It was Lindsay’s MS diagnosis back in 2008 that started Engen down this hectic path. Their focus before that was on career and travel plans. Engen was working in the hotel industry, putting in 60- to 80-hour weeks. His goal was promotion; probably in a bigger hotel, probably in a bigger city. That all changed when Lindsay began complaining about a severe pain behind her right eye. It was optic neuritis, an inflammation of the optic nerve that can be triggered by MS. “She was in so much pain, and she couldn’t see out of that eye,” he told me. “She thought it was a brain tumour.”

Overnight, the couple’s priorities shifted. The travel plans were shelved. Plans for two children were moved up so that Lindsay could nurse before going on her MS medication. At the same time, Engen decided to leave the hospitality industry for something steadier (and less time consuming) that would allow the couple to stay close to family in Lethbridge. He joined the local university as a marketer and fundraiser, and took advantage of his newfound 40-hour week by earning extra money writing in his spare time. That meant Lindsay could stay home and care for their first daughter.

Fast forward to today, and the family is expecting their second daughter next month. “I’m about to be severely outnumbered,” said Engen.

Engen is a real pleasure to speak with. He and I talked about his family’s experiences in the last couple of years and about his views on personal finance. Four highlights:

• The echo generation has to be entrepreneurial. For a lot of young Canadians, this is a matter of financial survival. Few can earn enough from one employer to achieve a level of financial security, so income needs to come from multiple sources. It’s a lot of work, but it can spread your risk of unemployment. In other words, no single boss can make you unemployed. “I really think that people my age would be wise to have an entrepreneurial focus,” said Engen. “Or at least do something on the side in addition to your day job.”

• Health events can be costly. The medication Lindsay expects to take when she stops nursing their second daughter costs $2,000 to $3,000 per month. The family is covered for about 60% of that. There’s more to the story though. They moved house because their old home had too many stairs. And the decision to become a one-income family was based in part on Lindsay’s health.

• Retirement is for couch potatoes. Engen said he’s looking forward to “financial independence” instead. And that won’t mean sitting in front of a big screen. He’s targeting age 55. “I love my job and I love what I’ve been doing on the side with the writing,” he said. “I want to be active. I want to be on community boards. I just want to do what I want to do.”

• Mortgage debt is “the” story right now. Engen is writing a lot about Canada’s housing market. “I worry about people who took out giant mortgages, especially in cities like Vancouver and Toronto,” he told me. “Something’s got to give there. Nationally, our housing prices aren’t bad if you take away those two markets. But those are huge markets. If you had a 20% to 25% correction there, it would put a lot of people in trouble.”

I asked Engen to list his favourite Canadian personal finance blogs. His top three won’t surprise you: Million Dollar Journey, Money Smarts Blog and Canadian Finance Blog.

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Watch Part 1 of this conversation where Jeff argues that economic growth projections are wildly off the mark.

Watch Part 2 of this conversation as Jeff breaks down what a low-growth economy means for Canada, the U.S., China and the eurozone.

Viskanta’s writing cuts through the clutter of market forecasts and rumour mill recaps. He offers sensible, understandable commentary on capital markets. And he doesn’t promise miracles. “The goal for investors is to be competent,” he told me in an interview yesterday. “In the book, I use the term mediocre. Try to avoid making big mistakes as opposed to trying to find ways to generate high levels of return.” Call it abnormal if you want; that makes a lot of sense to me.

Viskanta shared four lessons:

• Stop worrying. Stop obsessing over those economic headwinds you keep hearing about. Nobody really knows how they’re going to play out. “If you look back in history, there’s always been something to worry about in the market,” he said. “A lot of the things either don’t come to pass, or if they do, they don’t have a major effect.”

• Dan Gardner is right about forecasts. We love predictions, and we always will. But they’re often wrong. “The problem is that forecasts in the financial media are presented in a fashion that is often misleading,” Viskanta told me. “They’re presented with certainty, and the implication is that you should take action based upon the forecast. A lot of individuals approach financial media without the level of scepticism that they should.”

• Think big picture. “Most of what we see on a short-term basis doesn’t have long-term implications,” he said. “The things that happen on a day-to-day basis, when you look back over time, really don’t matter a whole lot.” If you’re planning for retirement, then your time horizon should be measured in years. Is yesterday’s close really that important?

