I had the opportunity to review Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel and boy, am I sure glad I did.  It is H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!  I actually laughed out loud a number of times (and I must say, getting me to do that while reading something is pretty hard).

Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel is written by Phil Vallarreal.  If you don’t know who he is, I have to be honest with you, you’ve been living under some sort of rock because he’s one of the writers/ contributors to the Consumerist.  He’s also a syndicated film critic for the Arizona Daily Star and also contributes to OK! Magazine.

I had no idea he was this funny (sorry, Phil, I follow you on twitter, but I suppose it’s hard to capture that amazing sense of humor in 140 characters at one time).  Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel is funny.  At parts, it’s almost so funny that you feel guilty and sheepish to be laughing about it, and more importantly, you feel shocked that someone would actually say something like that out loud, let alone publish it in a book.

Basically, the book give 100 dirty little money-grubbing secrets that will help you save money.

Some of my favourites are:

• Double your Pleasure, Double your Fries- in which the tip is to use ice cubes to make your fries soggy.  After you’ve eaten the fries before you dumped the ice cube on it to make it soggy, go to the restaurant employees and demand new fries because your fries are soggy.
• Tupperware Thief- when you go to parties, look pathetic taking home something wrapped in saran wrap or aluminum foil.  More often than not the host will make sure you have some Tupperware to take it home in (and we all know how much Tupperware can cost).  The only thing Phil says you have to deal with is the passive aggressive parting shot “oh don’t worry about bringing that container home soon- I’ll hunt you down for it if need be”.  LOL love it!
• The Legend of the Cubic Zirconium Heirloom- Now, I must warn you this tip was found in the last part of the book (which is, in my perspective, the funniest section labelled “Gross, Mean, and Just Plain Wrong…”).  He talks about giving your future fiance a cubic zirconium ring and calling it a heirloom ring passed down to you from your mother.  Adding some sort of sentimental story to it increases its luster even more.  The author denies having used this tactic himself though.
• Double Movies-  Reading this excerpt made me think of my teenage days- going to an early film and then staying there until you see the next film in another theatre room.  Who hasn’t done that before?  It’s just a lot harder to do it as an adult lol, I would think.

There are some great tips in here that even I have tried (but I won’t tell you which ones) or that I think would absolutely work (the trick where he avoids going to concerts with his long term girlfriend by acting like a total jerk at the concert and embarrassing her… then apologizing profusely for a few days afterwards).  That one, he has tried and now he’s married to his long term girlfriend.

Some of the most useful ones involved negotiating, complaining (which I am obviously good at LOL), and “sticking it to the man” (aka big bad corporate America).

If you’re easily offended (especially with things that don’t sound ethical) then I would probably not read this, but if you like sarcasm, cynicism, and quick humor, this is a great read and will have you laughing (and learning) about some crazy ways to save money.

Secrets of  a Stingy Scoundrel Giveaway

This book is worth $15.95 and it will be worth even more because I’m going to be shipping it out to you.  Good luck and thanks for reading!  Contest ends February 7, 2012.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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I have heard many great things about this book so I was very excited to receive this book when I won a giveaway on another fellow blogger’s site (LIFE HACK alert: If you usually  never ever win anything, try entering giveaways from bloggers! I never win anything and I have won about four books in the past one and a half years).

This book is an easy read (finished it in about 5 hours) and is a real page turner (perhaps more so than that psychological thriller book on your nightstand). The authors have studied the spending habits, background, and savings and investments of America’s wealthy for two decades, and what they found out is more surprising than you would think. America’s millionaires do not drive expensive luxury cars, nor do they were expensive Rolex watches (more like Timex!). They do not shop at Saks 5^th Avenue, they shop at Sears and JC Penney. They are not the lawyers, doctors, or other prestigious professions, they are the small business owners. They do not hold 30% of their portfolio in stocks, they only hold about 20%.

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Smarter Than the Street: Invest Money and Make Money in Any Market by Gary Kaminsky

Gary Kaminisky is a co-host for CNBC’s The Strategy Session and he recently wrote a book revealing the wealth-building secrets of wall street insiders.  I was excited to read this book because I enjoy reading about different strategies of that investors have up their sleeves.

