Bruce Sellery - Moolala: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things with Their Money - and What You Can Do About It

My money is for__________________________.

Copyright 2011 by Bruce Sellery

Moolala is a registered trademark of Bruce Sellery Inc.

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisheror, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agencyis an infringement of the copyright law.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Sellery, Bruce
Moolala: why smart people do dumb things with their money
(and what you can do about it) / Bruce Sellery.

eISBN: 978-0-7710-8046-3

I . Finance, Personal. I. Title.

HG 179. S 434 2010 332.024 c2010-903571-2

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporations Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.

McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
75 Sherbourne Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5A 2P9
www.mcclelland.com

v3.1

For Dennis and Abby

CONTENTS

Introduction

3 Address the Consequences of Your Behaviour Around Money:
Why do you need to get a handle on your money anyway?

4 Manage Complexity:
Whats the right level of complexity for you and your money?

5 Engage Your Community:
How can personal finance become a team effort?

6 Coming Up with Your Moolala Goals:
What do you want for your life?

7 Getting What You Want Is Easier with a Plan:
How do you come up with one that will work for you?

8 Determine Where You Are Today:
Whats your starting point?

9 Deal with Your Weaknesses:
Whats holding you back from achieving your goals?

10 Develop a Plan for Your Moolala Goals:
What are the top three things you need to do?

11 Assess Your Cash Flow:
Why cant you just go with the flow?

12 Improve Your Cash Flow:
What does the alphabet have to do with it?

13 Working with a Financial Adviser:
Are you making the most of the relationship?

14 Do It Yourself:
Is a DIY approach to your finances right for you?

15 Develop Your Investment Plan:
What is the simplest way to get a handle on your investments?

17 Make It a Long-term Engagement:
What can you do to keep a handle on your money?

This might be the first book about money youve read in a long time, or maybe even ever. But if youre willing to put down your Margaret Atwood/Dan Brown/Danielle Steele/Malcolm Gladwell/Sports Illustrated/People magazine for just a few hours, I know it will be worth your while. How do I know? Because Ive worked with thousands of people like you over the years to help them get a handle on their money, and many of them were in way deeper than you.

Okay, maybe youre not in deep . But you might at least have an inkling that there is more you could be doing with your money. And while I know weve just met, my hunch is that managing your money doesnt trump raindrops on roses on your list of favourite things. You dont watch the business news channels obsessively or track your expenses with a missionarys zeal. Even though people are always telling you how important it is to plan for retirement, it just isnt a top priority for you. Besides, there are other things you want to doand havenow. Today.

Still, you have this nagging sense that you could be doing more, perhaps should be doing more, even though you really, truly dont want to be doing more to get a handle on your money.

I get it. I really do.

So, if you dont love working on your money, what do you love?

Baking molten chocolate cake for your dishy dinner party guests. Reading Where the Wild Things Are to your kids. Taking your Labradoodle to the off-leash park. Sanding the backyard deck you built yourself. Snowboarding off piste. Sleeping in. Shopping. Watching trashy reality shows.

Whatever it is, this is a book about what you love.

Let me say that again.

This is a book about what you love.

Often we disconnect our dreams from the financial fuel that will bring them to life. That is a huge missed opportunity.

Youre probably thinking, What do the things I love have to do with getting a handle on my money? Well, the better you are at managing your money, the better youll be able to experience more of what you love. Your money is simply a means to that end. Quite often we disconnect our dreams from the financial fuel that will bring them to life. That is a huge missed opportunity, and one that well address throughout Moolala. So here you are reading the introduction to a money book. Wow. Good for you. It takes a certain amount of intestinal fortitude to even consider focusing on your financial situation, and here you are doing something positive and proactive by holding this book in your hands. Many people live in complete denial about their money, some for their entire lives. They close their eyes, cover their ears, and loudly hum the theme from The Facts of Life, in the hope that they can block out the barrage of retirement ads, their parents persistent prodding, and the unopened mutual fund statements cluttering their desks.

For a moment at least, youre not doing that. Again, good for you.

I spent a decade covering the business news in both Toronto and New York. It was a crazy time, what with the dot-com boom and bust, 9/11 and its aftermath, and the criminal trials of fallen stars like Martha Stewart. But over time I came to realize that our audience was mainly people who really love to work on their money, a fairly small percentage of the population that doesnt include most of the people I know.

So what about these people?

Perhaps youre one of these people who dont love to work on their money. You tune in to discussions about politics, art, sports, or family, but tune out the moment the topic turns to money. Your lips purse with disdain at the mere mention of financial planning and you feel you need more than a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.

I thought perhaps that I had something to offer. I had a journalists perspective on the world of personal finance and had spent many years as a workshop leader facilitating challenging conversationsand certainly talking about money can be a challenging conversation. So I decided to launch a personal finance training company called Moolala. Its mission is to inspire people to get a handle on their money so they can live the life they want.