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How to Fund the Life You Want

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents How to Fund the Life You Want: What everyone needs to know about savings, pensions and investments (Second Edition) by Robin Powell and Jonathan Hollow, read by Robin Powell, Jonathan Hollow and Zara Ramm

*WINNER OF THE WORK & LIFE BUSINESS BOOK AWARD 2023*

"This is such a valuable guide to DIY investing, I recommend you make this book your first investment."
Claer Barrett, Consumer Editor, Financial Times

The second, updated edition of the award-winning and accessible guide to personal finance that busts myths, clarifies jargon and provides the best options for building your wealth.

Increasingly more people are reassessing their lives as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many resolving to work only as long as they must – retiring early to focus on families and friends, hobbies or travel.

Making the most of these choices requires having and growing enough money to enjoy your future life, without needing to worry about it running out. But when it comes to investing in a pension, there is a dizzying number of complex options available.

This book is designed to provide clear, objective guidance that cuts through the jargon, giving you control over your financial future. Robin Powell and Jonathan Hollow strip away the marketing-speak, and through simple graphs, charts and diagrams, provide an evidence-based money manual that you can use again and again. They also alert you to myths and get-rich-quick schemes everyone should avoid.

It’s a highly practical and refreshingly honest book, written by two independent experts who have seen how the investment industry works from the inside, and how it profits from complexity, ignorance and fear. They show how UK savers and investors can beat this system and, crucially, make more money for themselves than they do for financial services firms.

Critics Review

If you’re serious about getting things right with your money – and avoiding costly mistakes – then set time aside to work through this excellent book. You will end up better off. No question.
Money Box BBC Radio 4
Wonderfully researched, jargon-free, thought-provoking, interactive and engages the reader from start to finish.
Mail on Sunday
This book possibly has the most heart of any finance book ever written. It gets right to the nub of why mastering the management of our finances for ourselves is so crucial – but also so difficult. Robin and Jonathan skilfully blend excellent tips with helpful exercises, relatable anecdotes and decades of wisdom. Their understanding of behavioural psychology underpins their very human approach, and the result is that topics are accessible in a way that I would venture has never been achieved in a finance book before.
Head of Pensions and Savings, Interactive Investor
I’m often asked to recommend a good, essential book on investments within the UK tax and legal system. Until now, there wasn’t one. This book is now my go-to pick.
CEO, Academy of Life Planning, and former Head of Investments, HSBC
This is a must read for anyone wishing to make the most of their money and not give away too much to the people and firms that would manage it for them.
Times and Sunday Times
There are many books about how to get rich fast. Their authors certainly get rich, readers less so. Much more useful and a lot rarer are books that help you to grow your money steadily and avoid losing your savings – this book achieves this. It is very precious!
Professor of Financial Economics, University of Oxford Saïd Business School
I welcome this much-needed book, here to help anyone make sense of their money and pensions. With their human touch, no-nonsense language and a relentlessly practical approach, Robin and Jonathan have written the “missing manual” for everyday investors.
Managing Director, Pensions & Stockbroking at Lloyds Banking Group
Anyone who wants to get started in the world of investing faces information overload. It’s easy to take the wrong advice on social media or to be completely put off investing by reading content that is riddled with jargon. This book offers a great solution – it’s written by experienced authors that you can trust and it’s set out in a clear and highly digestible format.
Financial Times
The book is grounded in robust evidence from a wide range of sources, and benefits hugely from the vast experience of two authors who have been at the forefront of the debate on how to democratize savings and allow individuals to be in control of their financial futures. I only wish the book had been written 20 years ago as it would have saved me from many costly lessons.
Professor of Pensions and Finance, University of Leeds
Jonathan and Robin are refreshingly clear about a complex subject, offering a straightforward, evidence-based approach to retirement planning. Great for the everyday investor who wants to cut through the jargon and make good decisions for the future.
former Retirement Commissioner for New Zealand
This is not just another book about investing. It is a comprehensive financial lifestyle manual relevant to people of all ages and walks of life.
Director, ShareSoc
The book distils decades of expert evidence into actionable points every investor can follow. This is the book your overpriced financial adviser wishes you had not read!
Professor of Finance, King’s College London
This book is an antidote to the misleading messaging and hype that some parts of the industry have been putting out for decades, to consumers’ detriment.
Founder, Transparency Task Force
This is an important book that breaks down the barriers to financial planning, easily readable by non-experts and based around six sensible rules for investing.
University of Bristol
Author Robin Powell and Jonathan Hollow
Narrator Jonathan Hollow, Robin Powell, Zara Ramm
Duration 8 hours and 37 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781399427876
Format Audiobook
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre Budgeting and financial management, Investment and securities, Pensions, Personal finance
Availability AU, GB, IE, US

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