Money Magic: An Economist’s Secrets to More Money, Less Risk, and a Better Life

Kotlikoff (Get What’s Yours), an economics professor at Boston University, offers an accessible guide to sound financial decision-making based on the premise that “even the most responsible, prudent, financially well educated, and psychologically balanced people make major mistakes” when it comes to managing their finances. Every financial choice one makes impacts one’s standard of living, he suggests, yet most people make such decisions without thinking through how doing so would affect their future. As a remedy, he presents his MaxiFi Planner program, which lays out how to calculate one’s lifestyle cost, plus ways to improve one’s living standard, and focuses on “simple and powerful ways to get more money without gambling your hard-wrought savings.” Tips come for such tricky but critical life choices include deciding when to retire (plan with “the oldest age to which you could live” in mind), whether to borrow for college (don’t, he advises), and how to navigate divorce (do “a cost-benefit divorce analysis”). He offers plenty of investment know-how, too, and ends with his top 50 “secrets” for financial security, including paying mortgages off as fast as possible and “when you get married, count on getting divorced” among them. Full of invaluable guidance, this is a must-read for anyone concerned about their financial future. (Jan.)