There’s a lot of meat in Pat Foran’s book The Smart Canadian’s Guide to Saving Money.

The CTV “On Your Side” reporter covers a lot of ground. He starts by asking the rich and the famous about their personal money tips. The late Alberta premier, Ralph Klein, states “never spend what you do not have. It is far better… to put off a purchase for three months until you can afford it than to spend the next six months paying it off.” Don’t, Klein notes in the book, “line the pockets of your bank… line your own!”

Noted financial author David Chilton tells Foran that “as corny as it sounds, what people have to do is stop caring so much about stuff.” He adds that as he gets older “the more I realize that good financial planning is less about the intricate knowledge of the stock market and forecasting future interest rates, and more and more about discipline and not wanting so much stuff.”

And Ben Franklin once said “the borrower is a slave to the lender… be industrious and free; be frugal and free.”

But how to get there?

Foran’s book covers all the bases. Everyone, he writes, needs to track their expenses. “The most important thing you can do is monitor the amount of money that is flowing in and out of your life every month,” he notes, providing a sample worksheet to get you started.

After looking at the importance of having a spouse who is your financial partner, he talks about tackling debt. Consolidation loans aren’t always the best approach, he warns. “Consolidating various high interest rate balances into one easy-to-handle payment is often just a quick fix to roll your `junk debt’ into a bigger pile,” he notes. He defines `junk debt’ as debt “that has been rolled around so many times you can’t remember what you originally went into debt to buy in the first place.”

So, he suggests, cut back on “bad spending habits,” such as smoking and excessive drinking. A case of beer a week costs you $1,872 each year, he writes. Even $4 a day spent at Timmy’s can add up to $1,460 per year, Foran writes. Other “money wasters” that make his list are dining out often, expensive clothes and jewellery, premium gas, dry cleaning clothes you could wash yourself, buying a brand-new car, flying first class, and so on. With all such expenses, he suggests, one should first ask “can I afford it.” If not, perhaps there are cheaper ways to go, he notes.

Credit cards, write Foran, need to be paid off and cancelled. “Once you have paid off a credit card, you must let it rest in peace! You have to call your credit card company and say… please cancel my credit card.”

After mastering debt, you need to look at saving, and the power it has. If you were to save $20 a week for 50 years, you’d have $1.4 million in your pocket. “Imagine saving your own jackpot…. Even a small amount, just $20 a week, can become a fortune over time,” he explains.

Other good advice in this book – those saving via mutual funds or other investment vehicles need to take note of the fees charged. A $10,000 investment in a mutual fund with a high “management expense ratio” of 3.1 per cent would cost you $1,029 over three years – three times more than a similar fund with a one per cent fee, he notes. “That’s a huge difference,” Foran warns.

If you are saving in an RRSP or similar vehicle, Foran suggests you should “reinvest your tax refund, which most of us don’t.” RRSPs and debt reduction are both part of a “well balanced retirement plan,” he writes.

This is a great, easy-to-understand book that covers so many bases we don’t have room to explore them all here.

If, like Pat Foran suggests, you are looking for a low-fee retirement savings vehicle, be sure to check out the Saskatchewan Pension Plan. SPP will grow your money and the fee is typically only 100 basis points, or about one per cent. Check them out today.

Written by Martin Biefer
	Martin Biefer is Senior Pension Writer at Avery & Kerr Communications in Nepean, Ontario. A veteran reporter, editor and pension communicator, he’s now a freelancer. Interests include golf, line dancing and classic rock. He and his wife live with their Shelties, Duncan and Phoebe, and cat, Toobins. You can follow him on Twitter – his handle is @AveryKerr22