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A Very Interesting Way to Learn Financial Planning Tips

November 13th, 2011
Findependence Day by Jonathan Chevreau

Hi All!

As small business owners, entrepreneurs or solo-practitioners, it’s critical for you (us!) to be smart with our finances…not only for security now, but for our retirement futures.

Because of my new book on Amazon, Boomers into Business: How Anyone Over 50 Can Turn What They Know into Dough Before and After Retirement, I’ve been sharing a lot of shocking stats lately pertaining to the dire financial situation Boomers are facing.

Here’s one worth repeating: 47.2% of Boomers are at risk of outliving their retirement savings!

Based on shocking facts like that, I was very interested in Jonathan Chevreau’s book, Findependence Day. It’s an interesting twist on a typical financial tips books. Why? Because it’s actually a novel, based on a love story, and throughout the book Jonathan shares financial tips, advice and strategies!

So, if you’re looking for a book to help you get a grip on your finances, but are bored with the standard “dry” financial advice non-fiction books out there, this is a terrific alternative to check out!

But why is Jonathan qualified to provide us with financial advice? Here’s a brief snapshot:

Jonathan Chevreau has been the personal finance columnist for the Financial Post since 1996 and for the National Post since its debut in 1998. Previously, he has authored or co-authored seven non-fiction financial books, including The Wealthy Boomer.

In September 2011, Jonathan was named by the OSC’s Investor Education Fund as one of five “Masters of Money,” where he contributes a weekly blog.

Also, here is a fun interview with Jonathan that will provide you with more info about his book and how he came up with the interesting concept:

Back in 2008, when Findependence Day was originally launched, I conducted an “Interview with Myself” posted on the Wealthy Boomer blog. This is a little trick I learned from British writer Malcolm Muggeridge when he was the writer in residence at Western’s Journalism School in 1978-1979.

I’d planned simply to repost that interview here but couldn’t find it on the web. Then I thought it was probably time for a followup interview anyway. So here goes:

Interviewer Jon [IJ henceforth]. So, Jon, isn’t it a bit late to launch a web site three years after the book was originally published?

Author Jon [AJ henceforth]. Always with the muckraking, aren’t you journalists?

IJ: It seems a logical question.

AJ: There was a web site associated with the then-publisher, Power Publishers, which was also available as part of FinancialPost.com. But it was a static site and not much changed from month to month. This one is much more dynamic and of course you can buy books from it directly via PayPal, which means most major credit cards.

IJ: That’s about the only way you can get it now?

AJ: Almost. It used to be in Chapters, its web site and Amazon.com. You may still be able to get used copies via those sites but not new ones like this site is making available. The other way is a special offer from the Financial Post, which is giving the book to new and lapsed subscribers if they sign up for a certain period of time.

IJ: What happened to Power Publishers?

AJ: They withdrew from book publishing around February of this year. That’s when I bought the remaining inventory.

IJ: How many?

AJ: Enough to make a decent dent in the financial literacy of our children and young adults if they were all sold and distributed across the country. Want to buy a case?

IJ: I was about to ask you the same thing! I notice on the back cover of David Chilton’s The Wealthy Barber Returns that you say it’s the kind of book the Task Force on Financial Literacy should distribute. Did you mean his book specifically, or yours?

AJ: Well, both. I don’t view sales of competing financial books as a zero-sum game. Take a look at the Reviews elsewhere on this site and you’ll see several comparisons to The Wealthy Barber.

IJ: Except his sequel is non-fiction.

AJ: Right, but he really started something with the financial fiction format of the original. It’s been widely imitated.

IJ: Including by you.

AJ: I don’t consider Findependence Day yet another Barber knockoff. I tried to advance the art in a way that’s never really been done before, to my knowledge.

IJ: How so?

AJ: Take a look at Jim Daw’s review flagged in the review section or in the book itself. He talked about the “twig of literature” of the personal finance novel.

IJ: Twig, as opposed to branch?

AJ: Right, that was very witty on Jim’s part and almost went over my head the first time I read it. But his point was that all those Chilton knock0ffs had what he termed “an aggravating sameness” to them. Most were “financial dumps” with a thin storyline and characterization. I agree with Jim: those kind of books are still coming out and I really had no intention of adding to them.

IJ: But you did.

AJ: With a significant new twist. I’d come up with the title and for a year was considering making it non-fiction. But like many journalists, there’s part of me that always wanted to try what I’d call a “real novel.” I’d written a practice novel right to the end and know more or less how it works: protagonists and villains, constant setbacks along the path to an overarching goal, setting, description, all of that. So I tried to weave the financial information into what I call “classic fictional structure.”

IJ: So you’d term Findependence Day

a “real” novel?

AJ: I wouldn’t go that far. It’s a hybrid of a real novel and a financial primer. In effect, it’s a financial love story. There’s conflict between the saver, Jamie, and his spender wife, Sheena. They disagree about having a monster home in the burbs or an affordable one downtown. Sheena wants investment real estate, Jamie wants to build a business. Eventually Sheena serves Jamie with divorce papers and he’s challenged with trying to reconcile these conflicting goals and desperately trying to save their marriage.

IJ: Does he?

AJ: If I told you, I’d have to kill us.

IJ: You feel that financial conflict is a major cause of marital breakups?

AJ: Sadly, yes, as Patricia Lovett Reid writes in the foreword.

IJ: It must have been challenging mixing genres.

