By 2 Cents on October 8th, 2010 | Category: Book Reviews |  This is not just a symbolic black mark. The markets rely on investor confidence, and when that is shaken the results are recorded in tangible declines on balance sheets.
~ Maria Bartiromo
A couple of weeks ago a representative of the public relations firm handling CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo’s new book sent me an email asking if I would care to review it. I quickly agreed, but my interest stemmed more from a curiosity about the tenor and approach the book would take rather than its actual contents. The book is called The Weekend That Changed Wall Street: An Eyewitness Account. It’s about that fateful September weekend a little over 2 years ago when the 158-year-old financial icon Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, sending global financial markets into a panic.
Before I read the book, I wondered whether it would offer substantive information about the financial crisis. Given [...]
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By 2 Cents on September 10th, 2010 | Category: Book Reviews | Whereas shopping and accumulation once promised a golden pathway to happiness, now consumers are getting unexpected pleasure hits from cutting back and making more considered consumption choices.
~ Andrew Benett & Ann O’Reilly
When you read this review of Consumed by Andrew Benett and Ann O’Reilly, you will recognize many of the major themes we address at Balance Junkie. I loved this book, and I’ll have a chance for you to win a free copy if you think you might feel the same – details at the end of the article. It’s been my contention that our society has become quite unbalanced on many levels. The financial turmoil of the past couple of years is a symptom rather than a cause of these imbalances.
Hyperconsumerism is arguably at the root of many of these problems. If you’re tired of running on the consumption rat wheel, you are not [...]
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By 2 Cents on September 3rd, 2010 | Category: Book Reviews | . . . too many people are unwilling to do what’s necessary to get their financial house in order. . . . Everyone wins when we have our financial affairs in order.
~ Scott Feher, Your Life & Your Money
If you’ve been reading this blog for any period of time at all, you know that I write a lot about imbalances in the global economy and in our society at large. Scott Feher, author of Your Life & Your Money, seems to have noticed some of the same trends. He writes:
“We live in an age of delusion. . . . Our biggest delusion is a sense of entitlement. . . . People delude themselves into believing everything is fine while engaging in behavior that’s definitely not fine. Then, when something goes wrong, they stand there blankly and do nothing about it, expecting somebody [...]
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By 2 Cents on August 27th, 2010 | Category: Book Reviews | If there is one common theme to the vast range of crises we consider in this book, it is that excessive debt accumulation, whether it be by the government, banks, corporations, or consumers, often poses greater systemic risks than it seems during a boom. Infusions of cash can make a government look like it is providing greater growth to its economy than it really is. Private sector borrowing binges can inflate housing and stock prices far beyond their long-run sustainable levels, and make banks seem more stable and profitable than they really are.
~ Carmen Reinhart & Ken Rogoff, This Time Is Different
The subtitle of This Time Is Different indicates that the book covers “Eight Centuries of Financial Folly”, but its release date (September, 2009) makes it extremely relevant to our most recent and ongoing bout of financial folly. In fact, the authors devote the final four [...]
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By 2 Cents on July 9th, 2010 | Category: Book Reviews | Estate planning is not just for people who are old or have lots of money. Estate planning is for everyone.
~ Jim Yih & Marvin Toy
If you’re anything like me, estate planning ranks somewhere between going to the dentist and cleaning out the garage on the motivation scale. But it deserves to place much higher in light of its importance to the future well-being of your love ones. Like a lot of the other tasks that we consider boring, tedious, or just too hard to begin, estate planning isn’t so daunting once you take that first step and just get started.
If you’re looking for a great place to start, you might want to pick up a copy of Smart Tips for Estate Planning by Marvin Toy and Jim Yih. Mr. Toy is an experienced lawyer with expertise in the areas of tax law and estate planning. [...]
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By 2 Cents on June 11th, 2010 | Category: Book Reviews | It is seldom luck or inheritance or advanced degrees or even intelligence that enables people to amass fortunes. Wealth is more often the result of a lifestyle of hard work, perseverance, planning, and most of all, self-discipline.
~ Thomas Stanley & William Danko, The Millionaire Next Door
The Millionaire Next Door is one of the true personal finance classics. It was originally published in 1996, and the ideas behind it were based on surveys conducted in 1995. Still, the lessons of this book are just as relevant today as they were more than a decade ago.
When Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko set out to discover how people become wealthy, they began by surveying people in upscale neighbourhoods across the U.S.. They were surprised to find that many people who lived in large homes and drove expensive cars were not wealthy at all. Further, [...]
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By 2 Cents on May 14th, 2010 | Category: Book Reviews | Throughout the years, feedback from individuals continued to underscore the idea that this course was not simply about retiring early but about thinking in new ways.
~ Prologue, Your Money or Your Life
Update: This review was included in the Forethought Edition of the Festival of Frugality #280 at Penniless Parenting. Thank You!
This book has become a personal finance classic with a bit of a cult following. It first came out in 1992, but a new edition was released in 2008. With Phase I of the financial crisis unfolding at the time, I guess it just looked as if we really needed it again.
The book was originally written by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. It was based on principles that Joe used to retire at age 31. While Joe unfortunately died in 1997, Vicki worked with Monique Tilford on [...]
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By 2 Cents on April 23rd, 2010 | Category: Book Reviews | Don’t lapse into a high school math class coma; this is easy to grasp . . . If you know how old you are and how much you make, you can master your retirement planning.
~ Charles Farrell, Your Money Ratios
If you’re not a math fan, you might be turned off by the very title of this book: Your Money Ratios: 8 Simple Tools for Financial Security. Ratios? Simple? You’re kidding, right? This book is probably full of the charts and mathematical formulae that I happily put aside after graduation. It’s for all those propeller heads who are turned on by calculators, computers and endless numerical analysis.
I had some of the same apprehensions when the publisher of this book offered to send me a copy for review. Many of my concerns were put to rest once I began reading. Although I received a complimentary copy [...]
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