Category Archives: Financial Independence

The majority of the young people we work with at Revoke live in care, where accommodation is provided free of charge. However, the realities of the care system mean that on becoming legal adults at 18, they will do anything necessary to instead live independently, including earning money to pay rent. This stretches their financial capabilities, as they are often the primary breadwinner for their families back home. Still, remaining in the care system is synonymous with prison conditions. Lack of privacy and trust leave these young people deeply frustrated; visiting hours are limited (with overnight visitors forbidden); premises are monitored 24/7, with all comings and goings recorded; and keys are not provided to their own home.

By blindly following protocols - often at the expense of the young peoples physical and mental health - statutory services have been observed making unforgivable errors which exacerbate their residents negative conditions. Jamals article summarises a recent experience within his care provision, when staff refused to pick him up from hospital after major surgery due to the unavailability of a manager to provide confirmation. This case highlights the extreme lack of empathy and compassion which can flourish when following protocol is prioritised.

Basic care support has been heavily eroded by twelve years of Conservative leadership, with the most affected being those furthest from financial independence or power. If the country was organised so as to give importance to care, this sector would not be notorious for its failings. We live in a society that prioritises GDP and economic growth instead of the wellbeing of its citizens. When care is not viewed as an alternative economy, services replicate the corporate behaviours which thrive on competitive and punitive bases.

What would our system look like if care was instead treated as seriously as a currency? How might stories like Jamal's, below, be different?

I would like to share a personal experience with you to shed light on a serious social problem: a lack of care and compassion for vulnerable people in care. I recently had knee surgery because I injured my knee in football more than a year ago. I waited over one year for the surgery. A difficult year dealing with pain and mobility.

On the day of the surgery, although there was no one to assist me to go home, the nurse discharged me. The protocol clearly states that after surgery, patients cannot go home alone while still under the influence of anaesthesia. The nurse asked me to call someone to pick me up so I called my key worker, however he refused to offer me any support and told me to find my own way home. I told the nurse that there was nobody to come and help me go home and I was not feeling well enough to go alone. I asked if I could stay longer, but the nurse refused and insisted on discharging me. I had no other choice but to leave the hospital alone.

I took a bus and on the way home, I fell a few times then when I got home, I felt a lot of pain. I took some painkillers and tried to sleep but a few hours later I woke up with a lot of pain. I was worried that the falls had caused an injury. So I decided to go back to the hospital and at the hospital I got an X-ray. The X-ray showed no injury. However, the doctor was stunned to find out that the hospital had discharged me alone.

I live in a care house. My friends were not allowed to come to visit me and bring me food. The key workers did not help me in any way. I had to go shopping and cook for myself. My room is on the top floor; since I couldn't walk upstairs I stayed in the living room. The care managers told me to move up to my room without offering any help. They treated me very rudely.

A few days after the surgery I felt chest pain and my leg was swollen. I called the NHS and they sent me a taxi to take me to the hospital. I am very happy that the NHS immediately responded. The situation in the home improved after Revoke intervened on my behalf. I think it is very important to share this story with you as I felt miserable about how my key workers and their managers lacked care and compassion; qualities that are essential in their line of work.

I have no family, not enough money and had to cope with all these difficulties as an individual. This episode demonstrates how even day to day occurrences can cause a lot of suffering and stress for someone without family and financial means.

This article was co-written by Jamal, a young asylum seeker, and Revoke,a grassroots organisation advocating for the rights and welfare of underserved young people, particularly unaccompanied refugee minors, asylum seekers and those in the care system. In opposition to punitive services that leave young people vulnerable, Revoke aims to give them agency by engaging with culture, society, and politics, and co-designing activities that restore dignity and give a sense of fulfillment.

Revoke recently worked with four young asylum seekers to write articles about their experiences of living in the UK, the dominant Western economic system, and its wider repercussions on African countries. These were written in collaboration with Hannah Theodorou, Safeguarding Lead at Revoke, who also provides context for each article.

This article is part of Economy's Voices of the Economy series. The project brings together the economic experiences and opinions of people from a range of different backgrounds and showcases voices which are not heard as often when we talk about the economy. To find out more and share your own story,click here.

The rest is here:

I woke up with a lot of pain, so I decided to go back to the hospital. The doctor was stunned they had previously discharged me alone. - Economy

HOBOKEN, N.J., Oct. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Celsius Network, the leading global cryptocurrency earning and borrowing platform, today announced a US $400millioninvestment led by WestCap, a growth equity firm, and Caisse de dpt et placement du Qubec(CDPQ), a global investment group. The transaction will reflect a valuation of more than US $3billionfor Celsius.

Celsius intends to use the proceeds from this investment to continue expanding its offering and products, as well as building bridges between the traditional finance and cryptocurrencies, with specific emphasis on launching institutional grade products and offerings. Part of the proceeds would also be used to double its team from 486 employees to nearly 1,000 and expand globally through strategic acquisitions in order to continue fueling the exponential growth that it has experienced over the past year.

Celsius recently reported thatas of October 8,2021, total assets crossed the $25 billion threshold- including more than 1 million customers registered with the platform- having paid more than $850millionin interest to users through its Earn productin just over three years.

"We are pleased by the response we received from many leading financial investors during this fundraise. The partnership with WestCap and CDPQ puts Celsius in a position to grow and further its mission to leverage blockchain technology to connect and decentralize the traditional finance," said Alex Mashinsky, CEO of Celsius Network.

"WestCap and CDPQ believe Celsius is a world-class business in size and scope, and will continue to be the leader at the forefront of the industry in regard to innovation and regulatory acceptance," said Laurence A. Tosi, Founder and Managing Partner at WestCap. "While the current regulatory attention is new, Alex Mashinsky and Celsius' ethos has long echoed the sentiment regulators are trying to put forth in terms of consumer protections. Celsius is committed to working constructively with regulators to better understand the dynamic crypto space, protect retail customers from fraud and undue risk, and create general consumer knowledge to allow for thoughtful investment decisions."

"Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt several sectors of the traditional economy. As digital assets grow in adoption, we intend to capture the right opportunities, while working with our partners towards a regulated industry," said Alexandre Synnett, Executive Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer at CDPQ. "Celsius is the world's leading crypto lender with a strong management team that puts transparency and customer protection at the core of their operations. CDPQ and WestCap are eager to partner with them to share our expertise in the FinTech sector as they continue to expand their services."

About Celsius

Celsius helps hundreds of thousands of consumers worldwide to find the path towards financial independence through a compounding yield service and instant low-cost loans accessible via a web and mobile app. Built on the belief that financial services should only do what is in the best interest of the customers and community, Celsius is a blockchain-based fee-free platform where membership provides access to curated financial services that are not available through traditional financial institutions. For additional information please visitwww.celsius.network.

About WestCap Group

The WestCap Group is a growth equity firm founded by Laurence A. Tosi, who, together with the WestCap team, has founded, capitalized, and operated tech-enabled, asset-light marketplaces for over 20 years. With over $5 billion of assets under management and committed capital, WestCap has made notable investments in technology businesses such as Airbnb, StubHub, Klarna, iPreo, Skillz, Sonder, Addepar, Hopper, iCapital and Bolt. For more information about WestCap, visit http://www.WestCap.com.

