Alison Griffiths

Alison Griffiths is an award winning financial journalist, bestselling author and experienced broadcaster.  She brings to her work a formidable array of skills including a background in economics, investigative research and financial writing.   

For the past three years, Griffiths has been hosting the acclaimed television shows Maxed Out for W Network and Dollars and Sense for Viva, which deals with all aspects of money from its impact on relationships, to issues of debt and investing.

Griffiths writes the popular ‘Me and My Money’ column in The Toronto Star, and she blogs regularly for moneyville.ca and Masters of Money - the first blog to feature Canada's major financial experts. Thousands of readers have turned out to attend her ‘House Calls’ seminar series (sponsored by The Star and the Investor Education Fund) on investing.  Griffiths also broadcasts a national financial report daily on 12 Information Radio stations. She is in-demand as a speaker on money matters, as well as a seminar leader for a series of workshops for women about investing and money management.

Griffiths’ financial writing has included the popular ‘Portfolio Doctor’ and ‘Choice Portfolios’ column in The Toronto Star, the Portfolio Doctor book, co-authored with David Cruise, and she is currently completing a book on understanding and taking control of your investing life.  She is also the Consulting Expert for BMO's SmartSteps for Parents website.

She has received awards from Actra, The Canadian Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Business Writing Awards, the Gemini’s, the National Magazine Writing Awards, the Canadian Library Association and the Robert Wagner Screen Writing Awards.

When it comes to broadcasting, Griffiths has hosted numerous programs including The Score, a CBC sports magazine show, Midday (CBC TV), The Canadian Investor (CTV), The Inside Track (CBC Radio) and Morningside (CBC Radio).

A feature length documentary (2007) by Academy award-winning film maker, John Zaritsky, entitled Wild Horse Redemption, is based on the book written by Griffiths and her husband David Cruise about Wild Horse Annie, the woman who saved the mustang from extinction in the 1950s. Along with Cruise, Griffiths has also co-written ten books that cover far ranging topics from history and biography to sport and true crime.  Their first work of fiction, Vancouver: A Novel, earned them a coveted Star Review in the U.S. based Publishers Weekly.  Alison's new book Count on Yourself--Take Charge of Your Money will be released in January.

• 2. Family Inc.

  Money accompanies us from cradle to grave.  How well families understand and manage their financial affairs has a huge impact on success and happiness.  Professionals, HR departments and family-centred organizations will enrich their clients, employees and members with Alison’s practical tips about how to raise money-smart kids and how parents can improve their own financial skills. 

• 1. Financial Wellness in the Workplace

  Financial stress is a major factor in employee productivity and absenteeism. Attendees learn how financial stress affects themselves and their employees and they develop skills in recognizing it and taking steps to be supportive and pro-active.

• 4. Budget Boot Camp

  Break the paycheque to paycheque cycle with an audit of your financial life. Alison's lively and motivational ideas and tips show you how to do a 180 on an unhealthy balance sheet. Full of informative and easily followed suggestions everyone will come away with a sense of financial empowerment.

• 3. Count On Yourself

  Aimed at demystifying many aspects of personal finance and investing. The focus is on how to make good financial decisions, how to get organized and simplify your money. This is about taking control and empowering yourself to become a decisive and informed manager of your own financial affairs. All too often we hand off this part of our lives to those who, in the end, don't have our best interests at heart. Count on Yourself and take control.

• Alison Griffiths has hosted the past two launch events for Credit Education Week Canada. Alison is superb in keeping the audience interested with humor and expertise in the area of financial literacy. She has a knack for understanding the audience and relating to the topic. We will continue to use Alison in the future as her involvement has resulted in highly enjoyable and seamless events.

  Credit Canada

• Alison’s speech about Making Sense of your Financial Life was a super presentation and very relevant to our theme about Financial Planning and Money Management. Her passion and enthusiasm for the topic came to light in her presentation.

   

  Community Futures Visions North

• Alison was so sympathetic and understanding of our clients' needs. The information about debt and credit was delivered with humour and will help them all improve their financial lives.

  Ernestine Women's Shelter, Toronto

• We laughed, we learned and came away much better prepared to help our HR departments deal with financial issues facing employees.  Alison’s Financial Wellness in the Workplace speech gave us many excellent tools and resources.

  Workplace Wellness Conference, Newfoundland

• Alison’s charisma delighted the packed audience at our show.  Her approach to couples and money was well received and we’d be pleased to have her back any time.

  Total Woman's Show

• Your presentation was just what the 'financial doctor' ordered - from my vantage point the audience was very engaged and interested. We have already received feedback about the event, with one long time attendee explained that this was the best SM@Revent they had attended. I think that speaks volumes!

  Rogers

• 
  March 2010

  Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Mustangs: The Life of Velma Johnston

  In 1950, Velma Johnston was a secretary at an insurance company in Reno, Nevada. Twenty years later, she had become a national hero, responsible for spurring Congress into passing legislation that protected wild horses, a feat that cemented her renown as "Wild Horse Annie." This stirring biography is the first to tell the story of Johnston's life and her extraordinary dedication to the mustangs that represent the spirit of the West.

  
  
• 
  January 2004

  Vancouver: A Novel

  It’s the book that captured the hearts of readers all over the country. Vancouver begins with a solitary Siberian survivor in the dying era of the last Ice Age and moves through history in a rich, ever-expanding tapestry. A novel that is as monumental in size and spirit as the vast Pacific Coast it captures in its pages, Vancouver is a mesmerizing tale of people and place, a grand and glorious read.

  
  
• 
  October 1996

  Great Adventure: How the Mounties Conquered the West

  In 1873, an almost impossible mission was accomplished by an improbable posse of recruits. With little training and less experience, 150 men embarked upon a nine-hundred-mile march from civilized Toronto to a trading post at the heart of the wild frontier. Their goal: to penetrate Indian Territory, stamp out nefarious whiskey trafficking, and bring order to a lawless land. What they encountered was horrifying and glorious in ways they could never have imagined. Official histories of the march have been largely based on the writings of the first commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and are colored accordingly. David Cruise and Alison Griffiths present an entirely different perspective of this extraordinary event, using such primary sources as diaries and memoirs by the "Mounties" themselves, contemporary newspaper accounts, and other recently discovered materials.