An interesting way to learn financial planning
Earlier this fall, I reviewed the book Boomers Into Business, by Lisa Orrell, on my Wealthy Boomer blog; then mentioned it in a subsequent column on boomer retirement.
I was pleasantly surprised this weekend to find an extensive review of Findependence Day on Lisa’s PromoteUGuru blog, which you can find here.
Readers of this blog may recognize the part at the end, which is the “Interview with myself” about the book.
It’s always gratifying to get some recognition in the United States. Even though the current (first) edition of Findependence Day is North American in scope (it takes place in both the U.S. and Canada and addresses the tax and retirement system in both countries), most media attention and sales have come from Canada.
I hope to rectify this with an all-U.S. e-book and tablet computer edition that I’m currently finalizing. It’s set primarily in Chicago and Boston and adds a couple of features not in the first or “North American” edition: a glossary and an end-of-chapter summary of what Jamie and Sheena learned. I’d initially resisted doing the latter on the grounds it breaks the “fictive dream.” But in the final analysis, the book is about raising financial literacy, so it makes sense to provide a handy end-of-chapter summary on the main lessons learned.
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If you have a financial planner, get your plan!
If you’ve been monitoring my FP columns and Wealthy Boomer columns the last week (see scrolling lists to the right of this blog), you’ll see a recent focus on financial planning. My Saturday column in the Financial Post simply reported on the annual symposium held last Wednesday by the Financial Planning Standards Council.
Even so, readers and even certified financial planners (CFPs) themselves seem to be surprised by the revelation by the cream of the FPSC’s own membership that many clients of financial planners don’t automatically receive a comprehensive financial plan at the start of the relationship. My blog on Monday shows some of the reaction, including from one RFP or Registered Financial Planner (who regard themselves as an advanced form of CFP). See IAFP.ca.
Financial planning is key element of The Findependence Day Model
Let me make it clear, as anyone who has read the book and this web site devoted to it, that I’m fully in favor of most investors engaging a financial planner, ideally a fee-only or at least a fee-based one, as opposed to one paid by commissions on product sales. I’ve argued that the heart of what I call The Findependence Day Model is a self-directed investor who buys ETFs or individual securities through a discount brokerage but ALSO receives guidance through a fee-only or fee-based advisor or financial planner.
In the book, there are not one but TWO characters who are CFPs: Theo, the grizzled veteran who has achieved his own Findependence Day and charges a low annual fee for clients who want to mimic his personal portfolio; and Bernie, the frugal financial planner who moonlights as a record store owner.
It should be obvious that if you’re paying someone to be your financial planner, then you should be getting a financial plan. If you’re paying on a fee-based model (i.e. asset-based), then the comprehensive financial plan should be included. If you’re paying on a fee-only basis, then it’s quite acceptable for the financial planner to invoice you for the preparation of this detailed plan prepared at or near the onset of the relationship.
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Findependence Day: How to achieve Financial Independence — while you’re still young enough to enjoy it
Findependence Day is a financial primer that uses classic fiction structure to impart core financial concepts to young people just embarking on the working world and raising a family.
Findependence is a contraction of Financial Independence, so Findependence Day is the moment far off in the future when your income from all sources exceeds the income you could get from a single employer. Henceforth, you work because you want to work, not because you have to.
The financial concepts roll out in the order of a normal human “life cycle,” proceeding from saving for college, graduating, landing a first job, enrolling in an employer pension plan, getting married, buying a first home, saving for retirement, raising children and then the cycle begins as you save money for the education of your children.
The thrust of the novel is to impart enough major concepts that if all of the suggestions were implemented, you would achieve financial independence while you’re still young enough to enjoy it. Thus, in the book, a young couple named Jamie and Sheena want to reach their Findependence Day at the relatively young age of 50.
This is not a get-rich-quick book but a get-rich-slowly book. It takes 20 or 30 years to achieve financial independence and the book follows the couple over 22 years: hence the “financial Pilgrim’s Progress” description of one reviewer.
The book begins when Jamie & Sheena are 28 and featured guests on a financial reality TV show. Humiliated by their credit card debt before a nationwide TV audience, Jamie vows his Findependence Day will be the day he turns 50. But Sheena won’t buy into the “guerrilla frugality” habit needed to save money. Their disagreements over money escalate, as Jamie stakes everything on the big score when his hobby website attracts a big social networking site. Betrayed by his business partner, his world falls apart, threatening his dream of early financial independence.