About Caisse de dpt et placement du Qubec (CDPQ)

Caisse de dpt et placement du Qubec (CDPQ) invests constructively to generate sustainable returns over the long term. As a global investment group managing funds for public retirement and insurance plans, CDPQ works alongside its partners to build enterprises that drive performance and progress. The group is active in the major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt. As at June30, 2021 CDPQ's net assets total CAD390billion.

For more information, visitcdpq.com, follow us onTwitteror consult ourFacebookorLinkedInpages.

CELSIUS NETWORK[emailprotected]

WESTCAP GROUPNATASSIA NETTLEMAN+1 925 550-0790 [emailprotected]

CDPQCONRAD HARRINGTON +1 514 847-5493[emailprotected]

SOURCE Celsius

Read more:

Celsius Network Announces an Investment Led by WestCap and CDPQ at a Valuation More Than US $3 Billion - PRNewswire

The present reality of politics in Nigeria indubitably portrays a system that is under siege by the actions, inactions and reactions of the ageing political drivers of this country in policymaking and implementation. The current crop of leaders during the economy of this country is a paradigmatic shift from what was obtainable in the post-colonial era where the nationalists who agitated and achieved independence from Britain were in their youth, but in Nigerian politics today, the reverse is the case.

The Youths are the leaders of tomorrow is an aphorism that contradicts the leadership monopoly practised by ageing Nigerian kleptocrats because the Nigerian government of present is led by gerontocrats who have continued to sideline the youth in the political and economic climate of Nigeria. Leadership is portrayed as the right of the elderly in Nigeria irrespective of societal changes since independence.

Gerontocrats in present-day Nigeria have made participation and representation unattainable and inaccessible to Nigerian youth with policies that alienate them.

Taking a survey of youth representation in politics, the political leaders in present-day Nigeria are above 50 years of age. About 80% of the population of our political leaders are not youth because these same sets of political leaders are recycled. For instance, General Muhammadu Buharis first regime as a leader of Nigeria, although military, was in his youth day in 1983. It is a shocking reality that 32 years later, the same Buhari is in power as the president in a democratic system.

Now, the question Is the youth of Nigeria under siege? Wisdom, they posit, comes with age; but has this wisdom been transferred into Nigerian political and economic policies? Age should be an insignificant factor in the process of administration. However, the current realities show the problem of Nigeria is related to age as it limits or boosts the productivity rate of our leaders. Characteristics of leadership are experience, knowledge and legitimacy for the growth and development of the nation. Early leaders in the post-independence era were not aged, but youth driven by patriotism in their agitation for good governance.

The current leadership has eroded youthful participation and representation in modern-day politics with financial hindrance to contesting elections. The cost of elections is very exorbitant because of the money politics practised by Nigerian politicians. The financial ability to run for an election has made the opportunity to hold political offices a mirage. Injustice and maladministration have permeated society; thus, the youth are described as all bark but no bite. Many Nigerian youths harnessed and amplify their voices through social media to demand good governance from these leaders of an older generation. The country riddled with insecurities, poverty, economic degeneration and political instability is one of the many reasons Nigerian youths must wake up to take over the nations administration in the forthcoming elections. The development of Nigeria is in the hands of the young and active.

Ralph Waldo Emersons quote that the world belongs to the energetic is apt in the struggle and fight for good governance in 2023. Nigerias leadership needs the young and energetic to catalyse development processes.The countrys economy has been left in the hands of political hyenas and piranhas in the guise of old and supposedly witty leaders who are bent on killing the economy with obnoxious policies.

If this is not the case, how do you explain the exponential increase of dollars at the expense of naira? How do you justify uncontrolled and incessant killing and kidnapping rampant in the nation; what is the rationale for the increased level of insecurities and brutality citizens suffer under the governance of this administration? The political outlook of Nigeria under this administration is tarnished, and the need for a facelift by people who have the tendencies to redeem Nigerias image internationally is the youth who have been sidelined in the affairs of leadership.

This deplorable situation is a wake-up call from oblivion for Nigerian youth to harness their population to demand change with and inclusion of young innovative minds in the nations political system. The Nigerian youth population must present themselves as a force to reckon with in the 2023 election by their political activism by raising candidates with people-driven representation and uncompromised prospects for good governance. This political overhaul of gerontocrats will not be without resistance or barriers ranging from suppression to finance; however, the youth-led representation must be resilient in demanding a change of government with their vote and active participation in the 2023 election poll.

The youth must never be sceptical of the political and economic powers they wield; and if in doubt at any point, they should take a walk down memory lane on October 22, 2020, of the END SARS protest organised and managed by Nigerian youth against police brutality. Frightened by the cooperation of the youth that successfully managed the peaceful protest irrespective of their ethnic and cultural differences before the government sent out thugs to infiltrate the process, the government disrupts the protest violently.

A unified youth community pose a threat to their continuation in political office. The frightening nature of this unity has pushed them into exerting force and violence to suppress and disperse the youth with a blatant disregard for fundamental human rights.

That singular act shows the youth can take over; thus, this has kept them on their toes and given these kleptocratic and political elites the consciousness that they will be unseated, if the youths are determined to do so. The youth have been disenfranchised indirectly from active political participation and pursuance of leadership positions in politics. The leaders are quite aware of the challenges constraining the youths active political participation. For Nigerian youths to have a chance to participate in political affairs, they must have the financial backbone to contest for the money politics run in Nigeria and making this opportunity affordable; they must pool resources together to oust gerontocracy.

In addition, the END SARS protest demonstrated by Nigerian youth displays a non-violent revolutionary paradigm shift that will massively infiltrate the political arena and unseat the present crop of leaders ruining the nation to take over the leadership mantle. The END SARS protest is a pilot scheme test-running the power of the Nigerian youth community.

While preparing for the 2023 election, the Nigerian youth must register their presence in the political milieu forming a political party that serves as a window of opportunity for the younger generation to contest elections. They must sensitise the public with visible and feasible manifestoes, innovative ideas and developmental goals for national advancement. Nigerian youth in the diaspora recording a level of success at the forefront of different disciplines abroad can come home and replicate the same in their country, it will facilitate a conducive atmosphere for national development.

This alone is a challenge for the Nigerian youth to wake up to their responsibilities to make their country fit and habitable for everyone. The youths in Nigeria must wake up to take over their future which has been truncated repeatedly by yesterdays leaders that have refused to hand over power to capable and energetic youth that can effectively drive the nations affairs to land safely.

`The functionality of any country is in its economy through trade and commerce. As the world is changing to a global market, the future of information technology, artificial intelligence and financial technology is beyond the mental capability of these gerontocrats who have crashed the economy of this country through many obnoxious economic policies that seem to plunge Nigeria gradually into economic depression. The future of the global market is bleak in Nigeria as long as this crop of leaders are our economic drivers. Nigerian political kleptocrats lack the understanding of taking advantage of e-commerce and financial technology favourable to the economic development of the country because this can be deduced as the reason why the Nigerian government will ban cryptocurrency trading in Nigeria irrespective of the economic value.

