A useful, hands-on book to help readers prioritize their happiness through practical financial planning.
A thorough guide to keeping your finances—and emotions—in order.
This well-researched book is interested equally in offering emotional and financial advice. In a friendly, accessible tone, Cygan, a certified financial planner, acknowledges that money doesn’t equal happiness but that it surely helps. That said, hers is hardly a get-rich-quick message; rather, the strategies are pragmatic and balanced, since, she says, good financial health promotes good mental health. “If money were only the coins or bills in our wallets, life would be much easier and less stressful. Money is much more,” she says. “For people who have experienced periods with lots of money and other periods with very little money, it can trigger feelings of insecurity….Money can also incite feelings of fear and anger.” According to her guide, the key is not to make as much money as you possibly can but to find what makes you happy and then find a way to financially support that lifestyle. In most cases, the end goal doesn’t involve having a four-car garage. Cygan is essentially a proponent of the simple life, one that values experiences over things. If working fewer hours brings you sanity, figure out a way to make it happen. Don’t fall prey to jealousy or to keeping up with the Joneses. “Decide you don’t need a super-sized television or a trendy wardrobe. Even better,” she says, “strive to keep your car for 12 years. It’s a good first step.” While this may just sound like wishful thinking, Cygan gives her readers solid financial advice on how to achieve these dreams. Some of her suggestions may seem obvious, such as avoiding credit card debt and saving a little every month, but overall, her ideas are wide-reaching and sensible. She’s particularly good at helping readers think long-term and navigate tricky terrain like the differences between, say, a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA. With the well-laid-out table of contents, readers can easily use the book as a manual for specific issues they may be having.
A useful, hands-on book to help readers prioritize their happiness through practical financial planning.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0989778442
Page Count: 394
Publisher: Sage Future Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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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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