Download or read book Retirement Planning Guidebook written by Wade Pfau and published by . This book was released on 2023-03-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Incomprehensible Certainty written by Thomas Pfau and published by . This book was released on 2022-06 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Pfau's study of images and visual experience is a tour de force linking Platonic metaphysics to modern phenomenology and probing literary, philosophical, and theological accounts of visual experience from Plato to Rilke. Incomprehensible Certainty presents a sustained reflection on the nature of images and the phenomenology of visual experience. Taking the word "image" (eikōn) not only as the essential medium of art and literature but as foundational for the intuitive ways in which we make contact with our "lifeworld," Thomas Pfau draws in equal measure on Platonic metaphysics and modern phenomenology to advance a series of interlocking claims. First, Pfau shows that, beginning with Plato's later dialogues, being and appearance came to be understood as ontologically distinct from (but no longer opposed to) one another. Second, in contrast to the idol that is typically gazed at and visually consumed as an object of desire, this study positions the image (eikōn) as a medium whose intrinsic abundance and excess reveal to us its metaphysical function, namely, as the visible analogue of an invisible, numinous reality. Finally, the interpretations unfolded in this book (from Plato, Plotinus, pseudo-Dionysius, John Damascene via Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventure, Julian of Norwich, and Nicholas of Cusa to modern writers and artists such as Goethe, Ruskin, Turner, Hopkins, Cézanne, and Rilke) affirm the essential complementarity of image and word, visual intuition and hermeneutic practice, in theology, philosophy, and literature. Like Pfau's previous book, Minding the Modern, Incomprehensive Certainty is a major work. With over fifty illustrations, the book will interest students and scholars of philosophy, theology, literature, and art history.

Download or read book Reverse Mortgages written by Wade Donald Pfau and published by McLean Asset Management Corporation. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reverse mortgages have been surrounded by negativity. They were often mentioned alongside phrases like "last resort," "out of money," and "bad choice." In 2014, intrigued by the seemingly universal bad rap reverse mortgages had cultivated, Dr. Wade Pfau began researching them in depth. Over the course of the next year, he came to the conclusion that reverse mortgages aren't inherently a bad idea, though they are often misunderstood and not used in a most beneficial way. In fact, Dr. Pfau realized that reverse mortgages---when used correctly---can provide an added layer of security for retirees and allow them to enjoy retirement more by gaining liquidity from an illiquid asset. This second edition of the book is fully revised and updated for the modification of reverse mortgage rules affecting applications after October 2, 2017.

Download or read book Father Ralph Pfau and the Golden Books written by Glenn F. Chesnut and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2017-01-04 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Father Ralph Pfau was one of AAs four most-published and most-formative authors (along with Bill Wilson, Richmond Walker, and Ed Webster) during the new movements earliest thirty years, during which it grew from only 100 members to almost 300,000. In the first ten years Pfau spent working to spread AA, he said I have traveled nearly 750,000 miles .... I have spoken before nearly two hundred thousand members of AA at retreats, meetings and conventions, and personally discussed problems with more than ten thousand alcoholics. He produced fourteen extremely popular books, called the Golden Books, under the pen name Father John Doe, along with other books and recordings. When he joined Alcoholics Anonymous in 1943, he became the first Roman Catholic priest to get sober in the newly formed movement. An alcoholic and drug addict, he had spent the previous ten years being removed from parish after parish, as his drinking and addiction to downers got out of control over and over again. He taught the spirituality of imperfection, drawing from St. Thrse of Lisieuxs Little Way and St. Augustines teaching of God as Truth Itself the forgiving God who touches us in our fallenness, in acts of sudden psychological insight in which our whole perspective on life undergoes sweeping positive quantum changes. Over and over he calmed peoples fear of God by reminding them that perfection was a myth, and that no human being could do it all. He was one of the most creative and interesting American Catholic theologians of his era.