• Rethink buy and hold. It may be a fundamental of investment planning, but Viskanta is not convinced. At least, he’s no longer sure we can count on the blue chips the way we used to. “I don’t even know what buy and hold means anymore,” he told me. “If anything, we’ve learned over time that even what we believe to be the most stable and safe companies all have the potential to enter a period of underperformance. I don’t know that you could say that there’s any company that’s so sacrosanct that it can’t lose its position over time. I think some people have confused buy and hold with buying things that they’re knowledge about and feel comfortable with. While it can be helpful in some regards, it’s just as likely to lead you astray.”

Further reading: here’s a list of seven investment blogs Viskanta is fond of.

1. Canadian economic growth

A report is due today on the country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the month of February. Real GDP growth measures economic output, adjusted for inflation (or deflation, as the case may be). It’s the number most often referred to when discussing an economy’s performance. In January, the Canadian economy produced real month-over-month GDP growth of just 0.1%. The consensus among economists is that we’ll see 0.2% month-over-month growth for February. Both numbers are well short of the Bank of Canada’s forecast of 2.5% real GDP growth this year, but it’s too early to worry. Growth is expected to pick up in the months ahead. (Update: The GDP report showed a decline of 0.2% in February.)

2. U.S. manufacturing activity

On Tuesday, we see the first of two important U.S. reports. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Manufacturing Index tells us how much manufacturing is going on across the country, which is of course a key indicator of economic activity. When consumer spending drops, manufacturers are left with excess inventory. So they stop producing their goods. A rise in the index indicates that actual product manufacturing is occurring. That not only signals confidence on the part of manufacturers, it also represents actual economic activity (i.e., spending on the part of the manufacturing companies on raw materials and labour). The index was at 53.4 in March, and is expected to come in lower, at 53 for April. That month-to-month change is less important than the fact that the ISM Manufacturing Index is now reporting three years of continual growth for U.S. manufacturing. That’s huge. According to a report from TD Economics, this “continues to be one of the bright spots for the economic recovery. And with the new orders to inventory spread (a proxy for future production activity) expected to remain in positive territory for the seventh consecutive month, the outlook for the sector remains favourable.” (Update: The ISM Manufacturing Index hit 54.8 in April.)

3. U.S. jobs report

Watch for the U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls report from the U.S. Department of Labor on Friday. This covers companies in the manufacturing, construction and other goods-producing industries. The report tells us how many non-farm jobs have been added or lost during the month. The consensus forecast is that 165,000 jobs will be added, and that the U.S. unemployment rate will remain at 8.2%. That compares well to the 120,000 jobs added in March. (Update: The U.S. economy added 115,000 jobs in April. That moves the unemployment rate down to 8.1%.)

Here are my 10 favourites. None are focused on personal finance, investing or the economy. And again, no particular order.

• @City Raccoon. I don’t know who is behind this account, but he or she makes me laugh out loud. The tweets are always first, um, person. Like this: “Peek out from under an Acura. Blink blink.” Urbane without being exclusive to urbanites. Love it.

• @davidfrum. Once a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, David Frum has emerged as one of the most thoughtful conservative commentators in the world. He was also way ahead in the blogosphere. Frum is a must if you’re following the U.S. presidential election.

• @piersmorgan. This one surprised me. I wasn’t a fan at all until I checked Piers Morgan out on Twitter. He’s smart, funny and most impressively, self-effacing. Plus he’s an Arsenal fan so I get a huge kick out of hearing him complain about the Gunners. Go Rooney.

• @jeffjarvis. Jeff Jarvis launched the influential buzzmachine.com site, and has emerged as a genuine thought leader in the digital space. Not bad for a former TV Guide writer.

• @OHnewsroom. Quotes overheard in a newsroom. I don’t know if it’s real or not, and I don’t care. Fall down funny.

• @dgardner. You’ve read Dan Gardner quoted on this blog. The Ottawa Citizen columnist authored two important books: Risk and Future Babble.

• @acoyne. You can’t subscribe to Dan without also adding Andrew Coyne. If you’ve ever wondered what it sounds like when journalists get together outside the office, here you go.

• @FareedZakaria. I know I sound like a broken record when it comes to Fareed Zakaria. But seriously, he’s the most important journalist going right now. If you don’t follow him, you’re not getting the whole story.

• @SteveMartinToGo. Turns out Steve Martin is funnier on Twitter than anywhere else he’s ever appeared. No joke.

• @Angela_D_Merkel. Definitely not real. But whoever is behind this account deserves a book deal.

Also check out my on-topic list of Twitter favourites.

