Life of Fred: Financial Choices

What Jane Austen Said about a Single Man with a Good Fortune; the Difference Between Income and Assets; Between Expenses and Liabilities; Two Ways to Compute Your Financial Health—Budgeting vs. Net Worth; Needs vs. Wants; Three Arguments Against Overspending; Which Assets Lose Value Quickly; Fiat Currency; Figuring Future Value under Compound Interest; Figuring How Long to Pay off a $5,000 Loan at 18% Interest with Payments of $80/month (Most College Graduates with Science Majors Don’t Know How to Compute That); Setting Goals for Your Life: Financial/Physical/Family/Spiritual/Mental; Factors in Deciding Where to Live—16 Questions to Help Decide; Detailed Guide to the Five Asset Classes—Real Estate, Education, Paper, Things, and a Business That You Own; Buying Furniture, Clothes, and Cars; Buying vs. Renting a Place to Live; How to Decide How Much to Spend—Fancy or Cheap? How to Retire in 24 Years; Rule of 72; Investing in Real Estate—What to Buy and What Price to Pay; the Use of Leverage; Investing in Education—the Seven Advantages of College and Also Reasons Not to Go; Paper Investments—Stocks, Bonds, Mortgages, REITS, Certificates of Deposits, Mutual Funds; Investing in Things You Can Touch—Art, Baseball Cards, Rare Books, Gems, Gold and Silver; Owing Your Own Business; the Story of Inflation in Germany in the 1920s; One Key to Business Success; When to Hire—the Seven-times Rule; Arguments for Being Employed/Going on Welfare/Owning a Business; What It Means to Take an Oath; How to Choose Which Business to Own; When to Choose Which Business You Want to Be In; the First Step after Choosing Your Business; Reinventing Who You Are in 5,000 Hours; How to Keep Your Drive Alive; Money vs. Happiness; Seven Ways to Get Startup Capital; Dealing with Failure; Dealing with Age/Height/Being in Prison/Ill Health; Five Suggestions for Finding a Supportive Spouse; Dealing with Procrastination/ Windfalls/Falling in Love/It’s-free Offers; What Not to Talk about When You First Meet a Potential Spouse; What to Disclose on the Third Date; Checklist of Personal Habits for Success— How to Dress/How to Talk on the Phone/How to Make Eye Contact/How to Shake Hands; Learning Skills in Negotiating; Insurance—What to Buy and What Not to Buy; the Hard Task of Making Decisions That Close off Alternatives in Your Life; Leading a Balanced Life and Still Retiring in 24 Years; Nine Barriers to Financial Success; How Wealth in a Society Is Created; Overcoming the Psychological Barriers to Sunk Costs—Deciding Not to Continue Being a Dentist.