Money For Life: Build the Wealth You Need to Live Your Dream

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Most workers get it wrong: instead of saving for retirement, they should focus on investing for financial independence. Retirement, Robert Sheard argues, is an outmoded concept left over from the days when you worked for a company from your 20s to your mid-60s, retired with a gold watch and a pension, and then died a few years later. Today, the average worker will switch careers three times (something Sheard, now an investment adviser, notes he accomplished before the age of 40). And, of course, that worker will probably live far longer than pensioners of past generations. What that worker wants is the ability to do something he or she loves, no matter if it brings in revenue. In other words, an investment plan that will support his or her living expenses indefinitely.

Money for Life offers a way to do just that. The cornerstone of Sheard's plan is what he calls his "20 Factor Formula." You figure out your projected living expenses if you retired today (he offers tips to help you include everything), multiply by 20, and that's what you need in your portfolio to achieve financial independence. To amass that portfolio, Sheard offers an equally simple solution: forget diversification. He argues convincingly that investing in an array of stock and bond funds is a loser's game; your returns will always trail those of the S&P 500. You could just put all your money in an S&P 500 index fund, but Sheard shows a scenario in which a hypothetical investor did just that in 1960, and by 1983 his portfolio was busted, a victim of inflation and a couple of devastating bear markets. Instead, Sheard recommends the Dogs of the Dow approach, in which the lowliest of the Dow's 30 stocks are bought each year. As he showed in his previous book, The Unemotional Investor, this strategy has gained 2.5 percent more per year than simple index investing. Index investing is a complete no-brainer, but the Dogs of the Dow isn't much more difficult. Sheard says it takes about 30 minutes a year to pull it off. He balances the book with lots of other financial advice--of particular interest are his contrarian opinions on 401(k) investing--and maintains a nice levity throughout. It's genuinely fun to read, and by the book's end, you feel as if you've gained a lifetime's worth of investment advice with just a few leisurely afternoons of reading. --Lou Schuler

Book Description

Sheard redefines the concept of "retirement" as an issue of financial independence that can be achieved at any age. He spells out clearly, as no book has before, exactly how to set up and reach personal financial and lifestyle goals through savvy investing. Designed for boomers now in their peak earning years, the book cuts through the complicated formulas and actuarial tables to show readers how to figure out exactly how to plan for and achieve financial independence.

Eschewing the traditional approach to retirement at 65, the book acknowledges that boomers are in a hurry. They want to get on with their lives, change careers, take sabbaticals -- in short, to pursue their dreams. By abandoning the age criteria and formulating a new approach to retirement, Sheard makes this possible. Using the techniques he made famous while with the Motley Fools, Sheard develops a framework that treats individuals as self-sustaining "foundations," living off a well-invested nest egg. He clearly shows the reader what steps to take in order to make financial independence possible.

Mr. Sheard gained a broad following at The Motley Fool. His audience will undoubtedly be interested in Money For Life. He is now an investor columnist with the Microsoft Network.

Customer Reviews:

A great starting point to Achieving Financial Independence!.......2001-05-09

Money for Life is an outstanding book for those who wish to achieve financial independence by living indefinitely off investment gains. A basic stock market investment plan is outlined in addition to sound financial tips relating to IRAs, insurance, wills and debt management. Although the concepts of "paying yourself first," setting aside 10% of your pre-tax income and engaging in mechanical, unemotional stock market investing to beat the S&P 500 are not entirely new, this book presents them in an entertaining, fresh, new (and unbiased) light. It has motivated me to reexamine my own finances and plan for a future free from monetary worry.

Lame.......2001-02-05

This is a one-idea book, and that idea was probably just about adequate to justify an article in a money-magazine: To figure out how much money you need to save to achieve financial independence, figure out how much you need to live on annually right now, and multiply that number by 20.

The more intriguing promise of the book, to provide a plan to achieve this level of wealth while still relatively young, is a complete non-starter. The reader is offered such old chestnuts as "pay yourself first" and stash ten percent of your income annually. Gee, we haven't heard those tidbits before, have we? And please, for about 99.9% of the population, that advice might add up to a comfortable retirement at a ripe old age, but it certainly isn't going to get you to financial independence any time soon. The advice about investing is similarly a rehash of ideas we've heard a thousand times before.

There is almost nothing new here. If you're a total newcomer to financial planning, this book might be an okay place to start, since it offers advice that has been around from many sources for a long time. But if you're looking for new insights, look somewhere else.

Save your money!.......2001-01-16

This book was a great disappointment. It contains nothing new, provocative or even interesting in the world of financial planning.

