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Contact: Rod Jerred Phone: 905-845-3824 (ext. 5559) Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: rjerred@haltonsearch.com W T .U N I iS I >.\Y. ,1 A M A K Y l.">. 2 < X ) .i BUSINESS · A S Celebrities put best foot forward for winter shoe drive What do Lou Diamond Philips. Andrea Martin. Kurt Browning, Jeanne Becker. Dini Petty, Anne Mroczkowski, Mike Bullard, Gord Martineau and Mark Tewksbury all have in common, aside from being amongst Canada's premier entertainers and newscasters? They have donated their previously worn footwear to The Foot Shoppe to support the 7th Annual Winter Shoe Drive in aid of the homeless and needy in the GTA. The Foot Shoppe is asking its customers to "follow in the footsteps" of these celebrities by donating any gentlyworn winter footwear to a worthy cause. The shoe drive runs until Jan. 26. Gently-worn winter footwear can be dropped off at any of The Foot Shoppe's three locations and the autographed celebrity shoes will also be on display at all three locations during the Winter Shoe Drive. The Oakville store is at 337 Lakeshore Rd. E. "With winter now hitting us hard there is an increased demand for protective winter clothing for the homeless and needy." said Ron White, President and owner of The Foot Shoppe. "We need to get the word out so as many people as possible can take a quick look in their closets and pull out that pair of winter footwear that they just never got around to putting any mileage on. Just drop them off to us and we will clean them up and get them to those in need." Halton Women's Place. Chill Out and Red Door will benefit from the drive. The Foot Shoppe will also give a $15 gift certificate in exchange for a donation o f gently worn winter footwear. Canadians score poorly on investment literacy test he best that can be said about most people's investment knowledge is "don't give up your day job." Slightly more than 4,000 Canadians took an investment literacy test. Only one third answered 50 per cent or more of the questions correctly. The most surprising test results came from affluent investors with portfolios greater than $250,000. It takes a fair amount of time to accumu late that much money, so one would assume that this group of investors should have benefited from their experience and have better knowledge than the aver age investor. Not so. The affluent only scored 5.2 out of 10. This research comes from Cartier Partners Financial Group, one of the largest finan cial planning firms in the coun try. Their new chief executive officer is Dan Richards who has conducted a fair amount of investor research over the past decade. A specific example of a common investor mistake comes with bonds. For many, bonds became a popular safe haven during the recent poor equity markets. But as interest rates rise, the value of existing bonds decline as new higher yielding bonds become available. Most investors get this backwards. Almost half of those sur veyed said that bonds increase in value as interest rates rise, while only one-quarter under stood this basic relationship. One-quarter chose Canada Savings Bonds (CSB) as the best pretax option since the 1950s over Canadian stocks, US stocks, long-term corporate bonds or five year guaranteed investment certificates. CSBs have in fact been the worst investment during this time while US stocks were the best. When asked how often the Canadian stock market had increased during the past two decades, 25 per cent said twice while 20 per cent said five or eight times. The correct num ber is 14. The news is not all bad while the results are not great T DOLLARS & SEN Peter Watson Dan Richard said investor knowledge has actually improved over the past two decades. If you make intelligent investment decisions, you will have a better chance of being able to afford your desired lifestyle. Unfortunately, most in vestors are not even aware that their choices might actually hamper their financial goals. In my practice the most common investor errors I see are related to incorrect asset allocations used to meet long term goals and too many deci sions based on short-term mar ket conditions. Unfortunately, evidence of this is all too com mon. In my last column we explored mutual fund results versus investor results in the same funds. Only six percent of investors in large mutual funds actually matched or exceeded the funds 10-year performance. The rest achieved a significant ly lower average return. Testing your own investor knowledge will help you deter mine if you arc well equipped to achieve your life financial goals on your own or whether you should get professional advice. A good starting point is to take the 10 question investment literacy test at www.cartierpartners.ca. Make sure you read the brief explanation of each correct answer then compare your results with others. Peter Watson, MBA. CFP, RFP is the president of Peter Watson Investments -- an Oak ville firm