Your Family's Money

Koos A. de Beer is an ESL instructor in Vancouver, B.C.

Your Family’s Money is personable and not in the least dry. The book
was developed in conjunction with the TV series of the same name. The
authors based their material on interviews with Canadians from across
the country. Their goal was to discover the financial situation of the
average Canadian family while keeping in mind that the term “family”
means different things.

The guide is divided into six parts. The first gives an overview of the
financial situation of Canadians; the others deal with building
financial security, taxes, raising a family, protecting assets, and
estate planning. Graphs and charts clearly show the reader facts and
figures regarding Canadians’ financial fears, incomes, savings
patterns, and investments and are used extensively in this part. The
inclusion of a glossary explaining such terms as “clawbacks” would
have been nice.

Throughout the book, the authors look at the financial situations of
real families, ranging from single mothers to families supporting aging
parents (brief mention is made of same-sex couples), and propose a
variety of solutions to the various financial challenges families face.
The situations were realistic and the solutions seemed doable. This, in
particular, is what sets the book apart from others of its kind. A word
of caution: the tax information is unavoidably dated.