Money Magic: An Economist's Secrets to More Money, Less Risk, and a Better Life

Increase your spending power, enhance your standard of living, and achieve financial independence with this “must-read” guide to money management (Jane Bryant Quinn).

Laurence Kotlikoff, one of our nation’s premier personal finance experts and coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Get What’s Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security, harnesses the power of economics and advanced computation to deliver a host of spellbinding but simple money magic tricks that will transform your financial future.Each trick shares a basic ingredient for financial savvy based on economic common sense, not Wall Street snake oil. Money Magic offers a clear path to a richer, happier, and safer financial life. Whether you’re making education, career, marriage, lifestyle, housing, investment, retirement, or Social Security decisions, Kotlikoff provides a clear framework for readers of all ages and income levels to learn tricks like:

• How to choose a career to maximize your lifetime earnings (hint: you may want to consider picking up a plunger instead of a stethoscope).
• How to buy a superior education on the cheap and graduate debt-free.
• Why it’s smarter to cash out your IRA to pay off your mortgage.
• Why delaying retirement for two years can reap dividends and how to lower your average lifetime tax bracket.    

Money Magic’s most powerful act is transforming your financial thinking, explaining not just what to do, but why to do it. Get ready to discover the economics approach to financial planning—the fruit of a century’s worth of research by thousands of cloistered economic wizards whose now-accessible collective findings turn conventional financial advice on its head. Kotlikoff uses his soft heart, hard nose, dry wit, and flashing wand to cast a powerful spell, leaving you eager to accomplish what you formerly dreaded: financial planning.

Laurence Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the Econometric Society, Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, President of Economic Security Planning, Inc., and Director of the Fiscal Analysis Center.

Professor Kotlikoff has written 20 books and hundreds of professional articles and Op-Eds. He is a New York Times best-selling author and a frequent television and radio guest. His columns have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Boston Globe, Bloomberg, Forbes, Yahoo.com, Fortune, and other major publications. In 2014, The Economist named him one of the world’s 25 most influential economists.