Overview

A veteran investment adviser and Forbes.com columnist looks back at the Great Recession and tells the inside story of why it happened, how it could have been avoided, and why we should always manage our financial lives as if there s a disaster waiting 'round the next bend-because there always will be. Still recovering from the last one, everyone s wondering, What do we do now? John E. Girouard, a Maryland-based certified financial planner and Forbes Investment Team expert, makes the case that you start by taking back control of your money. He explains how Wall Street marketed the idea that investing was the same as saving, then vacuumed up the country s retirement funds and went on a gambling spree, hoping it would all work out. Instead, millions had wealth, dreams, and retirement plans mauled or wiped out. Girouard argues that the cure is a return to time-tested financial tactics relied on by our grandparents to build a worry-free retirement. Institutions such as depositor-owned credit unions and policyholder-owned insurance companies whose profits flow to their customers, not their shareholders weathered the Great Recession with flying colors. Some life insurance policy-holders earned more than five percent tax free at a time when bank CD yields dropped to near-zero. Girouard calls out Wall Street for confusing the public into making poor choices, hiding risk behind granite-sounding names, elaborate charts, and mathematically unsound projections of future returns. He describes in detail the basic errors many people make, and how to avoid them-why it s often a bad idea to accelerate mortgage payments; how people penalize themselves by paying taxes with dollars that have already been taxed; and the advantages of cash value whole life insurance as a savings vehicle. This is a primer for those who want to start over, and those who want to be ready for the next recession, and all the ones that will follow as surely as night follows day.

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Reviews

John Girouard has written a manifesto about money and saving for retirement that should be required reading for every investment advisor and every client. It brims with honest, commonsense wisdom and insights into our behavior around money, the costly mistakes it can cause, and how to avoid them in the future. --Dan Sullivan, Strategic Coach

John Girouard has written a manifesto about money and saving for retirement that should be required reading for every investment advisor and every client. It brims with honest, commonsense wisdom and insights into our behavior around money, the costly mistakes it can cause, and how to avoid them in the future. --Dan Sullivan, Strategic Coach

Author Information

JOHN E. GIROUARD, a Forbes.com columnist and long-time investment adviser in the Washington, DC, area, grew up the youngest of four sons in Hartford, Connecticut, wearing hand-me-downs and working odd jobs to pay his way through parochial school and the University of Maryland while earning his BA in Economics. He built his career in the investment world by combining family lessons about frugality with a strong desire to help others improve their lives by achieving financial peace-of-mind. Since 1984 he has been President and CEO of CAPITAL Asset Management Group in Bethesda, Maryland, is the author of The Ten Truths of Wealth Creation, and is the founder of the Bethesda, Maryland-based Institute for Financial Independence, which offers educational programs and resources for individual and corporate investors. He holds the highest certifications in the field of financial advice and is trained as a financial-life coach. He is a contributing member of the Forbes Investor Team and since 2008 has contributed more than 40 columns on issues of concern to investors and financial professionals.

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