The Two Headed Quarter: How to See Through Deceptive Numbers and Save Money on Everything You Buy

by Joseph Ganem

Part expose of widespread numerical trickery, part guide on how to shop intelligently, The Two Headed Quarter will forever change the way you decide to buy. Packed with handy resources, tables,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967755131
• ISBN13: 9780967755137
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Chartley Publishing
• Length: 427 Pages
• Weight: 1.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Arm yourself with math

The Two-Headed Quarter opened my eyes to deceptive practices that should have been so clear. The book will help you avoid the mistakes so many of us made throughout our financial lives. Why, for example, do real estate agents take you to houses that are outside your specified range? Were they listening? The answer is, "yes, they were." They also know that you will compare all other house values to the first few prices you saw. See "anchoring" in Ganem's book. We are potential victims of people who use well-researched, scientific theories about human nature. Why not arm yourself with mathematical models that will even the playing field? Consider it a wise investment.

The Two-Headed Quarter is written to be thoroughly accessible to lay people

Physics teacher Joseph Ganem applies his mathematical expertise to the realm of money and finance in The Two-Headed Quarter: How to See Through Deceptive Numbers and Save Money on Everything You Buy, a no-nonsense guide to the technically legal yet inordinately deceptive practices of modern advertising: "low, low monthly payments", "zero percent interest", and many more offers too good to be true "only if you buy today!" Chapters cover how to apply reasonable estimations in one's approach to financial planning, the mathematics of income growth and investing, how to carefully evaluate loans, and much more. Though mathematically astute, The Two-Headed Quarter is written to be thoroughly accessible to lay people and is very strongly recommended for readers of all economic and financial backgrounds.

The Two Headed Quarter

Every consumer should read this book. In fact, it should be mandatory reading in every high school consumer ed class. It spells out like nothing I've seen the many ways that marketing "spins" bad deals into good-sounding ones. Before you buy anything with financing, especially, including buying a house with a mortgage, read this book for how to sort out the deals. It will save you tons of money. After all, no one wants to be taken to the cleaners, and when you can so easily gain the upper hand in evaluating offers and negotiating terms of your purchase, there really is no reason to be. You can also learn stuff that will make mutual fund prospectuses more understandable. This book will also help those of you wanting to get even better returns on your retirement funds and other savings by investing in individual stocks and other investments. The discussion about short selling of stocks was particularly illuminating, which is impressive given the complexity of the subject. And in the process of learning how to do that, you'll have lots of fun with the author's stories and insights into how numbers are used and abused in our political debates. A must read for everyone!

A Fascinating Numbers Book

My whole family enjoyed reading and discussing this book. The author makes mathematics very understandable. He provides fascinating insights on how numbers can be used to manipulate perceptions of reality. A must read.

Very Helpful and Interesting

I found this book to be very helpful and interesting and unlike one of the other reviewers I actually read the whole book and not just some excerpts. This book is for the average hard-working person, who does not really understand all the fine print in Rent to Own contracts, Credit Card advances, Car Loans, Mortgage interest etc. This book is not for people who already have extensive knowledge of finances (they don't need this information). I might add there are a lot of people who don't know anything about how the world works. I work in a construction company and I have helped many of our field employees (who are very intelligent when it comes to physically building a structure-something that I could never do)but who make very bad financial decisions because they just don't understand all the fine print in the consumer contracts that they sign. This book will be perfect for them. This book is easy to read and the real life examples are very helpful for the average person. I also found the section on making sense of the numbers that politicians and the media use to communicate with the public very interesting.