Once upon a time I retired, early ... meaning a drastic cut in pension. So I took my pension monies, stuck it into a self-directed RRSP and surfed the Net to find out what I could about investing. I lurked for several months at the Fund Library Discussion Forum, soaking up all that good advice from the many professional advisors that (at one time!) inhabited that place. Then somebody asked how to calculate the Rate of Return on investments. I had spent thirty years teaching math, right? So I answered the question. (At the time I called myself Pietro, 'cause that's what it says on my birth certificate.) Mamma mia! I was accused of "gumming things up with mathematics" ... so I changed my NetName to (what else?) gummy. During the next few months I generated a bunch of graphs (charts?) and provided a few mathematical insights and, at the suggestion of somebody on the Forum, I stuck all this bumpf (mostly tutorials) on a website called (would-you-believe)

... and lived happily ever after (with the Missus) ... Heidi.

August 2010 update: I am now permanently retired from gummy-stuff and have passed care and feeding of the archive to the Financial Wisdom Forum (FWF) folks. They have promised to keep it unchanged and freely available to all.

"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with
sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." -- Galileo Galilei

It's never too late to larn somethin' new. (I have )
Have fun.        
Peter Ponzo     BASc, MA, PhD, Fool, Nerd, Newbie ... and happily retired