Personal Financial Planning

Tonight was my investment club meeting. Our speaker was Ron Lustig, a stock broker, who works for CIBC Wood Gundy. He made a terrific presentation on the characteristics of a 'balanced" portfolio.

As part of his presentation he talked about the contribution of various items to returns on investment. These included market timing, individual stock selection, political and environmental changes and asset allocation. It seems that historically asset allocation accounts for around 92% of return.

Ron pointed out that is every high school student learned about regular savings, staying out of debt, compound interest and asset allocation our society would be much better off.

I find it interesting that many people talk about just this subject. They can articulate the rationale for personal financial management courses. They agree that these concepts should be taught in schools.

Yet in Saskatchewan it seems that these discussions and arguments are ignored by the provincial education authorities and politicians