Investing For Life

A study of the early years of the life insurance industry in 19th century America. Investing in Life considers the creation and expansion of the American life insurance industry from its early origins in the 1810s through the 1860s and examines how its growth paralleled and influenced the emergence of the middle class. Using the economic instability of the period as her backdrop, Sharon Ann Murphy also analyzes changing roles for women; the attempts to adapt slavery to an urban, industrialized setting; the rise of statistical thinking; and efforts to regulate the business environment. Her research directly challenges the conclusions of previous scholars who have dismissed the importance of the earliest industry innovators while exaggerating clerical opposition to life insurance. Murphy examines insurance as both a business and a social phenomenon. She looks at how insurance companies positioned themselves within the marketplace, calculated risks associated with disease, intemperance, occupational hazard, and war, and battled fraud, murder, and suicide. She also discusses the role of consumers?their reasons for purchasing life insurance, their perceptions of the industry, and how their desires and demands shaped the ultimate product. Winner, Hagley Prize in Business History, Hagley Museum and Library and the Business History Conference Praise for Investing in Life “A well-written, well-argued book that makes a number of important contributions to the history of business and capitalism in antebellum America.” —Sean H. Vanatta, Common Place “An intriguing, instructive history of the establishment and development of the life insurance industry that reveals a good deal about changing social and commercial conditions in antebellum America . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice

Investing for a Lifetime is designed to make saving and investing understandable to the investor. Wharton Professor Richard C. Marston, 2014 recipient of the Investment Management Consultants Association’s prestigious Matthew R. McArthur Award, guides an investor through the main investment decisions throughout a lifetime. Investing for a Lifetime shows: how younger investors can set savings goals how both younger and older investors can choose investment portfolios to achieve these goals how investors can sustain spending once reaching retirement. Younger and older investors alike should understand savings goals that will provide enough income to sustain spending in retirement. They should devise rates of saving that allow them to reach their goals by the time of retirement. Though retirement is often the main goal of investing, it’s not the only one. Marston discusses how funding a child’s education or saving for a down payment for a home affects overall saving. Sensible investing is also necessary for savings goals to be realized. Investing need not be complicated, but Marston explains that a diversified portfolio should include a mix of different types of U.S. stocks, foreign stocks, real estate as well as bonds. He describes each of these asset classes and shows how they fit in an investor’s portfolio. He shows how investors can monitor the performance of their portfolios by establishing benchmarks for each asset class to judge how well their investments are doing. He focuses particular attention on those investors nearing retirement. In today’s low interest rate environment, he discusses whether it is possible to fund retirement from interest and dividends alone. He shows how savings combined with Social Security can fund retirement spending. And he asks how the “New Normal” of lower returns might force investors to save more than in past decades, and to spend less in retirement than in the past. Investing for a Lifetime is for investors who want to understand more about the savings and investment process, particularly those who worry about whether their retirement savings will last a lifetime.

Diversification provides a well-known way of getting something close to a free lunch: by spreading money across different kinds of investments, investors can earn the same return with lower risk (or a much higher return for the same amount of risk). This strategy, introduced nearly fifty years ago, led to such strategies as index funds. What if we were all missing out on another free lunch that’s right under our noses? InLifecycle Investing, Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres-two of the most innovative thinkers in business, law, and economics-have developed tools that will allow nearly any investor to diversify their portfolios over time. By using leveraging when young-a controversial idea that sparked hate mail when the authors first floated it in the pages ofForbes-investors of all stripes, from those just starting to plan to those getting ready to retire, can substantially reduce overall risk while improving their returns. InLifecycle Investing, readers will learn How to figure out the level of exposure and leverage that’s right foryou How the Lifecycle Investing strategy would have performed in the historical market Why it will work even if everyone does it Whennotto adopt the Lifecycle Investing strategy Clearly written and backed by rigorous research,Lifecycle Investingpresents a simple but radical idea that will shake up how we think about retirement investing even as it provides a healthier nest egg in a nicely feathered nest.

"The Ages of the Investor: A Critical Look at Life-cycle Investing" is intended to be the first installment in the "Investing for Adults" series. Just as grown-ups do not believe in the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, or Santa Claus, "Investing adults" know that there is no such creature as the Stock-picking Fairy or the Market-timing Fairy. Further, there is no Risk Fairy who will write you cheap options that will protect your stock holdings against loss. Investing adults are familiar with Gene Fama, Zvi Bodie, Jack Bogle, and Burton Malkiel, and understand that a mean variance optimizer does not blend vegetables. In other words, this series is not for beginners. Future topics will, with luck, include the limits of market efficiency and diversification in increasingly non-segmented global markets.

