Family Formation & Housing

For young couples starting families, buying their first home and/or other real estate. Covers mortgages, credit cards, interest rates, children’s education savings plans, joint accounts for couples and the like.

Weekly wrap: Futurepreneurs, seminar ripoffs and millennial homeowners

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businessman and businesswoman outdoorsWe’ve talked on the Hub before about older Boomerpreneurs (Baby Boomer entrepreneurs) but what about younger entrepreneurs? After all, Bill Gates and Steven Jobs made the leap into entrepreneurship while they were barely out of their teens. The Million Dollar Journey blog this week did a good piece on the Futurepreneur Canada programs. 

Beware however some entrepreneurs who may be getting rich on your desire to become an entrepreneur via real estate. Read this Boomer & Echo blog: Free Seminar — Learn How to Get Ripped Off.

And while we’re on the subject of real estate, check out the Broke Millennial’s recent blog on The Compromises Millennials Make to be Homeowners.

In Canada there has long been talk about expanding the CPP, or Canada Pension Plan. But most of the chatter in the United States has been about retrenching on social security benefits. Riding to the rescue is celebrity economist Paul Krugman, who argued this week in the New York Times the Case for Expanding Social Security.

But just in case you do fall short in saving for retirement, you can take heart from Jonathan Clements’ article in the Wall Street Journal this week, arguing Why you will need less money than you think for Retirement. Of course, we here at the Financial Independence Hub don’t much believe in the outdated concept of Retirement. We prefer the term Findependence, Continue Reading…

Weekly Wrap, Easter edition: finding purpose, Declaration of Financial Independence & more

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Light at end of the tunnel.By Jonathan Chevreau

Since it’s Easter weekend and Passover begins tonight, I thought we’d dedicate the Hub’s weekly wrap to more spiritual matters or at least view personal finances through a spiritual lens.

We’ll start with this essay from Peter Grandich:  A Biblical Perspective on Matters of Finance. As Peter noted in an email to me, “We know that matters of finance are the second most talked about topic in the Bible.”

One of five “Religious Personal Finance” blogs flagged on the Hub’s Top Blogs tag is Out of Your Rut. It recently ran an intriguing piece entitled 10 ways to be rich without being wealthy. Continue Reading…

Weekly wrap: Hope for “Overwhelmed” single parents, couples living on One Salary & tax revolt

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WealthySingleMummy.com’s Emma Johnson

 

By Jonathan Chevreau

Feeling overwhelmed? Everywhere I look, long-time couples are falling apart.

So I entirely sympathize with single parents who feel overwhelmed both financially and emotionally by the twin burdens of raising kids alone and of still having to bring in money, not to mention re-entering the dating scene.

If you’re in this situation, a good place to look for support is Emma Johnson’s Wealthy Single Mommy blog, which I discovered right here under the Hub’s Best Blogs tag, flagged as one of five “Best-kept secret personal finance blogs.”

Most of Johnson’s blogs address these issues since she is in essence chronicling her own similar journey but the one that caught my attention was a video from February: Overwhelm is a Choice: How to get a grip and stop the constant stress.

No question living off just one income can be tough in the modern world. It wasn’t always that way, of course. Back in the Leave it to Beaver world of the 1950s, it was normal for one partner (usually the man back then) to bring home the bacon in the corporate world while the other played the role of Homemaker and raised the kids.

But those days are gone: it’s almost normal to have two salaries, which is why Continue Reading…

Does the Family Tax Cut benefit “rich” or encourage one spouse to work less?

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family drawing money house clothes and video game symbol on theHere’s my latest MoneySense blog, which looks at recent criticisms of Income Splitting for Families with children under age 18: aka the Family Tax Cut.

Its headline is Can the Family Tax Cut Entice Families to Work Less? Continue Reading…

Urbs or Burbs? TD survey finds generational divide on housing preferences

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No big surprise that children and the Burbs go together

By Jonathan Chevreau

Further to this morning’s guest blog about Boomer downsizing by realtor Linda Evans comes a poll by TD Canada Trust that shows wide generational differences in housing preferences.

While aging baby boomers are more likely to prefer small towns (21% do) or rural settings (18%), given the choice a third of Canadians would prefer to live in the city (aka “urban environment”) while almost as many (31%) lean to a more suburban environment.

As you might expect, it seems the younger you are the more you wish to be in the downtown core, while the older folk tend to flee to the burbs or the country. Thus, 38% of Millennials and 36% of Generation X lean towards urban settings, but Gen X is almost as likely to choose the suburbs (33%).

No doubt this breaks down into those with and without children: you’d expect young singles to congregate where the action is downtown, while those who have met “the one” and started to raise families would prefer a larger home further away once they have to accommodate kids. Downtowners typically have short commutes and easy access to public transit and can get by easily without bearing the expense of vehicle ownership. As most parents in the suburbs well know, one or even two cars are almost a necessity outside the downtown core, and a long commute will likely be another price they pay.

Boomers gravitating to small towns and rural settings

Indeed, the TD survey found 39% of Canadian parents and prospective parents would prefer to raise a family in the suburbs, while 26% would choose a more urban environment.  Continue Reading…