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2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 An interesting take on the spend vs. save argument for retirement... Feb 03, 2008
This little self-published title, Spend It Backward: A Lifetime Perspective on Money, Its Management, and Ultimate Rewards by Dave Curkendall, PhD, is a very different way to look at the age-old question of "how much do I need to save for my retirement?". Using a fair number of graphs and formulas, Curkendall seeks to find the balance between spending money now and spending money later. The trick is to figure how long you're going to live and what level of "joy" you want to have in your life.
Contents:
Spend It Backward?; The Zen of Money Management - Recognizing You Won't Live Forever - But Then Again You Might; Turning The Retirement Plan Into a Life Plan - Now We're Getting Somewhere; Variations on the Theme - Determining Flexibility & Sensitivity to Changes; Getting Realistic - Taxes & Social Security; Some Crucial Details - On Being Female and Getting Married; The Biggies - Your Car, Your House, & Your Kids' Education; The Tao of Investments - That 4% is Both Harder To Make and Better for You Than You Think.
Curkendall uses optimization theory to work on determining the balance between spending now and having savings for later. The goal is to optimize the Joy of your money by having enough to enjoy and live on from now until you die. Living on the bare edge while you save big for your retirement is just as wrong in his book as spending it all now and living on food stamps at 65. This is done by the use of graphs and formulas that can be constantly readjusted based on your ever-changing reality. Perhaps you had a banner year in terms of pay. Those higher amounts could be used to boost up the savings curve and see how it increases the spendable money available down the road. Conversely, a financial bad patch can also be factored in and studied for future effects. What it means is that at any given time, your estimated amount of money you'll have available for retirement (as well as how much of it you can spend each year) should be easily seen. It definitely beats the normal "save everything you can and hope it's enough for later" approach that most people take.
While some parts are easy to read, the author does go into his formulas and graphs somewhat deeply. I think that people with a math or financial background would get the most out of this book without suffering from math anxiety. But if you're willing to work hard at the formula pieces, you really will see a different take on the "saving for retirement" argument.
 A CPA's Review Jan 27, 2008
SPEND IT BACKWARD by Dave Curkendall finally cleared the "haze"! As an accountant with years of experience, I've always been amazed how much I do not know about my finances and my retirement. I found the book very helpful and that all the professionals, whether on CNBC or newspapers are very fallible. I also appreciated the chapter for women and the particular "events" and longer life expectancy we need to be aware of. I found that Dr. Curkendall writes in a very concise and amiable manner with many examples. I think that this "manual" is very functional and helpful.
You can't argue with the Golden Rule Jan 23, 2008
This book is full of sensible financial advice. Starting with the Golden Rule (a mathematical, yet simple, formula for determining how much money you can spend now) and proceeding to deciding on a retirement strategy, figuring out how to acquire the three "biggies" (house, car, kids' college education), and understanding the uncertainties of stock market and other investments - this book provides very practical steps for you to follow to ensure a secure financial future.
I also enjoyed the book for its insightful pearls of wisdom such as: "in spite of the geometrically increasing number of pork barrel projects mandated for everything from highways, bridges to nowhere, to museums, to new dams and underwriting of shopping malls, the drift toward infinite government spending and zero taxation has not yet applied itself to [college] tuition and board." Or how about this one: "Join a gym, lose weight, eat your vegetables. . ." Another example: "There are problems with being female as you well know" (okay, in this regard the author is talking about females living longer and thus needing more retirement money, so don't get up in arms!) One more example: "In the case of the stock market, simple observation often breaks down because there are some crucial differences between the DOW and flying spacecraft." (You'll have to read Chapter 9 to understand the context!)
You know, my mom always taught me to follow the Golden Rule when dealing with others; I'm thinking following the Golden Rule when dealing with finances is also a good thing.
Optimism Abounds Jan 03, 2008
The writing style was successfully light handed for a heavy subject. Every time I got discouraged because I hadn't saved enough there seemed to be a way to recover. Though I'm afraid that people with a strong spending gene will not be able to follow the advice, the ease of the golden rule calculation should help put the right perspective on saving.
I do wish someone had checked the figures better as I think there were two that had errors, or that made no sense, or the explanations were not clear enough for a non rocket scientist. But all in all it was an enjoyable read and I hope my children find it motivating.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Many aspects of this book are intriguing, although not all of Curkendall's arguments were convincing Dec 18, 2007
The author is a bona fide rocket scientist employed at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. One of the skills rocket scientists must have in abundance is to understand how to optimize limited resources, for after the spacecraft is launched, there is no way to refuel or repair it. Furthermore, the original cargo space is extremely limited.
Living now and preparing for retirement is an exercise in optimization and playing the probabilities, both absolute and conditional. What many people fail to understand is that while the life expectancy may be 74 years, if you are now 65, it does not mean that you have an average of nine years left. The life expectancy takes into account the deaths from year zero on, so the fact that you have avoided an early death means that your life expectancy at 65 may be a good deal more than the supposed nine years. Therefore, your retirement planning must reflect these realities.
Of course, you must be able to live now in a reasonable degree of comfort, so your current spending, money not put away for retirement, is an optimization tradeoff. Living on the streets in order to build a larger retirement nest egg is a foolish strategy. Executing an effective program of tradeoffs is a hard problem and Curkendall attempts to wade through and simplify the morass. While there is some success, the problem is one that cannot be solved in a book of 130 pages.
The basic premise of this optimization is summed up by the simple formula
S = C / E[L]
Where C is your current capital and E[L] is the expected number of years that you will live. The result S is then how much you can spend a year and anything over that should be saved for retirement. While in theory this formula will work, as Albert Einstein said, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice but in practice there is." The problem is that the values of C and E[L] are not static. New medical technologies are causing the value of E[L] to increase and exterior forces can force dramatic changes in your personal value of C. For example, and the author tackles this issue, when the dot-com bust hit the stock markets, most stock portfolios declined at least 30%. While the stock market eventually rebounded, that is no help to the person whose value of E[L] is low.
I found many aspects of this book intriguing, although not all of Curkendall's arguments were convincing. At the end, an effective retirement plan can be summed up in one simple phrase, "Start early and save often."
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