# MG's Interview



## Square Root (Jan 30, 2010)

Take a look at MG's interview in the G&M this AM. Page L4. Well done MG.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Gosh. I haven't even seen it - I'm not a subscriber! My kids really hope they made it in the pictures. 

p.s. Thanks!


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## Square Root (Jan 30, 2010)

MoneyGal said:


> Gosh. I haven't even seen it - I'm not a subscriber! My kids really hope they made it in the pictures.
> 
> p.s. Thanks!


They did indeed.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Well, that turned out nicely. I'm in the paper in my Chuck Taylors.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Here's the story:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...arents-personal-finance-rules/article2297278/


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## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

Read it earlier this morning. How lucky is this forum? 

http://www.canadianmoneyforum.com/showpost.php?p=105050&postcount=3

Hmmm, let me guess, is it MoneyGal?


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

[blush] I had not read the "random acts" thread. (uh. Assuming the reference is to me.)


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

I thought it was in reference to toronto-gal, though to be fair you are both from that city IIRC. Watch your taxes.


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## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

MoneyGal said:


> (uh. Assuming the reference is to me.)


The words *tax & her* were the only clues needed. 

*TRM*: I don't know 10% of what MoneyGal does in terms of taxes & a lot of other stuff; she's amazing & very quick with her answers!


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

MoneyGal good of you to stick your neck out and share your view.

I've been reading the comment section and noted that the interview was condensed & edited.

Some of my own views based on living the times.

Prior to 1970 home was thought of as just that, IN THE 1980s homes started to be thought of as an investment, in the 1990s they started to become an ATM.

All of the above was a result of government rule changes with the banks.
Up until 1966 mortgages were fixed long term 20-25 year . A 2000 square foot home was considered good.

In 1968, Canadians first got their hands on credit cards, making it faster and easier to spend money they didn't necessarily have, Chargex. 

In the mid 1970s inflation & wages brought government controls I was in a union contract at the time giving 14% wage increases.

Having a high school education in the 1960s and 1970s was the norm .
In the eighties college education really started to take hold. Today it's a given to at least have a year or two of college.

Technology has moved in leaps & bounds over the last 30 years, computers, cell phones, crackberries, internet, cars, you name it.

Job interviews were a matter of filling in the application and getting a call the next day. Today it can take 6-9 months before someone gets the job with all the testing being done and the world is no better off. 

In the eighties banks started to market car leases rather than purchase.
The nineties saw lines of credit.

Downloading of costs that use to be born by towns and cities really took off in the eighties. Build a subdivision the cost of sewer, water, power, roads, became the cost of the home.

My kids are in there twenties and had everything when they were growing.
Today I'm retired one of those lifer guy's that spent 30 years waiting for the DB pension and I'm not 60 yet.

I can't offer my kids much in the way of future advice as the world has changes much, but I do know education and debt avoidance should be high on the list.

Most people will change jobs every five or ten years in these changing times this I can see and it may be good overall. 
As one who stayed with one job as a career with one employer I did OK.
It does require a great deal of discipline to stay the course & forgo other opportunities as they come.

One of the biggest complaints from young people is that it was the boomers that created the problems of today.
Boomers for the most part did not engage in politics till the eighties there parents did.
In the mid sixties both the health care system and CPP came into being long before boomers had any say about it.
Market practice and government regulation were well under way as most of us were just getting started.


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## financialnoob (Feb 26, 2011)

That's really cool, congrats. And as always, some really excellent thoughts.


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

Boy, are those folks in the comments section a cranky lot.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Yes! I wish them good luck in putting forward their own points of view in their own forthcoming books and feature articles.


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## somecanuck (Dec 23, 2011)

Congratulations on the article. I have yet to ever read comments on G&M that weren't arrogant or vitriolic.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

MoneyGal said:


> Yes! I wish them good luck in putting forward their own points of view in their own forthcoming books and feature articles.


Lol. Like that will happen. 

Roma is fun to interview with.


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## Square Root (Jan 30, 2010)

Daniel A.: Not sure what your conclusion is? I agree the world has changed. Would be quite surprising if it didn't, no? 
As to the comments associated with G&M articles I agree they reflect terrible comments from people who seem ignorant, anti-social, and just looking to shock or fight. Never read them any more.


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

Square Root said:


> Daniel A.: Not sure what your conclusion is? I agree the world has changed. Would be quite surprising if it didn't, no?
> As to the comments associated with G&M articles I agree they reflect terrible comments from people who seem ignorant, anti-social, and just looking to shock or fight. Never read them any more.


My conclusion is it's very difficult to offer long term advice or a road map.
What worked for one generation would be very hard to apply to the one following. 

The nature of the change is surprising.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Newspaper comment sections are magnets for the truly deranged. Best avoided. Macleans is the only Canadian publication I am aware of that has semi-intelligent discussions in the comments. I also like the Economist.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

Just read the article. Congrats on the article. Boy, people find things to complain about.


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## Square Root (Jan 30, 2010)

andrewf said:


> Newspaper comment sections are magnets for the truly deranged. Best avoided. Macleans is the only Canadian publication I am aware of that has semi-intelligent discussions in the comments. I also like the Economist.


Yes I agree. Many comments are disturbing. I am worried that such strange unreasonable people are out there.


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## Charlie (May 20, 2011)

nice interview MG. Your advice was good.


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## Charlie (May 20, 2011)

For what it's worth...I didn't think the comments were too bad. Some disagreement with her portrayal of the past (the biggest house thing) and a couple of the standard defamatory bitter posts that litter most online forums. But no disagreement with her advice --which was the meat of the interview. It's no easy task providing advice to an audience determined to find fault, and have none of that advice questioned. A good read. Congrats MG.


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

Part of the problem, to be frank, is that newspaper articles want to put a neat "frame" around the article. 

So they came up with the tag "not your parents' financial advice" - which had people focus on my age, and the age of my parents, and the time during which my parents would have been buying their first house. 

Which, if you read the article and look at what I actually said, isn't really what I was trying to say. My point was that "old" advice - or advice from the past - doesn't necessarily work, and that people need to think carefully about the choices they make. And certainly I could point to suggestions (probably not here, but on other financial boards) that STILL suggest that people should "stretch" to buy their first house. Whether my parents or your parents or any one set of parents ever suggested that, that advice and rationale is out there.

The one idea I had that they didn't really pick up on was - what do you do if you "wake up" at age 35 and say, "how am I going to pay off this mortgage / save for my kids' post-secondary education AND save for my own retirement, given that I spent my way through my 20's?" My thought was that one way to "re-frame" that conversation was to think, "I enjoyed my retirement in advance." 

Not to be too gloomy - but if we think about the traditional idea of retirement - no responsibilities, freedom to travel, good cash flow - if you are one of the (MANY) young professionals I know of who are in that "waking up" process at 35-ish, you could re-frame your situation as "I got to enjoy in advance what other people have to wait 30 years to get!" 

Anyways. It was just an idea. 

Also: everyone loves a redemption story. They wanted to frame my story as how I found the light after a series of mis-steps...hence that idea that I did things "backwards." But I didn't. I did things normally for my generation - but my one saving grace is that I saved in my 20s. 

Thanks for the compliments, people. I appreciate them more than you know.


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

I read the article the other day, it is so true. The funny thing it is our parents who always want to pass on their advice to us.

'I enjoyed my retirement in advance'.....LOL....that is one way to look at it.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

Cal said:


> 'I enjoyed my retirement in advance'.....LOL....that is one way to look at it.


Sounds like the classic story of the ant and grasshopper.


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