They do not see its prospect to the growth of the economy; rather, they see it as an avenue to stifle the Nigerian youth through their source of living. What a pathetic way to victimise the so-called leaders of tomorrow! How many of these old leaders make their money from financial technology? They do not understand the workings of this new development that has given the youth financial stability where they have failed, and placing a ban on the financial independence of the youth will keep them in subservience to the whims and caprices of these kleptocrats. The youth are subjugated consistently by unfavourable policies implemented against their source of livelihood as a way of taking away their economic independence.

It was a deliberate attempt by these selfish and power-drunk bigots to keep the youth alienated and nonchalant about politics. The prospect for improved governance is that Nigerian youth must wake up to take charge of their political destiny, infiltrate the nooks and crannies of politics and decision making in the country, and participate actively in politics which is the first step for Nigerian youth to wake up from their political slumbering and take a step further to form and register a political party with a different ideology to that of the past. Fielding credible candidates that will create an enabling environment for political and economic growth will be the game-changer in the takeover.

Original post:

2023 election: The Nigerian youth must wake up | The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News Opinion The Guardian Nigeria News Nigeria and...

You have probably heard of Steve Ross, who is the son of the famous painter Bob Ross. Steve is quite a well-known person by all of us.

During The Joy Of Painting, Bob Ross highlighted Steve multiple times, mentioning how his son makes a lot of money selling his works.

So, whats trending these days is the new Netflix investigative documentary about Bob Ross, which investigates the life and legacy of Bob Ross, focusing on the legal battle over his name and likeness.

On August 25, 2021, the documentary was released on Netflix, which sparked controversies around Bob Rosss life and career.

Steve Ross, like his father Bob Ross, is a painter and teacher. Bob Ross has a son from his first marriage. He followed in his fathers footsteps and became well-known for his artworks.

Robert Stephen Ross, better known as Steve Ross, was born in the United States on August 1, 1966. He is 55 years old now. Steve and his family always followed the religion of Christianity.

Bob Ross had married three times in his life. With his first wife, Vivian Ridge, he has a son named Robert Stephen Steve Ross.

With his parents, he grew up in the United States. Ross and Ridge later parted ways in 1977, when Ridge found out he was in a relationship with another woman.

Ross again tied a knot with a woman named Jane Zanardelli. Steve was attached to her. Ross and Jane were married from 1977 till 1992 until she died from cancer.

When Steves mother died when he was still a youngster, his father, Bob Ross, a drill sergeant in the United States Air Force, raised him as a single father throughout his adulthood.

Steve and Bob went into horrible phases after that. Their grief was channeled into art, which the two pursued as a lifelong hobby.

The name of the new Netflix documentary is Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal, and Greed.

The documentary is described as a shockingly untold story about Rosss afterlife, a sinister tale surrounding his name and the empire that was built on it being hijacked by once trusted partners, whose slow betrayal of him continued beyond his death in 1995. according to the Netflix description.

That documentary includes narration from Rosss son, Steve Ross, as well as others who worked with him throughout the course of his 31 seasons, The Joy of Painting.

Bobs family and friends repeatedly emphasize throughout the documentary, He wasnt in it for the money. They say he was just eager to share his passion for art with the people.

However, the documentary indicates that characters in the whole strange story of Bobs life had more capitalist purposes, such as the commodification of the merch owned by Bob Ross.

Annette and Walt Kowalski are unquestionably the documentarys antagonists. They were the ones who brought Bob Ross into the limelight and also became friends with him.

When Bob was married to Jane, he chose to establish his production line and expand his business. The Kowalskis were important in gaining Ross PBS contract for The Joy of Painting since they were his financial supporters.

Their friendship grew stronger when Bobs show The Joy of Painting became one of the most-watched shows. After popularity, Bob and Jane Ross, and Annette and Walt Kowalski formally signed Bob Ross, Inc. incorporation documents in Virginia.

Although all four were officially equal partners, most people knew Bob was the one who made the decisions. According to documents made public as part of Steves case, each of the four partners was making about $85,000 ($180,000 now) by the end of the 1980s.

Bob made about $120,000 ($220,000 today) throughout many successful years in the early 1990s. The venture was bringing in around a half-million dollars each year for the partners to share.

Bobs company still exists to this day, producing much of the stuff that has helped establish Rosss status as a creative and famous personality. But matters worsened over time, as the Kowalskis were driven by the desire to capitalize from Ross notoriety.

Rosss son, Steve, is the narrator in the documentary, and he appears in several interviews throughout the film. He revealed many deep secrets that Bob was hiding behind a beautiful smile.

Everyone who knew Bob can attest to the fact that he was not motivated by money. However, his newfound financial independence gave him the opportunity to live his life as he pleased.

Bobs show ended, he found new pursuits, but Annette and Walt were not pleased with his lifestyle. Things got messy when Jane Ross died of cancer in 1992, barely five years before Bob Ross died of lymphoma after a five year struggle.

Bob Ross was in deep shock when he lost his wife, and his health also started deteriorating. Janes death was the catalyst for loosening his grasp on the business that bears his name.

As it transformed into a struggle for ownership of Bobs trademarks, the Rosses and the Kowalskis began to disintegrate and eventually implode.

Bob was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma only a few weeks after the death of Jane. In 1995, Bob got married to his caretaker nurse, Lynda Brown.

Bob Ross met his third wife, Lynda, at the hospital during his last days. They stayed married until his death two months later, in July 1995, from lymphoma-related difficulties. However, the Kowalskis were not present at the funeral.

Even though the documentary claims that Steve had not profited off his fathers name, it also claims that Ross intended his son and half-brother to be in charge of his name before his death.

Steve was uninformed of the final change because of his uncle Jimmie, Bobs half-brother. The estate executor, Jimmi, had not revealed the facts, which would only come to the forefront more than 20 years later.

Several times, Bob had slammed the phone down before storming out of a room, fuming hot and shouting about how the Kowalskis intended owning his name and everything linked with him, Steve recalled.

The Kowalskis tried to persuade Ross to give over the rights to his name to them on his deathbed, as per Steve Ross. They stole the brand, his image and sold every merchandiser in the name of Bob Ross after he died.

Bobs third wife, Lynda Brown, barely two months before his death, became a significant figure in the estate and Bob Ross Inc., which is quite surprising.

According to the documentary and a 2021 article from The Daily Beast, the dispute worsened after Rosss death in 1995, when the Kowalskis filed a case against Ross.

They sued Bobs estate and his third wife in an attempt to gain absolute control of his trademarks. Both contacted Steve Ross every other day to persuade him to accept, but Steve always declined.

Steve Ross attempted to regain the Bob Ross brand. He filed a lawsuit in 2017 to gain possession of the name and likeness. He suffered a loss in 2019 when a judge determined that Bob Ross Inc. was the legitimate owner.

Steve and his companions believed they had a legitimate case on appeal, but they lacked the financial means to pursue it. Steve Ross was going into a deep melancholy by Bobs death, which almost got Steve killed.

The answer is, Yes. Steve Ross started his TV career with the final episode of the first season, which was Final Reflection, in which he was helping his father by reading questions from the viewers and Bob Ross, his father, was answering all of them.

In total, Steve Ross was featured in 13 episodes of his fathers show The Joy of Painting. He also painted 12 original paintings for the show in addition to his appearance in the Question and Answer segment of the show.

