Jun 15: Best from the blogosphere

June 15, 2015

By Sheryl Smolkin

This week we have a mixed bag of offerings from some of our favour bloggers and media pundits. First of all, Boomer & Echo’s Robb Engen discusses Why Multiple Income Streams Is A Better Emergency Fund For Millennials.

Engen says that instead of having 3-6 months worth of expenses sitting in a savings account for an emergency fund, a better way for Millennials to combat the threat of job loss – or job uncertainty – is to build up multiple income streams outside of their traditional day jobs.

There are plenty of articles that focus on things women need to know about life after work. But in a role reversal, on Retire Happy Donna McCaw writes about Issues that Men Face in Retirement. Her interviews with a number of men about their experiences with retirement reveal that for many, identity issues are paramount. Those who do not replace the status, position, role and job satisfaction with something else once they are no longer employed can have a real challenge regaining a sense of who they are and how their lives are meaningful.

In Diving Canadian Dollar Has Made Holiday Travel More Expensive, Sean Cooper quantifies the cold, hard facts about how poor performance of the loonie as against the U.S. dollar has made travel outside Canada a much more expensive proposition. With lower gas prices, he says this just could be the year to take the family on a road trip to learn more about what our beautiful country has to offer.

Globe and Mail personal finance guru Rob Carrick believes It’s time to get real about retirement planning. He poses the questions: What’s retirement really like from a financial point of view? How likely is an unexpected financial crisis, and how do people cope financially? How big a deal are health care costs? How feasible is it to plan on working in retirement?

According to Carrick, the answers to these questions can be found in a new report issued this week by the Ontario Securities Commission and prepared by Brondesbury Group, a consulting firm. It’s called Financial Life Stages of Older Canadians.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.

Boomer & Echo, Brondesbury Group, Donna McCaw, Globe and Mail, Ontario Securities Commission, Retire Happy, Rob Carrick, Robb Engen, Sean Cooper

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