eloan

If only for the calculators and the formulas you should pick this book up. Of all the mortgage books I've read this one has the best charts, calculators. etc. to help you figure out what you can afford and how much your monthly bill will be. It also has an incredible formula to help you compare the many fixed rates that you will be bombarded with. So if you are receiving rates of 7, 7.5, 8 3/8 plus 1, 1 1/2 and 2 points you will be able to calculate the APR for EACH of these different fixed rates. No book that I have read has included such a formula. The book paid for itself just because of this one item.

This book is great for your average Joe who is planning to buy or refinance a home. It is written in simple English with a minimum amount of technical language. As a first time home buyer looking to educate myself, I found it very helpful.

Most books about mortgages quickly lose your attention because they are written in a way that only insiders can understand. This book explains the process in a way most people can comprehend.

I used this book to train myself when I got into the mortgage industry. As a manager in a mortgage company, I use this book as a training tool for mortgage loan officers, so they learn to describe the process and loan programs in a way that the general public can understand.

The Mortgage Kit provides a detailed explanation of the entire mortgage process in every day language. It provides great inside tips for consumers about all different aspects of getting a mortgage. Including how to know whether or not your mortgage lender is treating you fairly, and important insights that will protect you from being taken for a ride.

All of the important basics are covered; from what your lender will look at when deciding whether or not to approve your loan, to the paperwork you need to pull together before going to apply for a loan and choosing the best mortgage program for your own needs.

The book is well organized in its layout. It is educational if you read it cover to cover. But more importantly, it's laidout in a way that allows you to find the topics you have questions about easily, so you can focus on learning the answers to them.

Using only a minimal amount of mathematics,
Professor Saunders describes a very broad
range of risks run by a Financial Institution.

A particularly good description is given
for interest rate risk management of a
standard banking portfolio.

The book is very good and it starts describing the special nature of financial institutions and the industry. Then, in the second part you have complete chapters relating to every risk management: interest rate risk (maturity, repricing gaps and duration focuses, liquidity (e.g.maturity ladder), market risk (standarized Basel Committee and VaR approaches) credit risk (including Basel Committe standarized approach, defalult risk models like credit scoring), operating costs and technology risk, FX risk, sovereign risk.

In the last part there is a good section which describes how to manage risks , including liabilty and liquidity management,deposit insurance, capital adequacy, geographic diversification, derivatives, the new credit risk management techniques and securitization.

I had the chance to have Profesor Saunders as a risk management teacher and I only say that as his classes, his book is great. It shows you the best introduction to risk management. It discusses about financial institutions (banks, insurance and securities). That book just helped me to see financial institutions under the risk focus. I really recommend this book to understand risk management.

This is probably the best book in risk management available today. This is due to the combination of breadth and depth of the text. The author gently introduces the student to an important subject and explains with pains how to manage each and every kind of risk. The two chapters on Interest rate risk are absolutely fabulous. There is a sense of continuity because the concepts you learn in one chapter has applications in another. The problems at the end of the chapters are are also challenging and will require an in-depth understanding of the subject. This book is the ultimate.

Being a foster child myself, from 1949 (age 9) to 1957 I related very well to the book. It is very factual on what can happen to children that can no longer live at home. I managed to pull out of my "grief" by remembering the excellent care my grandmother gave me until I was removed from there by my mother at age nine. Progression in life is the key to most foster children. If you don't move on to better things you will be trapped. I can speak of this with some authority, since I am now a foster parent. My wife and I have had over 20 foster children in eight years. Several have stayed with us over a year, Others were returned to their parents. A few didn't do well at all. One girl had been in over 21 different homes since the age of 12.

The book speaks very true of most "systems", but there are some very good placements for children. In this day and age (California) there are very strong guidelines on foster care. The book was a little harsh on the judicial system, and didn't allow the author to look at possible alternatives.

Prior to having a relationship with God, I never had a desire to reach out to children who have been "thrown away" whether to a foster care or an adoption home. Instead, I use to just think about me and what I wanted out of life. After all, the fact that there are unwanted children out there living in foster care or adoption homes is not my problem. That use to be my attitude, until I became a daughter of God five years ago. Once I married my husband, Noel, we both decided that it would be a good idea to some day adopt a little boy or girl. After I read "Throwaway Kids", it became clear to me that my husband and I would DEFINITELY adopt a child.