specializing in retire ment planning. RRSPs. and investment planning. Barrie Erskine · Oakville Beaver O akville Fdot Shoppe store m anager Ju d i G allagher holds up K urt Brow ning's autographed running shoe, which is on display at the store d u ring Foot Shoppe's A nnual Shoe D rive this m onth. 10th Annual U nibed Mtey of Oakville Presented by Jonathan Marler All p r o c e e d s to U n ited W ay o f O ak v ille H ave yo ur W ill professionally p rep ared fo r only $ 1 00 * p e r person P o w er of A tto rn ey only $ 5 0* p e r person January 13th - 31st, 2003 Date Jan 13 Jan 14 Jan 15 Jan Jan Jan Jan 16 17 21 24 Time 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm 8:30 am -12:00 pm 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm 2:00 pm - 5:30 pm 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm 9:00 am -1:00 pm 9:30 am -12:30 pm 9:00 am - 2:00 pm 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm 9:30 am -12:30 pm Lawyer Marler Kyle van der Steen John Ford Marler Kyle van der Steen John Ford Marler Kyle van der Steen Daniel Barichello William B. Kerr Ruthanne Bowker Larry Gangbar William B. Kerr Ruthanne Bowker Phone 338-2300 845-1689 338-2300 845-1689 338-2300 337-0337 842-8600 844-0381 842-8030 842-8600 844-0381 Jan 29 Spaces a re lim ited. Call th e law yer o f y o u r choice today. ° N o fu rth e r fees. G ST included. No tax receipts issued. -T O D A Y ' A N D T O A T O I 7l ? O I V FINANCIAL ·TAX · LIFESTYLE Ron Rousseaux is o well known Independent Financial - Tox - Retirement - Estate and lifestyle Planner located in Burlington. Ron s recent completion of the Certified Senior Advisor Course front the United Slates makes him one of 4 Qualified C S A 's in Canada. His background includes Cost Accounting, Credil Management, Ministry of Revenue, 14 years ot Revenue Canada, Private Industry and he has operated his awn business since 1992. Ron was also the technical advisor to the Conodion best selling book, "Sudden Wealth'. Ron's opprooch to Financial Planning is one of using vajoe and common sense. His experience with Revenue Conoda and studying some of the best investors in the world has taught him that the Value Approach will olways reward his clients. Diversification, is a must to ensure that his client's capital is preserved ond Voted Hest income reeds met. Ron's opprooch is that a written Rnonciol Tax Plan is used so Financial Planner that we know where you ore going. Family Adolescent Straight Talk CKartty Moi I M S ) « 1 7 3 RM0001 F a m ily A d o lc t c a n l Stra ig h t T a lk Im 2SSO L a k * « h o r « R e m d W e tt O nN L 6 L 1M3 Te le p h o n e ! (9 0S ) 408-8338 To ll Freet 1 - I W 4 I 1 4 1 N LOME ME I f t i m W L M K I C H U C K RON ROUSSEAUX C vM H Sm M i'w 1st ANNUAL D IN AUCTION & DANCE "Back to Basics" Seminar TOPICS: - + Alternatives to G IG and Bonds - * Income Funds (not Income Trust) - ¥ Segregated Funds (100% guaranteed on Capitol) - > Why do you need to look of alternate financial instruments? * Interest Rates - why they wi[l remain low - » Annuities ·are they a practical alternative? Why you may wish to leave your Insurance Policy to your estate rather than to your family. - * Briefly explain · Borrowing to Invest and why you may wish to do it - » Why do I use Whole life Insurance over other Insurance products for estate planning - ¥ RRIFs and Income Funds - » Describe how to use a Reverse Mortgoge properly - ¥ Using a line of Credit rather than a Reverse Mortgage - What is our current Low Risk Value Portfolio - » Long Term Core Insurance and why you may need it. S a tu r d a y , F e b r u a r y 8 ,2 0 0 3 O a k v ille H o lid a y In n E x p re ss 2525 W y e c ro ft R o ad R e g is tra tio n 6 :0 0 p .m . C o c k ta ils 6 :3 0 p .m . D in n e r 7 :0 0 p .m . D an c e 10:00 p .m . D re ss: B la c k T ie O p tio n a l T ic k e ts: $40 in d iv id u a l S75 p e r c o u p le C o r p o r a te T a b le s o f 8 : S300 SE M IN A R DATE Tuesday, January 21, 2003 AFTERNOON: 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and EVENING: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Burlington Art Centre, (Fireside Lounge) . 1333 LAKESHORE RD., BURLINGTON " S ile n t a n d L ive A u c tio n - G u e s t M o d els R a ffle T a b le M u sic b y : F re e d o m T r a in To reserve your seat, call Courtney at e-mail: ron@todaytomorrow.com · Web Site: www.todaytomorrow.com No, your name will not be ploced onto a moiling list and no, you will not receive telephone colls afterw ards and yes, handouts will be provided. 905 336"994 1 in c . v B o e h rin g e r In g e lh e im ( C a n a d a ) L td . H o lid a y In n E x p re s s O a k v ille K -L ite F M /O ld ie s 1 1 5 0 /C H A M 820 B oeing A u c tio n C h a ir - B o n n ie B ro w n , M P O a k v ille For more tickets o r inform ation please call Sue G avigan at: 905-469-6338 Fax N um ber: 905-469-6341 S p o n s o re d b y : Sponsored By TODAY and TOM ORROW FINANCIAL PLANNING Licensed through GP Capital Corp.