Math of Money: Making Mathematical Sense of Your Personal Finances

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The mathematically challenged among us might find Professor Emeritus Davis' explanations of interest rates, bonds, and mortgages, among other topics, a bit difficult to penetrate at first. Once a bit of concentration is applied, it's easier to understand why, for instance, borrowing $100 from a loan shark at 5 percent interest per week results in an end-of-the-year invoice of $1,264. The explanations of financial matters, from retirement to options, are deliberately dumbed down, yet made instantly relevant by all the examples. When should you actually retire and draw social security--at age 62, 65, later? What type and length of mortgage is best? And are junk bonds worth the risk? Math made practical using just a smidgen of brainpower. Barbara Jacobs
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Book Description
Most of us make financial decisions as much with the heart as the head. Or we follow the advice of experts. But what most of us don't do is think about the mathematics involved in picking a stock, selecting a mortgage, planning for retirement, hiring a new employee, or even betting at a casino. We may avoid the math because it seems hard or we think it's boring -- but avoid it we do. In this lively and practical introduction to the mathematics of money, Morton D. Davis invites us to take a fresh look at the numbers that underpin our financial decisions. He talks about strategies to use when we are required to bet against the odds (purchasing auto insurance) or choose to bet against the odds (wagering in a casino or at the track). He considers the ways in which we can streamline and simplify the choices available to us in mortgages and other loans. And he helps us understand the real probabilities when we accept a tip on that "one in a thousand" stock, even when the tip comes from a brilliantly successful day trader. The Math of Money is filled with what at first glance looks like anomaly and paradox, but it ends up showing us that a good deal of what we consider common sense actually makes no sense at all. With a wealth of entertaining and counterintuitive examples, it delights as well as informs, and will help readers treat their financial resources more rationally. Morton D. Davis is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the City College of New York (CUNY) and the author of Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introduction, Mathematically Speaking, and The Art of Decision Making (Springer-Verlag, 1986).


Book Info
Offers the consumer ways to make sense of personal finance. Discusses key issues of common financial arrangements, such as mortgages, stocks, interest rates, retirement funds, and social security. Uses entertaining quizzes, simple examples and illustrative tables to show how to calculate personal finances. DLC: Investments.


About the Author
Morton D. Davis is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the City College of New York (CUNY) and the author of Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introduction, Mathematically Speaking, and The Art of Decision Making (Springer-Verlag, 1986).


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Money is peculiar stuff. . . . Or has been until now. Morton Davis's book is subtitled 'Making Mathematical Sense of Your Personal Finances,' but as he points out in the introduction, this is not a how-to book. Its focus is on understanding the structure of financial transactions and the principles that underlie them. Each of the book's nine chapters takes a subject . . . and trenchantly and readably demystifies it. . . . This is a clear and fascinating book, and anyone curious about the subject of money should read it.


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