This book was a very easy read, he writes in a very no-nonsense way with simple terminology that you can understand (I think that’s the key to any personal finance book that talk about investing in the stock market).  He talks about how the next decade is going to be a zero growth decade, and why the “buy and hold strategy” won’t work in our day and age.

He explains why buying mutual funds aren’t a good idea, and why investment analysts really don’t have your best interests at hand.  He basically says that fund managers have their hands tied most of the time, and that they aren’t out there to make a ton of money, they are only out there to beat the S&P500, and are satisfied even if they beat it by a minute amount.

Gary talks about change and that change can be good or bad, and how to see whether the change is good or bad in a stock (by keeping updated on news, changes with corporate structure etc.).  He looks about two companies and how they dealt with change over the many decades they have existed, including GE and Disney.

Gary shares with the reader how many stocks they should own, and that it doesn’t matter if you only have a $10,000 portfolio.  He talks about how discipline is most important with investing, and that you shouldn’t be afraid to sell your losers (in fact, he encourages it).  He says that we need to avoid the herd mentality and do the opposite of what everyone else is doing (I definitely agree with this).  He also shares with the reader on how to hedge against a bad market (by buying ultra short ETFs) and says that buying indexes is basically for losers (basically says that buying ETFs= no growth for many years).

I enjoyed reading the book and reading about the insider secrets of wall street (something that One Up on Wall Street’s Peter Lynch mentions) because it was easy to read, but I found that the information in the book wasn’t completely 100% concrete.  He talks about shorting stocks when the markets aren’t doing well.  I did like how he enunciates that your stock broker or financial advisor might not have your best interests at stake.  He mentions Suncor many times in the book as being one of the best stocks he has ever owned, and mentions a few other key stocks.  He basically says to check financial websites daily for news and information and to do your own diligence when selecting stocks.  All in all, I find this book useful for someone who hasn’t read their fair share of investing books.

Readers, have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Smarter Than the Street Book Giveaway:

I will give away my copy of Smarter Than the Street to one lucky youngandthrifty.ca reader! North American entries only, please.

To enter this contest, all you have to do is subscribe to my blog and comment below to let me know you did so.  That way, I can contact you via email if you are the winner. The contest closes February 4, 2011 at midnight, PST.

The winner will be selected through Random.org and will be announced on Feburary 11, 2011.
Good luck!

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“The Intelligent Investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists”- Benjamin Graham

As I’ve finally finished reading this book while vacationing in Hawaii (you can see I was reading this book poolside), I’m going to attempt to do a review of the Intelligent Investor.  It is possibly the best investment book ever written.  I know my review won’t do the book justice, but I wanted to share with you what I thought of this book.  I feel that The Intelligent Investor should be read by every investor BEFORE they invest- I wish I did the same, as I would have done a lot of things quite differently.  Hindsight is 20/20 of course, right?

Basically The Intelligent Investor is so thorough, it pretty much reads like a textbook- it even has an index at the end of the book.  It’s easier to read than a text book (don’t worry Gen Y’s) and is very interesting and gives you a lot of “ah-ha!” moments.  So who is Benjamin Graham?  He’s definitely not as “famous” as Warren Buffett, but he was Warren Buffett’s mentor and inspiration.  Benjamin Graham is quite possibly the best investor in history- he was Warren Buffett’s teacher, for goodness sake.

The book has 20 chapters and each chapter is followed by commentary from Jason Zweig, a senior writer at Money magazine.  Jason gives a more “updated” perspective on the chapter written by Benjamin Graham.  He gives modern-day context to the Benjamin Graham excerpts.

So here I go detailing each chapter.  Note that the titles that I have for each chapter do not reflect the actual titles of the chapter.  My review is going to be very brief, but if you like the book, you should go get it.  I’m sorry I’m not going to give away my copy of this book because I’ve already dog-eared all the good pages lol.

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To be honest, I haven’t done much research on RESPs and how they work because I don’t have a kid, but I have always been meaning to look it up to see what all the fuss is about.  Another reason why I have always wanted to check out RESPs is because I plan to (hope to) have a child within the next four years or so.

Thank goodness Mike over at Money Smarts Blog wrote the book:  The RESP Book: The Complete Guide to RESPs for Canadians, because I was given the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the “RESP”, that elusive and often misunderstood registered account.