Immense tears and saddened emotions filled my heart with every page read. When I use to think that I, only one person, could not possibly make a difference in this world, this book helped to convict me otherwise! "Throwaway Kids" brought me to another world. A world that I would not have understood nor been impacted by had I not read it. My only hope is that many more will read this book and realize that by giving up a little part of your own life to take on another, can really radically change the future lives of so many millions of hurtful and hopeless children out there.

Shirley and Bob, I am sorry that you had to go through such a painful life, however, it has brought a lot of good considering the decision my husband and I have made. And who knows what else could come from your shared life experiences!

Bob, or should I say "dad", thank you for finally sharing with me what happened to you growing up. For years you kept the truth stored away until I was old enough to not only understand it, but to have been able to handle it as well. Words cannot express how much of a hero you are to me. Most people having lived a life like you have, would come out of it filled with bitterness, resentment, and maybe even hatred. You, however, came out to be a man full of love and compassion for others. The love that you have poured out on me is only a small measure of the goodness that you brought to my life. I believe your hurtful experience made you into the wonderful dad that you are today. It is because of you, dad, that I have learned to become loving, affectionate, and caring towards others. The book that you and Aunt Shirley wrote truly has moved my heart immensely to save a child who is in great need of having loving and caring parents to come home to. Thank you both for being humble and vulnerable enough to have shared your life with not only me but with all who will read this heart moving book.

Dad, I love you much and will always cherish you. Aunt Shirley, my love goes out to you too. May your book change the way people look at adoption and foster care homes!

God, thank you too for changing my selfish heart and molding it to become one that is closer to yours. Just as you have taken me, a sinful woman who falls short daily of giving back to you what you deserve, so I too hope that I can take a lost unwanted child and show them your love for them, through me. I love you too, God!

For those of you who are unsure as to whether or not you should read this book, let me just encourage you to take the time to do so. If you give your heart to it, you too will think twice about your own life and the life of these unwanted children. Not only will it make you grateful for the family you do have, (considering you were brought up well), but it might even move you enough to pass down the love you were once shown, to another child.

Throwaway kids is a very moving and sad story about what some children have to go through when the state gets involved in thier lives. I thought the book was written very well with a lot of instight. It told the other side of the story of what can really happen to a child when they are taken away from their parents and place in what the state considers a sutible home. Throwaway Kids gives you a completly different view on the subject. I recomend that if you are a person who has gone through a foster home or want to know what has happened to some people who have then you read this book.

After reading pages of information about Chinese lug sails (junk rig) on the web and still finding lots of gaps in the details, I ordered this thin book. Despite it's size, it contains a wealth of information.

The only areas I found really lacking are in mast design (especially since unstayed masts are outside the norm of most design books) and information and pictures of actual boats.
I can't imagine going from a stayed mast design to an unstayed mast without professional help, but it would be nice to have more information regarding design.

The photos and descriptions of boats are limited to somewhat similar boats. The critical information for most people would be identical hulls with different rigs, and detailed closeups of dealing with lines. Photos of properly trimmed sails (on various points of sail) would be nice for those attempting to sail a junk rig for the first time.

Complaints are minor, and am quite pleased with the overall presentation and amount of information.

Overall, book is worth the money for those wanting to go beyond simple curiousity to doing it. Inspired enough to want to attempt a junk rig on a sailing dinghy (in progress)

The Chinese Sailing Rig: Designing And Building Your Own by Derek Van Loan and Don Haggarty is a thoroughly user-friendly guide to constructing a seaworthy boat just like the ones that have served the Chinese throughout history. Numerous black-and-white sketches clearly illustrate the individual steps vital for proper construction. Every step in the guide is "practical" in that it has been successfully done, and can be performed by any lay reader willing to invest some time and effort into learning the art of construction. The Chinese Sailing Rig is a highly recommended addition to nautical history and design reference collections.