It is painfully obvious that there was no real purpose in writing this book other than for the author to cash in on the hot "personal finance" category in book sales. Moreover, while the author does not quite stoop to the level of shameless self-promotion of the likes of, say, Wade Cook, he does nonetheless use the book to promote his new money management service as a way to achieve ones financial goals. Shame on you, Mr. Sheard!

The "advice" in the book can be summarized in a few sentences: 1. Keep saving and investing until you have an amount saved up equal to 20 times your annual needs. (I.e., if you need $50,000 per year to live on, you need to save $1 million.)

2. Keep it all in the stock market and withdraw 5% a year to live on.

3. Quit working and do what you want. Unless you want to keep working, in which case you are free to continue doing so.

4. Oh, yeah. Make sure you make 15% a year on your stock market investments otherwise you'll run out of money.

Of course, it's numbers 1 and 4 that may be a little difficult to acheive. Not to worry, though, the author recommends that you max out on your 401(k) and IRA contributions, and save 10% of the rest of your paycheck every month. (What novel concepts!) As the the 15% annual rate of return, the author conveniently ignores the nasty little fact that the long run return on stocks (up until the last decade) is about 10.5% a year and says you only need to follow a consistent strategy, like the Dogs of the Dow (which the author admits he himself doesn't follow) to make the magic 15% annual rate of return. And if you can't do it yourself, you can always hire his money management firm (for an annual fee of 1.5% of your assets, which means he will need to make 16.5% on your money annually for you to get 15%).

Other than that, the book says to make sure you're adequately insured and lists few discount brokers (Brown & Co., Ameritrade) and well known web sites (Yahoo, Motley Fool) that you might want to check out to help with your stock selection and purchases.

And that's it! Like I said, all in all the book is pretty worthless.

There are far better personal finance books out there. (The one by Jane Bryant Quinn is one of the best.) Don't waste your money on this one.

Good ideas with a few dubious details.......2000-09-13

Sheard's explanations of how to think about savings are dead-on, and everyone could benefit from a more thoughtful approach to savings. For this reason alone, the book is worth buying. His preferred investment strategy is essentially an old-school value-investing approach, which is certainly viable but not clearly better than index investing, as Sheard claims. So buy it, read it, and take the discussion of savings goals to heart, but consider other investment strategies.

Finally.......2000-09-06

Finally. Someone in the financial industry who makes some sense. As someone with sizeable assets, I am constantly bombarded by full service financial firms trying to get their commission grabbing claws into my nestegg. Annuities, mutual funds, UITs, REITs, etc. It all get so confusing. I have always been leary of the "diversification" they preach, which can usually be translated "let me rack up my big commissions and leave you with lousy performance".

Mr. Sheard outlines a brilliantly simple plan for providing an income stream for the rest of one's life. Occam himself would be proud of this work.

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Money For Life:Build The Wealth You Need To Live Your Dream
Robert Sheard
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OFHJFK

Book Description

A detailed guide to trading in the soft commodities--coffee, cocoa, sugar, fruit. Bernard Savaiko, senior futures analyst with Paine Webber, explains trading and price forecasting methods that permit individual traders to compete on an equal footing with the large, well-capitalized commercial interests that have traditionlly dominated these markets. Explains contracts, market mechanisms, fundamental and technical analysis.

Book Description

The domestication of wheat, a major source of energy, protein, and dietary fiber, has allowed for the sufficient production of food to support community settlement, cultural development and population growth more than any other plant worldwide. This book comprehensively describes wheat production and use, dedicating a large part to advice and discussion concerning the establishment, management, and harvesting of a successful crop, including the control of disease and the use of wheat as forage. Presenting examples from throughout the world, the book discusses research on the impact of the environment on the quality of grain and examines the challenges facing growers and wheat researchers in different geographical regions. This book is essential reading for all agronomy lecturers and students. By bringing together recent research and practice it is also a valuable resource for researchers and advisors in this area, including plant breeders, agronomists, and pathologists.

Book Description

Dynamics of Polymeric Liquids, Second Edition Volume 2: Kinetic Theory R. Byron Bird, Charles F. Curtiss, Robert C. Armstrong and Ole Hassager Volume Two deals with the molecular aspects of polymer rheology and fluid dynamics. It is the only book currently available dealing with kinetic theory and its relation to nonlinear rheological properties. Considerable emphasis is given to the connection between kinetic theory results and experimental data. The second edition contains new material on the basis for molecular modeling, the application of phase-space theory to dilute solutions, kinetic theory of melts and melt mixtures, and network theories. 1987 (0 471-80244-1) 450 pp.

