The Average Family's Guide to Financial Freedom: How You Can Save a Small Fortune on a Modest Income

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Bill and Mary Toohey are about as average as a couple can be. They live in Iowa, pull down about $65,000 a year combined, and have three children. What's not average about them is that they have a net worth of about a half-million dollars. They've paid off their mortgage, and they paid cash for their cars. Their oldest daughter graduated from college with no debts and with money in the bank. How did they manage? It takes a book to explain the particulars, but the executive summary is this: They lived on about half their income, and saved and invested the other half. Part of their plan is simply saying no to impulse purchases such as soft drinks and candy bars. (They show how they accumulated $26,733 in eight years by investing the money they didn't spend on junk.) Their strategy involves, in part, shopping around for the best price on their big-ticket purchases. (They take you step by step through a few transactions, from research to purchase, so you can do this yourself.) But the biggest part is living small. They have a modest house (one bathroom). They don't try to keep up with the Joneses. Their investment strategy is very simple, mostly stock index and bond funds. By never trying to be more than average, they made themselves extraordinary.

It's hard to imagine that many people will be able to follow their entire program--that one-bathroom house will probably stop most readers in their tracks--and some of their ideas about cheap entertainment seem a little far-fetched. For example, if you're thinking of taking the children to the circus when it comes to town, they advise, take them instead to watch the circus troupe setting up tents and feeding the animals. Imagine the family fun when the kids go to school and realize all their friends got to see the actual circus. Still, there should be plenty of useful advice in this Guide to Financial Freedom for any family. Most of it is simple and makes intuitive sense, and the Tooheys' breezy, conversational writing style makes you feel as though you were sitting with them in their (small) living room while they shared it. Best of all, their plan clearly works. A half-million in savings on a middle-class income is a pretty good leg to stand on when offering advice. --Lou Schuler

Book Description

Bill and Mary Toohey are average middle income people from a small Iowa town. Bill has been employed for 23 years as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor and Mary has worked for 20 years as an Office Manager for a small psychological firm. They started saving and investing in 1991 when their net worth was $63,000. Eight years later their net worth was $467,000. In other words, their assets increased by an average of more than $50,000 per year during that period while their income (not counting dividends and capital gains) averaged about $65,000 per year. But it wasn't always easy. They have three children, Colleen (24), Tim (22), and Meghann (14). Tim has been severely disabled since birth and despite the challenges of helping Tim cope with his chronic illnesses, the Toohey family has been able to achieve financial freedom on a modest income. They were able to build a sizable nest egg in eight years while encountering some of life's biggest expenses during the period. They helped to pay for their daughter's college education and wedding, paid cash for a new car, and made several expensive home improvements. Despite those major expenses the Tooheys still managed to save 46% of their gross income and were listed among the "Best Personal Finance Managers in America" in the December 1994 issues of Money magazine. The Tooheys' story, in an article written by Bill, appeared in the April 1997 issue of Money magazine. Mary co-authored an article published in the February 1998 issue of McCall's magazine. In May, 1997 Bill was invited to speak at Money magazine's Elgin Project seminar series. Money magazine "adopted" Elgin, Illinois and brought in speakers with expertise in personal finance. Former President Bush kicked off the event.

How did they do it? How do they think? How do they live? Is it possible to save so much and still have a decent life? Can my family do this? Get the answers to all these questions and more in a book written specifically for families with children who don't earn big bucks.

Customer Reviews:

The Average Family's Guide to Fincanical Freedom.......2007-05-13

The book is a great information guide to fincanical freedom

A lot to like but some major inconsistencies.......2006-04-02

I like this book a lot. I have read it twice and both times I feel like I learned something. The major point of this book is to spend less as a way to save more. Tackling all areas of your life the authors show you how they were able to save in each area. The major problems I had with this book was the general sense of inconsistencies. I'll give you two: First, the authors report they make a very modest income and yet they report being able to budget a massive amount (or what I would consider a substantial portion) of money to pay for items in cash. These items include appliances, cars, computers, etc. After I attempted to create a similar budget, I immediately realized that this would not be possible. They report that they no longer make a house payment and this might explain how they have the money to save for all these items, BUT they also report that they now channel their house payment into investments.

Second, the authors report that they have two cars that they replace every 7 years by paying cash. However, later in the book, Mrs. Toohey reports in a table regarding maintenance that she inserted "hypothetical" miles when it came to car maintenance that even though "hypothetical," the 230,000 miles that she put in the table is an ideal b/c Mr.Toohey obtained a lifetime replacement warranty on the exhaust system. I don't know about you, but 230,000 for people who live close to work in seven years is not realistic.

So it was little things like this that made me wonder if they were just writing things that sounded good. There are no inconsistencies in the truth. Otherwise a decent book...3.5 stars.