Download or read book Minding the Modern written by Thomas Pfau and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2015-02-15 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this brilliant study, Thomas Pfau argues that the loss of foundational concepts in classical and medieval Aristotelian philosophy caused a fateful separation between reason and will in European thought. Pfau traces the evolution and eventual deterioration of key concepts of human agency—will, person, judgment, action—from antiquity through Scholasticism and on to eighteenth-century moral theory and its critical revision in the works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Featuring extended critical discussions of Aristotle, Gnosticism, Augustine, Aquinas, Ockham, Hobbes, Shaftesbury, Mandeville, Hutcheson, Hume, Adam Smith, and Coleridge, this study contends that the humanistic concepts these writers seek to elucidate acquire meaning and significance only inasmuch as we are prepared positively to engage (rather than historicize) their previous usages. Beginning with the rise of theological (and, eventually, secular) voluntarism, modern thought appears increasingly reluctant and, in time, unable to engage the deep history of its own underlying conceptions, thus leaving our understanding of the nature and function of humanistic inquiry increasingly frayed and incoherent. One consequence of this shift is to leave the moral self-expression of intellectual elites and ordinary citizens alike stunted, which in turn has fueled the widespread notion that moral and ethical concerns are but a special branch of inquiry largely determined by opinion rather than dialogical reasoning, judgment, and practice. A clear sign of this regression is the present crisis in the study of the humanities, whose role is overwhelmingly conceived (and negatively appraised) in terms of scientific theories, methods, and objectives. The ultimate casualty of this reductionism has been the very idea of personhood and the disappearance of an adequate ethical language. Minding the Modern is not merely a chapter in the history of ideas; it is a thorough phenomenological and metaphysical study of the roots of today's predicaments.

Download or read book Safety First Retirement Planning written by Wade Donald Pfau and published by Retirement Researcher Guid. This book was released on 2019-10 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two fundamentally different philosophies for retirement income planning, which I call probability-based and safety-first, diverge on the critical issue of where a retirement plan is best served: in the risk/reward trade-offs of a diversified and aggressive investment portfolio that relies primarily on the stock market, or in the contractual protections of insurance products that integrate the power of risk pooling and actuarial science alongside investments. The probability-based approach is generally better understood by the public. It advocates using an aggressive investment portfolio with a large allocation to stocks to meet retirement goals. My earlier book How Much Can I Spend in Retirement? A Guide to Investment-Based Retirement Strategies provides an extensive investigation of probability-based approaches. But this investments-only attitude is not the optimal way to build a retirement income plan. There are pitfalls in retirement that we are less familiar with during the accumulation years. The nature of risk changes. Longevity risk is the possibility of living longer than planned, which could mean not having resources to maintain the retiree's standard of living. And once retirement distributions begin, market downturns in the early years can disproportionately harm retirement sustainability. This is sequence-of-returns risk, and it acts to amplify the impacts of market volatility in retirement. Traditional wealth management is not equipped to handle these new risks in a fulfilling way. More assets are required to cover spending goals over a possibly costly retirement triggered by a long life and poor market returns. And yet, there is no assurance that assets will be sufficient. For retirees who are worried about outliving their wealth, probability-based strategies can become excessively conservative and stressful. This book focuses on the other option: safety-first retirement planning. Safety-first advocates support a more bifurcated approach to building retirement income plans that integrates insurance with investments, providing lifetime income protections to cover spending. With risk pooling through insurance, retirees effectively pay an insurance premium that will provide a benefit to support spending in otherwise costly retirements that could deplete an unprotected investment portfolio. Insurance companies can pool sequence and longevity risks across a large base of retirees, much like a traditional defined-benefit company pension plan or Social Security, allowing for retirement spending that is more closely aligned with averages. When bonds are replaced with insurance-based risk pooling assets, retirees can improve the odds of meeting their spending goals while also supporting more legacy at the end of life, especially in the event of a longer-than-average retirement. We walk through this thought process and logic in steps, investigating three basic ways to fund a retirement spending goal: with bonds, with a diversified investment portfolio, and with risk pooling through annuities and life insurance. We consider the potential role for different types of annuities including simple income annuities, variable annuities, and fixed index annuities. I explain how different annuities work and how readers can evaluate them. We also examine the potential for whole life insurance to contribute to a retirement income plan. When we properly consider the range of risks introduced after retirement, I conclude that the integrated strategies preferred by safety-first advocates support more efficient retirement outcomes. Safety-first retirement planning helps to meet financial goals with less worry. This book explains how to evaluate different insurance options and implement these solutions into an integrated retirement plan.

Download or read book Your Complete Guide to a Successful and Secure Retirement written by Larry E. Swedroe and published by Harriman House Limited. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fully revised and updated second edition. This is your one-stop, definitive resource as you prepare for a secure and comfortable retirement. Investment and personal finance experts Larry Swedroe and Kevin Grogan present uniquely comprehensive coverage of every important aspect you need to think about as you approach retirement, including: Social Security, Medicare, investment planning strategy, portfolio maintenance, preparing your heirs, retirement issues faced by women, the threat of elder financial abuse, going beyond financials to think about your happiness, and much more. These topics are explained with the help of specialists in each subject. And everything is based on the "science of investing" – evidenced with studies from peer-reviewed journals. Overall, this adds up to a complete retirement guide, packed with the latest and best knowledge. Don't enter your retirement without it.

