The rose colored retirement dreams of the young
My latest Financial Independence blog at moneysense.ca looks at BMO Retirement Institute’s study showing there is a big discrepancy between the retirement aspirations of young Canadians and their savings habits to date. Click here for my take on it.
When a million isn’t enough
Here’s my latest “Financial Independence” blog entry published at MoneySense.ca:
When a million dollars isn’t “enough” to retire on.
– 59 –
Preet Banerjee podcast on Findependence Day (plus a Guerrilla Frugality anecdote)
This week I had the pleasure of doing a 15-minute podcast with Preet Banerjee, who recently launched his Mostly Money, Mostly Canadian podcast as an adjunct to his popular Where Does All My Money Go blog and numerous other media-commentary activities. You can find the podcast here: it’s billed as describing the concept of “Findependence” and also touches on my recent job change.
Preet is a fast-rising star in personal finance in Canada. Currently he has a regular column in the Globe & Mail and he’s a frequent guest on CBC’s nightly news. For a time, we were both bloggers for the Investor Education Fund’s “Masters of Money” blog series. He first came to my attention when he self-published a book on RRSPs. At the time he was a little-known financial advisor. I reviewed the book in the Post, interviewed him on what was then the Wealthy Boomer web video interviews and the rest is history. Preet wrote the feature on calculating your returns in the current issue of MoneySense and will be making the odd contribution in future issues.
We “splurge” on lunch
Those who follow either of us on Twitter may be amused to hear of a sidebar to this podcast, which touches on the topic of “guerrilla frugality.” Preet came up to the MoneySense offices on One Mount Pleasant on Thursday, equipped with his MacBook Air and a new portable mic he had just acquired. We conducted the interview in my office, then adjourned for lunch. I mentioned a nearby mid-scale eatery popular around here but Preet indicated he preferred to eat something light and healthy. “Like a salad?” I asked. When he affirmed this was his preference I suggested a nearby Swiss Chalet. I’ve been on a diet and exercise kick myself for the past six months and find that the “West Coast Salad” at Swiss Chalet is a very tasty filling meal, with the bonus that it’s eminently affordable.
So Swiss Chalet it was but Preet wasn’t done. We’d also ordered a couple of waters with lemon then decided to “splurge” after on coffee. When the bill was presented, Preet used his smartphone to snap a photo of the rather modest bill, then proceeded to post it on Twitter, remarking on our collective “splurge.”
When I retweeted it to my followers I commented that our luncheon choice wasn’t so much predicated by “guerrilla frugality” but by health and dietary considerations.
All in all a fun and productive few hours. As they say too often at Cineplex previews, “enjoy the movie.”
– 59 –
A personal career change: I join MoneySense in April
On Friday, I announced I am leaving the Financial Post after 19 years to become the editor of MoneySense magazine, effective April 9. I’ll remain at the Post until March 23. You can read the announcement at the MoneySense web site here.
At this stage, it’s not clear how or whether the Wealthy Boomer blog will continue. If it does, it probably won’t be in the current form but in the meantime I may blog a little more on my own site here, which of course exists chiefly to market the book, Findependence Day, and to discuss the philosophy surrounding it.
It’s my belief the financial sections of most newspapers, financial blogs, financial TV shows and personal finance magazines are all talking about basically the same thing: some may term it retirement but I prefer to view it as financial independence. Those who have read the book know the distinction that is made between the two terms throughout the book.
In short, as discussed on the Youngandthrifty review flagged here in the previous blog, it’s all about building wealth to the point you are working because you WANT to, not because you perceive you HAVE to.
Such a late-career change happening while I’m on the cusp of reaching my own personal Findependence Day [I'll be 59 by the time I start the new job] raises some interesting nuances on the whole philosophy, which I’m exploring in an essay I’m composing and which ultimately will be the basis for another book. If it’s ready later this weekend, I may post it here.
– 64 –
