Chris's Notes on All the Math You Need to Get Rich

Chris's Notes on All the Math You Need to Get Rich: Thinking with Numbers for Financial Success, Robert L. Hershey, Open Court Pub Co, 2001. I recommend this book for the basics it covers, the slim size, the exercises and the approachable text.

I graduated from high school with all kinds of wonderful math grades (I finished all of my high school math a year early and had to attend a calculus course at a nearby college in my senior year), but managed to get out without a firm grasp of some simple ideas. Specifically, I never learned why it is that when I make a fixed house payment, the actual amount that goes to the interest and to the principle varies each month. The reason this is (as I'm sure all of my readers already know) is because the interest is only paid against the outstanding principle that remains on the total loan each month. It's just like compound interest in reverse (an idea that I always did understand).

I haven't been reading this book cover to cover (I already know how fractions, scientific notation and fractions work), but this one fact alone makes this book worth the price. Plus, it makes a wonderful reference (this is where I got F=P(1+R)^N used in The "Average Return" Myth). The world needs more short, focused, well-written books.