Wonderful and real.......2004-12-02

I have been on a true quest to educate myself and my husband about finances. We need to plan for retirement and still be able to enjoy this stage of our life too. I have read a lot books and talked to several experts and was always left with the "too late, too bad" feeling. This book was so well thought out and the advise so "doable" I feel I have at last found the proper tool to get (and keep) our financial life in the order I have been looking for all this time. This is a real treasure of information presented in such a friendly format even my hesiatant husband read it cover to cover. My husband has stayed away from all the other books I have read because he did not want to be scolded or dictated to, this book is like having a long talk with that favorite uncle ----information but not judgements or unreal suggestions. Thank you Bill and Mary!!!

Excellent ideas on saving and early retirement.......2004-05-08

I thoroughly enjoyed the book which gives new ideas about how to handle family finances so that a job doesn't take priority over your freedom and family.

In answer to a previous reviewer who wondered how their investments faired in the bear market, according to the book they invested in Vanguard index bond funds which are based on secure bonds like the US treasury bonds so I suspect that they still have their money and some extra as well.

Common sense living in a non-sensical age.......2004-01-09

I find myself returning to this book periodically for inspiration. You don't have to be a wage slave forever. If you are willing to live well within (or drastically under) your means, you can accumulate enough wealth to chart your own course in life.

The Tooheys give a number of concrete examples of ways to cut expenses. They also call into question a number of the assumptions we make as a result of our brainwashing by modern media. For example: Why does a family really need more than one full bath in a house?

To someone fully immersed in our culture's consumer rat-race, the Tooheys are going to seem a bit radical. We are all a bit too accustomed to focusing on convenience and immediacy rather than long term cost. Try to keep an open mind and remember that the best things in life can't be found in a shopping mall.

Book Description

Conventional methods of financial modeling are often overly exact, to the point that their purpose--to aid in financial decision making--is easily lost. Tarrazo's approach, the use of approximation, gives professionals in finance, economics, and portfolio management a sound and sophisticated way to improve their decision making, particularly in such tasks as economic prediction, financial planning, and portfolio management. Tarrazo reviews how to build models, especially those with simultaneous equation systems, then provides a simple way to use approximate equation systems to solve them. Down to earth, readable, and meticulously explained throughout, the book is not only an important tool in practical problem solving situations, but it also provides valuable methods and guidance for upper level students and their instructors. Among the book's important contributions is its chapter on portfolio optimization. Tarrazo helps clarify the theory and application of modern portfolio theory, especially in regard to its implementation with commonly available information management tools (such as EXCEL). He also provides innovative ways to optimize portfolios under realistic conditions and a method to obtain optimal weights in interval form that does not rely on probability; instead, it relies on the mathematical quality of the matrix in the optimization. Another chapter shows that approximate equations are a general-purpose optimization tool, one that subsumes all other known optimization tools such as classical and mathematical programming. Tarrazo closes with an unusually full bibliography, containing more than 200 references spanning several areas of analysis and various disciplines.

Customer Reviews:

Importante avance para modelar incertidumbres.......2004-06-25

El libro del profesor Tarrazo constituye un importante avance en el propósito de encarar con nuevos enfoques el tratamiento de la incertidumbre en Economía y Finanzas. Llama acertadamente la atención sobre la necesidad de incorporar la lógica borrosa y las ecuaciones aproximadas en lugar de sistemas de ecuaciones tradicionales para aproximar adecuadamente la incertidumbre presente en los modelos macroeconómicos, de planeación financiera y de administración de portafolios de inversión.

El libro tiene una acertada estructura expositiva que facilita el aprendizaje, incluyendo un valioso capítulo sobre aspectos a tener en cuenta en la construcción de modelos.

Es deseable que en futuras ediciones del libro se desarrollen más ampliamente los fundamentos metodológicos de la mátemáticas de intervalos aplicadas a la gestión económico - financiera, así como incluir cd con aplicaciones.

Este libro contituye un buen complemento del Investment in Uncertainty de Jaime Gil Aluja, en el sentido de ofrecer una nueva perspectiva para tratar la incertidumbre de los modelos de gestión de portafolio.

Adicionalmente, sería deseable que se abordará en futura edición el tema de las opciones reales desde la perspectiva de las lógicas multivalentes.

Book Description

In this important new study, Sanja Kutnjak-Ivkovic takes a comprehensive, international approach to the study of lay participation in legal decision-making. She provides an in-depth analysis of positive and negative features of the principal forms of contemporary lay participation (mixed tribunals, juries, magistrates, lay courts) as they relate to their socio-political environments.

Customer Reviews:

COMPARATIVE CRIMINOLOGY;GERMANY AND CROATIA.......2000-02-10

Compares Germany, a western democracy with a difficult history and Croatia ,a country in transition,in the following ways: lay participation in criminal trials (trial by jury or by peers and the differing national approaches to criminal behavior and punishment. Discusses magistrates in Anglo-American, German and Croatian traditions and also deals with the legacy of authoritarianism and political hackdom (esp Croatia) also reflects on Croatia's Catholic Imperial tradition and the influence of Italian jurisprudence particularly in coastal Croatia. A very fine bit of research aimed at the legal scholar and criminologist.