Download or read book Romanticism and Modernity written by Thomas Pfau and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-07-16 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though traditionally defined as a relatively brief time period - typically the half century of 1780-1830 - the "Romantic era" constitutes a crucial, indeed unique, transitional phase in what has come to be called "modernity," for it was during these fifty years that myriad disciplinary, aesthetic, economic, and political changes long in the making accelerated dramatically. Due in part to the increased velocity of change, though, most of modernity’s essential master-tropes - such as secularization, instrumental reason, individual rights, economic self-interest, emancipation, system, institution, nation, empire, utopia, and "life" - were also subjected to incisive critical and methodological reflection and revaluation. The chapters in this collection argue that Romanticism’s marked ambivalence and resistance to decisive conceptualization arises precisely from the fact that Romantic authors simultaneously extended the project of European modernity while offering Romantic concepts as means for a sustained critical reflection on that very process. Focusing especially on the topics of form (both literary and organic), secularization (and its political correlates, utopia and apocalypse), and the question of how one narrates the arrival of modernity, this collection collectively emphasizes the importance of understanding modernity through the lens of Romanticism, rather than simply understanding Romanticism as part of modernity. This book was previously published as a special issue of European Romantic Review.

Download or read book How Much Can I Spend in Retirement written by Wade Pfau and published by . This book was released on 2017-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How much can you spend in retirement? Naturally, this is an essential question for those approaching this important life transition. Essentially, if you wish to retire one day, you are increasingly responsible for figuring out how to save during your working years and convert your savings into sustainable income for an ever-lengthening number of retirement years. The nature of risk also changes in retirement, as the lifestyle of retirees become more vulnerable to the impacts of market volatility, unknown longevity, and spending shocks. Retirees have one opportunity to build a successful plan. It is not an easy task, but it is manageable. This book focuses on sustainable spending from investments, which is an important piece of any retirement plan. People want to know if they have saved enough to be able to fund their lifestyle in retirement. In this book, I explain the findings of a large body of financial planning research regarding sustainable spending from investment portfolios in the face of a variety of retirement risks. That body of research tends to begin with the 4 percent rule of thumb for retirement spending. I explain how and why it was developed, what it means, and when it may or may not be appropriate for retirees. William Bengen''s 1994 study gave us the concept of the SAFEMAX, which is the highest sustainable spending rate from the worst-case scenario observed in the US historical data. The Trinity study added portfolio success rates from the historical data for different spending strategies. Both studies suggest that for a thirty-year retirement period, a 4 percent inflation-adjusted withdrawal rate using a 50-75 percent stock allocation should be reasonably safe. I have reservations about the 4 percent rule. It may be too aggressive for current retirees for reasons including increasing longevity, historically low interest rates coupled with higher than average stock market valuations, the impact of the international experience with the 4 percent rule casting a different light than 20th century US historical data, the need to maintain a rather aggressive asset allocation to have the best shot at success, and because the 4 percent rule assumes that investors do not pay any fees or otherwise underperform the underlying market indices. However, other factors suggest that sustainable spending may be even higher than traditional studies imply. Reasons for this include that actual retirees may tend to reduce their spending with age, that they build more diversified portfolios than used in the basic research studies, that real-world retirees may be willing to adjust spending for realized portfolio performance, and that some retirees may have the capacity and tolerance to accept higher portfolio failure probabilities because they have other sources of income from outside their portfolios. Related to these points, I also analyze nine variable spending strategies for retirees as well as the use of strategies that support short-term spending needs with individual bonds and longer-term spending needs with stocks. Retirees need to weigh the consequences between spending too little and spending too much-that is, being too frugal or running out of assets. This book is about implementing what I call the "probability-based" school of thought for retirement planning. It is especially relevant for people who plan to fund their retirements using an investment portfolio and those who are hesitant about using income annuities or other insurance products. I will explore annuities and insurance more extensively in later volumes since I do believe in the value of risk pooling as an additional source of returns to more efficiently meet retirement spending goals. But for now, we have plenty to discuss within the world of sustainable spending from an investment portfolio in retirement. The book concludes with a discussion about how to put these ideas together into a retirement spending plan.

Download or read book Pure Gold written by Holli Pfau and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rescued from abandonment, neglect, unhappy owners, shelters and possible euthanasia, each of the dogs in "Pure gold" led Holli Pfau down paths she never would have found without them. A new career, wilderness adventures, relocation to the Rocky Mountains, agility and obedience competitions-- each was initiated by a dog.

