Free Parking [Mass Market Paperback]

Alan Dickson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0968885500 | ISBN-13: 978-0968885505 | Publication Date: May 15, 2001

Free Parking; A 2nd Look at Financial Planning takes a fresh approach to financial planning. Is it possible that all the money that you have been stashing away in retirement plans will adversely affect your future? Do mutual funds carry more risk than your financial planner is letting on? How can you retire with less money and live well?

This new financial guide will answer these and countless more questions. It will give you a new look on not just your finances but your future.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alan Dickson is a small business owner. He has been a banker, janitor, a restaurant owner, sign maker and an insurance and investment salesman. He is a recoverying financial planner.

More importantly, for the past 30 years he has been a husband and father. He has mastered the art of living a simple life and writes passionately about reviewing our priorities.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Preferred Marketing Inc (May 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0968885500
• ISBN-13: 978-0968885505
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,840,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Look at Financial Planning from the other side., March 15, 2004

By 

Ron M (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Parking (Mass Market Paperback)

Dickson hits the nail on the head. This is a great book for everyone making $50K or less, that has fallen for the RRSP trap. Dickson shows you that having a RRSP in retirement may be the wrong strategy for those in this income range.
There are a lot of good ideas for those making more than $50K a year, like laddering Strip Bonds and knowing how much you are actually going to have for retirement. With Strip Bond interest rates around 5 to 6% now, his example of 8 or 9% is exaggerated, but you can still use the strategy.

4.0 out of 5 stars Financial Planning Can Be Detrimental To Your Health, December 14, 2003

By 

AliGhaemi (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Parking (Mass Market Paperback)

-conventional financial planning that is!

Free Parking is just that, a book about living well, living happily, living in the now and not worrying about it all so much. Taking the Canadian social system as its departure point, contrarian author Alan Dickson - a former financial advisor and insurance salesman - illustrates the folly that is conventional financial wisdom.

Chapter titles like Career Choices - Be Careful What You Wish For, Financial Fables I and II and Taxes - A Nice Source Of Income are certainly not the standard fare dished up in a mutual fund prospectus. In fact, in the course of 180 pages Dickson makes a lucid case for ignoring anything and everything one is taught by the financial planning community. Furthermore, the profession is apparently not staffed by the brightest of the people. Which is the right cue for mentioning the book's many typographical, grammatical and spelling mistakes. There are many instances where the book proves an embarrassment language-wise.

Lines like "quit while your ahead", "5 year warranty" and "Instead of Government Bonds chose Family Bonds" detract from the book. Having said that, Free Parking is both funny and annoying at the same time and a good catalyst for refining and even redefining one's ways and means.

So next time you are approached by a representative of the financial community, ask to see his own financial plan and be prepared for the inevitable double-take.