Book Description

Images of children starving because of environmental destruction have become an integral part of the way that Africa is perceived in the West, a typical signpost to "the lie of the land." The driving force behind much environmental policy in Africa is a set of similar images and powerful assumptions about environmental crises. We read about overgrazing and the spread of deserts, the overuse of woodfuels and decline of forests, soil erosion, and the over-mining of natural resources. Yet the newer research reported in this book shows that many of the "crisis" images are deeply misleading. If the assumptions behind these apparent crises are incorrect, then many of the policies created to "solve" them are misguided. This book questions the reasoning behind such images and brings us critical current information about environmental change.

Customer Reviews:

A primer in critical environmental analysis.......2004-11-03

I was a bit surprised to see that this excellent book has not been reviewed before. We have used it as textbook in Masters' courses for several years at University of Bergen. It contains a number of high class articles which in a well documented manner challenge the 'received wisdom' of overdramatised environmental degradation which for long has distorted policy, aid and research in tropical countries. The authors do not take a blind opposite stand, and we see how our students through reading this book have changed their views and become reflected and finally grasped what sound, critical academic thinking entails.

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Organic Farming: Policies and Prospects
Stephan Dabbert , Anna Maria Haring , and Raffaele Zanoli
Manufacturer: Zed Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Agronomy | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1842773275

Book Description

While public anxiety about genetically engineered foodstuffs and BSE in cattle has developed in Europe, on the positive side there has been a rapidly rising demand for organic produce. As a result the organic sector has moved from a being marginal production fad to a serious subject of policy concern for politicians and public servants involved in European agricultural policy. In this book, three leading authorities on organic farming have produced a scientific overview for the layperson of the state of organic farming and policy towards it in Europe. Based on a review of a huge body of scientific research into all aspects of the sector, the authors provide in accessible terms a balanced, up-to-date and policy-relevant overview of organic farming today, assessment of its possible contributions to the environment, food quality, farmers' incomes, and rural development generally, the key factors that will impinge on the organic farming sector in future, and more.

Sustaining Amazonia: Grassroots Action for Productive Conservation (Issues in Environmental Politics)

Average customer rating:

One of the best books on conservation in Amazonia !

Sustaining Amazonia: Grassroots Action for Productive Conservation (Issues in Environmental Politics)
Anthony L. Hall
Manufacturer: Manchester Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Public Affairs & Administration | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Customer Reviews:

One of the best books on conservation in Amazonia !.......1999-08-06

If you want to read only one book on conservation in Amazonia, I would recommend this one. The author has a long experience in this field and is chairman of the international advisory group (IAG) consulting the "Pilot Program" of the G-7 states to save the rain forests in Amazonia. Hall's concept of "productive conservation" takes participation of the local population very seriously. Even if you know that the people living in the forest should be seen as part of the solution, you can still learn a lot from reading this book. Several projects of "productive conservation" are presented in detail: Rubber tappers, agroforestry and the Mamiraua fishery project. According to Hall, public awareness (in Amazonia) of conservation issues is about to reach critical mass. This book is of great help to reach that goal.

Agriculture meets the environment: communicating perspectives.: An article from: Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

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Agriculture meets the environment: communicating perspectives.: An article from: Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
Jeffrey Zinn , and John Blodgett
Manufacturer: Soil & Water Conservation Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000921M4C
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, published by Soil & Water Conservation Society on March 1, 1994. The length of the article is 5795 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Agriculturists and environmentalists have different but non-divergent priorities concerning agricultural lands. Farmers' agricultural concerns include soil use of Conservation Program acres when contracts lapse, nonpoint source pollution, wetlands protection, agrichemical pollution and pesticide regulation, among others. Environmentalists, on the other hand, are more concerned with water pollution, pesticide regulation, endangered species, wetland delineation and preservation and grazing fees. The two groups have to cooperate to achieve their aims, which is seasonal productivity for the farmers and long-term environmental protection for the environmentalists.

Citation Details
Title: Agriculture meets the environment: communicating perspectives.
Author: Jeffrey Zinn
Publication: Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 1994
Publisher: Soil & Water Conservation Society
Volume: v49 Issue: n2 Page: p136(8)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Environmental issues are economic development issues: the Iowa Environmental Council fights to salvage Iowa's natural resources. (Environment Economy).: An article from: Business Record (Des Moines)

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Environmental issues are economic development issues: the Iowa Environmental Council fights to salvage Iowa's natural resources. (Environment Economy).: An article from: Business Record (Des Moines)
Anne Mathey
Manufacturer: Business Publication Corp.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Agricultural and food policy issues and the public decisionmaking environment

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Agricultural and food policy issues and the public decisionmaking environment
R. G. F Spitze
Manufacturer: Dept. of Agricultural Economics, College of Agricultural Sciences, Texas Tech University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Agricultural | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00072L8AC

Agriculture and the Environment in the Eu Accession Countries: Implications of Applying the Eu Common Agricultural Policy (Environmental Issue Report)

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Agriculture and the Environment in the Eu Accession Countries: Implications of Applying the Eu Common Agricultural Policy (Environmental Issue Report)

Manufacturer: European Environment Agency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 9291676373

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