financial independence | Trevor Abes: Writer

January 19, 2021

Young Canadian Investor #22 — Ten Financial Concepts They Should Teach You in School

We’d all be a little better off if Canada’s basic education system included a thorough run through of basic finance. Such a course would allow young people to make better decisions with their money and ultimately keep more of it in their pockets. Nowadays, making mistakes with money is almost normalized as part of the journey toward managing it well, and there’s really no reason that should be the case with the right financial foundation.

Here are ten concepts that might serve as the base of that foundation.

Inflation is the sustained rise in the prices of goods and services people use in their everyday lives. A pack of bacon twenty years ago was a lot cheaper than a pack of bacon today because of inflation. The same can be said for orange juice, cars, houses, bathroom tissue, and pretty much anything else you need to live your life. We invest money in stocks because they offer a return that has beaten inflation over time. While you can buy approximately 3.3% less with a Canadian dollar with each passing year, a diversified stock portfolio would have earned you an average yearly return in the high single digits over the past few decades.

Debt is what you take on when you borrow money. Usually the agreement is that you have to pay your lender back the full borrowed amount, aka the principal, after a certain period, plus periodic interest payments along the way. These interest payments tend to be expressed as a percentage of the total borrowed amount payable in monthly, annual, or biannual installments depending on the arrangement. One well-known example is credit card debt, which is some of the highest-interest debt you can incur at about 20% or so per year. On the flipside, no pun intended, taking out debt, aka a mortgage, to buy a house could be financed at only 3 or 4% because of Covid-19’s obliteration of housing demand.

Financial Independence means having enough money to finance your life’s expenses such that working becomes optional for you. We’re not talking about being rich here, just being able to support yourself and live with decency. The earlier kids know about this concept, the more years they’ll be able to save and invest and take advantage of compound interest.

Compound Interest is the process by which an investment grows in value. When an investment earns you interest, which is synonymous with a return, over one year, it’s added to the original amount you invested such that your $1000 is now $1200 for example. The $200 you earned in interest now has the opportunity to let the following year’s interest grow on top of it, essentially earning you interest on your interest as they compound into a higher amount.

Opportunity Cost is a perspective you can take when it comes to spending money. It consists of looking at what you’re about to spend, say $15 on a burger and fries, and considering what you’ll no longer be able to buy once you place your order. If you’re saving for a car, you won’t be able to put that money toward to car anymore. If you’re hoping to take a certain course to add depth to your skills, that $15 will no longer help you enroll. You get the idea. When you actually manage to hold off on dropping your cash on something in favor of a future desire, it’s called delayed gratification; not the easiest ask for young people looking to have a good time, but certainly a rewarding one in terms of making larger-scale dreams come true.

Investing is using money with the intention of making more of it. You invest in assets.

Assets are things you can own that make money. These include stocks, which rise in value and can pay you a bit of cash every month or quarter called a dividend. Bonds, which basically work the same as the lender-borrower relationship we delineated above, where the lender, or holder of the bond, receives regular interest payments and the return of principal at the end of the bond’s life. Real estate, which pays you monthly when you rent it out to people. Businesses that hopefully produce profits that line your pockets in proportion to the percentages of the businesses you own. Patents, which generally entitle you to a royalty for every time your patent is put to use. Guaranteed investment certificates, which, like bonds, function as debt. And so on. Think of how motivating it might be to have a working list of these in your head walking around as a daydreaming sixteen-year-old.

Retirement Planning is the last thing you want to talk to a high school kid about at length because it’s so far away and you gotta learn to live before worrying about the logistics of the end of it. I’d limit the spiel to saying that it’s a good idea to think about how much money you need to live on a yearly basis. Multiply that number by however many years between your age and 90, to be conservative, and that gives you a rough idea about how much money you would need until you croak. It can feel grim to think about death. I get it. Just wanted to acknowledge that.

Insurance is money you pay someone else to financially have your back in case something catastrophic happens to you, like croaking, getting seriously injured, losing your job, getting into a car accident, or having to deal with damage to your home. You get insurance for peace of mind. Your payments for it, called premiums, are ones you hope to make without ever having to file a claim due to this or that disaster. Knowing about insurance as a kid is important to instill the idea that certain things are worth protecting more than others, modified of course by each person’s individual values.

Taxes can be defined as money you pay the government to run the country you live in. The earlier little Timmy can develop a sense of what this means in hard numbers, the less of a surprise it’ll be compared to when those dollars have a tangible effect on his quality of life.

Feel free to drop a question or a comment.

I’m also offering investing 101 chats 1-on-1 over Zoom, Facebook, Skype, or Google Meet!

Disclaimer: This article is meant for general education purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice as I am unaware of your personal situation. Consult with a professional who abides by a fiduciary standard before making any investment decisions.