Customer Reviews:

Indispensable reference.......2003-08-22

This is a good starting point for the reader interested in rheology or polymer dynamics. Many definitions and concepts widely used in the field of rheology of complex fluids can be found in this work. One of the introductory chapters is dedicated to qualitatively explain the most counter intuitive phenomena found in polymeric liquids. The rest of the book is primarily devoted to describe a variety of models, frequently illustrated with experimental data. The models are provided in a self-contained fashion, facilitating their use nad understanding.
Vol. I is a detailed introduction to rheology, with plenty of exercises. Explains in a clear way a variety of concepts such as material functions, and many classical models. Contains useful tables and appendices.
Vol. II also has good appendices and tables. It goes in detail through several microscopic models of polymers, starting from the simplest ones. Chapters are of increasing difficulty, getting more and more technical through the book, a good idea is to work the problems and exercises in detail. After this process is likely that the reader will be able to understand many polymer rheology papers.

Models for Polymeric and Anisotropic Liquids (Lecture Notes in Physics)

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Book review published in Applied Rheology - international journal

Models for Polymeric and Anisotropic Liquids (Lecture Notes in Physics)
Martin Kröger
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3540262105

Book Description

Models should be as simple as possible, but no simpler. For the physics of polymeric liquids, whose relevant lengths and time scales are out of reach for first principles calculations, this means that we have to choose a minimum set of sufficiently detailed descriptors such as architecture (linear, ring, branched), connectivity, semiflexibility, stretchability, excluded volume, and hydrodynamic interaction. These 'universal' fluids allow the prediction of material properties under external flow- or electrodynamic fields, the results being expressed in terms of reference units, specific for any particular chosen material. This book provides an introduction to the kinetic theory and computer simulation methods needed to handle these models and to interpret the results. Also included are a number of sample applications and computer codes.

Customer Reviews:

Book review published in Applied Rheology - international journal.......2006-02-14

This new volume of Springer's successful series 'Lecture Notes in Physics' presents a variety of simple models for the structure and dynamics of complex fluids. Special emphasize is paid to the finitely extendable nonlinear elastic (FENE) spring model of polymeric fluids and several of its extensions. Suspensions of elongated particles, liquid crystals and ferrofluids are also treated, however in a rather compressed manner. Most, if not all, of the examples given in the book are taken from the author's collaborative work.

This well-organized book is divided into two parts. Part I introduces and illustrates the different models and discusses their structural and dynamical properties. Part II provides theoretical background on the topic, such as tensor calculus, methods and sample codes, in order to help the reader to do some analytical calculations himself as well as to start his or her own simulations.

Chapter 1 starts with an introduction about the aims and projects of the book and ends with a very valuable section- by-section summary. This summary provides an easy access to the different topics dealt within the book. Moreover, it can be used as a guideline through the book for those readers that are interested only in very specific aspects. The classical FENE dumbbell model of dilute polymer solutions introduced in the beginning of Chapter 2 is the first of 15 models presented in part I of the book. Thereafter, an extension of the FENE dumbbell model to the semi-dilute regime by introducing a mean-field interaction potential is discussed. The second type of models dealt within the book (chapter 3) are FENE chain models of dilute polymer solutions. Hydrodynamic interactions are introduced and some details on their numerical implementation in Brownian dynamics simulations are given. The chapter ends with a summary of the universal ratios of physical quantities which are observed in dilute solutions. While chapters 2 and 3 deal with dilute solutions, chapters 4, 5, and 6 are concerned with concentrated solutions and polymer melts. Taking into account excluded volume interactions, the application of the FENE chain model to concentrated solutions and melts is treated in chapter 4. The nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation method which is used to solve the model numerically is mentioned briefly. After discussing the flow curves predicted by this model, the stress-optical rule, its failure and possible nonlinear generalization is presented in some detail. Wormlike chains and micelles, semiflexible and liquid crystalline polymers are all treated in Chapter 5. Allowing for scission and recombinations, the FENE chain model is extended to model wormlike micelles. An approximate calculation of the chain length distribution based on ideal Gaussian chains is one of a few examples in Part I of the book where an analytical approach to these models is shown. Static properties of wormlike chains are first reviewed and later used for an extension of the FENE chain model to semiflexible chains. Further, allowing for inhomogeneous chains which inter-chain attractive interactions, an extension of the FENE model to liquid crystalline polymers is proposed which is able to describe isotropic, nematic as well as smectic phases. The Doi-Edwards model of polymer melts is introduced in Chapter 6 together with a refinement including anisotropic tube renewal. The predictions of viscoelastic and orientational properties are presented and a possible closure approximation is discussed. Their recent improvements on the original Doi-Edwards model like double reptation, convected constrained release are, however, left out. Chapter 7 is devoted to suspensions of rigid particles. In this chapter, not only the Ericksen-Leslie theory of anisotropic suspensions and its possible derivation from a Fokker-Planck equation is discussed, but also models for ferrofluids and liquid crystals are presented in a unifying fashion. Chapter 7 concludes the presentation of different models for complex fluids and their structural and dynamical properties. On the first sight, the following chapter on the relation of different levels of descriptions seems somehow disconnected from the rest of the book. However, a more thorough approach touches on these issues in the derivation of the models presented in the preceeding chapters, the choice of the model parameters, and the relation to more simplified models. This very active field of multi-scale modeling and coarse-grained description is not covered explicitly in this book. Instead, Chapter 8 presents a thermodynamically-guided approach to reduced description proposed and explored by Ötinger and the author in the last years. The author describes this promising approach in a very comprehensive manner, from the theoretical relation between different levels of description to example applications and numerical tests in computer simulations.

