I bought this book almost 2 years  ago but now I got a chance to read it. (yes this is the previous version of the book)  I am thinking why I did not read  this book earlier. The author has a clear message in this book. The three parts Chasing It, Figuring It and Finding It is well balanced with information and keeps the reader thinking all the time.

Here are few selling points that I could recollect -

  • Case In Point – The crash dummies considered in the case study is interesting and after few pages we will be completely involved with the characters and their financial health.
  • Although the major part of this book revolves around the Eisenberg Uncertainty Principles there are some other highlights like The ten commandments and Mr Four Percent which are interesting.
  • As most of us are aware of the formula mortgage/Rental spending can go up to 1/3 of the take home salary. Here we can find some detailed discussion on this topic.
  • The best part of the book is George Kinder’s Three Big Ones. As given in the book we can realize our “Number”.
  • The bottom lines and The number quick and dirty is a good way of concluding the book.

Almost every page has a reference to a book and most of which I haven’t heard. This shows the authors book knowledge.  I may try to browse through some of the referred books. But before that I may have to read the next version of  The Number.

I  can give a 4.5/5 stars for this book.

In past few months the one new thats been daunting every one is the subprime crisis. Some financial gurus started predicting the next target of this crisis and few started pointing towards “Credit Card”. An average American household carries $8000 debt. In this economy there is high chances that some of them will turn out to be bad debt. Going a step ahead now we can see this crisis started bleeding in to student loans. Lenders has started evaluating the students credit reports. If this continues the students will have tough time ahead.

We can also see its effect on the US stock market since Jan 2008. Even though we see lot of things has changed negatively, the federal reserve is trying hard not to declare recession. Every one is worried that it will even worsen things. But I feel if we declare recession and accept things as it is today and move on then things may change. As long as we deny the fact the going will get tougher.