Did you know Bob Ross son Steve Ross does not have curly hair like his father had? Well, Bobs signature hairstyle was unique in a way, and there is a reason behind it.

Many things were passed down to Steve Ross from his father, such as his love for art and nature, including his calm voice. Although their hair could be the only thing that distinguishes them, otherwise, everything is quite similar.

The Son of Bob Ross, a PBS television legend, had a mullet hairstyle with umber curls when he first appeared on the show. And if we talk about Bobs hairstyle, Steves father had something to do with saving money.

Bob Ross, the legend, was famous for his signature red perm. He started a new career as a painter and instructor in the early 1980s after serving 20 years in the United States Air Force.

Ross chose to get his hair permed to save money on haircuts as a tactic for savings, cutting the cost of a haircut. Hadnt it been for a developing brand in need of products, that ingenious if unconventional, the cost-saving method would have failed to remain popular.

On the other hand, Ross was not nave and embraced the afro because he, likewise, understood it was good for business. He will have his signature bushy hairstyle for the rest of his life.

Bob Rosss gorgeous crown of hair was so in sync with his calm demeanor that it almost appeared too lovely to be genuine, which he was.

As he was soft-spoken by nature, he had a really therapeutic feel about him. He was meticulous, considerate, and well-organized. He had a lovely personality which made him different from his son.

Steve Ross has kept silent about his life and disappeared from the public view since he lost his father, Bob Ross. On the other hand, Bob Ross had a net worth of $10 million before he died.

Read more from the original source:

Steve Ross How The Son Of Bob Rosss Followed His Footsteps And Is Known For His Artwork - Vizaca.com

Image source: Getty Images

Making use of a TFSA can greatly accelerate your way to financial independence. As its name suggests, all of the gains you make in a TFSA are tax-free. That means if a stock goes from $10 to $100, you wont have to worry about the CRA taking a slice out of your returns. However, its important to note than none of the losses you incur are eligible to be claimed as capital losses. Therefore, investors need to be very careful about which stocks they hold in a TFSA. Here are three top stocks to hold in a TFSA.

When looking for stocks to hold in a TFSA, Shopify (TSX:SHOP)(NYSE:SHOP) is always going to be a good place to start. The company has gone from being a small startup in Ottawa to a global facilitator within the rapidly emerging e-commerce industry. Shopify provides merchants of all sizes with a platform and all the tools necessary to operate online stores. Because of its ease-of-use and modular structure, everyone from a first-time entrepreneur to large-cap companies like Netflix are listed as Shopify customers.

Among the companies listed on the TSX, very few have been able to keep up with Shopify in terms of growth. In the 2020 edition of the TSX30, Shopify ranked in first place with a 1,043% gain from 2017 to 2020. Shopify stocks performance over that period was so impressive that its gains were nearly equal to the summed total of the next three companies combined! The global e-commerce industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.7% from 2020 to 2027. With a massive addressable market, expect Shopify to continue growing alongside it.

As mentioned earlier, the e-commerce industry is a fascinating space to invest in today. There is so much opportunity to take advantage of in that market. In fact, investors should look at more companies than just those that provide online store building services. More specifically, investors should consider payment-processing companies. Often, these companies charge a fee for every transaction processed. Therefore, companies like Nuvei (TSX:NVEI) that help merchants process transactions should see massive growth over the next decade.

Since its IPO in September 2020, Nuvei stock has performed exceptionally, gaining about 240%. In its latest earnings presentation, Nuvei reported that its Q2 revenue had increased by 114% year over year. Investors were very pleased with those numbers and pushed the stock up more than 15% the following day. Currently, Nuvei is valued at a market cap of $22.3 billion. This makes it a much smaller company than other payment processors like PayPal. However, it also suggests that Nuvei has a lot more room to grow.

Finally, investors should consider an investment in Topicus.com (TSXV:TOI). For those that are unfamiliar, Topicus was a subsidiary of Constellation Software until its IPO in February 2021. Despite the fact that Topicus now operates separately from Constellation Software, the two companies are still closely tied. Six members of Topicuss board of directors are executives from Constellation Software. This provides Topicus with an excellent opportunity to continue learning from its former parent company.

Since becoming its own entity, Topicus stock has gained 110%. Despite those gains, Topicus is still only valued at a market cap of $5.3 billion. For comparison, Constellation Software has a market cap of more than $46 billion. If Topicus can reach a similar market cap in a decades time, investors will have seen massive returns.

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3 Top Stocks to Hold in a TFSA - The Motley Fool Canada

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We live in such a remarkable time. Its never been easier in history to make enough money to live a life you love.

People even 20 years ago would be so jealous of the opportunities we have today to live the life we want. We can work anywhere. Travel the world for less. This is at the core of the FIRE (financial independence retire early) movement.

And there are so many incredible blueprints for living a non-traditional life where youre stuck in a cubicle all day doing work you hate.

Theres a growing movement of people choosing to live life on their own terms. And Im part of it. Were the FIRE movement.

It truly can change your life. FIRE definitely changed mine. But when I started my own financial independence journey in 2010, there wasnt a movement yet.

We were a relatively small group of people all over the world using money as a tool to create more freedom in our lives. We figured out that the higher your savings rate the faster you can retire early.

Between 2010 and 2015 I launched a bunch of side hustles, saved upwards of 82% of my income and invested my money so it could grow.

This helped me reach financial independence and retire at the age of 30. I wrote an entire book about my journey and a step-by-step blueprint that anyone can follow titled Financial Freedom: A Proven Path to All The Money You Will Ever Need(Penguin Random House).

FI stands for financial independence.

While there are many definitions of financial independence, a simple way to sum it up, is you have reached financial independence when you are free from the worry of money.

For some people, this happens when theyd gotten out of debt and for others its the moment when you no longer have to work for money.

RE stands for retire early.

As surprising as it may seem, there are also many definitions of early retirement.

For some, it means the moment when you check out and never work again for the rest of your life (aka old school retirement).

But for others retiring early simply means theyve gotten to the point where they no longer have to work, but they might keep working, or switch to a job that they are more passionate about.

When you put FI and RE together you get FIRE.

But FIRE is more than just about money or personal finance optimization, its more about life optimization. The central question is What makes you happy? and aligning your spending and saving, and financial life around maximizing your happiness.

With that goal in mind, the FIRE movement also integrates psychology and philosophical concepts from other movements like Stoicism and even Buddhism.

Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) is ultimately a personal journey.

There are also many facets of FIRE that have spring up over the years:

New pockets of the FIRE movement seem to be popping up every day.

As you can see what FIRE means is ultimately up to you. Thats the beauty of it you truly can create your own path.

While the origins of the movement are hotly debated and evidently the term FIRE was first coined in an old Motley Fool forum sometime in the early 90s, the FIRE movement largely began in 1992 with the publication of one of my all-time favorite books, Your Money or Your Lifeby Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.

In the book, they outline a simple yet transcendent idea: that whenever youre working your actually trading your life energy for money. So whenever you buy something you should think about it in terms of hours of your life since you can always go out and make more money, but you can never get back your time.

To explore the 9 Steps in Your Money or Your Life check out the Free 5 Day Your Money or Your Life Email Course.