Part II of the book is rather technical and provides concepts of equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical physics which are used to obtain the results discussed in part I. First, a very brief summary of standard and recent Monte Carlo simulation techniques is presented in chapter 9. Then, a chapter on tensor calculus is added, where the notation used in the book is explained in detail. The Fokker-Planck equation, playing a central role in part I, is treated in chapter 11. Finally, chapter 12 provides a very useful collection of sample codes illustrating various models discussed in the first part of the book. The codes written in the MATLAB language are sufficiently transparent in order to demonstrate the numerical implementation even to those readers who are not very familiar with programming issues.

Rather than trying to cover all fluids in the field, 'Models for Polymeric and anisotropic liquids' focuses on some selected models and provides ideas and tools needed to explore new applications. On roughly 200 pages, the author covers a considerable number of different systems and the corresponding models. This nicely written book compactly describes these models which are mostly different extensions of the FENE chain model on various levels of abstraction. Together with the example codes provided for in chapter 12, readers familiar with polymer physics and rheology will benefit form the clear presentation which stimulates one's own investigations.With chapter 8 on a particular approach to reduced description, the reader is also introduced to the current status of one of the very promising developments in this field. Author: Patrick Ilg. Published in Applied Rheology - international journal.

2 Volume Set, Dynamics of Polymeric Liquids, 2nd Edition

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2 Volume Set, Dynamics of Polymeric Liquids, 2nd Edition
R. Byron Bird , Charles F. Curtiss , Robert C. Armstrong , and Ole Hassager
Manufacturer: Wiley-Interscience
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471518441

Dynamics of Polymeric Liquids, Volume 1: Fluid Mechanics.

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Dynamics of Polymeric Liquids, Volume 1: Fluid Mechanics.

ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: B000IBEON0

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Dynamics of Polymeric Liquids. 2 volumes in one book. V.1: Fluid Mechanics. V.2: Kinetic Theory

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Dynamics of Polymeric Liquids. 2 volumes in one book. V.1: Fluid Mechanics. V.2: Kinetic Theory
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Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Stochastic Processes in Polymeric Fluids: Tools and Examples for Developing Simulation Algorithms

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Stochastic Processes in Polymeric Fluids: Tools and Examples for Developing Simulation Algorithms
Hans C. Öttinger
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

This book consists of two strongly interweaved parts: the mathematical theory of stochastic processes and its applications to molecular theories of polymeric fluids. The comprehensive mathematical background provided in the first part should be equally useful in many other branches of engineering and the natural sciences. As a benefit from the second part one gains a more direct understanding of polymer dynamics, one can more easily identify exactly solvable models, and one can develop efficient computer simulation algorithms in a straightforward manner. In view of the examples and applications to problems from the front line of science, this volume may be used as a basic textbook or as a reference book. Program examples written in FORTRAN are available via ftp from ftp.springer.de/pub/chemistry/polysim/.

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Discover the flexibility to teach science your way

Astronomy, as a part of the Glencoe Science 15-Book Series, provides students with accurate and comprehensive coverage of the solar system and beyond. The strong content coverage integrates a wide range of hands-on experiences, critical-thinking opportunities, and real-world applications. The modular approach allows you to mix and match books to meet your curricula.

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Richard Grayson's new book of short fiction features previously uncollected stories by the writer Publishers Weekly has called "a versatile, interesting experimenter" and Library Journal has termed "a born storyteller and standup talker." The author is known primarily as a satirist and humorist, and the stories in this, his eighth collection, will not disappoint those fans who have come to expect mordant wit and barbed humor, but Grayson here shows that the true comic writer, as Flannery O'Connor once observed, deals with matters of life and death.

Customer Reviews:

a solid collection.......2004-04-16

I don't usually love story collections, because the quality can be so uneven. But Richard Grayson's work consistently pleases here. These post-modern stories are by turns funny ("I Don't Want No Education"), heretical ("Twelve Step Barbie") and blindsidingly moving (the title story). Readers looking for something both well-written and quirky will not go wrong with this one.

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