An elemental program which battles financial anxiety by delivering methods for control.
From personal financial consultant Ford, a self-disciplined, gimlet-eyed framework for putting your money affairs in order.
Ford successfully endeavors to build a bedrock of principles for sound financial planning. It’s a foundation for the Everyman, presented in a yeomanly, amiable style. The author uses figures that most people can relate to and incorporates moral values into the financial picture (such as putting one’s family first). His eight pillars are equally sensible and approachable. Ford suggests readers establish an account for emergencies (setting aside $200 a month, primarily for debt avoidance); take an inventory of their worth and make a budget; stay out of debt (“Pay your credit card(s) off, in full, every month. If you cannot do this–you need to cut them up and get rid of them”), or assume acceptable debt–mortgage, automobile; educate themselves regarding insurance and the basics of estate-planning; save and invest in things with personal meaning, such as their children’s education and their retirement; outline ways to approach a home mortgage; improve themselves–learn something new or embellish your expertise–to improve their income; and give back, for that is their greatest gift. The author writes, “Giving back means sharing the time, talents, energy, and abundance you enjoy with other people around you,” which by Ford’s reckoning is ten percent of one’s time and income. His bottom line is that readers should take even the smallest steps to jump-start their program, and educate themselves on options and pitfalls. Of course Ford is a businessman after all, and has yet more advice to sell–CDs, workbooks, etc.–but he also wants to be readers’ Benjamin Franklin, preaching that an investment in knowledge pays the best interest. Fortunately, Ford’s plain-spoken edicts harbor no surprises.
An elemental program which battles financial anxiety by delivering methods for control.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A highly readable account of how solid research and personal testing of self-help techniques saved a couple's marriage after...
Self-help advice and personal reflections on avoiding spousal fights while raising children.
Before her daughter was born, bestselling author Dunn (Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?: And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask, 2009, etc.) enjoyed steady work and a happy marriage. However, once she became a mother, there never seemed to be enough time, sleep, and especially help from her husband. Little irritations became monumental obstacles between them, which led to major battles. Consequently, they turned to expensive couples' therapy to help them regain some peace in life. In a combination of memoir and advice that can be found in most couples' therapy self-help books, Dunn provides an inside look at her own vexing issues and the solutions she and her husband used to prevent them from appearing in divorce court. They struggled with age-old battles fought between men and women—e.g., frequency of sex, who does more housework, who should get up with the child in the middle of the night, why women need to have a clean house, why men need more alone time, and many more. What Dunn learned via therapy, talks with other parents, and research was that there is no perfect solution to the many dynamics that surface once couples become parents. But by using time-tested techniques, she and her husband learned to listen, show empathy, and adjust so that their former status as a happy couple could safely and peacefully morph into a happy family. Readers familiar with Dunn's honest and humorous writing will appreciate the behind-the-scenes look at her own semi-messy family life, and those who need guidance through the rough spots can glean advice while being entertained—all without spending lots of money on couples’ therapy.
A highly readable account of how solid research and personal testing of self-help techniques saved a couple's marriage after the birth of their child.Pub Date: March 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-26710-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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