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Today we have Canadian author and speaker Fred Masters on the show. Fred has been a professional financial educator for decades here in Canada. He speaks at different universities to students and alumni, teaching financial wellness. In this episode, he’s going to share his findings on:
- What he’s found to be the main problem areas that tend to prevent us Canadians from reaching financial independence years earlier.
- What type of investing he has found to be the most effective in helping us achieve early retirement as quickly as possible here in Canada.
Fred is also the author of the book “Lessons on Mastering Money” where he identifies six key pillars that can really move the needle for us, when it comes to our finances. We cover those, and much more in the interview. Enjoy! (questions covered can be found at the bottom)
Resources Mentioned:
- Fred’s book and website: mastersmoneymanagement.ca
- You can get a free Passiv account at this link.
- Instructions on how to get the free PREMIUM account from Passiv is here.
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Passiv:
You can get your free Passiv account here.
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Questions Covered:
- Fred, when it comes to Canadians reaching their financial independence number, what have you found in your research to be the main problem areas that prevent them from getting there as quickly as possible?
- When it comes to investing to achieve an early retirement here in Canada, what type of investing have you found to be the most effective? (i.e. active vs index investing vs a hybrid approach)
- In all your years of teaching and speaking about personal finance throughout your career, I’m sure you’ve noticed certain patterns between those that struggle with money, and those that have really mastered this area of life. What are some of the best practices that you’ve noticed from those that have “made it” in terms of becoming financially independent and being able to retire early if they choose to do so.
- Whether somebody is in the process of building up their investment portfolio, or looking to start living off their portfolio, I found that managing your month-to-month cashflows is a critical skill that you have to keep practising no matter what level of wealth you are at (since one can always overspend). Do you have a process that you use or that you recommend to others to ensure that we have enough money month-to-month to continuously contribute to our portfolios? And for those that have already hit financial independence, how do you suggest they manage their cashflows so that they don’t run out of money in retirement?
- There are six different personal finance pillars that you focus on in your book. Are there any that we haven’t touched on yet that you think can really move the needle when it comes to maximizing net worth, here in Canada?
- It’s been a very interesting road when it comes to holding bonds in our portfolio. The traditional advice has been to hold a bond ETF as part of our portfolio to help with the volatility that comes from the stocks. Yet, for us Canadian investors, we experienced double digit bond declines not too long ago during these interest rate hikes. On the flip side, when the interest rates were low, we saw some high interest savings accounts in Canada offer comparable rates to what bonds were giving, without the added risk. For those Canadians who don’t want to be 100% equity investors, what are your views on where they should park their money for that “safer/less-volatile” portion of their portfolio?
- Can you tell us more about your book and where can we see more of your work and insights?
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