MoneySense Retire Rich 2014 was well worth the price of admission.
I attended the latest event hosted by the fine folks at MoneySense, Canada’s best-selling personal finance magazine. Dubbed “four hours that will change your financial future,” MoneySense Retire Rich 2014 more than lived up to the hype. Even though I already consider myself financially literate, I learned a thing or two and felt more motivated heading toward the ultimate goal of retirement.
The Retirement of Your Dreams
Business journalist and best-selling author Bruce Sellery kicked off the morning with a high-energy presentation like only Bruce can deliver. He gave a Coles Notes version of his best-selling book, Moolala Guide to Rockin’ Your RRSP: Start Rockin’ in Five Easy Steps. He emphasized retirement is a life stage, not an activity. You don’t do retirement, you travel, play golf, and spend time with your grandchildren in retirement. Bruce emphasized reaching your retirement goals is about making plans and taking action. He wanted us to take one retirement action in the next 24 hours. I helped my mother sell her underperforming mutual funds and set up a low-cost TD e-series account.
How Much Do you Really Need to Retire?
Retirement and pensions expert Malcolm Hamilton tried to answer the most common and vexing retirement question: how much do you really need to retire? Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer. Hamilton dismissed the 70 per cent of your working income rule. Hamilton emphasized saving for retirement isn’t about getting rich, it’s about finding enough money to live a similar standard of living.
Hamilton doesn’t agree with the doom and gloom of the media around retirement, pointing out the real estate values have doubled over the last decade. Hamilton sees three important milestones in life: having children, paying for your home, and saving for retirement. Although retirement may be decades away, you should start planning today. Hamilton, a retiree himself, admits he may have saved too much for his retirement, but that’s a lot better than saving too little!
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How I Did It: The Secrets of Successful Retirees
What better way to retire rich than to learn from a successful retiree himself? MoneySense editor-in-chief Duncan Hood sat down for a moderated Q&A with a recent retiree Rick King. Despite losing half his portfolio in the market crash of 2008-2009, King still managed to retire early at age 57, with a seven figures no less.
What’s his secret? A lot of people panicked after the market crash and put their money in cash. Not King, who stayed in the market and readjusted his asset allocation. King’s key message to retirees: live within your means and enjoy life. If there’s only one book you read about retirement, King recommends picking up Your Retirement Income Blueprint: A Six-Step Plan to Design and Build a Secure Retirement by Daryl Diamond.
Seven Steps to a Perfect Portfolio
Who needs high-fee mutual funds when you can invest in index funds and watch your portfolio sore? Dan Bortolotti, Canadian Couch Potato blogger, shared the seven steps to a perfect portfolio. His key message from the presentation: it’s not about finding the right products, it’s about finding the right process.
- Set realistic goals
- Risk profile – How much risk can you stomach? Can you handle another financial crisis or are you risk adverse?
- Choose your asset allocation – Determined based on your risk profile. This is the mix of stocks versus bonds in your portfolio. This is the single most important factor.
- Select your ETFs – Three to six ETFs is plenty to build a diversified portfolio.
- Place your ETF trades
- Rebalance your portfolio – You can do it yearly or based on a threshold (i.e. a five per cent change in your weighting).
- Stay the course – Slow and steady wins the race. With the proper asset allocation, you can weather any financial storm.
The event was well worth the price of admission. It offered sound financial advice for people young and old. Couldn’t attend? You can check out the live blog to see all the fun you were missing! Next time MoneySense, Canada’s premier personal finance magazine, holds holds an event, you should run to sign up. You’ll gain a wealth of financial knowledge and reshape your thinking around money.
What is your number one tip for retiring rich?
Sean Cooper is the bestselling author of the book, Burn Your Mortgage: The Simple, Powerful Path to Financial Freedom for Canadians, available now on Amazon and at Chapters, Indigo and major bookstores, and as an Audiobook on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
Hello Sean,
Great review! I really enjoyed the event too.
My advice is to start early, pay yourself first and invest don’t speculate (make sure you understand the difference). It is very difficult to argue with logic behind the Canadian couch potato portfolio/process. If I had followed a couch potato approach when I started “investing” I would be much better off now.
One aspect of retirement I think was missed at the event is retirement isn’t necessarily binary. Gone are the days you work at the same company all your life and retire the day you turn 65 with a new gold watch around your wrist. I think Jonathan Chevreau’s idea of Findependance is closer to the truth (it was nice to see Jonathan at the event). People may choose to work after “retirement” or reduce hours as they approach their financial goals. I think retirement will be less and less of a distinct stage of life and more of an extended transition. However given the broad topic of retirement and the different ages attending the event, I think the organizers did a great job covering the critical topics and made excellent use of time.
See you at the next show!
Cheers,
John