The No Smoke and Mirrors Workbook: Overcome the Financial Myths That Will Ruin Your Retirement Dreams.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Investment advisers, banks, mutual fund marketers, brokers, and other players in the financial industry are getting rich at your expense. With huge advertising budgets, self-serving schemes, and incomplete information disclosure, they construct a smokescreen of financial myths that can destroy your retirement dreams.

Trahair exposes the popular myths — showing how they are perpetuated for the benefit of the seller, to the detriment of the consumer — and supplies the information needed to interpret and resist advertising by the financial industry. He exposes the reality of tax-avoidance schemes, presents a way to calculate how much you will need to retire comfortably (less than you may think), settles the RRSP vs. debt-paydown argument, and gives ideas for determining how much life insurance you need. At the heart of his philosophy for successful financial management are the twin beliefs that it is important to optimize rather than maximize your RRSP and that the best possible strategy is to attack debt first.

Both books include CD-ROMs containing Excel spreadsheets in the form of tools readers can use to apply the myth-busting lessons to their own situation. Smoke and Mirrors has spreadsheets for net worth, income and expenses, and cash flow projections. The Workbook has these plus six more, including a retirement optimizer, a personal rate of return calculator, RRSP value projector, an analysis of buying versus leasing a car, and two fun sheets: the coffee-money retirement projector and the “money drain pain” calculator.

Together, the books provide sound information on how to save money on a mortgage, make the right choice on a car lease or purchase, avoid the RRSP trap, track your expenses, and know what information you should receive from a financial advisor. The information is presented with illustrations, examples, and forms, making it accessible from the texts. Further value, however, will come from using the spreadsheets to gain a clear picture of your personal finances and see what you need to do to have the kind of retirement you want.

Trahair writes with authority, energy, and enthusiasm. He knows his subject and is passionate about sharing that knowledge and his unconventional viewpoint.