First, four obvious ones:

• @rcarrick. Rob Carrick’s personal finance column at The Globe and Mail is required reading, as is his Twitter feed. He’s in his third decade of covering this beat for the paper, which in and of itself is extraordinary. He’s also an active supportive of bloggers through his Personal Finance Reader and the annual Best Personal Finance Blog competition.

• @JonChevreau. Jonathan Chevreau left the National Post earlier this year to become editor of MoneySense magazine. They’re lucky to have him. Chevreau emerged as one of Canada’s most influential personal finance writers during his time at the newspaper. As blogging and microblogging gained importance, he made both a priority.

• @NYTimeskrugman. You may not always agree with Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist. Maybe you never agree with him. But you’re missing out if you ignore him, and this excellent Twitter feed makes it harder to do so.

• @nfergus. In the interest of balance, one can’t very well follow Krugman and not Niall Ferguson. The two heavyweights have gone many rounds together. Equal parts entertaining and informative.

Less obvious:

• @pkedrosky. Dr. Paul Kedrosky is a contributor to Bloomberg and host of the Infectious Greed blog. He’s also a successful investor and popular speaker. I hired him for a conference I helped plan last year, and he was a hit. He’s also got a sharp sense of humour. He confessed to me that for a short time, he tweeted as a fake Ben Bernanke.

• @JeffRubin. Jeff Rubin’s new book The End of Growth is reason enough to subscribe to his feed. Paired with his first – Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller – Rubin’s voice is more compelling and influential now than it ever was when he was on Bay Street. And I’m not just saying that because we have an interview scheduled next month.

• @PIMCO. This is an impressive two-for-one: you get updates from both of PIMCO’s co-chief investment officers, Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian. Everybody pays attention to these two guys, and for good reason.

• @TheStalwart. Joseph Weisenthal is deputy editor of one of my favourite aggregation sites, Business Insider. I marvel at his output each day, on the site itself and on Twitter. He’s plugged into just about everything that’s happening. He may not have the whole story himself, but he’ll let you know when something important hits.

• @morningmoneyben. Ben White writes a daily newsletter on the intersection between U.S. finance and politics called Morning Money. Besides my double espresso, it’s the only thing I won’t start the day without.

• @jimyih. Jim Yih hosts the Retire Happy Blog. A professional financial educator, Yih is the current holder of The Globe and Mail’s Best Personal Finance Blog award. He’s also established himself as a kind of gateway to a ton of great blog content via his Twitter feed and weekly Best of Blogs list.

Also check out my off-topic list of Twitter favourites.

We were disappointed. “Documented or undocumented, paid or unpaid, we are workers,” she continued. “We are students. We are families. We are the 99%. The 1% carry out war, throw us in prisons, make us poor, destroy public services, attack unions and poison the environment. They deny us freedom and dignity. So we fight and we resist.”

Similarly poor grammar followed. They’re planning a demonstration on May 1 – International Workers Day – to “respect indigenous sovereignty, insist that no-one is illegal, to fight austerity, to end imperialist wars and aggression, to build people’s power and to move beyond a system that is unjust, exploitative and destructive.” A run-on sentence half that length would have got me kicked out of journalism school.

May Day marks the next step in the global Occupy movement’s long march. A general strike has been called. According to the small flyer handed me, it is a day to “say no to work, school, shopping, banking, housework.” I doubt they’ll get much push-back on the housework thing, but their plans for the first of the month will have about as much impact as the ever-popular Buy Nothing Day.

It’s all so disappointing. The Occupy movement earned our attention, and in doing so gave voice to the have-nots in today’s global economy. That’s no small thing. I still think that what sprung up on city streets and on social media platforms like Tumblr mattered, if only as a reflection of the anger and disappointment that are the natural result of an economic catastrophe.

But what’s clear now, six months later, is that the movement has failed to transform itself into the political force it should have become. They’ve gone back to shouting empty rhetoric at crowds of amused city dwellers.  They’re back on the sidelines, with a few new slogans and not much else.

They blew it.

Rob Carrick, personal finance columnist at The Globe and Mail, is concerned enough about what lies ahead for his two teenaged sons that he’s written a book: How Not to Move Back in With Your Parents: The Young Person’s Guide to Financial Empowerment. “Retirement is a huge issue, and I wouldn’t say that we spend too much time on it. But we’ve neglected young people,” he told me in an interview last week. “They’ve got serious troubles and we have to address them.”