It is so well written, clear, no fuss, no fluff, no beating-around-the-bush and such a breath of fresh air.  It’s so easy to read I read it in 1.5 hours on a flight to Hawaii.  I had so many “ah-ha!” moments, I think my BF sitting beside me was getting annoyed with my mini-epiphanies.

It is so easy to read and so well-laid out that it will work as a fantastic reference book, basically like an RESP for Dummies (Not sure if they have an RESP for Dummies, but this book is so good and easy to read..).

I learned a plethora of things about the RESP- it really is so comprehensive and complete (yet written very clearly and simply without any wasted words) that it IS the ultimate “complete guide” to RESPs for Canadians.  It even has a handy dandy summary at the end of the book, and a checklist for you to keep track of the steps needed to open up an RESP for your child.  It even tells you step-by-step what options you have if your child decides to go the “screw education” route so that you avoid the harsh penalties and taxes if you withdraw the funds.

I knew that the government would match or top up some of your contributions to the RESP, but I didn’t know how much and under what circumstances.

Mike Holman also throws in some goodies at the end, including information about proper asset allocation and some basic explanations of investments you can hold in the RESP, including an explanation of stocks, mutual funds, index funds, ETF’s etc.

Here are ten things I have learned about the RESP thanks to this fantastasmic book:

1. The government gives your beneficiary a 20% grant to the contribution you put out (up to a max of $7200– that’s almost $10K!! Free money from the government!!)
2. ANYONE can open an RESP (which I had no idea…I thought it had to only be for children), but it can become a moot point if you are over 17 (and you’ll find out why if you read the book)
3. I had no idea that the hospitals have these RESP hawk-like prowling sales people/pamphlets that try to sell you their RESP products… evil!
4. You don’t need to use the RESP ONLY for tuition. It can be anything PF related
5. I now know what to watch out for (over-contributions, too LATE contributions etc.)
6. That if you start contributing to your RESP for your child too late, you’re basically SOL (you’ll learn how late is “late” in the book)
7. I learned that you can use the RESP for part-time studies too, but there comes with criteria for this
8. If you have a lower net income, the government will give you even MORE money (huzzah!!)
9. I also learned the reason why the RESP is so elusive and why you don’t see RESP accounts advertised in banks or in the media as much as RRSPs (note: and it’s not because it’s any less sexy)
10. Most importantly, I also learned that the Canadian government actually isn’t as bad as I had thought it was. That they DO try and encourage you to save as much as possible (what with RRSPs, TFSAs, RESPs) and reward you if you exhibit good money hoarding behaviour

So now I come well prepared with this arsenal of information about the RESP and will make sure I follow all the tips and tricks in the book once that baby of mine pops out (in the next few years).  From day 0, I’ll make sure he or she is well equipped and will have access to money for school (because being $40K in debt when you graduate from post-secondary just seems like it sucks).

I honestly think EVERYONE with a child or thinking of having a child should go out and get this book (available on Amazon) and start contributing to an RESP.  Giving a child the chance for higher education and not having to limit their opportunities because of money is the best gift to possibly give, IMHO.  I was given this gift by my parents (and scholarships thanks to my genius intellect lol) and am sure glad I didn’t have to go into debt for school.  Besides, if the government is giving away free money, why not take advantage of this rare opportunity?

Speaking of taking advantage of opportunities, I have a free book to giveaway to readers of youngandthrifty.ca, thanks to the generosity of the author of this book!

So to enter to win a copy of The RESP Book: The Complete Guide to Registered Education Savings Plans for Canadians, here’s what you have to do:

• Subscribe by email (any new subscriptions after November 1 will be automatically entered)

or subscribe by RSS (please leave a comment so I can enter you in the contest)…

if you’ve already subscribed to youngandthrifty.ca’s updates, just leave me a comment so you can be entered into the contest

• For an EXTRA entry, follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway:

Here’s the suggested tweet (just copy and paste it): Book review: The RESP Book Giveaway on youngandthrifty.ca http://bit.ly/ciZqP6 (via @youngandthrifty)

• Winner will be chosen by random.org

• Contest ends November 14, 2010 at midnight PST

• Canadian addresses only (makes sense as what would a US citizen do with a book on RESPs?   )

Good luck!

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