Books and Tools
Financial Pursuit
You Will Learn How to:
- Make your dollar work harder
- Unleash the power of compounding
- Set financial goals
- Develop asset allocation strategies
- Control your financial resources
- Select a financial advisor
- Develop tax-efficient strategies
- Estimate your employer pension plan
- Evaluate your social security pension plans
- Determine your insurance needs
- Plan your estate
- Create a vital retirement lifestyle
- Retire with financial independence
Preface
During the 1980s two or three days a week I commuted to Toronto by train. When I passed through Union Station I saw people lined up six deep at the lottery booths. In the concourse of my office building I saw the same thing. The lottery gambling habit was a $125 -- $150-a-month habit for one of the secretaries at my office. Imagine that kind of expenditure when the odds of losing the Lotto 649 are 13,999,999 in 14,000,000! Yet people go ahead and buy them anyway. I do admit to buying a lottery ticket now and then, but for some, it is their investment program and a very poor one at that.
People who buy lottery tickets every week could earn the same amount a lottery pays by the time they retire if they would review their finances and begin a balanced investment program. Unfortunately, this option seldom crosses their minds. It has crossed yours, thank goodness.
Why is there such ignorance about investing? Why do Canadians know so little about the magic and power of compound interest? Why doesn't our educational system allow more time for teaching the practical application of basic mathematics to personal finances? One of the grave failures of our educational system is that there are few if any pre-college courses on money and the management of money. Post-college education is no better. Chartered banks, insurance and trust companies, and investment dealers have had over 100 years to educate the public. But like the schools, they have neglected this very important responsibility.
After three decades in the banking and investment industries and over a dozen years presenting seminars on personal financial planning to groups across the country, I took the matter to heart in 1988 and prepared Financial Pursuit: Canada's Working Guide to Personal Wealth: How to Retire With Financial Dignity.
This revised fifth edition of the Working Guide is your financial counsellor on paper. It contains all the techniques and advice you need to take control of your finances and start accumulating wealth. But knowing how dry and intimidating financial matters can appear, I have attempted to include, between the lines and on the lines, the factor that is so often absent from financial publications - encouragement. Success comes when you know you can achieve. So, I hope you find this book to be not only a valuable reference, but also a trusted friend as you work toward your financial freedom.
Graydon G. Watters
Praise for...
"Financial Pursuit is the whole nine yards, the ABCs of investing, in nice short chapters and digestible English, and it comes complete with worksheets."
The Ottawa Citizen
"The first edition of Financial Pursuit set a new standard in simplifying, explaining, and systematizing complex financial planning issues. Once again, Graydon Watters offers a penetrating assessment and a comprehensive game plan that can benefit investors in all walks of life who are looking to build financial independence."
Phil Cunningham, (ret.)
President
Mackenzie Financial Corporation
"The first edition of Financial Pursuit did what no other personal finance book had done effectively; Graydon showed that the aim of Financial Pursuit is not simply to make money, but to make money with a view to improving the quality of your life. This new edition makes that point even more forcefully. It is packed with information, illustrations, charts, and quotes. It is visually pleasing and easy to read. With this new edition Graydon firmly establishes Financial Pursuit as the 'King of the Hill' of investment books. No one who reads this book carefully can fail to achieve solid financial literacy. An impressive achievement. I strongly recommend this book."
Dr. Chuck Chakrapani
Chairman
Investors Association of Canada