The Math of Money Making Mathematical Sense of Your Personal Finances

This lively and practical introduction to the mathematics of money invites us to take a fresh look at the numbers that underpin our financial decisions. Davis 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).

Learn how to calculate the math behind your mortgage, the interest rate on your credit cards, the risks youre taking on the stock market...

Making the right decisions about day-to-day finances can be tricky, in large part because the math involved can be just as tricky as the decisions themselves. In a clear and conversational manner, Morton D. Davis describves the equations behind:

Mortgages: Did you know that often 15 years of payments on a 30-year mortgage are mostly paxing off interest, not the loan itself?

Stocks: Calculating investor psychology is important. Stcoks have no greater worth than how much people are willing to pay for them.

Interest Rates: How does compound interest work mathematically? You might guess that a loan shark who asks for 5 percent interest on a one-week loan is charging 260 percent interest per year. Using compound interest, you can show the actual interest rate is more than four times that!

Retirement Funds: How do I save enough money - and keep it - to last for the rest of my life?

Social Security: Does it make sense to delay my payments?


Using entertaining quizzes that test your intuition, easy-to-understand examples, and illustrative tables, The Math of Money explains how to calculate, and truly understand, your financial picture.

This lively and practical introduction to the mathematics of money invites us to take a fresh look at the numbers that underpin our financial decisions. Morton D. Davis 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 successful day trader. With a wealth of entertaining and counterintuitive examples, The Math of Money delights as well as informs, and will help readers treat their financial resources more rationally.