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blog23dec2006
Hot Off the Web In Financial Post article “Live the Good Life, but Save for the Worst” Jonathan Chevreaux discusses how sudden changes in ones health situation reassesses one’s priorities and how “…should live each day as if it were our last because one day it will be. Spending as if there is no tomorrow […]
blog13dec2006
Hot Off the Web WSJ ran a special section on retirement. A couple of stand-out articles are: “The Retirement Lies We Tell Ourselves” discusses the quicksand upon which many build their retirement dreams. Examples include the false expectations of: working in retirement, the home as the safety net, living on 70-80% of pre-retirement income, getting […]
Fee-only planners/advisors(Canada/U.S.)
Fee-only planners/advisors(Canada/U.S.) In a nutshell If you are thinking of using an advisor, aim to get one working on a fee-only basis, prepared to offer a fiduciary relationship and includes an Investment Policy Statement as part of the deliverable. The details The education function of RetirementAction.comis focused in helping individuals to become Do-It-Yourself (DIY) investors; […]
Reverse Mortgage
Reverse Mortgage The following should be considered only an introduction to reverse mortgages. I have no personal experience with them, but if after reading this you still think that you want to explore this further, then you should get independent professional help to explore applicability to your specific circumstances and alternates to reverse mortgages. What […]
“Portfolio Design” by Richard Marston
“Portfolio Design” by Richard Marston In a nutshell While Richard Marston’s “Portfolio Design” according to its dust jacket flap is written for “financial advisors who want to provide diversified portfolios for their clients”, I suspect much of the book is quite accessible to the diligent non-expert reader. It is an excellent book that I highly […]
OAS vs. Pension Reform
OAS vs. Pension Reform Much ink has been spilled in the past couple of weeks on unspecified planned changes to the Canada’s Old Age Security system. Experts, fear mongers, protesters, advocates and politicians have come out arguing for changes ranging from ‘no change at all’ the way to ‘doing away with the OAS system completely’, […]
Longevity Insurance
(Originally posted July 24, 2007) The uncertainty of one’s age at death, results in the biggest fears of retired persons, i.e. that they’ll run out of assets before they die. The risk of living too long constrains spending during “active” retirement years. Actually living too long reduces or eliminates the estate. A Longevity Insurance product, […]
Individual Health Insurance Considerations for Canadians
(Initially posted March 17, 2010 and re-hosted in February 2012) In a nutshell -There are at least three options that you can choose from: (1) a comprehensive policy for about $4,000 (age<65 when provincial drug coverage kicks in typically) that covers some of the dental, drugs, hospitalization (semi-private differential) and extended health nursing, vision, hearing, […]
Insurance: Insure or self-insure? Public or mutual?
Insurance: Insure or self-insure? Public or mutual? In a nutshell Are you getting good value for your insurance dollar? Some are wondering why things seem to have deteriorated over the past decade. Why are load-factors (the percent of premium not paid out in claims, typically 10-55%) so high? Insurance: how it used to be historically […]
Advocacy
Advocacy There are always shortcomings in the current state of affairs due to historical reasons (it made sense to be this way 30 years ago, but things have changed), vested business interests and/or political inclinations. It is important to identify what needs changing and what are possible solutions. It is up to us to expose […]
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