The Copperjar System: Your Blueprint for Financial Fitness

Alan Macdonald, Paul Labarge

Description

"How to take control of your finances and your life!"

As a nation, we are wealthier and more prosperous than our parents could have ever dreamed. Yet for the vast majority, money remains a source of stress and uncertainty in our lives. Even those of us who are fortunate enough to earn a decent living can suddenly wake up to find ourselves asset rich but cash poor.

Ask yourself—do you ever find yourself: Living from paycheck to paycheck? Making only the minimum payment on your credit cards? Struggling to keep up with debt payments, car loans or even mortgage payments on your home? Uncertain of how much you spend each month—or where the money goes?

Sound familiar? Whether you are a millionaire or make less than $40,000 a year, the Copperjar System will give you the tools you need to achieve your financial goals, become financially fit and take control of your finances—and your life!

"Your Blueprint for Financial Fitness" is the first book in the Copperjar Series of books.

Sujets

• Wealth Management
• Economie gestion
• Economics
• Business
• Finance

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 17 juillet 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781456624729
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Copperjar System ™
Your Blueprint for Financial Fitness
(Canadian Edition)
 
 
Paul LaBarge
Alan MacDonald
 
 

 
 
Copperjar Group Corp.
Ottawa, Ontario

Copyright © 2015 by Copperjar Group Corp.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical review and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permissions, please contact the publisher.
The Copperjar System™ is a registered trademark by Copperjar Group Corp.
Copperjar Group Corp.
2203 Deschenes Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K2B 6N2
www.copperjarsystem.com
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2472-9
 
Ordering information
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and other groups. For details, please contact the publisher.
 
Individual sales. Publications by Copperjar Group Corp. are available through most bookstores and on-line book retailers.
Cover and interior design by VertexMedia.
Front cover image by VertexMedia. Copyright Copperjar Group Corp.
Back cover image by 123stocks, licenced by Shutterstock.com
 
This book is designed to provide information and guidance on the subject of personal finances. It is sold with the understanding that neither of the Authors nor the Publisher is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services by publishing this book. The Authors and Publisher specifically disclaim any liability, loss, or risk which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this work.
 

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
LaBarge, Paul, 1950-
The Copperjar System : Your blueprint for financial fitness / Paul LaBarge, Alan MacDonald. -- Canadian ed.
ISBN 978-0-9866056-5-9
1. Finance, Personal. I. MacDonald, Alan, 1959- II. Title. HG179.L3152 2010 332.024 C2010-903871-1

 
 
 
“Unlike many approaches that simply preach “spend less, save more”, the Copperjar System™ will transform your relationship with money. It eases readers into rethinking their financial lives and empowers them to make the most of their personal finances with a practical, easy-to- understand approach. “
 
Don Roy, President, University of Fredericton
 
“The analogy between the health management and wealth management professions is quite compelling, and this book does a nice job of flushing out what wealth can learn from health. As the saying goes: may you be blessed with good fortune and the health to enjoy it. The tools and techniques are similar.”
 
Moshe A. Milevsky, Ph.D. Professor, York University
 
“A practical, easy to learn and use process that will help you reach your personal financial goals despite the attraction of living and spending in the now.”
 
Ken J. Killin, BBM CA, CEO of public & private technology companies
INTRODUCTION
“You’ve just won $50 million dollars.”
 
 
There are few of us who have not, at some point or another, dreamed of winning the lottery. Just imagine all that wealth. The ability to put an end, once and for all, to the constant quest to fill your bank account before the next series of bills goes through. Like the happy millionaires in the commercials we see on television, we could quit the rat race, present our loved ones with dream homes and luxury cars, and be free from the anxieties of managing our finances. Ongoing wealth and security would be ours forever.
 
 
This picture of financial Nirvana is created by lottery corporations in a bid to get you to buy another ticket to the next big draw. Somebody has to win, right? And even though you might have a better chance of being run over by a dump truck while swimming, you should go out and buy that ticket!
 
 
The actual experience of real-life lottery winners, however, stands in bleak contrast to the marketing pitch we’re all so familiar with. Most lottery winners, for example, end up broke not long after the big win. Paul and Al have known four lottery winners over the course of their careers. Of the four winners, three are now totally broke.
 
