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Reading Recommendations

How to Retire

Researcher Christine Benz, Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning for Morningstar, recently published How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement.

In the book, Benz interviews academicians and practitioners from the world of personal finance and retirement, with specialties in financial planning, tax, estate planning, insurance, asset allocation, Social Security, healthcare, and hospice care.

Each chapter is structured in a Question-and-Answer format, so the reader is able to engage as an observer of an interview.

In addition to lots of good advice about managing finances in retirement, Benz also moves beyond dollars and cents.

She says: “When, and how to retire is less than 50% related to money. Yes, you need to have the funds. But more important, you need:

  • A network of people who care about you
  • To practice healthy habits and take care of your body
  • A plan for your days
  • Activities that bring you joy”

The book is both information rich and thought provoking and will be a good resource for those in retirement, or approaching that milestone.

-RK

Super Communicators

The journalist Charles Duhigg currently writes for the New Yorker Magazine; has written three books on habits and productivity; and was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for a series of articles on the business practices of technology companies.

Duhigg is probably best known for The Power of Habit, which posited that behavior, whether of individuals or groups, can be changed by disrupting the “habit loop” of trigger, routine, and reward.

His follow up Smarter, Faster, Better focused on productivity.

In Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, Duhigg explores the art and science of effective communication, offering insights into how individuals can foster deeper connections and navigate complex conversations.

Duhigg puts forth a framework for understanding the type of conversation an interlocutor is trying to have (Practical, Emotional, or Social), and then explains ways that individuals can align with the type of conversation at hand to promote meaningful engagement.

I found that a lot of the material in the book boils down to the application of common sense.

But I also find it helpful to have a new lens for looking at recurring situations, and practical tools for improving vital skillsets that foster productive communication.

The mid-20th century sociologist Willam H. Whyte said: “The greatest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”

Readers of Duhigg’s book may be better positioned to avoid this “greatest problem”, and instead benefit from clearer communication and, subsequently, deeper human connection.

-RK

Intelligent Investing

The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham, has been called “by far the best book about investing ever written” by investment superstar Warren Buffett.

Even so, you will be excused if you log onto Amazon, or visit your local bookstore, and choose to make another reading selection.

Graham’s book was first published in 1949 and contains references to companies and situations that may be unfamiliar to the 21st century reader.

But the third addition of the text, released last week, on its 75th anniversary, might be attractive to financially adventurous readers, in part as an interesting artifact, but also for contemporary commentary provided by the Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig.

Graham was born in London in 1894 and entered Columbia University at age 16. Before the end of his senior year, Graham was offered faculty positions at Columbia in three different departments: English, Philosophy, and Mathematics.

Graham went on to start a successful investment company, in addition to holding university faculty positions.

His most famous student, while teaching at Columbia Business School, was none other than Warren Buffett. In addition, Graham was one of the original supporters of an investment certification program that eventually became the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation – of which I am a proud holder.

HarperCollins Publishers turned to Jason Zweig in June 2003 to revise Graham’s initial text. The second edition was published in 2005, and Zweig took on the new assignment of writing annotations for each chapter in the 3rd edition.

Among many important concepts, Graham introduced the idea of margin of safety: the belief that an investor should not focus exclusively on how much money can be made but on how much money can be lost, because even the best investors are likely to be wrong roughly 45 percent of the time.

For individual investors, the value in Graham’s “definitive book on value investing” may be more about what not to do, than what to do, with your money.

-RK

Reading Room: How to Know a Person

David Brooks is a Canadian-born American conservative political and cultural commentator who writes for the New York Times and The Atlantic.

He’s also written for the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Weekly Standard. He joined Weymouth, Massachusetts native Mark Shields from 2001 to 2020 on PBS News Hour and continues to comment on PBS.

In his recent book How to Know a Person, he offers observations and personal experiences that help us become more skilled at the art of seeing others and making them feel seen, heard, and understood.

Chapters include: The Right Questions, The Art of Empathy, and What Is Wisdom?

In Brook’s words: “I’m hoping this book will help you adopt a different posture toward other people, a different way of being present with people, a different way of having bigger conversations.”

-RK

Your Guide to Sustainable Investing

Summer Reading Series: Personal Finance

Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing by Larry Swedroe and Samuel Adams

Since the start of my internship, I have learned that half of the knowledge requisite to work in finance is knowing financial acronyms and jargon. I say this jokingly, however I do believe that there is a kernel of truth to it – particularly in the space of sustainable investing.

Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing makes complex and multifaceted concepts, like Environmental, Social, & Governance (ESG) ratings, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), and Impact Investing, digestible and approachable.

As explained by Swedroe and Adams, sustainable investing empowers investors to quite literally put their money where their mouth is by way of aligning one’s values with their investments, without sacrificing financial returns.

Becoming familiar with the ins and outs of sustainable investing terminology and investment management approaches, and how it all may impact one’s portfolio can only benefit the curious and engaged investor, and Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing is a great place to start.

-Greg

A Wealth of Well-Being

Summer Reading Series: Non-Fiction

A Wealth of Well-Being: A Holistic Approach to Behavioral Finance by Meir Statman

During one of my evening commutes from Belmont to Duxbury, I selected a podcast for some work-lite listening. The Long View, produced by Morningstar, the investment research company, releases mostly nerdy stuff that only advisors could possibly love.

I figured an episode entitled The Biggest Risks in Life Are Not in the Stock Market might offer a departure from the typical economic / market / business / analytic programs the crowd my Pocket Casts app.