AJ: Yes, which is why most traditional publishers avoid it. In fact, David Chilton himself told me he thought my story was “too good” in the sense that it took away from the financial content. But he’s been very supportive, as he generally is with other authors.

IJ: What do you mean by “classic fiction structure?”

AJ: Conflict is what keeps readers reading a regular novel. You have a protagonist, in this case Jamie, who has a long-range goal: his Findependence Day which is 22 years away when the book begins.

IJ: That’s a long time horizon for a novel.

AJ: Yes, which is why one reviewer called it a “Financial Pilgrim’s Progress.” But instead of being weighed down by sin like Bunyan’s character, Christian, Jamie and Sheena are weighed down by debt.

IJ: And you have a bad guy, Al Peters.

AJ: That too is demanded by traditional fiction structure. Because the hero can’t just get what he wants every time a scene opens or the reader would stop reading. So Al frequently thwarts Jamie, especially when they become business partners. When you break down the book, you’ll find maybe 60 sections. In each one, someone has to have a goal and — here’s the key — he or she must FAIL to achieve that mini-goal by the end of the section. Then they have to have a new goal in the next section.

IJ: Give us an example.

AJ: Sure. Early in the book, right after the TV show where the host badgers Sheena into tearing up her credit cards, there’s a scene where Jamie goes down the elevator with the financial advisor he met during the show, Theo. Jamie’s goal in that scene is to convince Theo to help him by becoming their financial advisor. But the fiction format demands that Theo refuse his request, which is what he does. He says “come back in a few years when you’ve eliminated your debt.”

IJ: And so his next goal is to find someone else who will be his advisor while he’s still in debt.

AJ: Right, which is how he comes upon the old hippie in the vinyl record store, which ultimately sets the plot moving in a new direction.

IJ: All this while trying to insert financial tips.

AJ: Yes, which is why the financial bits are always short: the moment I feel the reader may get bored, or myself as the writer, it’s time to move away from the financial instruction and on to the next aspect of the story. The result is that even if you’re already pretty financially literate, you may keep reading. Check the review from financial blogger Michael James, who could probably write all the financial bits himself in his blog. But even he admits the story got him “hooked” after the first third, and then he read the last two thirds all at one sitting some lazy Sunday morning.

IJ: There’s room for a sequel?

AJ: Maybe. I’d thought of following the daughter, Michaela, by doing a “next generation” followup. But I won’t attempt it while I’m still working full time.

IJ: So when you reach your own Findependence Day?

AJ: Precisely.

IJ: Guess that’s all the time and space we have, Jon.

AJ: I know the drill, JC. Always a pleasure.

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Startling Stats About Boomers Facing Retirement Challenges

October 13th, 2011

Hi All!

Read these statistics carrefully. They are fightening:

According to this 2010 report, The EBRI Retirement Readiness RatingTM: Retirement Income Preparation and Future Prospects, by Jack VanDerhei and Craig Copeland of EBRI.org: 47.2% of older Boomers (56-62) are at risk of outliving their retirement savings. And 43.7% of younger Boomers (46-55) are at risk of not having enough money for basic monthly expenses when they retire.

These sobering statistics have millions of Boomers currently wondering, “What can I do to generate income, full-time or part-time, that is flexible, interesting, fun, possible to start on a tight budget, and do way into my golden years?”

I wrote my newest book, Boomers into Business: How Anyone Over 50 Can Turn What They Know into Dough Before and After Retirement”, to answer those questions. I explain how to take what you know, from your career experience or hobbies, to develop a “topic expert” platform that can lead to consulting others, conducting training seminars online and offline, developing many strategies for on-going passive income, and much more.

And it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been an employee your whole career or whether you are currently self-employed. Nor do a person’s education level, career background, or business experience matter. The book was written to take a lot of guesswork out of the process.

Basically, most everyone knows something, from their career background, life experiences or from a hobby that other people will pay to learn about. Whether you’ve been an HR professional your whole career, or a construction worker, homemaker, lawyer, Life Coach,  housepainter, or a lover of growing roses, my book teaches Boomers how to monetize what they know to create a good income, in a wide variety of ways, as a topic expert.

And the book not only teaches how to determine a topic focus and how to create a unique brand platform, but it also outlines the tools needed to launch. Plus, I asked 15 other business experts to provide chapters on PR, marketing, and social media strategies, plus many more business-building and revenue generating ideas.

The reviews on Amazon have been great so far, and here are 2 examples of how my new book is helping those who read it:

“I’m now 50, a single mom with a teenage son, and I’ve worked at Title Insurance companies for over 20 years. I currently don’t have enough money to retire comfortably in my 60’s and have been trying to figure out what I can do make money on-the-side of my day job,” says Kathy F. in San Jose, CA. “ ‘Boomers into Business’ was a godsend! It opened my mind to possibilities I had never thought of before and I’m now developing ideas for an expert platform and consulting business that will provide me with the additional income I need to be more comfortable now and later in my life.”

“This book was so helpful, easy to follow and really fun to read! It’s loaded with
ideas that I can refer to again and again,” shares Marilyn F., a 62-year old Boomer in Santa Cruz, CA. “I’m already self-employed but learned how I can expand my services to be much better off financially. Plus, I learned tons of new marketing strategies that are really effective. I highly recommend this book to any Boomers wanting to improve their financial futures or who are seeking ways to change their career path.”

So, if you can relate to anything you’ve read in the blog post, check out my book on Amazon. It’s available in both Print and Kindle versions, and for a small investment it could bring you a serious return that can help your retirement picture!

Cheers & Happy Marketing!

Lisa

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