Turning smart girls golden; the women's guide to personal finance Rebranding finance with a feminine spin, It's Your Money, Honey is designed to encourage women of all ages to take a greater interest—and play a greater role—in the financial issues that affect their everyday lives and financial futures. Conversational, irreverent, and intelligent, this guide to wealth creation, wealth management, and financial protection as it relates to women and their families provides exactly the kind of advice that smart women today need to know in order to take charge of their finances. Organized by decade and the events—from childrearing to retirement—that need to be planned for, presently enjoyed, or recovered from, It's Your Money, Honey is packed with expert information in the no-nonsense style of a girlfriend who knows her stuff. Finances aren't that hard, you just have to deal with them yourself. Finally, a book that understand that every woman needs to make time for a personal finance education Highly accessible, the book is designed to be read whenever you find yourself with a spare second, providing important information in bite sized chunks Helps women prepare for major life events with the help of real life stories, helpful checklists, and easy-to-apply Golden Rules Born out of the notion that too many smart women let their financial situations be ignored, swept under the rug, or dictated by others, It's Your Money, Honey is everything you need to know about money but were too busy to ask. www.goldengirlfinance.ca

Money Matters for Eternity When you think about money, you probably think about what it can do for you here, now, in this life. But did you know how you invest your money has an eternal impact? Author Russ Crosson—executive vice president of Ronald Blue Trust and a highly respected financial advisor—offers a look at how to manage your money with eternity in view. You’ll learn the difference between prosperity—the accumulation of goods on this earth, and posterity—the heritage left to the generations who follow you. Discover a new way of thinking about money and how to get a higher return on life itself—as you learn how to add posterity time to your busy schedule best balance your career and family invest in your children and grandchildren include God in your financial planning model a biblical attitude toward money for your children You can make an eternal impact today when you learn to manage your money—and your life—well.

"In the dark, bewildering, trap-infested jungle of misinformation and opaque riddles that is the world of investment, JL Collins is the fatherly wizard on the side of the path, offering a simple map, warm words of encouragement and the tools to forge your way through with confidence. You'll never find a wiser advisor with a bigger heart." -- Malachi Rempen: Filmmaker, cartoonist, author and self-described ruffian This book grew out of a series of letters to my daughter concerning various things-mostly about money and investing-she was not yet quite ready to hear. Since money is the single most powerful tool we have for navigating this complex world we've created, understanding it is critical. "But Dad," she once said, "I know money is important. I just don't want to spend my life thinking about it." This was eye-opening. I love this stuff. But most people have better things to do with their precious time. Bridges to build, diseases to cure, treaties to negotiate, mountains to climb, technologies to create, children to teach, businesses to run. Unfortunately, benign neglect of things financial leaves you open to the charlatans of the financial world. The people who make investing endlessly complex, because if it can be made complex it becomes more profitable for them, more expensive for us, and we are forced into their waiting arms. Here's an important truth: Complex investments exist only to profit those who create and sell them. Not only are they more costly to the investor, they are less effective. The simple approach I created for her and present now to you, is not only easy to understand and implement, it is more powerful than any other. Together we'll explore: Debt: Why you must avoid it and what to do if you have it. The importance of having F-you Money. How to think about money, and the unique way understanding this is key to building your wealth. Where traditional investing advice goes wrong and what actually works. What the stock market really is and how it really works. Why the stock market always goes up and why most people still lose money investing in it. How to invest in a raging bull, or bear, market. Specific investments to implement these strategies. The Wealth Building and Wealth Preservation phases of your investing life and why they are not always tied to your age. How your asset allocation is tied to those phases and how to choose it. How to simplify the sometimes confusing world of 401(k), 403(b), TSP, IRA and Roth accounts. TRFs (Target Retirement Funds), HSAs (Health Savings Accounts) and RMDs (Required Minimum Distributions). What investment firm to use and why the one I recommend is so far superior to the competition. Why you should be very cautious when engaging an investment advisor and whether you need to at all. Why and how you can be conned, and how to avoid becoming prey. Why I don't recommend dollar cost averaging. What financial independence looks like and how to have your money support you. What the 4% rule is and how to use it to safely spend your wealth. The truth behind Social Security. A Case Study on how this all can be implemented in real life. Enjoy the read, and the journey!

Every investor needs an edge. Professional investors on Wall Street have the best education, the deepest knowledge of company accounts, the latest technology, and teams of analysts at their disposal to help them identify the best stock investments. That is their edge. As a part-time, individual investor, you cannot compete on their turf. What can you do? This is where The World’s Simplest Stock Picking Strategy comes in. As you go about your life, there are companies you interact with regularly as a consumer. Some companies will stand out to you as having remarkable products or services, which you use time and again, and which you imagine yourself using long into the future. You may not have realised it, but you have an excellent knowledge of those companies. This is your edge. This is where you should invest. In The World’s Simplest Stock Picking Strategy, Wall Street equity adviser Edward Ryan describes the investment strategy he has used for his own personal investments for the last ten years and shows you, step by step, with full practical guidance, how to put it into practice yourself. You do not need to know how to read company accounts, you do not need an MBA, and you do not need to spend hours each weekend reading the business pages. The strategy is simple and accessible to anyone who is a regular consumer of products and services in their daily life. What’s more, The World’s Simplest Stock Picking Strategy also has built-in steps to help the investor construct a balanced portfolio, invest during market pullbacks when other investors are fearful, avoid overtrading, and deal with the sticky problem of when to sell an investment. These are all things that professional investors struggle with, but they are taken care of by The World’s Simplest Stock Picking Strategy. If you are ready to take a strategic approach to investing in stocks and start out on the road to building long-term wealth, The World’s Simplest Stock Picking Strategy is your essential guide.