SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS
This is a personal finance self-help book for the intellectually curious. It introduces a unique approach to appeal to a broad readership. It uses the ski-mountain protocol of circle, square and diamond for beginners, intermediates and experts. Throughout the book, topics are identified by these signposts to spare beginners from becoming glassy-eyed with topics that are overly complex for them and, similarly, to spare experts from boredom with things they already may know.
The structure of the book breaks into six chapters: Invocation, Chrematistics (Greek for the study of wealth as measured in money), Families & Finance, Financial Planning, Investing and Legacy. Each chapter has subtopics within.
The Invocation chapter sets the stage and primes the pump to embrace change in your financial health. It closes with an invocation back from the reader to the writer:
“Take me to places that I have never been
and introduce me to thoughts that I have never had”.
The Chrematistics chapter addresses money philosophy, root attitudes, purposes and sources, happiness and meaning and good decision-making.
The Family chapter examines couples melding their money philosophies together and shaping those of their offspring.
The Financial Planning chapter invokes deliberate practices to set goals, build financial silos and keep an eye on the horizon. This chapter finishes with an interesting look into the financial implications of today’s extended longevity.
The Investing chapter dichotomizes between philosophy and strategy. It then introduces the concepts of design, house construction and journeys on a canoe and a train. It closes by introducing ground-breaking concepts for rates-of-return and adding a human factor to the retirement math in a financial plan.
The Legacy chapter invites a more dynamic approach to affairs of estate: being more proactive with your heirs to prepare them to manage the“meteorite” of a bequest.
The book closes with his Coda chapter as a summary Call to Action, hopefully ending with the reader declaring:
“I feel like I just earned a PhD in personal finance”.
Don’s eclectic 40-year reading list brings a polymath flavour to the narrative. He infuses a transmogrification across intellectual genres...bringing them all to the world of personal finance. Pathology, epigenetics, psychology, thermodynamics, ecology, design, entropy, meteorology, biology, chemistry, magic and neuroscience all inform the world of personal finance. Being a “quote-fan”, he adds colour with wise saws from many learned sources...all intended to create “ah-hah” moments for the reader. Further colour is added by way of real-life stories, called Sketches in Personal Finance, based upon Don’s 45-year career interacting with his clients and sharing in their lives.
