The Smart Canadian's Guide to Saving Money: Pat Foran Is On Your Side Helping You to Stop Wasting Money, Start Saving It, and Build Your Wealth. 2nd ed.

Geoffrey Harder is a public services librarian and manager, Knowledge Common, in the Science and Technology Library of the University of Alberta.

Pat Foran’s guide to personal finance deserves to be on the shelves of most households in Canada. Foran, better known to many Canadians as CTV’s Canada AM Consumer Alert reporter, has completed the second edition of his popular money guide. The book is filled with practical, easy to follow advice on a wide variety of personal finance topics, ranging from budgeting and investing, to other common consumer activities such as purchasing new vehicles and homes. Make no mistake — Foran’s book, now in it’s second edition, joins a plethora of other guides promising financial answers and solutions to debt and fiscal mismanagement. However, Foran seems to find the right writing balance — including useful information, sage advice, and good Canadian common sense — in an accessible enough writing style that he may very well make the average reader actually follow his book’s suggestions. All too often, it is obvious that many of these personal finance books are simply purchased, thumbed through and then added to bookshelves in hopes that they will somehow fix one’s financial problems through osmosis or other magic. Foran’s clear writing, conversational style, and well thought-out organization make the guide an easier and more enjoyable read than most, and a book that many people may actually successfully read cover-to-cover.

The book is broken into four logical parts: “Reducing Debt,” “Saving Money,” “Planning for Wealth,” and “Investing Wisely and Building Wealth.” Each section is further subdivided into relevant topics as mapped in the easy to follow table of contents. This book is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to financial investing, tax planning, and retirement. Readers looking for more specialized and detailed investing insights are better off consulting more specialized resources. However, Canadian readers looking to better understand and take control of their debt, consumer spending, and financial well-being would undoubtedly be satisfied and much better off by picking up a copy of The Smart Canadian’s Guide to Saving Money.