Carl Richards’ slim little book packs a lot of solid financial information in a compact package. Richards has a simple approach to handling money. He analyzes common financial problems (like too much debt) and shows how to solve them. Here’s a short list of money topics Richards covers:
•avoid the tendency to buy high and sell low;
•avoid the pitfalls of generic financial advice;
•invest all of your assets-time and energy as well as savings-more wisely;
•quit spending money and time on things that don’t matter;
•identify your real financial goals;
•start meaningful conversations about money;
•simplify your financial life;
•stop losing money!
If you’re looking for a brief but effective financial management book, look no further. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Explaining financial planning through napkin sketches
The behavior gap between smart investments and emotional decisions
Past performance really doesn’t predict future results
Start with a plan instead of a product
Paying off debt is a great investment, maybe even before funding a 401(k)
Follow Warren Buffet’s advice and buy an index fund
Ignore all investment gurus
More money doesn’t solve money problems
Financial plans are much less important than the process of creating one and being flexible with them
This is timely as I was just reading an article how 38% of Baby Boomers in New York State have no savings and more and more people think they will never be able to retire. The older we get and more things we see, the luckier we feel at having been able to retire and have a comfortable retirement.
We are definitely in a relatively small minority these days.
Jeff, well said! I saw those NY State statistics, too. Far too many Baby Boomers are not prepared for retirement. We’re among the Lucky Ones.
Looks interesting, George. I’ll check it out.
Beth, THE BEHAVIOR GAP is a quick read. But it offers a lot of good financial advice.
Of course we (boomers) grew up believing that employers would provide retirement, plus we’d get Social Security, and what savings we had would provide interest. But greedy companies dumped retirement for employees, Social Security is bankrupt, and banks don’t pay interest, and it’s our fault, somehow. All this great advice came too late. I was one of the few who saved when other took nice vacations, but still barely had enough to buy a small condo. My savings gets squat for interest while banks make billions fixing currency prices.
Rick, you’re right about the banks “colluding” to fix the currency trading. They got caught. But someone needs to go to jail, too. Fines aren’t enough to stop that kind of behavior.
Social Security is not bankrupt. All they need to fix the current issue is to raise the wage base they are taking the taxes from to (say) $150,000 from the current level. Republicans who want to “fix” Social Security want to destroy it, period.
Jeff, most people don’t realize all those “illegal” aliens are paying Social Security taxes–but it’s unlikely they will ever collect any of it.