re. Sunday, September 28, 1997 — North Shore News — SS north shore news » BUSINESS __ Cap course makes cents TODAY’S financial ser- vices workers are find- ing that professional qualifications are essen- tial, and Capilano College i in North - Vancouver has respond-- ed by offering quality training with a new Certified Financial Planner Program 8 (CEP). ’ Developed by the . Canadian.-~ Institute of ’ Financial “Planning . (CIFP) _.* $pécifically for individuals who ‘ wish to become qualified pro- | “fessional ‘financial - planners, ° a rogram covers the vam of financial ‘services. cand strate- ee = Macintosh Computer? > Apple Warranty Service - Depot And On-Site _ > Macintosh Computer Sales and Leasing - To Commercial And Corporate Clients : > All Phases of System Troubleshooting Memory and Logic Board Upgrades > AppleTalk And Ethernet Networking > Custom Database Systems and © Custom Programming. . ” D Offering the Best Hourly Rates’ In Vancouver! - D> Now Servicing Over 700 Steady Clients Call Us Uf Your Mac Is Drivi Yo Mountain Ridge Datawor Tel: 983-9206 Fax: 983-9 Me S.. offered ‘at. Capilano : Calle ¢:-on the institute’s - behalf, with :the- approval: of , The ” Financial Planners CAPILANO College’ 's Certified Financial Planner Pregram Advisory doard mem- ~’ Standards Council of Canada. bers first met last week. They are (seated, feft to right) Jim Rogers, Margaret , After. completing .the pro- Eckenfelder, Doreen Gardner Brown and Elaine Douglas. (Standing, left to right) gram, students with two years’ Sally Rycroft, Lynn Jest, Lea Milnes, Mary Marchant and Brad Campbell. work experience can write the professional proficiency exam-. that a college in the Lower ‘Doug Smith, vice-presi- ination in order to receive a certification mark. Capilano College is the fat- est addition toa network of " colleges across Canada offer- Mainland is offerin, the insti- dent of Investment and tute’s program. of our courses were updated over the past year, and the latest finan- cial planning - information — is Insurance Services at the North Shore Credit Union is one of nine advisory board members. ‘“Capilano College Presents we courses. While it’s also. avail- ing CIFP’s full program of added after each term,” he _ has responded to our need able \via" distance education, “Capilano College: is the first planning a program that will train our sai Members of the financial staff to provide the quality coramunity, advice that our members Lower Mainland institution to Capilano College and CIFP — expect,” he said. . offer the recently revised are represented on an advisory for the program that to register, please call “ courses in a college setting. For more information or John. Murray, executive boa for the first time last Continuing Education at “ director at CIFP, is pleased month. (604) 984-4901. Cultivating your cash : WE all know that money doesn’t * grow on trees. But the question of the-day is, does money grow in ‘times of low interest rates? You may be one of those people who remembers the “golden age” of high interest rates, and the thrill of looking in your bank book to see how much interest you made on your regular savings account.- Nowadays, the perception is that interest rates arc low so there’s no reason to invest in a traditional type of deposit. Not so. Just because interest rates are low doesn’t ‘mean there aren’t effective products out there, even in traditional deposits. In_fact, with the increasingly competitive market for your money, financial institutions are offering some appealing and flexible investment vehicles. Actually, the real interest rates are not as low as people think. The “real” rate is the “nominal” rate minus inflation, For example, say you have a 5-year GIC with a 5% rate of interest — if you subtract the inflation rate, say 2%, your real rate of return is 3% with inflation. You may think that investments were so much better in the 1980s, especially with a GIC interest rate of 14%, Sounds great doesn’t it. But with inflation running at 12% in the carly ’80s your real return was only 2%. So, what drives the interest rate down or up? There are a number of factors: @ inflation — as long as there’s a low inflation - § rate (like right now), interest rates are inclined to stay low because the government doesn’t have to encourage rates to go up to cool the economy; M the government’s desire to stimulate the economy — a low interest rate environment stimulates the economy; §B the government's desire for deficit reduction — they are the country’s largest debtor, so it’s not in their interest for interest rates to go up; @ political stability — in a stable political envi- ronment, interest rates are down; a dependency on the U.S. situation — we can’t divorce ourselves entirely from the U.S. econo- my, so if their rate of infladon went way up, ours probably would too; 5 the value of the Canadian dollar — at present it’s quite, devalued; if it falls much further the government might have to increase interest rates to make forcign investment more attractive. Right now, all of the above factors are under control. 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