More and more people are retiring than ever before. This is due to the fact Baby Boomers are now at this stage of their life, and their kids, the X Generation, are already planning an earlier retirement than their parents’. Most Boomers anticipated retirement in a more traditional fashion; with safe investments and pension plans. The Gen-X crowd is faced with a different reality; less and less security regarding government and corporate pension plans.

Then there is the Y Generation who has a completely different outlook on their working years. Gen-Yers seek balance by creating for themselves a situation where work and retirement are interlaced. Instead of working for forty years, then being retired for how ever many healthy years they have left, they prefer to incorporate a lot of travel, leisure and vacation into each working year. They’re on to something…

So the Gen-Yers might be less preoccupied by retirement, but what about the Boomers who are already there and the Gen-Xers who are seriously thinking about it? What Retirement Equation would help them balance all the aspects of this very important life stage?

If you are any kind of organization, this scenario will sound all too familiar: You have a great idea for helping people. You work very hard at creating an organization to attain that goal. You hire qualified people to help you help people. They end up wasting most of their time peddling for money from the government and from generous individuals. Your qualified staff are now discouraged and loose all their enthusiasm and motivation. They leave. Very few people got helped. You go back to square one.

The challenges of fundraising are incalculable, and often times insurmountable. We will explore a few facts and statistics that may surprise you … or not.

This article is meant to help the Helpers help people. We will propose a creative, yet simple and affordable, means of generating your own fundraising, without having to resort to traditional (and painstaking) methods, raging from the car washes to the gala dinners.

We invite all the charities, the not-for-profits, the amateur sports teams, the artistic groups, the co-ops, the associations of all kinds, and every other kind of organizations, to seriously consider the solution proposed here.

There are four main programs available to people wishing to immigrate to Quebec, Canada: Investor, Entrepreneur, Self-Employed, and Skilled Worker. Each program has a varying degree of time and financial investments involved.

If you are considering immigrating to the province of Quebec, in Canada, you will have to choose one category and be eligible for acceptance, following the criteria determined by the government.

But once that goal has been achieved, one of the most helpful things is the ability to accumulate a financial reserve in Quebec, in order to limit the depletion of the reserve you are required to bring with you when establishing in the province.

We will explore why self-financing is the best solution and how to accomplish it in the most efficient manner, financially and time-wise.

Why would you spend money to start your own business instead of receiving a salary by doing an internship?
Because it is the most lucrative alternative of the two.

«There’s freedom in this knowledge. You become the captain of your own ship, the maker of your destiny. Whether you end up working for someone else or pursuing another entrepreneurial adventure, you know the success of your career is in your hands.»
(Sean Johnson)

Internship vs. Business is exactly like the old saying: «If you give someone a fish, they eat for one day. But if you teach them to fish, they eat every day for the rest of their life.» Of course starting a business while in school or immediately after is certainly not the traditional option. But ask yourself this: Would you rather someone else decide if, when and how much you are worth being fed, or would you feel more secure knowing you are in control?

Here is a simple way to decide between an internship and starting your business, depending on your specific situation. You need to consider the financial aspect and the experience aspect. Let’s explore the finances first.

Did you know that, through income tax deductions, you will receive guaranteed passive income simply by owning a home-based business?

The Tax Laws require that you operate your home-based business with a reasonable expectation of generating profits. But the Tax Authorities will allow you a few years to attain that result. Meanwhile, many of the expenses you already have can be deducted from your taxable income, thus decreasing the amount you owe the Government on April 30^th (or increasing your tax return, as the case may be).

Here are several common deductions almost anyone can claim, and how to calculate if it is worth the investment of starting a home-based business.