Download or read book The Last Word Is Love written by Ruth Pfau and published by Crossroad. This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If life is an adventure, Ruth Pfau lived it. If love is possible, she proved it. Ruth started as an atheist student in post-war Germany and became a medical doctor and then part of the Order of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary. A visit to Karachi as a young sister started her on her way to dedicating her entire life to the people of Pakistan. Her life is a model of understanding how to live in a world of great diversity. This book is her last one. It is the testament of her life and a testament to the splendor of humanity.

Download or read book Your Behavior written by Richard H. Pfau and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Explains the nature of human perceptions and behavior, including the brain, senses, and external social origins, to understand why people behave as they do, and outlines ways to change one's behavior, with an emphasis on Perceptual Control Theory"--

Download or read book The Political Style of Conspiracy written by Michael Pfau and published by Rhetoric & Public Affairs. This book was released on 2005 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The turbulent history of the United States has provided a fertile ground for conspiracies, both real and imagined. From the American Revolution to the present day, conspiracy discourse--linguistic and symbolic practices and artifacts revolving around themes, claims, or accusations of conspiracy--has been a staple of political rhetoric. Some conspiracy theories never catch on with the public, while others achieve widespread popularity. Whether successful or not, the means by which particular conspiracy theories spread is a rhetorical process, a process in which persuasive language, symbolism, and arguments act upon individual minds within concrete historical and political settings. Conspiracy rhetoric was a driving force in the evolution of antebellum political culture, contributing to the rise and fall of the great parties in the nineteenth century. One conspiracy theory in particular--the "slave power" conspiracy--was instrumental in facilitating the growth of the young Republican Party's membership and ideology. The Political Style of Conspiracy analyzes the concept and reality of the "slave power" in the rhetorical discourse of the mid-nineteenth-century, in particular the speeches and writing of politicians Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, and Abraham Lincoln. By examining their mainstream texts, Pfau reveals that, in addition to the "paranoid style" of conspiracy rhetoric that inhabits the margins of political life, Lincoln, Chase, and Sumner also engaged in a distinctive form of conspiracy rhetoric that is often found at the center of mainstream American society and politics.

Download or read book Lectures on Dostoevsky written by Joseph Frank and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-17 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poor Folk -- The Double -- The House of the Dead -- Notes from Underground -- Crime and Punishment -- The Idiot -- The Brothers Karamazov -- Appendix I: Selected Film Adaptations of Dostoevsky's Novels -- Appendix II: "Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky" by David Foster Wallace.

Download or read book Wordsworth s Profession written by Thomas Pfau and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In exploring Wordsworth's professionalization as a writer, the author's interpretations are coordinated by a single, albeit highly ramified, critical hypothesis: that Romanticism's aesthetic forms afforded the middle classes an imaginary furlough from the impinging consciousness of their tenuous socioeconomic status.

Download or read book Medieval Communities and the Mad written by Aleksandra Nicole Pfau and published by Premodern Health, Disease, and. This book was released on 2020-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of madness as a challenge to communities lies at the core of legal sources. Medieval Communities and the Mad: Narratives of Crime and Mental Illness in Late Medieval France considers how communal networks, ranging from the locale to the realm, responded to people who were considered mad. The madness of individuals played a role in engaging communities with legal mechanisms and proto-national identity constructs, as petitioners sought the king's mercy as an alternative to local justice. The resulting narratives about the mentally ill in late medieval France constructed madness as an inability to live according to communal rules. Although such texts defined madness through acts that threatened social bonds, those ties were reaffirmed through the medium of the remission letter. The composers of the letters presented madness as a communal concern, situating the mad within the household, where care could be provided. Those considered mad were usually not expelled but integrated, often through pilgrimage, surveillance, or chains, into their kin and communal relationships.

Download or read book Easy Quilts from Precut Fabrics written by Sue Pfau and published by Martingale. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Create delightfully scrappy quilts featuring classic quilt blocks--and get to the finish line fast using time-saving precut fabrics. No need for stockpiles of scraps; precut bundles include small cuts of many different fabrics, so getting a scrappy look is a snap. Simply pick your favorite precut! * Layer Cakes: Tasty 10" squares made for slicing up quickly * Jelly Rolls: scrumptious 2 1/2" x 44" strips to cut and sew * Fat quarters: yummy 18" x 22" chunks of fabric fun--a quiltmaking favorite Just one or two precut bundles plus a background fabric are all you need to make these beauties. And you know if it's from Sue, it's economical too! She'll help you make the most of any precut bundle you buy.