FinancialToons

This is a category where I have posts about my reviews on the Personal Finance/Personal Development field. Personal Finance and Personal Development books are the same thing basically. Without having sound personal finance skills, you can’t develop personally and vice versa. Personal Development Books are essentially “self-help” books, but I don’t like to call it that (who likes to be seen at a bookstore browsing through “self-help” books???).

self help book cartoon

“Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill is a classic Personal Finance/Personal Development Book. However, as Patricia Lovett-Reid points it out in her introduction of “Get Real”, all examples (I think except one – the story about the girl who wanted to become an opera singer) in the book are men. I’ve always been looking for female role models, also a book like “Think and Grow Rich” but especially motivating for women. “Get Real” has many REAL female role models in the book. Like “Think and Grow Rich”, the book doesn’t list point by point how to attain what you want. But after reading the book, through the stories of these amazing but down to earth women you get it. The main message is, know what you want (find your passion), and if you make a conscious effort in attaining it results will follow. Be a positive realist.
At one time I was lucky to meet and speak to Patricia Lovett-Reid personally. She is an amazing person, I was truly inspired by her. She is very kind and generous in sharing her knowledge, and super down to earth. Thank you Pattie. (and I have a signed copy of her book! hehehe)

my date with warren buffett cartoon

Last night I had a dream. I was eating steak with Warren Buffett at his favourite restaurant – Gorat’s steakhouse in Omaha, Nebraska (where he lives). I was drinking red wine, he was drinking his usual cherry coke (Warren doesn’t drink. He doesn’t like to waste his brain energy for things other than thinking.)



I am visualizing this to come true!! Without paying $650,000 (check this news story “Lunch with Warren Buffett? $650,100“)

The man I adore is Warren Buffett! He is the world’s number one investor.

I heart Warren Buffett so much I drew a caricature of him.

Caricature of Warren Buffett

If you are starting out in the world of investing, and wanting to learn more but don’t know where to start, learn from the master first!  He is the only person known to have accumulated wealth and became the richest person in the world solely by investing.  If you invested in his company Berkshire Hathaway $10,000 in 1965, your portfolio is now worth a whopping $30 million !!  There are so many books out there I recommend.  The first one is by Roger Lowenstein – “Buffett, the Making of an American Capitalist”:

I actually cried reading this book.  When I read on Wikipedia that he has recently married his 2nd wife, after living with her for decades, I first though, “Yewwww, he’s one of those guys that left his first wife for a young one!”  Actually, it was his first dear wife Susie who left him to California so that she can focus on her singing career.  Susie actually found Astrid, his long ” mistress ” and second wife, or Warren because she know Warren was helpless in the household (he didn’t even know how to work the laundry machine!”).  He cried over the phone and begged her to come back!!  The three had a very amiable relationship until Susie’s recent death.  Awwww Warren I can help with your laundry anytime : ) if I were born 50 years earlier…LOL !

plain vanilla swap cartoon

Hard to understand what a plain vanilla swap is? Well, here is a cartoon. A wap is a particular type of Over The Counter (OTC) forward contracts. In the most basic type of swap (referred to as a plain vanilla swap), one party agrees to pay to the other party cash flows equal to interest calculated at a predetermined fixed rate on a certain principal amount. In exchange, the other party agrees to pay interest calculated, on the same principal amount, at a floating rate.

If you want to start a career in banking, consider working as a teller first. If you are a student and looking for some cash, rather than working at starbucks, consider working as a teller. It’s the same kind of customer service job. You are waiting on cash than coffee. My starting wage was $12. You get good benefits. In a year I got promoted as a personal banker. You’ll be expected to write the IFIC or the CSC, in order to be licensed to sell mutual funds.

Once you’re in, it leads to many career opportunities within the organization. You can aim for a managing position, or stay with where you are…work from branch to branch or look for a head office job.

I had to pass the CSC relatively quickly, for my job.

Canadian Securities Course – or CSC for short – is a long exam.  It consists of 2 textbooks, part I and II.  It takes forever to read this book, and I am a slow reader.  Therefore, instead of diligently reading the textbook, in order to pass the Canadian Securities Course fast and easy, I decided to follow my friend’s advice (he didn’t read 1 page of the CSC book) and ordered and read the Canadian Securities Exam book:
The CSC textbooks have WAY too many info that is required to pass the exam.  Read the above, do the practice exams and online exercises, and you can cut the study time in half.  I passed the 2 exams in 3 months.

Welcome to financial toons – one of the (MANY) blog sites created by the creator of cupcaketoons.com!

The creator of cupcaketoons is in the financial industry, and often takes exams in the field.  The textbooks are VERY BORING to read and HARD to study.  Therefore, I decided to create a blog, where Ie can draw comics at the same time studying it. I hope it will be useful for those studying the financial world/investment terms out there.  ***DISCLAIMER*** The author (creator of cupcaketoons and this blog) shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or other legal entity with respect to any sort of loss or damage or perceived damage caused, or alleged to have been caused by the information provided by this blog.  By reading this, you fully accept these conditions.

Also, it is my wish to help people with Personal Finance & Personal Development, which I consider essentially the same thing.  My goal is to enhance myself in these two areas, and to share my thoughts and experiences through this blog, with humour (intertwining my cartoons of course : ) )