Taking Control: Your Blueprint for Financial Success

Raymond B. Blake is an assistant professor of history at Mount Allison
University and the author of Canadians at Last: Canada Integrates
Newfoundland as a Province.

This short, well-written, and easy-to-read book covers much more than
the basics of financial planning. Besides introducing the reader to the
stock market and mutual funds, the authors provide chapters on estate
planning, bonds, planning for children’s education, and teaching
children financial responsibility. Considerable space is devoted to
government and private pensions, as well as registered retirement
savings plans and post-RRSP alternatives.

For Newsome and Zahn, the three fundamental prerequisites for financial
security are commitment, an understanding of the financial system, and a
personalized plan. Their book offers much sage advice. The worksheets,
the glossary of financial terms, the charts, the explanation of bond,
mutual fund, and stock quotes, and the index are an added bonus. If you
have time to read only one book on financial planning this year, make it
Taking Control.