The interviewee, Meir Statman, who is a serious academician at Santa Clara University, said at the outset: “If you want real risk, get married. And if you want more, have children.” I was immediately hooked.

It became clear during the episode that Statman has a passion for teaching about behavioral finance, thinking holistically, and promoting financial well-being.

In the book, as well as on the podcast, Statman’s sense of humor, compassion, and wisdom are evident as he explains his thesis: we need financial well-being to enjoy life well-being, but it is life well-being that we seek. And life well-being has many domains, including those of family, friends, health, work, education, religion, and society.

Statman contends: “Financial well-being comes when we can meet current and future financial obligations, absorb financial setbacks, and keep driving toward financial goals, such as adequate retirement income. Life well-being comes when we live satisfying lives, full of meaning and purpose.”

This book is an important one for those who provide financial advice, laying out a kind of evaluative framework and providing insight on how to understand clients’ critical needs, wants and wishes. It’s also written in a compelling, approachable way for individuals who are curious about behavioral finance and seeking a clearer path toward life well-being.

-Rob

The Price You Pay for College

Summer Reading Series: Non-Fiction, Personal Finance

The Price You Pay for College – An Entirely New Road Map for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make by Ron Lieber

Having a lengthy and detailed background in Higher Education and helping families navigate college, when I find a resource that truly gives helpful advice about how to approach costs realistically, I love to share it.

Lieber’s book helps demystify a lot of the college application and admissions process and identify truths, which are not all transparent for parents and college bound students, to say the least.

Some of this knowledge you would be hard-pressed to learn if you are not an “insider” or someone like Lieber, who makes it his job to understand the complexity and nuances of paying for college and shares his knowledge with the world.

He brings practical advice with a sense of compassion and understanding. In a system where costs are rising to unfathomable amounts, it makes sense to use resources to help provide a calm, prepared approach to paying for college, and Lieber helps in a realistic way with the details he shares in his book.

His last chapter is even about hope. And I share his sentiments – the hope that more (and better) resources for families trying to navigate college costs and decisions will lead to the best outcome for every student and parent.

-Donna

How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

Summer Reading Series: Non-Fiction

How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg

Fair warning from someone who has read this book: it, unfortunately, does not guarantee infallibility.

However, upon reading, it will ensure your errors are backed by logic. Filled with real-world examples of fallacies, corrections on common statistical mistakes, and rebuts of common arguments, How Not to Be Wrong makes you think about how you think.

In an intuition-driven world, slowing down one’s thought process can help provide insights to vexing problems. Luckily, the reader does not need a robust understanding of convoluted mathematical topics (such a book would’ve gone right over my head).

Ellenberg breaks down key concepts for you into their essential aspects. Pertinent and applicable, How Not to Be Wrong leads to greater understanding of the world in which we live.

-Greg

These Truths: A History of the United States

Summer Reading Series: Non-Fiction

These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore

My annual personal knowledge project, beginning around Independence Day, is to read a substantive work focused on US history.

Presidential biographies and early American history are a recurring favorite and occupy significant space on my bookshelves, from the likes of Chernow, McCullough, and Philbrick. While all learned men and accomplished authors, I acknowledge that Ron, David and Nathaniel may be interpreting history through lenses that might reveal similar perspectives.

This year I’ve decided to branch out and, for starters, choose an author born in the second half of the 20th century. I landed on These Truths, written by Harvard professor Jill Lepore. The author takes on the herculean task of writing a history of the United States, from 1492 to present day.

In her introduction, Lepore tells the story of how the US Constitution was circulated before being put to the vote, and how the essential question posed anonymously by Alexander Hamilton in the first essay of the Federalist Papers, was: shall we be ruled by reason and choice, or shall we be ruled by violence and force?

Lepore contends that this is the question of American history and remains as pertinent and important today as it was in 1787. And although there is a great deal of anguish in American history, Lepore finds “an extraordinary amount of decency and hope, of prosperity and ambition, of invention and beauty.”

I suspect it will take the better part of the summer for me to digest the 900+ pages of Lepore’s work. But in a shift from my usual summer read of focused biography, I’m looking forward to experiencing her interpretative, wide-scope, fresh-perspective narrative.

-Rob

A Walk in the Woods

Summer Reading Series: Non-Fiction

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

As a lifelong New Englander, and an avid hiker in my early twenties (a fraction of what time I expected my hiking experience would be), I have always been amazed by all of nature around us.

Although my love for the ocean competes with the mountains of New England, I find myself drawn to stories of wilderness experiences in the mountains.

Bill Bryson takes us through the fascinating history of the Appalachian Trail, along with some forestry history, as he tells the tale of a quintessential story of two men, not exactly at peak fitness, and far past twenty, as they head out to take on the arduous task of hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Bryson brings a laugh out loud sense of humor with his writing, and weaves in a balance of environmental awareness at perfect intervals throughout the story. This is balanced with detailed accounts of the angst and emotions of human beings as he and his companion face the real perils of the wilderness.

So, as we near the middle of hiking season in New England, if you are looking to get inspired to experience some of the unexpected, challenging, and life-changing adventures of hiking all or any of the 2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail that traverses an area from Georgia to Maine, Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods is a must read for summer.

Or, it may even make your daily walk, or a local hike, seem like a walk in the park, and you can live the experience of the AT vicariously through Bryson’s brilliant account of his own experiences.

-Donna