A firm, friendly must-read for readers in their later years.
A comprehensive manual on saving and planning for retirement.
Thurman, the CEO of Retirement Investment Advisors, clarifies at the outset of this second edition of his 2015 book that it stands on the shoulders of the first, looking at far more data over a larger span of time to offer the most information he can in 248 pages. Since the appearance of the first edition, he notes, a company called Global Financial Data has drawn together data on “the performance of every major asset class offered in the financial markets,” going all the way back to 1930. Using this and a wide array of other sources, he takes readers through a barrage of things to consider as they look at retirement, including whether they’re really ready to retire in the first place. The key focus of the book is reflected in its title, as Thurman concerns himself not with projecting sunny or even standard retirement conditions but rather with anticipating the worst—the kind of financial “perfect storm” that can upset even the sturdiest plans: “This is your retirement income we're talking about,” he writes. “There are no do-overs, and little margin for error.” He points out that a solid framework for retirement finances covers a 40-year time span and has enough flexibility to allow retirees not only to do plenty of things while still active, but also to keep enough funds in reserve to handle mounting costs in later years.
The most prominent aspect of the author’s approach is how it aims to help readers take stock of their individual situations: There are simple questions and simple answers about everything from income sources to equity, fixed investments, stock market speculation, annuities, and the Byzantine complexities of the American social safety net. He opens the book by striking a pitch-perfect balance between the personal (recounting a touching story about his father) and the briskly professional. He never condescends to his readers, and at no point does he ever gild the lily; the book feels like a long, friendly, but no-nonsense visit from a trusted financial adviser. He demystifies all the various investment options and empirically demonstrates how some things that initially look enticing can prove poor choices in the long run. He combines plenty of charts and numerous, personalized anecdotes, always with an eye toward clarity and concision. His program is designed to help readers make the shift from “dollar cost averaging”—the kind of money-into-the-pot saving they’ve been doing all their working lives—to “reverse dollar cost averaging,” involving the smartest, most practical ways of taking that money out. He leads readers smoothly and confidently into a discussion of the value of diversifying one’s holdings, which he notes is a key to surviving unstable markets and lean years. At every turn, Thurman tends to advise a conservative, old-school approach to money management (“prudent and practical,” he calls it), foregoing flashier tactics with higher immediate yields for solid portfolios and strategies.
A firm, friendly must-read for readers in their later years.Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-950863-53-2
Page Count: 248
Publisher: ForbesBooks
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A clearly delineated guide to finally eradicate poverty in America.
A thoughtful program for eradicating poverty from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted.
“America’s poverty is not for lack of resources,” writes Desmond. “We lack something else.” That something else is compassion, in part, but it’s also the lack of a social system that insists that everyone pull their weight—and that includes the corporations and wealthy individuals who, the IRS estimates, get away without paying upward of $1 trillion per year. Desmond, who grew up in modest circumstances and suffered poverty in young adulthood, points to the deleterious effects of being poor—among countless others, the precarity of health care and housing (with no meaningful controls on rent), lack of transportation, the constant threat of losing one’s job due to illness, and the need to care for dependent children. It does not help, Desmond adds, that so few working people are represented by unions or that Black Americans, even those who have followed the “three rules” (graduate from high school, get a full-time job, wait until marriage to have children), are far likelier to be poor than their White compatriots. Furthermore, so many full-time jobs are being recast as contracted, fire-at-will gigs, “not a break from the norm as much as an extension of it, a continuation of corporations finding new ways to limit their obligations to workers.” By Desmond’s reckoning, besides amending these conditions, it would not take a miracle to eliminate poverty: about $177 billion, which would help end hunger and homelessness and “make immense headway in driving down the many agonizing correlates of poverty, like violence, sickness, and despair.” These are matters requiring systemic reform, which will in turn require Americans to elect officials who will enact that reform. And all of us, the author urges, must become “poverty abolitionists…refusing to live as unwitting enemies of the poor.” Fortune 500 CEOs won’t like Desmond’s message for rewriting the social contract—which is precisely the point.
A clearly delineated guide to finally eradicate poverty in America.Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780593239919
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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