January 9, 2021

Young Canadian Investor #20 — The Pros of Financial Independence

Achieving financial independence means having enough money to do whatever you want with your time. In other words, your investment portfolio and cash reserves cover your food, housing, medical, and other basics expenses without you having to put in any more work, unless you want to. The result is that every day becomes an opportunity to tackle a new project your 9-5 job simply doesn’t allow.

The journey toward this independence and actually being able to experience it can be a fine way to spend your working years. Let’s explore why in a little more depth to help you determine whether or not it’s your deal.

If you have a very specific vision about how you want to live your life, and that vision doesn’t match with holding down a job because it feels like you’re working toward someone else’s dream, financial independence is probably for you. You may want to start a business and be your own boss, do charity work overseas, or pursue art projects that may only provide you with satisfactory mental and emotional as opposed to financial returns. Whatever it is, you can’t ignore what you know will make you happy.
The act of saving enough money to buy your freedom can be one of immense purpose. Picture yourself investing half or more of your monthly income, pinching pennies where you can, spurred on by the rush of your account balance climbing and climbing. There’s a lot of motivation to be had here that can make the less savory parts of a working life a little more palatable. Truth is, many of us don’t have a choice except to work, but long hours and annoying bosses and coworkers don’t matter as much when doing whatever you want is just over the horizon.
At a very basic level, enjoying some degree of financial independence is key to minimizing day-to-day stress. If we were to establish a hierarchy, we could say that the bottom end of it includes an emergency fund, a few months expenses to give you the space to handle a home repair or loss of employment without having to max out the credit card. One level up might be a year’s worth of expenses to tackle a heavy-duty catastrophe like an injury or a death in the family. Any money you invest from that point on gets you closer to being able to accept only the work you want.

If the idea of reclaiming your time as soon as possible lights a fire in you somewhere deep inside, you need to learn how to invest your money so it can grow beyond your biweekly paycheck. It’s reasonable to expect that a balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds will earn you about 5 percent per year over a few decades. That can add up to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to support yourself as you practice your passion.

To get yourself started, check out my new book, Nine Steps to Successful Investing: A Guide for Young Canadians. In no more than an afternoon, it’ll give you the tools you need to invest prudently in the world’s stock and bond markets through index funds and fulfill your long-term life goals.

I’m also available to teach you 1-on-1 over Zoom if you prefer.

Feel free to drop your questions in the comments!

January 4, 2021

Young Canadian Investor #19 — The Cons of Financial Independence

For the purposes of this article, I’ll say you reach financial independence when you have enough money and/or investments to cover your expenses without ever having to work again.

It’s an important goal for a lot of 9-5ers who work decently-paying jobs that don’t mesh with how they’d like to spend their time. Maybe they want to be with family 24/7, maybe they want to travel all the time, maybe they want to write short stories all day and submit them to literary journals. It’s whatever makes you feel like you’re living the life you want, with the caveat that you should be realistic and thoroughly assess how close you can get to it. Here’s why.

Financial independence can become an overwhelming, all-or-nothing proposition. One where you give up a disposable income and with it any prospect of having fun for its own sake so long as you can save more money. And maybe you’re genuinely interested in travelling down this frugal road, exchanging nights out for pasta and cheap wine at home because you know that in 5-10 years you’ll have saved enough to free yourself from the daily grind. You should know, though, that there’s no point in saving half or more of your income if you’ll have to do it for decades to reach financial independence. In this case, there’s something to be said for investing less and living a little now instead of waiting until you’re 50.
You need to have a clear sense of what to do with your hard-earned independence. Once you hit your magic number and have enough to support yourself forever more, how are you going to spend your time? It’s easy to get caught up the the thrill of the journey without giving due consideration to what you need to do to look back proudly on your life. Would you paint a new canvas every day? Dive into research projects that’ve been on the backburner for too long? Would you open up a coffee shop, source all your ingredients in ethical ways, and serve your community in a way you can be proud of? Your answer can change, and often, you just need to get a handle on what gets you out of bed in the morning.
It’s not impossible to be fulfilled while holding down a 9-to-5. This entails finding a job you don’t hate or merely tolerate, one where you still have energy at the end of the day to go out, see people, and live a well-rounded life. There is nothing wrong with working for the next 40 years so long as it adds value to your waking hours, so long as it gives you a sense of purpose that makes you feel alive. Under this scenario, investing your money is still a must, but you can feel free to put less of your paycheck away knowing you’re comfortable working into old age. What would this ideal job be for you?

In the end, financial independence is a lifestyle choice, one that mostly appeals to people who value the freedom to do as they please day to day. If you’ve been searching for a short book to help you invest your money so you can get closer to tasting that freedom, my new effort is for you. It’s called Nine Steps to Successful Investing: A Guide for Young Canadians. In no more than an afternoon, it’ll give you the tools you need to invest prudently in the world’s stock and bond markets through index funds and fulfill your long-term financial goals.

I’m also available to teach you 1-on-1 over Zoom if you prefer.

Feel free to drop your questions in the comments!