Carrick’s fans won’t be surprised to hear that the book offers up informed opinion and original thinking. Five highlights from our conversation:

• Too many young (and not-so-young) adults lack a concrete understanding of debt. Carrick hears from a lot of recent university graduates who are surprised by their student loans.  “I think the government could do a much better job connecting with young people about their debts before the bill comes due,” he said. “How about an annual statement about how much you owe, and how much you’re on-track to owe by the time you graduate?”

• Young adults need to learn more about how financial services work. “They totally understand online banking and how that can cut your costs,” Carrick said. “But I’d like to reinforce the lesson that the financial services industry is a profit-making venture and that we have to be skeptical. We have to ask questions to make sure we’re getting the best services for the best price.”

• Volatile capital markets have given young investors the wrong idea about risk. They’re risk-averse to a fault. Conventional wisdom dictates that you take on greater risk in early adulthood because you have so many years over which to recover from short-term losses. “Risk goes hand in hand with potential reward,” Carrick said. “Young people can afford to take risk because they’ve got decades of compounding ahead until they retire. And yet they’ve been absorbing this message that the stock market is dangerous.”

• High school grads should take a year or more off before going to university or college. It’s a chance to save money and grow up a bit more. “People who go from Grade 12 right into university can’t always make the right decisions about the best course of study,” said Carrick. “When I went to school, tuition was about $1,000 a year. Now it’s at least $5,000. It’s a massive increase in the cost of education, and also in the cost of making a bad decision.”

• Working for free isn’t necessarily a bad idea. “I think it’s a fact of life in the workforce now,” he said. “The unpaid internship is a growing phenomenon out there. I support doing it if it’s in your field, if you will gain job experience and if you will make contacts that you think you can parlay into a good first career-building job.” Having said that, young people are vulnerable. Carrick’s heard plenty of stories of kids going from internship to internship. That’s not in anyone’s best interest.

I asked Carrick if he sees a new frugality among young people today, given their experiences during these formative years. Won’t they be like those who came of age during the Great Depression? “I don’t really think so,” he said. “In the 1930s they didn’t have mass media that pummels you over the head 24 hours a day about buying things, about the joys of new technology, travel and all that sort of stuff. Our society conditions us to buy from the moment you turn on the television as a little kid. I think it’s tough to swing to frugality when we’ve been conditioned to buy, buy, buy.”

Financial literacy is only part of the solution. “We also need to teach media literacy,” Carrick said. “We need to equip people to be a little bit skeptical about these consumption-oriented messages that they’re being bombarded with.”

“After the immediate [retirement] honeymoon, a life filled exclusively with leisure stops being leisurely,” Chadnick told me. “All rest, no stress, no challenges becomes really very unbalanced. People need to find balance or they will get bored. People who don’t have a plan – who don’t have activities and ways to engage all aspects of their personality – don’t do well in retirement.”

Chadnick counsels her clients to begin thinking about that plan soon after their 40^th birthday. If that’s already passed, start now. It’s especially important to begin early if you decide you’d like to do something in retirement that’s dramatically different from what you do now. Some see retirement as an opportunity to begin a new career, for example. If that requires training, work that into your plan.

Don’t wait to think about retirement

“How do you shift gears? You need to get your mind around that and prepare to think about other possibilities for yourself,” she said. “I think people make the mistake of waiting until it’s too late.”

What are you supposed to spend all that time thinking about? Chadnick prepared this checklist of seven questions for us:

1. What will be most important to you in retirement? What will give you a sense of purpose? What will be your passion?
2. What kind of work do you want to do, if any? Will it be strictly paid work or include unpaid, volunteer work?
3. Do you want to remain in your existing career? Would you rather do something entirely different?
4. Leave aside the financial importance of work for a moment. How important will work be to you in terms of intellectual and social fulfillment?
5. In the absence of a work schedule, how much structure do you want in your day?
6. How will you replace some of the good stuff of work: intellectual engagement, challenge and growth opportunities? If you’re not getting the social interaction you had in your workplace, how will you stay connected?
7. What do you need to stay motivated, inspired and engaged? What do you need to stay healthy, vibrant and resilient?

Clearly, this is not your grandfather’s retirement. It may not look much like your mother’s, either. Chadnick attributes this shift to the baby boom generation and its dedication to active living.

“Boomers will not hang out on the porch,” she said. “Boomers have always been known to defy the rules. Retirement is no different. We get a lot of meaning through work. We want to be relevant in all our life stages.”