a strategy that can increase your RRSP contributions without putting you out of pocket any more than what you’d already planned to save. He explains how most of us save from our after-tax income, but when we contribute only those after-tax dollars instead of their pre-tax equivalent, we shortchange our RRSPs.

So how do you get the full, pre-tax amount into your RRSP? The answer is to use something called a “gross-up” strategy where you borrow a small amount equal to the tax refund that will be produced by your RRSP contribution. Here’s how it works:

Let’s say you are in a 40 per cent tax bracket and had $3,000 after taxes to invest. How much should you contribute to your RRSP?

The Smart Debt Coach

If you’re not sure of the answer, you’re probably like the majority of Canadians who unknowingly invest less than they could into their RRSP, according to Talbot Stevens, author of a book called The Smart Debt Coach.

Continue Reading…