[...] amAdd comment Babe in the Woods has contacted me again with a bunch of questions.  After the last response to her questions, she has gone out and read a couple personal finance books and now has more [...]

http://www.truehelpfinancial.com/index.php?campaign=AG5

btw. Frugal you are so popular maybe you should consider a drupal community blog. It could generate a lot more advertising revenue. Just a thought, and not just because it would be easier for people to discuss things. :-)

Maybe you don’t have the few million, but had you bought $10,000 of shares in Tim Horton’s this past July, today (not yet six months later) you could pocket about $2000 in gains. Without you having to wash a single coffee cup!

Read the books mentioned above, and others that you can borrow from your local library, follow this and other financial blogs, and learn all you can.

DAvid

What other “assets” are there to consider besides real estate? I was joking with my husband we should start a chapters and starbucks, but we don’t quite have a few million kicking around just yet to embark on that venture. Also the time I can afford to put into something is a issue.

I had wondered about joining an investing club to learn the ropes… but have to do a little more research. I could only find a seniors one, and I’m not sure they’d take me just yet. (^; I did once get an advance on a painting to buy stocks in 2000 (my husband was paying attention to some tech stocks), and would have made 40 thousand in a day, but I was laughed out of the door. They were only selling to people who wanted to buy hundred thousand or more…

So here I am starting over (albeit sleep deprived), and wondering the best place to start to take care of my family.

all the best j.

I’d like to help my little ones get started so they wouldn’t be left owing the estimated `100,000 for tuition when they are 24. It was hard enough for our generation, and is part of our late start. We are just rebuilding our credit, and dusting off the last of the fall out from the dot com crash. When the company my husband worked for went under he may have been a little too loyal and trusting.

We are saving on our rent in a very family friendly area, and according to the new york times calculator renting is a better option. I guess this means we have to be much more disciplined about putting money aside. I am thinking about the possibility of getting a mortgage on a building to rent for investment purposes, but not sure where would be the best market. Should we think about getting someone to manage property for us in another part of the country? This may be jumping ahead, but at our age we need to do some serious planning.

We’d also like to retire in France (possibly), for my husband to write. I’m an artist so self employed. It’s possible I could keep working till 90 or be earning much more in years to come, but it is nothing I’d like to count on. Having said that if I have a goal in mind, I’m prepared to work towards it.

Baby calling me again. Have to go. Hope this makes sense. Once he sleeps through the night I’m hoping to start working again.

Thank you for all the help, and all the feedback. I really appreciate your time and opinions. I had mixed feelings after I heard the author of Rich Dad talk, so I had to ask…

p.s. Does anyone have any suggestions about life insurance, and various companies?

The book has been proven as a piece of fiction. What it is selling is the same as those late night get rich infomercials.

The Millionaire next door is a good book with tomes of data (some if it maybe a little old now), but still accurate in terms of lifestyle and consumption habits. Some of Gordon Pape’s older personal finance books are quite good (all Canadian content).

I’m still firmly anti-”rich dad” though.

The rest of these well-known books have real issues: Rich Dad.. is just poorly written, Wealthy Barber is a parable with the message of “Save 30%+ of your income and you will be rich” (no kidding).

There are also tons of other books and information guides, but after you’ve read the dummies book, just start surfing the Canadian PF blogs. More information (and opinions) than you can shake a stick at.

The deep truth though, is that Babe in the woods had a bunch of questions regarding financial tools (rent vs. buy, RRSPs vs. savings). But she didn’t give us any financial goals, so any advice (outside of the book suggestions) is just kind of moot.

I’d love to help her out, but we’d need a whole bunch more information to be able to offer any specific advice. Otherwise, Babe will just have to keep reading books and figure out how to apply the tools on her own.

You got a lot of smart people on these boards Babe, give us a little more to chew on (i.e.: your dreams for the future and your cash flow situation) and we’ll give you a host of options.

However, this is not an How to guide to be rich. This book will show you how to think differently. Most books are just showing you the importance of putting money aside regularly… nothing to write your mother about ;-)

Mike’s excellent RESP series starts with http://www.four-pillars.ca/2007/10/05/the-big-resp-series/.

On a personal note, starting an emergency fund has made a big difference for my finances. Without that I couldn’t have ditched the credit cards.

Does that make a greater difference in the retirement planning/costing?

I know things are much more expensive in the north too, so what would the average household budget look like up in Yellowknife?

Q

In order to find what is your exact tax rate according to your province and income, you can visit this site:
http://www.ey.com/GLOBAL/content.nsf/Canada/Tax_-_Calculators_-_2007_Personal_Tax

That is the Ernst and Young tax calculator (I believe it would be a good resource).

I am not a big fan of emergency fund (check out my blog to find out why!). I think that a line of credit of $20K will do just great. The key point is to not to use it unless it is an emergency ;-)

An RESP would definitely be a good idea as well since you have 3 children. Four Pillars (four-pillars.ca) wrote a nice series about them.

I hope this helps!

FB.

If you are going to pay for their schooling or contribute to it then you should not forget about this as a financial liability in the money that you will need for retirement. I know from my families experience they didn’t really think about this and we are big financial drain :P

If you want to help them out with school then I think you should look into RESP contributions as soon as possible. Doing this early will maximize the government grant you can get and componding.

Check around the financial blogs to find information on RESPs.

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Go check up on the power of compound interest… use a compound interest calculator and play around with the interest rate, the amount saved per year and the number of years to determine approximately how much money you should invest each month. If you break it down into monthly goals, it will be much easier to accomplish… when you first start out with $0 it can be daunting to think you need $500k or $1 million or whatever amount you think you’ll need. Break it down and start as soon as possible. Compound interest is the most powerful thing in finance.

PS> The Wealthy Barber is a good starting point. I’d add a book on Warren Buffett too. Go through Amazon and find the top selling investing books and read through summaries to find one that interests you.