When I read Your Money or Your Life in August 2010 it completely changed my life. Over the past few years, Ive had the opportunity to become close friends with the co-author Vicki Robin and she graciously wrote the foreword to my book.

I feel so grateful to be able to work closely with Vicki to help make financial independence available to everyone.

But back 8 years ago when I started my own financial independence and early retirement journey, there were very few people on the FIRE path. In fact, I only knew of a handful of what are now known as FIRE bloggers.

Today there are thousands of bloggers documenting their financial independence journeys, an incredibly active financial independence subreddit, hundreds of podcasts, and even a documentary about the FIRE movement that Im in called Playing with FIRE that will be released soon and includes others members of the financial independence retire early community.

Im so stoked about it. Check out a preview of the documentary below.

Also, any good movement needs a folk song and there wasnt one about the FIRE movement so I wrote one. Heres me playing my FIRE movement folk song.

For anyone interested in the FIRE Movement, heres how it works.

Its simple in theory (which is why I could sum it up in a 90-second song) but is a little more challenging in execution.

To make it as simple as possible, here are the 9 steps to reach FIRE (financial independence retire early).

The biggest problem with mainstream personal finance and money advice is its all about the money!

But whats more important than money is life. You can always go out and make more money, but you can never get back your time. So before you even start thinking about the money, first think about what kind of life you want to live. Seriously, write it down.

What does the perfect day look like? Why is it perfect? What are the 10 things that make you happiest?

When I did this exercise I quickly realized that most of the things I enjoy most in life are actually pretty inexpensive or even free. It doesnt cost any money to walk my dog in a park on a Saturday, play guitar with my friends, or board games with my wife.

Once I started thinking in terms of the life I wanted to live and what I enjoyed most, it became easier to prioritize where to spend my money and where to save.

At the end of the day money only matters if you live a life you love. Ive always believed that money is not the goal, time is. But you need to think about what kind of life you want to live what is important to you?

Its always easier in life to chase that next thing whether its the next job promotion, raise, or save 1 million dollars.

Whats harder to do is take the time to figure out what actually makes you happy and what kind of life you want to live. But once you look within instead of just outside, the easier it will be to plan for financial freedom.

The next step is to figure out how much money you need to live that life awesome life! I remember being in college and dreaming about driving a Maserati and living in a big lake house, but now when I see a Maserati driving down the road I dont see $200,000, I see $1,200,000 in 30 years!

In 2010 when I started my financial independence journey, I didnt set a goal for how long it would take. All I knew was that when I did the math I was never going to be able to retire if I was only able to save 5-10% of a $40,000 $50,000 income.

The math I did was pretty simple. If I was able to save $5,000 per year maximum, even with an expected compounding rate of 6%, I would have about $433,000 in 30 years. While that might seem like a lot of money today,its not going to be that much in 30 years, because of two expected variablestaxes and inflation.

You will need to pay tax on that money when you take it out, assuming a 30% tax rate that cuts the after-tax value to $308,000, which when adjusted for 2% annual conservative inflation amount (it could be higher than this even!), then the future value of that money after taxes and inflation is approximately $170,000.

While $170,000 is still a lot of money, its not going to be in 30 years. It definitely wont be enough to live on for 20+ years.

Typical wisdom is that you need 25x your annual expenses to retire early. When I did this calculation, I anticipated my annual expenses would be at least $50,000 in the future (who knows if I will actually be able to live off $50,000 in the futureI sure hope so!).

But it was the best starting point I had, so by simply multiplying 25x by $50,000, I determined that I would need to save $1,250,000. Thats a big number, but it was my target.

You can sit down with a piece of paper and see how much money you need to retire early by checking this calculator I built.

Saving is an opportunity to live a life you love. Its not a sacrifice. As long as you view it as a sacrifice youre always going be in a scarcity mindset.

The only way that youll be able to reach financial freedom and FIRE is by saving as much money as you can and investing it to grow.

Remember what I said about living differently? A 50% saving/investing rate is more common than you would think amongst the FIRE (financial independence early retirement) crowd. I know a lot of people that save this much each month because they get it.

Saving 50%+ of your income is definitely going against the status quo, but thats how you fast track wealth. If you want to go deeper, here are two posts onhow much money you should be saving and my investing strategy.

The easiest way to monitor how much money youre saving is by tracking whats known as your savings rate. Your savings rate is simply the percentage of your income(s) that you are saving.

To calculate your savings rate, you want to add up all of the dollars that you save, both in pretax accounts (for example, 401(k)s and IRAs) and after-tax accounts (brokerage) and divide it by your income.

Here is an example of how it looks if you have a $100,000 income and are saving 40 percent.

Its pretty simple. The more money you can save the faster, and bigger, it can grow. The average savings rate in the United States is currently around 3.2%, which based on simple math means that a majority of Americans will never be able to retire.

But if you can get that savings rate to 20%, 30%, or even 50% youll be able to cut years and even decades off of your retirement.

Keeping a budget is really hard and its what stops most people from really fast tracking their financial independence.

Im not going to tell you to create a budget or cut back on all of your expenses. What you need is to balance how much you spend. Ive always viewed saving as an opportunity, not a sacrifice.

But you do need to find a way to reduce how much you are spending so you can increase how much you save.

The easiest way to do it is by cutting back on your housing, transportation, and food costs. The average American spends 70% of their money on housing, transportation, and food, so if you can spend less on them (say 25% or so, then you can bank the difference). If you move to a smaller apartment, walk to work, and cook at home, you could realistically increase your savings rate to 25%+ or even higher.

By reducing what I spent on my housing, transportation, and food costs, I increased my savings rate to 40% and sometimes as high as 80% while I was fast tracking my financial independence. The only way I was able to fast track was by cutting way back on my living expenses and investing the difference.

Focus on where you spend the most money to save the most money. Cut back your housing expense as much as you can through a strategy known as house hacking where you rent or buy a 3 or 4 bedroom apartment or house and rent out the other room. Youre going to save a lot more money doing that than by cutting out things like your $5 latte.

Im not here to tell you what to buy or not to buy, but its important to recognize that whenever you buy anything youre actually trading your future freedom for it.

At the end of the day it comes down to a personal choice, but I was happy moving to a smaller apartment, moving closer to my office, and eating out less, to bank the difference. And I definitely was able to bank the differencesaving at least an additional $13,000 per year by cutting back.

While I dont have the exact figures, I estimate that cutting back for 2 years, before buying my first home, I was able to save about $25,000 that I invested in 2011 and 2012, and that cutting back is now worth more than $100,000 in my investment accounts. Im going to continue to let it grow and hopefully making that decision 2 years ago will compound in 20 years into a lot more money. It was totally worth cutting back on my three biggest expenses. Try it out.

When I was on my own financial independence journey I calculated that for every $100 I saved I was buying a week of freedom in the future.

Not all debt is created equal. There is good debt vs bad debt. Some debt you lose money on and some debt you can make money with.

Good debt is debt like mortgage debt you use for investing in real estate or building a real estate empire or in some cases student loan debt if it helps you get a better job or make more money over your career.

Bad debt is credit card debt since the interest rate on it is probably over 20%. Pay down any credit card debt you have immediately since you are losing money with it.

