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Gordon Stein

Författare till Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism

14 verk 184 medlemmar 2 recensioner

Verk av Gordon Stein

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As I quickly read through the chapters of Gordon Stein’s Cashflow Cookbook I developed a sinking feeling that Stein had secretly whisked off my amazing wife to a secret hideaway to write this book. Or at least stolen her playbook. So much of the good advice Stein provides on conserving the family finances could have come from watching and listening to Carol in her everyday life.

To save money Carol does her own auto repairs, plumbing, gardening, cooking, and cleaning. She plots through complicated insurances policies to get us the best policies. When she takes our daughter shopping for clothes she starts in vintage stores and works her way downmarket from there. At the grocery store she “avoids the aisles,” as Stein advises, and sticks to the fresh foods along the walls avoiding over sweetened and salty and expensive prepared foods.

Carol is probably the most cautious driver I know. Thus keeping her car insurance rates low and avoiding costly parking tickets and driving highway infractions. She budgets family vacations and pares down cellphone plans. She makes her own home furnishings and scoured my company’s benefit plans for subsidized health services.

So much domestic discord originates in the family finances Stein’s recipes for cutting debt, investing in the future, and trimming extravagances must hit home with my cohort and yours too, I’m sure.

A consistent theme throughout the book is that lifestyle choices dictate financial security. It’s not a new thought, but Stein provides very acceptable alternatives that could help a family or individual reduce the financial anxiety most particularly of living in a modern city, at modern city prices.

Some readers might quibble with the cooking metaphors. Are they really necessary to get the point across? Sometimes I wonder if Stein’s satire of the celebrity of cooking and fine dining interferes with the message. I’m reminded of Jason Matthews’ gory Red Sparrow spy trilogy which ends chapters with recipes of foods eaten and/or prepared in the narrative. Sometimes they’re funny and sometimes they are simply mouth-watering.

60 recipes is a lot, maybe not as many as The New York Times Cookbook, but it’s a lot of financial lessons. But I think Stein does reach his audience of professionals, two and single parent families, wage workers, and even younger people contemplating families.

He organizes the book along very important subjects: transportation; housing; nutrition; lifestyle.

You are left with the feeling that indeed modern city is bloody complicated. Insurance, taxes, investments. At the rate things are changing, given the tidal wave of information flooding into our TV sets and smartphones every day it is very reasonable for people to feel overwhelmed.

I have an MBA, years under my belt working as a public accountant, financial advisor, and forensic auditors and almost 25 years running a business and I have trouble keeping up with the paperwork. I marvel that people with so much less formal education run and succeed running an independent business.

Stein writes short vignettes to illustrate and introducie his financial recipes. His heroes and villains surely reflect his own experience. Your bank manager can be a hero. The guy in a kiosk at the mall selling you a new credit card is most certainly a villain. Shopping at malls is bad. Shopping on amazon makes good sense. Your certified financial advisor will generally give you good advice. The average home renovator is probably a sneak. (I won’t ask what he thinks about real estate agents.)

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he lives in my neighbourhood.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
MylesKesten | Jan 23, 2024 |
Very interesting read. It even showed how some mysteries, such as the Bermuda Triangle, were hoaxes or misinterpretations of data. The book lost the fifth star by claiming that Archeopteryx was a transitional form, when all the writers proved was that it was not a hoax but an authentic fossil. Archeopteryx could have been a melange, like the platypus, not related to either lizards or birds, but something different - looking like a transtional form, but, being a separate organism in its own right.… (mer)
 
Flaggad
DAVIDGOTTS | Nov 3, 2021 |

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Statistik

Verk
14
Medlemmar
184
Popularitet
#117,736
Betyg
½ 3.6
Recensioner
2
ISBN
12

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