Your Money Milestones illustrates how four principles inspired by basic
arithmetic can be applied to manage the most important financial decisions (money
milestones) people face over their entire financial lifecycles.
- Addition: Identify the true value all of your financial resources.
- Subtraction: Budget for the hidden liabilities in your future.
- Division: Spend your total resources evenly over time.
- Multiplication: Prepare for many alternative and unexpected universes.
This book offers a complete framework for thinking about money that’s
every bit as provocative as Freakonomics.
Drawing on the newest research into psychology and personal finance, Milevsky
helps you identify the true value all of your resources; budget for hidden liabilities in
your future; plan to spend your total resources smoothly over time; and prepare for
unexpected events that could upend even the most careful planning. You’ll discover why
children are short-term investment liabilities but may be long-term pension assets, why
winning the lottery may increase your chances of going bankrupt, and why giving up control
of your retirement nest egg might actually make you happier. The insights are fascinating
and useful throughout your life whether you're deciding what to study, contemplating your
first home purchase, deciding whether to keep contributing to your 401(k), or considering
when and whether to retire.
Moshe A. Milevsky, Ph.D. is a tenured finance professor at the Schulich School of
Business at York University (www.yorku.ca) in Toronto, Canada, and the executive director
of the nonprofit IFID Centre (www.ifid.ca). He is also the president and CEO of The QWeMA
Group (www.qwema.ca), a software company that develops intellectual property and numerical
algorithms for the financial services industry. He also writes a monthly column for Research
Magazine that is read by financial advisors and planners in North America.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xv
About the Author xvii
Prologue: Financial Deicide xix
Introduction: Human Capital: Your Greatest Asset 1
Chapter 1: Is the Long-Term Value of an Education Worth the Short-Term Cost?
13
Chapter 2: What Is the Point of Saving Money Forever? 35
Chapter 3: How Much Debt Is Too Much and How Much Is Too Little? 53
Chapter 4: Are Kids Investments and Can Marriages Diversify? 69
Chapter 5: Government Tax Authorities: Partners, Adversaries, or Bazaar
Merchants? 85
Chapter 6: Can You Eat Your House or Will It Ever Pay Dividends? 101
Chapter 7: Insurance Salesmen and Warranty Peddlers: Are They Smooth Enough?
113
Chapter 8: Portfolio Construction: What Asset Class Do You Belong To?
129
Chapter 9: Retirement: When Is It Time to Shutter the Well and Close the Mine?
147
Conclusion: Four Principles to Guide All Financial Decisions and Money
Milestones 169
References 177
Index 185
224 pages, Paperback