While there are a bunch of different debt payoff strategies, the best strategy is simply to pay down your debt with the highest interest rate first, which in most cases is going to be credit card debt, then any personal loans, followed by student loans, and then mortgages.

The simple rationale is that compounding works both ways, meaning that just like your investments can grow and compound over time, so can your debt.

So whenever youre paying off a debt you want to pay down your highest interest rate debt because its like getting that percentage return on your money.

If you pay off your 20% interest rate credit card its like you made 20% because your debt is no longer growing, as opposed to paying down your student loan balance with a 5% interest rate where youd only be getting 5% on your money.

Since your full-time job is where youre likely currently making the most money, its important to try and get paid as much as possible.

The simple fact is that most people deserve a raise, but theyre too afraid to ask for one. The impact of a single raise of a few thousands of dollars can actually add up to tons of additional money over time.

Just getting 1 percent bigger raises each year can make you literally hundreds of thousands of dollars richer over the next twenty to thirty years by investing and compounding that small raise difference.

A simple study that looked at an annual 3 percent versus a 4 percent raise each year showed that after thirty years the 4 percent raise was worth $578,549 more when that small 1 percent difference was invested in the stock market.

This is because your future earning potential is impacted by your base salary today. Most people are underpaid in their roles, but many dont do anything about it.

Eighty-nine percent of Americans believe they deserve a raise, but only 54 percent plan to ask for one in the next year.

We typically spend more time planning for a vacation than working to improve and optimize our careers, which is a missed opportunity.

In reality, most of the jobs that will exist in 20 years havent even been created yet, so while traditional advice is that you should become an expert in one thing, its actually more valuable to have a broad range of complementary skill sets.

For example, if you know how to use Google Analytics, you should also learn about branding and how to start a blog.

A side hustle is anything you do to make money outside of your full-time job.

While you can make money doing literally anything, the best side hustles are the ones where you can make money doing something you actually enjoy and where you can control what youre getting paid and when you work.

Far too many people drive for Lyft or Uber and are limited by the hours in a day they have to drive and what they get paid because the rates are set by the company, not the drivers.

While there is an infinite number of side hustles that you can launch, I like the side hustles that you can do online because they give you the ultimate flexibility to make money from anywhere in the world and on your own time.

Some of the best current side hustles are learning how to become a virtual assistant, start a blog using Bluehost (check out how to make money blogging), and running Facebook ads.

Its essential to switch from a saving to an investing mindset. Its not possible to fast track financial independence by keeping your money in a savings accountinvesting is an essential ingredient.

I have made more money through investing than anything else and most of it in my sleep! Just recently, I was looking at my investing returns over a 90 day period and realized that I had made over $15,000 in gains from one of my investments, which is more money than I made in 6 months working at my first job after college. If you really want to make money, then you need to be investing as much money as you can.

Investing your money is what really accelerates your ability to reach financial freedom faster because your money starts making money and then the growth accelerates.

While you can invest in literally anything, the most dependable investments are stocks, bonds, and real estate. You need a short term investing strategy (money youre going to need in the next 5 years) and long term investing strategy (for the money youre going to need in 10+ years).

Note: Its always worth keeping at least 6 months of expenses saved in high-interest online savings account for any unexpected emergencies in whats known as an emergency fund.

Your short term investments should be kept in a high interest online savings account and your long term investments for retirement should be largely kept in low cost highly diversified index funds like the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX) or something similar that holds most of the stocks in the U.S. stock market.

You can invest in a total stock market or S&P 500 index fund in most employee retirement plans like a 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b), as well as individual retirement accounts like a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, SEP IRA, and Solo 401(k). While I personally invest in a few individual stocks, I largely recommend that you avoid investing in individual stocks unless its with less than 10% of your total net worth.

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The FIRE Movement | Financial Independence Retire Early

Movement whose goal is financial independence and retiring early

The FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement is a lifestyle movement with the goal of gaining financial independence and retiring early. The model became particularly popular among millennials in the 2010s, gaining traction through online communities via information shared in blogs, podcasts, and online discussion forums.[1][2][3][4][5]

Those seeking to attain FIRE intentionally maximize their savings rate by finding ways to increase income and/or decrease expenses, along with aggressive investments that again increases their wealth and/or income. The objective is to accumulate assets until the resulting passive income provides enough money for living expenses throughout one's retirement years. Many proponents of the FIRE movement suggest the 4% rule as a rough withdrawal guideline, thus setting a goal of at least 25 times one's estimated annual living expenses. Upon reaching financial independence, paid work becomes optional, allowing for retirement from traditional work decades earlier than the standard retirement age.

FIRE is achieved through aggressive saving, far more than the standard 1015% typically recommended by financial planners.[6] Assuming expenses are equal to income minus savings, and neglecting investment returns, observe that:

From this example, it can be concluded that the time to retirement decreases significantly as savings rate is increased. For this reason, those pursuing FIRE attempt to save 50% or more of their income.[7] At a 75% savings rate, it would take less than 10 years of work to accumulate 25 times the average annual living expenses suggested by 'the 4% safe withdrawal' rule.

There are also two sides to the spectrum of FIRE. Lean FIRE refers to the ability to retire early on a smaller accumulation of retirement income and limited living expenses which will require a frugal lifestyle during retirement. On the other end of this is Fat FIRE, which refers to the ability to retire early due to a large amount of accumulated wealth and passive income with no concerns about living expenses during retirement. A hybrid of these two is known as Barista FIRE, which refers to a semi-retired lifestyle of working part-time for some supplemental income, or retiring fully but with a partner who continues to work.

FIRE is viewed as a lifestyle, not simply an investment strategy. A common thread that challenges individuals that subscribe to the FIRE lifestyle is finding partners that share the same fiscal goals. Availability of online resources help the movement to expand among Millennial high-net-worth individuals.[8][9][10]

The main ideas behind the FIRE movement originate from the 1992 best-selling book Your Money or Your Life written by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez,[11][12] as well as the 2010 book Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker.[13] These works provide the basic template of combining a lifestyle of simple living with income from investments to achieve financial independence. In particular, the latter book describes the relationship between savings rate and time to retirement, which allows individuals to quickly project their retirement date given an assumed level of income and expenses.

The Mr. Money Mustache blog, which started in 2011, is an influential voice that generated interest in the idea of achieving early retirement through frugality and helped popularize the FIRE movement.[14][15] Other books, blogs, and podcasts continue to refine and promote the FIRE concept.[16][17][18] A Notable contributor to this movement includes Financial Freedom author Grant Sabatier, who works closely with Vicki Robin and popularized the idea of side hustling as a path to accelerate financial independence.[19][20][21] In 2018, the FIRE movement received significant coverage by traditional mainstream media outlets.[7][11][12][14] According to a survey conducted by the Harris Poll later that year, 11% of wealthier Americans aged 45 and older have heard of the FIRE movement by name while another 26% are aware of the concept.[22]

2020 saw the introduction of dating sites and blogs dedicated to bringing partners that share the FIRE lifestyle together.[23]

Some critics allege that the FIRE movement "is only for the rich",[24] pointing to the difficulties of achieving the high savings rates needed for FIRE on a low income.[14] Another common criticism is that the FIRE movement is composed only of white "tech bros", a notion that highlights the fact that men are overrepresented in media coverage of the FIRE movement.[25] A New York Times story focused on the women and women of color in the FIRE movement. It highlighted Kiersten Saunders and called Tanja Hester, author of the book Work Optional, "the matriarch of the FIRE women."[26] Paula Pant, host of the Afford Anything podcast, and Jamila Souffrant, host of the Journey to Launch podcast, are also prominent women of color in the FIRE movement.[27][28] Finally, some argue that early retirees are not saving enough for early retirement and the many unknowns that come with a longer time period. Because the retirement phase of FIRE could potentially last 70 years, critics say that it is inappropriate to apply the 4% rule, which was developed for a traditional retirement timeframe of 30 years.[7] For that reason, Hester and economist Karsten Jeske argue for a safer withdrawal rate of 3.5% or less, which means saving 30-40 times one's annual spending instead of 25 times if the goal is to retire completely and never earn money again.[29]

The rest is here:

FIRE movement - Wikipedia

Noah Solomon and Larry Hite

By Noah Solomon

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Last month, I had the privilege of meeting legendary investor Larry Hite.

