It seems our labours here at the Financial Independence Hub have not been totally in vain. At the Globe & Mail, Ian McGugan has introduced something he calls The Financial Independence Index, which he says was inspired by Scott Burns’ Financial Freedom Index. McGugan — who was the founding editor of MoneySense magazine — says his index is not about retirement readiness but about financial independence and estimates couples need $4.5 million to be truly findependent (of course he doesn’t use that term, yet). Ian, if you’re reading this, why not shorten it to the “Findex?,” a term coined by certified financial planner Fred Kirby in a little inside joke with me. You can find Fred’s coordinates at the Getting Help section here at the Hub.

Whether it’s Findependence, Retirement or Unretirement, an article in Inc. — Death by Golf — argues Retirement is a bankrupt industrial age idea anyway. The article introduces the term Conation, which it defines as “Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction.”

At Retirement Redux, Sheryl Smolkin asks the intriguing question whether the government should expand OAS instead of CPP. Or go to the original article here. In the past, proposals to expand the Canada Pension Plan have been referred to as “Big CPP” so I guess we should refer to an expanded OAS program as “Big OAS.” You heard the term first here at the Hub!

Do you own too many mutual funds? Hard to top the US$1.5 million spread among 35 mutual funds mentioned by Roger Wohlner in his blog at the Chicago Financial Planner. Wohlner, who has an avid following at Twitter as @rwohlner, says just three mutual funds or ETFs should be diversification aplenty.

In a recent blog, Tom Drake counsels deeply indebted consumers on How to avoid bankruptcy with a consumer proposal. Talk about going from the frying pan to the fire! Here at the Hub, we’d choose “neither of the above.”

One thing we can say for sure: if you’re that close to the edge, you shouldn’t be fantasizing about Early Retirement. Speaking of which, over at the Retire by 40 blog, Joe Udo is starting to ask himself the question Am I Ready to Go Back to Work? He notes that it’s “tough to stop working completely when you retire early” and that most retirees he knows are working in some capacity. But he still prefers self-employment to being a “cubicle dweller” in a giant corporation. I can relate!

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