Hub Blogs

Hub Blogs contains fresh contributions written by Financial Independence Hub staff or contributors that have not appeared elsewhere first, or have been modified or customized for the Hub by the original blogger. In contrast, Top Blogs shows links to the best external financial blogs around the world.

Ominous trend in Millennials’ use of credit cards

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Here’s my latest MoneySense blog, which looks at what I perceive to be a developing problem in the abuse of credit cards by a few Millennials with whom I am acquainted. I name no names but the guilty know who they are! More’s the pity, because the book Findependence Day starts with an opening scene built around a young couple’s similar credit-card problem!

For archival one-stop-shopping purposes and convenience, here’s the original version:

Young Woman on a Shopping SpreeBy Jonathan Chevreau

With some reluctance, I feel compelled to return to the age-old topic of excessive credit-card debt. I do so because lately I’ve had chats with some of my nephews and nieces, all in the age range of 23 to 24. These kids have now all graduated from university or community college, have made a first stab at being in the workforce, and have already racked up what I consider to be excessive credit-card debt. Continue Reading…

Rocco Galati’s grass roots movement against Global Financial Powers

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Editor’s Note. First, in the spirit of full disclosure, the guest blog below is by my brother Graham. Second, as the short bio at the end indicates, he is a successful businessman who thinks for himself and isn’t fussed about being perceived as “politically incorrect.” The issue he raises below tends to be ignored by the mass media (he would term them the “corporate media, lamestream media or lackeys of capitalism”).

The Financial Independence Hub is happy to live up to its name and provide a platform to air this intriguing issue. We’d like to think this is the sort of “challenging content” referred to in Tuesday’s blog by Chartered Financial Analyst Andrew Teasdale that’s relevant but seldom found in “ normal channels.”  Findependence.TV plans to run the resulting video of the upcoming event after it is held this Saturday.

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Graham Chevreau

By Graham Chevreau,

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

A Brief Summary of the National Debt

A couple of months ago I watched a YouTube video created by Bill Abram entitled “The Crime of the Canadian Banking System.” In the video, Bill makes use of a very informative Statistics Canada graph showing Canada’s national debt over the period of 1940 to 1987.

The graph shows that Canada’s national debt was below $20 billion over the period of 1940 to 1974. After 1974, however, the graph headed dramatically upwards and, by 1993, the national debt was $423 billon. Bill Abram pointed out that of the $423 billion; $386 billion was interest on debt! Continue Reading…

What do you seek in online financial content? A good night’s sleep, a rude awakening, challenging content?

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Andrew Teasdale (photo: Bruce Redstone)

By Andrew Teasdale, CFA

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

What do people look for in online financial content, especially a site dedicated to Findependence?   Are they looking for technical information on pensions, investments, private equity, complex products, opinion pieces, confirmation of their own decisions or their advisors/advisers, reassurance in times of financial crisis, or something else?

Personally I find basic technical information, beyond a point, boring. You can find basic information anywhere:  just type in the key words into your browser and bam!  Likewise, there are now books galore on every facet of personal finance, so much so that I fear we have long ago overloaded on dry rudimentary comment. Continue Reading…

“Robo Advisers” — Rise of the machines

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Doug Dahmer

By Doug Dahmer, Emeritus Retirement Income Specialists

Special to the Financial Independence Hub 

I know Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, I read Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and I love the Terminator movies (I’ll be back!).

From all this I know three things: Robots are very smart. Robots always start off to help you. Robots have a tendency to turn on you.

One of the newest crazes and buzzwords in personal finance is: “Robo-Adviser.” If you’re not familiar with the term, it refers to investment management by algorithm in the absence of human input.

With a “Robo” you are asked to complete an on-line risk assessment questionnaire. Your responses determines the prescribed portfolio of ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds) with a built-in asset allocation best suited to your needs. Once a year the portfolio is rebalanced to this prescribed asset allocation recipe.

Dynamics change as shift from Saving to Spending

Continue Reading…

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:

Continue Reading…