Larry was born into a lower middle-class family, had a major learning disability, did poorly in school, and was completely blind in one eye and half blind in the other. In his own words, I was not handsome. I was not athletic. Whatever I did, I sucked at it badly.

In 1981, after dabbling as a music promoter, actor, and screenwriter, Hite founded Mint Investments. Mint was a true pioneer, eschewing human judgment and instead basing its investment decisions on a purely systematic, rules-based approach rooted in statistical analysis.

By 1988, Mint registered average annual compounded returns of over 30%. In its best year, Mint registered a gain of 60% (1987, the year of the stock market crash), and in its worst year, it produced a gain of 13%. By 1990, Mint was the biggest hedge fund in the world, with a record-breaking $1 billion under management.

When it awarded Larry the Lifetime Achievement Award, Hedge Fund Magazine wrote:

Larry Hite has dedicated the last 30 years of his life to the pursuit of robust statistical programs and systems capable of generating consistent, attractive risk/reward relationships across a broad spectrum of markets and environments and has inspired a generation of commodity trading advisers and systematic hedge fund managers.

Although Hite began his investing career in the early 1980s, his philosophy of markets and approach to investing are remarkably similar to our own, which are summarized below.

Failure: A Foundation for Success

Hite maintains that his early failures were instrumental in his eventual success. He believes that accepting that failure is sometimes inevitable led him to develop an investment strategy that would limit losses.

In his book, The Rule, he wrote:

I believe the success Ive had arrived because I always expected to fail big. Solution? I engineered my actions so that a failure could not kill me. I won because I expected to lose. Failure became my advantage. Once you understand your potential for failure that is, there are times you cant win you know when to fold your cards and move on to the next. You will do this more quickly than others who stay in the game too long, hanging on and hoping that their losing bet will turn around.

Its not all about Being Right

Many investors focus on being right as much as possible on maximizing their ratio of winning vs. losing investments. On its face, this seems like a good idea all else being equal, if you win more than 50% of the time, then over time you will make money.

Hite takes a different approach. Whereas he has no issue with trying to be right as often as possible, he is far more focused on maximizing the average magnitude of his winning positions relative to that of his unsuccessful ones, asserting that:

Becoming wealthy and successful isnt simply about being right all the time. Its about how much you win when you are right as well as how much you lose when you are wrong. The Mint trading system did not prioritize being right all the time. We prioritized not losing a lot when we lost but winning big when we won. But as a result, we were frequently wrong. We understood and expected this and taught our clients the wisdom too.

Risk: A No Fooling Around game

Hite places a greater emphasis on risk management than on generating profits, claiming that mistakes regarding risk can lead to catastrophic results.He assertsthat,Risk is a no fooling around game; it does not allow for mistakes. If you do not manage the risk, eventually it will carry you out.

His approach to investing clearly reflects his respect for risk. Specifically, Hite divulges that We approach markets backwards. The first thing we ask is not what we can make, but how much we can lose. We play a defensive game.

One of my favorite anecdotes regarding risk is Hites reflection on a conversation he had with one of the worlds largest coffee traders, who asked, Larry, how can you know more about coffee than me? I am the largest trader in the world. I know where the boats are; I know the ministers. Larry responded, You are right. I dont know anything about coffee. In fact, I dont even drink it. The coffee mogul then inquired, How do you trade it then?, to which Larry answered, I just look at the risk.

Five years later, Larry heard that this magnate lost $100 million in the coffee market. Upon reflection, Hite states, You know something? He does know more about coffee than I do. But the point is, he didnt look at the risk.

Market Predictions, Storytelling, & Good Copywriters

Larry is skeptical that anyone can predict markets.Hein no way bases his approach to investing on making predictions, which he believes is an exercise in futility. In his own words:

I respect the sheer intelligence and devotion of economists who have attempted to develop a unifying theory of market dynamics. But I dont believe any such theory will hold up to scrutiny in the real world of money on the line. When you start believing you have remarkable market predicting powers, you get into trouble every single time.

Hite is also critical of Wall Street research reports, claiming that they possess little investment value and are designed to exploit peoples natural tendencies to listen to entertaining narratives, stating:

Stories began at the dawn of human society to entertain and instruct the next generation. We are wired to learn from well told stories. And unfortunately, Wall Street preys off our basic human weakness to want stories.

In his typically blunt and straightforward manner, he adds, When you start following slick reports filled with predictions, youre just finding out who has good copywriters.

A Computer cant get up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning

Larry was a pioneer in his exclusive reliance on a data-driven, systematic approach, using statistical analysis of historical data to develop trading rules, which are the basis of his investment decisions. When he launched Mint Investments in 1981, his goal was to create a scientific trading system that would remove human emotion from buying and selling decisions and rely instead on a purely statistical approach built on pre-set rules. Continue Reading

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Financial Independence Hub | Personal Finance, Stocks ...

Poornima Iyer, Executive Director,Om Apex Investment Services

Jay was a young man,who had recently opened his first Cafe.His wife had recently quit working after conceiving their first child.Just when everything seemed perfect to him,a pandemic called COVID struck and caused havoc in his happy land.Suddenly business plunged to an all time low. There were hardly any orders or customers rather - otherwise full of life place, something that was totally un-thought off.The income became almost nil, but the liabilities didnt. He still had to pay rent, EMI on the loan he took to set up the caf, etc.Having no savings or second source of income worsened the situation, but his father came up to his rescue and helped Jay pay the liabilities and get through the tough year. In the past year many people have been in place of Jay but werent as fortunate as him to have someone help them.The pandemic has truly brought forth the need to be financially independent.

Financial independence can be defined as the status of having enough income to pay one's living expenses for the rest of one's life without having to be employed or dependent on others.But in reality,it might mean different things to different people with the common foundation that its a state where one can afford at least basic needed necessities without being dependent on someone under all weathers of life.Its a phase where the money you have worked to accumulate,works for you to generate an annuity each month.But why is it important? many may ask.The reasons are innumerable, some of which include:

The earlier generation used to have the village system which gave a sense of financial and emotional security and each one would help the other in case of need,this system crumbled and then the joint family system crumbled.Now with single families being the trend each one has to fend for himself,and this is leading to imbalance both in financial as well as the Emotional and Social Systems.Stability which was the base is now gone,hence the need for Early Financial Planning to meet the basic as well as aspirational needs of each and every one needs to be planned early with goal setting.