 

 
You may think that getting rid of all that money so quickly would be just about impossible. Surely most winners are able to sock away enough at least to avoid going bust!
 
 
But lottery winners are not the only ones who burn through countless millions in short order. Consider all the professional athletes who show up in the paper a few years after their multi-million dollar contracts end, not because they’re on the comeback trail, but because they’ve just filed for bankruptcy.
 
 
Then there are all those dot-com millionaires who burned through their brief bonanzas. Most of us have heard the warning “from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations”—stories of family fortunes built in one generation, used in the next and lost in the third. It almost doesn’t matter how much money you start with, if you don’t have the financial discipline to manage your wealth, it will soon find another home.
 
 
As we battle our day-to-day anxieties about money, most of us give little thought to just how prosperous we are. All of us who live in the Western world at the start of the 21st century are the biggest lottery winners in history. The middle class of today is wealthy beyond the imaginations of 99 per cent of the people who have ever lived on this planet. Yet, in a recent poll, the number one concern of North American families is a lack of money.
 
 
This is because, despite our collective prosperity, we still share the same bad financial habits of the busted lottery winners and broke former professional athletes. On our own smaller scale, we spend more than we make, we acquire things that cost us money every month we own them, and we make financial decisions based on our emotions rather than using a disciplined approach that reflects our real goals and aspirations.
 
 
Sound familiar?
 
 
Think about it this way. Financial fitness has a lot in common with physical fitness. To achieve success in either takes a combination of good habits, discipline, the right information and a little skill.
 
 
This is a book about financial fitness. Its purpose is to give you the knowledge and tools to manage your money well, and achieve your personal financial goals.
 
 
As with physical fitness, the first major step on the road to financial fitness is to honestly assess where you’re starting from. Are you financially out of shape right now? If so, what can you do about it? To fix a problem, you first have to face the facts and deal with them. Then comes the hard part: finding the willpower to change your current habits in order to reach your new-found goals.
 
 
There are some strong similarities between being physically unfit and being financially unfit. For one, neither state is immediately obvious at a glance.
 
 
For example, you don’t have to be seriously overweight to be physically unfit. It is medically possible to be thin as a rail and still have arteries that are clogged with cholesterol. You can even have a physique that’s the envy of the gym, and still not be able to engage in vigorous cardiovascular activity for more than a few minutes. The person who looks slightly overweight may actually be in better aerobic shape than his leaner companion, with healthier blood pressure, cleaner arteries and a less-stressed heart.
 
 
The same is true about a lack of financial fitness. You may have a fancy house, a stylish car, lots of snazzy electronic toys and an expensive lifestyle—but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re really wealthy. You don’t have to live in a trailer park to be financially unfit. The harsh truth is, that guy living in a trailer may in fact be more financially fit than you if he lives within his means, has a few dollars of savings and is debt-free.
 
 
If you can’t climb a single flight of stairs or walk a few blocks without panting for breath, then it’s fair to assume that your physical fitness may need some work. The same is true with your money. If you have to scramble to pay your bills every month; if you’re living from paycheque to paycheque; if you’re taking cash advances from your credit card and running outstanding balances; or if you have to keep dipping into your line of credit just to meet your current expenses—then odds are, financially, you’re probably seriously out of shape.
 
 
Over the years that we’ve worked in the financial business—and between us, we have more than half a century of front-line experience with helping people manage their money—we’ve seen a lot of people go astray for want of a few simple tips and principles.
 
 
Alan has been a broker, banker and financial advisor for more than twenty years. Paul is a tax lawyer who has handled personal and corporate finance issues for more than thirty years. In all that time, we’ve had many a chance to observe human behaviour when it comes to money—to see the common mistakes so many people make, and to learn what can be done to correct them. Seeing the unnecessary carnage and misery that resulted from these mistakes led us to create a program that, if properly followed, will give you the ability and the tools to work your way reasonably painlessly up to a level of financial fitness that properly reflects your circumstances, needs, ambitions and means.
 
 
Like any other fitness plan, our system works by giving you the help and support you need to boost your own discipline. A good place to start is by being honest with yourself. If you’re like most people, you probably aren’t perfect. Believe it or not, neither are we. If you’re i