A valuable peek into the toolbox of a seasoned money-management expert.
An experienced financial advisor with more than 25 years of experience presents a comprehensive guide to financial management and retirement planning.
McGuire, the president and CEO of a business brokerage and financial services company, offers readers an in-depth look at the principles and strategies that he’s found to be most effective in building wealth, securing retirement, and leaving legacies for future generations. His book contains personal anecdotes (including an opening story about a significant investment loss), vignettes, and quotes from financially successful people throughout history. The author also offers his own golf analogies (“Ah, the financial water hazards, where our hard-earned money can go to swim with the fishes!”), which teach down-to-earth lessons about the game of finance, showing how each of the principles he discusses plays out in real life. The examples he provides are based on Canadian and U.S. currencies, and his inclusion of charts in the text make his explanations feel concrete and easily actionable. McGuire exposes different aspects of how banks and financial institutions have “rigged the game in their favour,” while also instructing readers on how to manage money wisely in such an environment. The author also strongly urges readers to invest in whole life insurance, devoting the end of the book to making his case for this financial strategy. Overall, McGuire’s straightforward, well-researched prose is best read in small increments, with a highlighter handy to note the important nuggets of information in each chapter. This book will be a particularly useful resource for adults in midlife trying to navigate the complex challenges of planning for a secure retirement. However, it will be a worthwhile read for anyone attempting to get their finances in order, whether they’re beginning budgeters or seasoned investors.
A valuable peek into the toolbox of a seasoned money-management expert.Pub Date: May 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781039198111
Page Count: 276
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
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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