The 7 Most Important Equations for Your Retirement: The Fascinating People and Ideas Behind Planning Your Retirement Income

The 7 Most Important Equations for Your Retirement: The Fascinating People and Ideas Behind Planning Your Retirement Income

Released May 2012
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118291535

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Book description

The 800 years of scientific breakthroughs that will help salvage your retirement plans

Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Biology; every field has its intellectual giants who made breakthrough discoveries that changed the course of history. What about the topic of retirement planning? Is it a science? Or is retirement income planning just a collection of rules-of-thumb, financial products and sales pitches? In The 7 Most Important Equations for Your Retirement...And the Stories Behind Them Moshe Milevsky argues that twenty first century retirement income planning is indeed a science and has its foundations in the work of great sages who made conceptual and controversial breakthroughs over the last eight centuries.

In the book Milevsky highlights the work of seven scholars—summarized by seven equations—who shaped all modern retirement calculations. He tells the stories of Leonardo Fibonnaci the Italian businessman; Benjamin Gompertz the gentleman actuary; Edmund Halley the astronomer; Irving Fisher the stock jock; Paul Samuelson the economic guru; Solomon Heubner the insurance and marketing visionary, and Andrey Kolmogorov the Russian mathematical genius—all giants in their respective fields who collectively laid the foundations for modern retirement income planning.

  • With baby boomers starting to hit retirement age, planning for retirement income has become a hot topic across the country

  • Author Moshe Milevsky is an internationally-respected financial expert with the knowledge you need to assess whether you are ready to retire or not

  • Presents an entertaining, informative narrative approach to financial planning

Understanding the ideas behind these seven foundation equations—which Moshe Milevsky explains in a manner that everyone can appreciate—will help baby boomers better prepare for retirement. This is a book unlike anything you have ever read on retirement planning. Think Suze Orman meets Stephen Hawking. If you ever wondered what the point of all that high school mathematics was, Moshe Milevsky's answer is: So that you can figure out how to retire...while you can still enjoy your money.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. INTRODUCTION: AN EQUATION CAN'T PREDICT YOUR FUTURE … BUT IT CAN HELP YOU PLAN FOR IT
    1. Reality Check
  7. CHAPTER 1: HOW LONG WILL MY NUMBER LAST?
    1. The Spending Rate: A Burning Question
    2. Fibonacci's Fabulous Flash of Finance
    3. Manipulating the First Equation
    4. Is It Really His?
    5. Can We Really Know Interest Rates?
    6. Back to Fibonacci's Life Story
    7. Okay, Here Come the Rabbits
    8. He Retired Wealthy
  8. CHAPTER 2: HOW LONG WILL I SPEND IN RETIREMENT?
    1. Simplistic Retirement Planning
    2. Gompertz's Big Discovery
    3. So How Long Should I Plan for in Retirement?
    4. Back to Benjamin Gompertz
  9. CHAPTER 3: IS A PENSION ANNUITY WORTH IT?
    1. Take the Pension or a Lump Sum?
    2. Halley's History, Part I
    3. Pension Value: Age and Interest
    4. Back to Halley's History, Part II
    5. The Great Comet
  10. CHAPTER 4: WHAT IS A PROPER SPENDING RATE?
    1. Retirement Inflation: It's Getting Personal
    2. Sustainable Spending Rates: Maybe
    3. The Fourth Equation, Explained
    4. Fisher's Optimal Retirement Plan, Applied
    5. In Fisher's Words
    6. Confirming the Numbers
    7. Irving Fisher's Rise, Fall and Rise Again
    8. The 1929 Crash
  11. CHAPTER 5: HOW MUCH IN RISKY STOCKS VERSUS SAFE CASH?
    1. Time Is on Your Side?
    2. Human Capital: You Are Wealthier than You Think
    3. The Equation, Explained
    4. The Equation, Applied: Case Studies and Examples
    5. Retirees Should Protect Their Equities
    6. Paul Samuelson's Life and Impact
  12. CHAPTER 6: WHAT IS YOUR FINANCIAL LEGACY TODAY?
    1. Human Life Value: Raison d'être of Life Insurance
    2. What's the Most Effective Way to Create a Legacy?
    3. Life Insurance: The Formula
    4. More Examples: Different Ages
    5. If You Try This at Home
    6. He Wasn't a Quant
    7. Secondary Markets and Life Settlements
    8. Term versus Whole Life
    9. But Sunny Sol Was a Fan of Annuities Too
    10. The Historical Huebner versus Fisher
  13. CHAPTER 7: IS MY CURRENT PLAN SUSTAINABLE?
    1. Will Your Retirement Plan Work Out?
    2. A Purely Imaginary Case to Help
    3. From Monte Carlo to Netherlands, Sweden and then Russia
    4. The Equation Itself Is Only Partial
    5. Detailed Example
    6. Verification that Kolmogorov's Equation Is Satisfied
    7. Physics, Not Finance
    8. Back to Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov
  14. CONCLUSION: CONTROVERSIES, OMISSIONS AND CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
    1. What Equations Are Missing?
  15. APPENDIX: CRASH COURSE ON NATURAL AND UNNATURAL LOGARITHMS
  16. REFERENCES AND SOURCES
    1. Chapter 1: Leonardo Fibonacci
    2. Chapter 2: Benjamin Gompertz
    3. Chapter 3: Edmond Halley
    4. Chapter 4: Irving Fisher
    5. Chapter 5: Paul Samuelson
    6. Chapter 6: Solomon Huebner
    7. Chapter 7: Andrei Nikolaevich Kolmogorov
    8. Conclusion
  17. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  18. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  19. SHORT POEM
  20. INDEX

Product information

  • Title: The 7 Most Important Equations for Your Retirement: The Fascinating People and Ideas Behind Planning Your Retirement Income
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: May 2012
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118291535