Starting Out

Michael weighs in on three approaches to variable spending, why people can do what they love and still retire well, and his research on the ‘rising equity glidepath’. He also speaks about why it’s normal to start saving after you hit forty, and why withdrawal policy statements can help you have a better idea of when your portfolio is in the red.

Today, we get into a masterclass on retirement planning with a true expert in the field whose perspectives are distinctly evidence-based, Fred Vettese. Fred is a Partner and former Actuary at Morneau Shepell and author of three retirement books including Retirement Income For Life.

We often talk about better planning, reduced spending and a consistent long-term strategy on the show and today we have a guest who not only gives that advice himself but clearly lives it too! Andrew Hallam is the author of the new book Millionaire Expat in which he details some strategies for what has been called geographic arbitrage, or moving to another part of the world in order to maximize your financial independence!

The recent film, Playing with FIRE details the particulars of the FIRE Movement in a way that is accessible, informative and impactful. Both Cameron and Ben were hugely impressed with the film and the argument it makes for the framework of FIRE.

When it comes to the question of whether the economy affects the stock market, it’s not about whether the former is in a good or bad state, but how that relates to what the market was expecting. In today’s episode we get into predictions about labour economics during COVID-19, the relationship between the market and the economy, and how to make decisions that suit your risk tolerance.

You can’t get anything good out of life without taking a risk, and this holds true in the world of investing too. Depending on the situation, people are willing to either pay more for high-risk or risk-free, and matters become more complex because the term ‘risk-free’ means a different thing to everybody.

Have you been to the grocery store, pharmacy, or your favorite shoe store lately? You may have noticed that the costs are higher than you remember. That’s inflation. When prices go up for basically the same product, it means your purchasing power is declining.

As we see 2019 out and enter a new decade, we thought it only fitting to do a round-up of some of our shows this year. While we had 26 guests throughout the year, we chose 14 that best captured the sensible investing and education-focused spirit of our show.

One of the most common perceptions about investing is that it is risky. This is easy to state, but harder to defend when you get into the details. To decide whether or not investing is risky, we first need to think about what “risk” is. Depending on what you are investing in – and what you are investing for – there are different ways to think about and measure risk.

It has been more than a decade since the last U.S. recession. Prior to that, the longest gap between recessions was exactly a decade. Moreover, when I started drafting this post and its related video, the U.S. yield curve had briefly inverted, which means longer-term bond rates were lower than shorter-term bond rates. Besides this being a bit Alice-in-Wonderland-like, inverted yield curves also have been good predictors of coming U.S. recessions.