The subtitle says it all: The Story of the Field Artillery of the Army of the Potomac 1861-1865, Second Edition. It is the well told story of that Army, and its artillery long arm. Naisawald follows the history of the battles, and the story of the individual Batteries and Gun Crews. There is a very good reason this book was re-published 39 years after its first printing-- I consider it THE history of the subject. The cover flaps are accurate: "The field artillery's story is a dramatic one, filled with individual heros and bumbling commanders, with gallant stands and crushing victories. Military historian VanLoan Naisawald, a former artillery officer, vividly re-creates the color and excitement of these battles, using original battle histories and following specific [batteries] into the heat of combat... He portrays the life of the ordinary Federal gunner... In describing the different types of weapons used and explaining the army's method of handling them, Mr. Naisawald defty shows what the guns of the period could do. He traces the development of the concept of massed [artillery] attack and artillery corps battle support that begun in the battles [of the Civil War] and are still being used in modern tactical warfare." The Civil War Reinactor can learn of the combat record of a unit, but he won't get a manual of arms for operating a artillery piece. It is a history book, not a how-to book. Grape and Canister was recomended to me by a Park Ranger/historian at The Wilderness Battlefield Park, and I wholehartedly concur with him. I consider it THE history of the Field Artillery of the Army of the Potomac.

Artillery is undoubtedly the least understood of the combat arms. It is an arm that requires the utmost skill from both the officers and enlisted men, as well as mere brute strength in handling their guns. Serving the guns in combat, on campaign, as well as maintaining their ability to operate in all weathers and climates requires skill, dedication, and plain hard work. They had all the problems a cavalry outfit had, multiplied three-fold. Forage, blacksmithing, care of their animals, all had to be accomplished to be able to put the battery on the road to the rumbling guns.

Few authors have taken up the challenge to write about this challenging and exciting topic, but Naisawald, and his colleague Fairfax Downey, have painted a clear picture of what it was like to be an artilleryman in the Civil War in the books each has written. This one by Naisawald is a masterpiece.

Painstakingly researched, consisely written, and presented in a format that is easy to follow, the author has presented us with a chronicle that has yet to be surpassed and has seldom been equalled. The story of the artillery of the Army of the Potomac is one of frustration, glory, hard work, and ultimate success. Their best day was undoubtedly the third day of Gettysburg, where they nearly defeated Pickett on their own (their commander, Henry J. Hunt swore to his dying day that if he not been forced to fire counterbattery missions to the Confederate bombardment, he would have had enough long range ammunition to do exactly that-seeing what his artilleymen did do, he was undoubtedly correct), a close second being their performance at the Battle of Antietam, where they literally blew the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia off the battlefield.

These and other tales await the reader in this excellent volume. It is merely for them to pick it up and read it.

This book covers the story of Charles Keating and his effort to run an S&L like a Kingdom to benefit his family and political views. This book offers the reader a very well documented, thought out telling of the Keating story. You can actually see when he starts to take for granted the public-trust he has and start to us it for his own purposes. Although to be fair to him, it was not all because he was conniving, he was also a truly bad businessman that seamed to make gold into lead. He was defiantly the poster boy for the whole S&L scandal. I would have liked to have more detail on his overall political dealings. Overall this is an interesting and well-written book.

A riveting read that takes you inside the fascinating world of Charlie Keating. Could not put this book down, no matter how hard I tried. A must-have!

This is a great book for the average Joe, easy to read and understand. I read it in one weekend and was truly enlightened. This is a must have for the informed new home buyer.

This is a must have book if you are buying a new home! I read this book in two days and loved every minute. It tells you everything you need to know to get the home of your dreams built correctly. I highly recommend you read this book and have anyone else who wants to buy a new home read it too!! Two thumbs way UP!!

Once you have a grounding in matrix analysis and linear algebra this book makes a good reference. His explanations tend to be terse (even exceptionally so)- more suited for reminding someone who already knows how the algorithm works or was derived and simply can't remember the details. It lost a star as I've found some annoying typos (for example, in the pseudocode for the GMRES algorithm).

This is the book I turn to first when I have to deal with a problem in numerical linear algebra, it's clearly written and has extensive references.

This is one of the definitive texts on computational linear algebra, or more specifically, on matrix computations. The term "matrix computations" is actually the more apt name because the book focuses on computational issues involving matrices,the currency of linear algebra, rather than on linear algebra in the abstract. As an example of this distinction, the authors develop both "saxpy" (scalar "a" times vector "x" plus vector "y") based algorithms and "gaxpy" (generalized saxpy, where "a" is a matrix) based algorithms, which are organized to exploit very efficient low-level matrix computations. This is an important organizing concept that can lead to more efficient matrix algorithms.