Today loan is available literally for everything -personal /vehicle/ travel loan,etc but there is no loan available for life post retirement.Life expectancy is increasing,while the productive earning period of a person's life has gone down considerably.The new norm is retire by the age of 50 and live up-to the age of 90.Also,unlike before life starts at 50 and expenses have escalated in the form of vacations, fulfilling one's aspirations/hobbies and medical expenses follow.You need enough savings for a comfortable post retirement phase.

It is often seen that a person who is financially secure works more efficiently,grows faster and excels in career and lives happier and stress free because then the motivation to work doesnt come from a place of necessity but by choice.

Financial independence can be achieved by following good financial habits and properly planning and investing.The right age to start financial planning is when you give pocket money to your child,when today's world is all about instant gratification,we need to teach them that delaying gratification leads them to enjoy the anticipation of greater reward while working and waiting for it. It helps to bring about dedication,self control and self- discipline at an earlier age thus making them better human beings and prudent financial Investors.As the saying goes - Early to invest, best to harvest.

Starting early allows investors to garner the benefit of compounding returns, the time value of money increases over a period of time and with a small amount of money you could create a big corpus.Patience, discipline and dedication to stand by your goals are the virtues needed along with an earlier start to create wealth and achieve true happy and secure independence that doesnt get eroded by any unprecedented event like a pandemic.

You have celebrated the countrys independence so many times, but when are you going to celebrate the day marking the start of your financially independent future?

Views are personal:The author is Poornima Iyer, Executive Director,Om Apex Investment Services Pvt. Ltd

Disclaimer: The views expressed are of the author and are personal. TAML may or may not subscribe to the same.The views expressed in this article / video are in no way trying to predict the markets or to time them.The views expressed are for information purpose only and do not construe to be any investment, legal or taxation advice.Any action taken by you on the basis of the information contained herein is your responsibility alone and Tata Asset Management will not be liable in any manner for the consequences of such action taken by you.

Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully

Disclaimer: Content Produced by Tata Asset Management

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Importance of Financial Independence in Today's World - Economic Times

What is financial independence?

Financial independence is having enough wealth such that you no longer have to work for money. You become financially independent when your wealth's assets produce enough income to cover your expenses.

For example: If you have $500,000 in assets and your assets produce $20,000 per year (4% of your total assets value) and your expenses for the year are $20,000 or less, then congratulations, you are now financially independent. Your assets are producing more income than you spend in a year.

Everyone has a different financial independence number. Some people want to have a more lavish retirement and therefore will need to save more money. Some people want to retire as soon as possible and are more willing to cut back some expenses. The key to financial independence is how much money you spend. The more you spend, the more you will need to save. The less you spend, the less you will need to save.

You need to save at least 25 times your annual spending.

Why? In 1998, three professors at Trinity University released what is now called the Trinity study. The study looked at a number of different stock/bond mixes of portfolios and their withdrawal rates from 1925 to 1995 in periods of 15 to 30 years. The study concluded that if you withdrew no more than 3-4% of your investment portfolio every year, then it would be extremely unlikely that your portfolio would run out of money. Thus, from this study, 4% became known as the safe withdrawal rate.

Therefore, withdrawing 4% of your investment portfolio every year should cover your annual expenses. Since this is 1/25 of your portfolio, then as a general rule, your portfolio must be at least 25 times your annual spending in order to retire.

Some people might be more conservative and go with a 3% withdrawal rate. That decision is up to you. However, keep in mind that the Trinity study did not assume the following:

With some of these assumptions in place, we do not have to be so conservative with our safe withdrawal rate and can use the standard 4% safe withdrawal rate.

An important factor to financial independence is your savings rate, which is how much of your income you can save. The more you save, the quicker you will reach financial independence. Take a look at Mr. Money Mustache's article on The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement. Assuming a net worth of zero, if you save 50% of your income, you can retire in 17 years. If you save 75%, you can retire in 7 years. If you can save 85%, you can retire in 4 years.

Before we get started, we're going to assume a simple scenario: you don't have an emergency fund, you have some sort of debt (credit card, student loans, house, etc.) and you have no investment accounts.

Your first step should be to track every single dollar you are spending and earning. It will be very difficult to get a good grasp on your finances without knowing exactly what your accounts look like now and where your money is going. If you are looking for an automated approach, Mint.com is an excellent website to link to all of your accounts and pull your financial data automatically. However, I highly recommend using YNAB (You Need a Budget), which will require manual entry of every transaction in your accounts. Alternatively, you can manage this manual process with custom spreadsheets. I recommend doing this process manually (YNAB/spreadsheets) over automatically (Mint.com) as you will know where every dollar is going instead of being merely told where it went after the fact.

Once you are tracking every dollar, you should be able to easily spot where your money is leaking into unnecessary expenses. You should next create a budget, starting with a list of your essential expenses: housing, utilities, food, etc. Then starting listing your non-essential expenses: hobbies, alcohol, vacations, etc. Then you need to set aside a set dollar amount for each of these expenses, essential and non-essential, and try to not go over that monthly alloted amount.

Your objective is that you want to reduce your expenses such that your monthly income is greater than your monthly expenses. You will then take this left over money (income minus expenses) and place it into your soon-to-be created emergency fund, debts, investment accounts, etc. It is very important that you try to stick to your budget and to reduce and remove any expenses that are not necessary, at least temporarily until you are out of debt, if not permanemently (if you wish to achieve financial independence sooner).

An emergency fund is an important initial step to take. With your budget in hand, you should now know exactly how much your monthly expenses are. Now you need to save your excess monthly money (income minus expenses) into an emergency fund account. This account should be a cash account at your local bank or an online bank. The importance is that the emergency fund should be easily and quickly accessible during an emergency. Do not worry about trying to earn much interest on an emergency fund account. Think of it as a self-insurance against future unexpected expenses from emergency situations, such as non-regular car repairs or an emergency veterinary visit.

Start by saving up enough money to cover one month's worth of your budgeted expenses. With this money set aside, if something comes up in the near future, then you won't have to worry about adding more debt to your credit cards due to an unexpeceted emergency. Instead, you pay for that emergency with your saved cash on hand and then re-build your emergency fund for the next inevitable emergency down the road.

Once most of your debts have been paid off, you can expand your emergency fund to the typical recommended 3-6 months worth of expenses. The number of months to save is ultimately up to you and how risk averse you are. Some people save up to a year's worth of expenses (meaning they could possibly go without a job for up to a year!). I would not recommend more than a year's worth of cash in an emergency fund, as you will eventually be placing your excess saved money into an investment account, which is absolutely necessary to become financially independent.

This page is maintained by Bryan Denny. I am a software developer who is trying to achieve financial independence. I created this page as a starting point for others who are interested in doing the same thing.

This page is for informational purposes only. I am not a financial professional. See a professional for financial advice. I am not responsible for your decisions. Please take some time before you make any financial decisions.

This page is still under development. Have a suggested change? Make a pull request on GitHub!

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Financial Independence, Retire Early