Book Review - Spend It Backward: A Lifetime Perspective on Money, Its Management, and Ultimate Rewards by Dave Curkendall
Category Book Review Spend It Backward Dave Curkendall
This little self-published title, Spend It Backward: A Lifetime Perspective on Money, Its Management, and Ultimate Rewards by Dave Curkendall, PhD, is a very different way to look at the age-old question of "how much do I need to save for my retirement?". Using a fair number of graphs and formulas, Curkendall seeks to find the balance between spending money now and spending money later. The trick is to figure how long you're going to live and what level of "joy" you want to have in your life.
Contents:
Spend It Backward?; The Zen of Money Management - Recognizing You Won't Live Forever - But Then Again You Might; Turning The Retirement Plan Into a Life Plan - Now We're Getting Somewhere; Variations on the Theme - Determining Flexibility & Sensitivity to Changes; Getting Realistic - Taxes & Social Security; Some Crucial Details - On Being Female and Getting Married; The Biggies - Your Car, Your House, & Your Kids' Education; The Tao of Investments - That 4% is Both Harder To Make and Better for You Than You Think.
Curkendall uses optimization theory to work on determining the balance between spending now and having savings for later. The goal is to optimize the Joy of your money by having enough to enjoy and live on from now until you die. Living on the bare edge while you save big for your retirement is just as wrong in his book as spending it all now and living on food stamps at 65. This is done by the use of graphs and formulas that can be constantly readjusted based on your ever-changing reality. Perhaps you had a banner year in terms of pay. Those higher amounts could be used to boost up the savings curve and see how it increases the spendable money available down the road. Conversely, a financial bad patch can also be factored in and studied for future effects. What it means is that at any given time, your estimated amount of money you'll have available for retirement (as well as how much of it you can spend each year) should be easily seen. It definitely beats the normal "save everything you can and hope it's enough for later" approach that most people take.
While some parts are easy to read, the author does go into his formulas and graphs somewhat deeply. I think that people with a math or financial background would get the most out of this book without suffering from math anxiety. But if you're willing to work hard at the formula pieces, you really will see a different take on the "saving for retirement" argument.
This little self-published title, Spend It Backward: A Lifetime Perspective on Money, Its Management, and Ultimate Rewards by Dave Curkendall, PhD, is a very different way to look at the age-old question of "how much do I need to save for my retirement?". Using a fair number of graphs and formulas, Curkendall seeks to find the balance between spending money now and spending money later. The trick is to figure how long you're going to live and what level of "joy" you want to have in your life.
Contents:
Spend It Backward?; The Zen of Money Management - Recognizing You Won't Live Forever - But Then Again You Might; Turning The Retirement Plan Into a Life Plan - Now We're Getting Somewhere; Variations on the Theme - Determining Flexibility & Sensitivity to Changes; Getting Realistic - Taxes & Social Security; Some Crucial Details - On Being Female and Getting Married; The Biggies - Your Car, Your House, & Your Kids' Education; The Tao of Investments - That 4% is Both Harder To Make and Better for You Than You Think.
Curkendall uses optimization theory to work on determining the balance between spending now and having savings for later. The goal is to optimize the Joy of your money by having enough to enjoy and live on from now until you die. Living on the bare edge while you save big for your retirement is just as wrong in his book as spending it all now and living on food stamps at 65. This is done by the use of graphs and formulas that can be constantly readjusted based on your ever-changing reality. Perhaps you had a banner year in terms of pay. Those higher amounts could be used to boost up the savings curve and see how it increases the spendable money available down the road. Conversely, a financial bad patch can also be factored in and studied for future effects. What it means is that at any given time, your estimated amount of money you'll have available for retirement (as well as how much of it you can spend each year) should be easily seen. It definitely beats the normal "save everything you can and hope it's enough for later" approach that most people take.
While some parts are easy to read, the author does go into his formulas and graphs somewhat deeply. I think that people with a math or financial background would get the most out of this book without suffering from math anxiety. But if you're willing to work hard at the formula pieces, you really will see a different take on the "saving for retirement" argument.
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