For each important algorithm discussed, the authors provide a concise and rigorous mathematical development followed by crystal clear pseudo-code. The pseudo-code has a Pascal-like syntax, but with embedded Matlab abbreviations that make common low-level matrix operations extremely easy to express. The authors also use indentation rather than tedious BEGIN-END notation, another convention that makes the pseudo-code crisp and easy to understand. I have found it quite easy to code up various algorithms from the pseudo-code descriptions given in this book. The authors cover most of the traditional topics such as Gaussian elimination, matrix factorizations (LU, QR, and SVD), eigenvalue problems (symmetric and unsymmetric), iterative methods, Lanczos method, othogonalization and least squares (both constrained and unconstrained), as well as basic linear algebra and error analysis.

I've use this book extensively during the past ten years. It's an invaluable resource for teaching numerical analysis (which invariably includes matrix computations), and for virtually any research that involves computational linear algebra. If you've got matrices, chances are you will appreciate having this book around.

This book isn't too bad. It doesn't cover anything revolutionary, but it does a good job of covering some of the basics of getting out of debt. It's an easy read and goes fairly quick. If you want to read it I'd suggest picking it up at the library rather than buying it. One pitfall it does have is that the author could have left her anti-government and political propaganda out of it, that was a bit annoying.

Contrary to the preceding opinion from Alabama, this book is a good buy. It tells how to get rid of all your debt in the shortest possible timeframe, saving thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. It even gives a few examples of ways to decrease expenses so that you can use the difference to accelerate repayment of your debts. Following the advice in the book, I expect to be completely out of debt (over $140k, including the mortgage) within 5 years and expect to retire (comfortably) at least seven years earlier than I had anticipated. (P.S. -- I don't make six figures and have a young child.)

The only thing I would change is that the author tells you where to go to find the "best" credit cards. Is there really such a thing? Getting another credit card will, over time, put far too many people back to square one. If you keep in mind that if you can't buy something for cash, that means you can't afford it -- this book can take you the rest of the way.

If you think this book is useless you're probably looking for an easy way out of debt (expecting an inheritance?).

I have read all, well most of these books. They all seem to say pretty much the same thing just from a different perspective. A friend told me about "Debt No More" and swore "this one is different". Since I was about to file bankruptcy I figured I had nothing more to loose. This book saved me and possibly my marriage. I just got in over my head and though in the long run it would all work out. It just got worse and I sunk deeper and deeper. We are now on our way toward getting completely out of debt and are rebuilding our credit. I really recommend this book. It is very easy to understand and makes allot of sense. Thank you Carolyn White where ever you are.

You won't be disappointed with this book. It really covers the territory--everything from qualifying tips to government programs to seller financing to saving big dollars. Before I read this book I didn't know a an ARM from a leg. Now I can talk mortgage talk with any lender and not feel like I'm prime meat for the wolves. Really gives the lowdown on all types of financing alternatives and how not to get caught by the fine print. Thoroughly shows how to pay off your loan faster and save tens of thousands of dollars. Nuff said. This knowledge will pay back a thousand times the cost of the book.

I previously read Eldred's book,Investing In Real Estate.It's the best,comprehensive, and most sensible guide to investing that you'll find (read the reviews for youself). Likewise, this book on financing goes way beyond the other authors that I have read. (Sidenote: I cannot figure out what the Seattle reviewer is talking about, Mortgage Secrets deals exclusively with the ins and outs of financing techniques, saving money, cutting mortgage costs,and building equity faster. This book says nothing about using high leverage to get rich in real estate. As to infomercial hype, Eldred actually lambasts these gurus and warns how their "techniques" can lead the gullible to financial ruin. He even cautions strongly against home equity loans.) If you want to learn your financing options as well as the "tricks of the trade", you won't find a better book than this one. Although I'm in the business, I liked this book because a much more educated borrower gives us true professionals a stong advantage over our competition. Read Mortgage Secrets, then work with a broker who follows the insights that Eldred reveals. I'll make more money and you will get a better deal.

I just closed a loan on my first home and I found this book to be a helpful guide. It's not as sensationalistic as the title might imply, but it prepared me to know what questions to ask and how to get my credit,income, and bills in shape before I put in my loan application. Although I took out a new loan, this book goes into assumptions, seller financing, and other financing choices that I didn't know much about. I think a lot of people looking to buy might find these alternatives worthwhile. Overall, a profitable read.
P.S. This book is not an "infomercial" or "get rich quick" hype. It also strongly warns against misleading a lender--none of the advice is "fraudulent." I find it interesting to read other reviews and sometimes wonder if they actually read the book they are reviewing. Not just here, but with many other popular authors. Oh well, such is life.