I am currently embarking on my DRIPping investment strategy. I purchased a couple of shares on the exchange board the author recommended. With the current global economic downturn, I believe this is an excellent time to invest in the stock market AND find a way to minimize your expenses. Money tucked away in a mutual funds set up for retirement dropped signifigantly for many people yet you still have to pay management expenses (MER). Mr. Foster shows an excellent strategy to minimize investment fees and, if focusing on dividend income, ways to minimize taxes. I encourage every Canadian to read this book.

It might be controversial whether DRIPing is going to sustain one to have an early retirement. Nevertheless, this book provides a good alternative for some simple long term investing for regular folks. The idea that impresses me most was not about how early the author got to early retirement, but his definition of retirement that was revealed in the book - not about having unlimited material possession or "n" million of money in the bank, but the humility and satisfaction of understanding what is enough. I like this book.

With all due respect to other reviewers, this book is a) a straight forward read and b) pretty darn accurate.

Looking at the plan he lays out in this book -- using DRPs coupled with SPPs your investment quickly becomes sizable.
Look at the major Canadian banks: BNS dividend .50/share/quarter that means at 100 shares ($4850.00 roughly) you will be receiving 1 additional share every quarter. Assuming that you continue to invest regularly (say about 375-400 dollars per month -- remember pay yourself first, let the bill collectors wait) you will receive 4 "free" shares in the second year (plus partial shares from the year before) 8 "free" shares the third etc... And that's not looking at splits, dividend increases, partial share reinvestment etc. At 2500 shares (his average recommendation in his first book) you would receive a quarterly income of $1250 dollars -- now multiply that by the number of companies in your portfolio (Say for example: BNS, CM .87/share/quarter, BMO .70/share/quarter, REI.UN .11/share/month, and NA .62/share/quarter) is roughly $6250 per quarter (three months) which is over $2000.00 a month.

I say its definitely achievable -- My wife and I have already started, we have an 18 year plan. Its a long term plan, but that is his point in the book -- this isn't a get rich quick scheme its a retirement plan. And according to Canadian law its a retirement plan you can pass on to your children (Securities can be directly transferred at death).

Now having said all that, I wouldn't stop with this plan -- I'm greedy -- but he also has a list of books for his readers in the back and I highly recommend reading them. Look into things like incorporating, rental properties etc... Very useful, all of it.

C'mon RP.

There is no way that a 2-3% div payout will become a 4-6% payout the following year unless the stock literally doubles.

How is that realistic?

The div payout will likely double after 8 to 10 years. If what you are saying is true, one could buy a few bank stocks and be a millionaire in about 10 years due to compounding.

His numbers were nowhere near being realistic.

DO IT YOURSELF! I have read a lot of books on investing, and this is the one that I would recommend first to anybody. The concept is so simple. Forget day trading and get rich quick nonsense. Anyone who is serious about securing their financial future should consider the fundamentals that this book outlines. This is the strategy that I am going to follow.

I have to comment on the Review done by Andrew P as I'm sorry Andrew but you just don't get it!

When he says that he get a 2 - 3% return on his investment, that only for the FIRST year! As long as the dividends keep going up, then say for example the next year it's looks like 4-5% return and a 6-8% the following year, etc.... Using the rule of 72 and the rising dividends, it won't be long before he has made all of his original investment back and seeing double digit (+10%) returns on the investment. So, yes he's numbers are correct.

Also if he points out that dividend income is taxes a lot less so that he doesn't need as much as us working saps. So again, I believe you missed a very important point.

Anyways, I believe it's an awesome book and a must read!

While reading this book, I was fascinated by author's talent to clearly articulate his investment strategies. Common sense language and pretty convincing reasoning make it an easy and enjoyable ride from the very first to the very last page. Being written for Canadians, the book's focus on Canadian markets' specifics further contributes to its attractiveness and usability.
HOWEVER, after having done some further research, I came to conclusion that such strategies have rather limited applicability. For most companies (including those referenced in the book) with average dividends yield of 2-3% of their stock price, one has to have about $1.5 million in such investments to generate $50,000 a year in dividend payments that are necessary for an average family to survive if there's no other regular income. So, either the author is kind of lying when he says he has far less than $1M invested or doesn't tell the whole truth about other sources of his income like, for example, capital gains from regular stocks trading.
So, in conclusion, my advise would be to use this book with caution and a fair portion of healthy skepticism. In any case, don't make mistake and "stop working" by solely relying on the author's strategies (unless, of course, you have $1M+ to invest, but in that case you would do well even without Derek's recommendations :-)).

I am finally glad to see the Canadians writting books about Canada for other Canadians. For so long, We have been listening to the American way of life, but now we are making Canada our own. I found the Lazy Investor to be an interesting technique to invest money. I am presently practising this technique and have found it to be quite useful and rewarding. The best thing about this book, is that it is not a "Get Rich Quick book", where the authour suggests five ways for people to get rich just like him. This book is written by a common person in Canada, about his way of smart investing and not getting so emotionally chagred over the market's ups and downs. All New investors should read this book. He actually gives you step by step ways how to implement his plan, which I found very helpful.

this book is really helpful!