October 2019

29 Oct

Kiva is Celebrating the Big Billion!

Kiva is Celebrating the Big Billion!

This month, Kiva celebrated hitting 1 billion dollars in micro-loans to women across the Global South. And we at AF are celebrating that over $800,000 of that billion was lent by our community! Thanks to the generosity of our lenders, we’re looking forward to hitting the 1 million mark in the coming months! This is beyond what we ever thought was possible.

We couldn’t agree more with Kiva when they say: “Lenders like you continue to prove that fueling her future means fueling our future. Investing in women is one of the strongest levers we can use to advance global development for everyone. When we uplift women, we uplift entire communities.”

03 Oct

Adulting VIII: Investing & Financial Planning

Adulting with Dave (Round Two!)

Investing kept coming up as something people wanted to know more about. So, we brought back financial advisor Dave Sweeney to help us sort through all the noise.

We discussed things like:

  • Some of our individual money stories and what specifics Dave would have us consider in trying to invest for our future
  • Thought-provoking investing guidelines

As a bonus you’ll find photos from the event below!

Dave’s Adulting Advice

“The three most important things when it comes to investing – time, money and rate of return. The only one of these that we can’t make more of is time. Being Gen Y is an advantage because we have more of that elusive time! There’s no cheaper time to start saving than today.”

“Don’t fear the talk of a possible recession! At our age, we can take advantage of the longer time period we have to invest. A recession is also a good time to consider investing aggressively.”

“Between a RRSP and a TFSA, don’t use either for actual living expenses. But for long-term goals, the RRSP is better, and for short-term goals, the TFSA is the way to go.”

“Don’t make investment decisions based on emotions.”

“Yes, diversify your investment plan. Really.”

“Don’t count on an inheritance. Folks are living much longer now and eating up their savings in the last few years.”

“Have the long-term “financial chat” with your parents. Don’t leave any ambiguity. It will help all of you.”

A tip from his earlier talk that was just so good, it bears repeating – “To have enough to live on in retirement, when you’re under the age of 35, put away 10% of your gross income every month, before 45, put away 20%, and over 45, it needs to be 30%.”

 

Event Photos