Doubling your savings you could retire 10 years earlier, but if you have no control over how much you save, it’s purely a theoretical consideration. You could say the same for financial planning. Many times we’ve pointed out the benefits of having a financial plan – but they’re no good unless you actually follow them. And we have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of people don’t. Once a year they may sit down with their planners and pledge to spend less, sort out their investments, and set up that RESP, but how many actually do it?
To find out, just over two years ago we set up a little experiment. We invited Canadians from across the country to take part in a week-long financial boot camp we called the Seven-Day Financial Makeover. From more than 200 entries, we selected four participants – three couples and one single woman.We flew them to Toronto, put them up at the Fairmont Royal York hotel for a week, and told them to brace themselves for the most intense personal finance workshop of their lives.
Nine of the country’s top financial experts put our participants through a grueling series of sessions covering everything from budgeting and bank fees to insurance and investing. When they were done, we asked a top financial planner – to draw up a comprehensive and personalized long-term financial plan for each participant. Then we sent them home and waited.
We learned a lot about how financial planning works from the experience, and we think you can learn a lot from reading about it. But we also knew that the real value of the exercise wouldn’t be revealed for a while. As they left, all of our participants told us that our boot camp would change their lives. But would it really? It has now been more than two years since the Seven-Day Makeover and it’s time to find out. Can an impulse shopper really become a bargain hunter? Can a couple who always argue about money live happily together? Can a woman with almost no investment knowledge stick to a sound investment plan? Read on to to find out the five key pieces of advices that succeeded – and three approaches that don’t work at all.
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