We weigh every significant decision based on how it will affect our future. But when it comes to figuring that out, we mostly make the process up as we go along. While financial professional Peter Neuwirth can't help you actually predict the future, he can offer a simple, systematic way to make much better guesses about it—and so make better decisions.

Neuwirth offers an accessible, step-by-step guide to using the powerful concept of Present Value—which allows you to determine the value today of something that might happen in the future—to evaluate all of the outcomes that might arise from choosing one path as opposed to another. Using examples that anyone can relate to, Neuwirth walks you through the process. Your old refrigerator doesn't work as well as it used to—should you buy a new one right away or muddle through for a while? You're offered a great discount on a service you don't need at the moment but eventually will—buy the service now or wait?

With just a little math and some common sense, you can compare future costs and benefits with present costs and benefits and make “apples to apples” comparisons. This book will be indispensable for anyone who has ever had to figure out whether to stick with an awful job or follow his or her bliss, fix that old car or buy a new one, increase 401(k) contributions or keep the same take-home pay, and a thousand other decisions.

Federal contracting . . . easy? With the fourth edition of Federal Contracting Made Easy, it is!
Whether or not you consider federal contracting easy, it is certainly easier with this guide. Used successfully by thousands of contractors and feds, this book offers practical, hands-on, no-nonsense advice.
Now in its fourth edition, Federal Contracting Made Easy lays out the entire federal contracting process in a readable and easy-to-understand style. This book covers how government procurement works, what you can do to cut though the red tape to speed your way to winning a contract, who the key players are, and tips for overcoming obstacles.
New in this edition:
• Discussion of government-wide acquisition contracts (GWACs)
• Updates on women-owned small business
• New status of service-disabled veteran-owned small business
• Expanded list of relevant websites and resources
• Introduction to the new System for Award Management (SAM)
Whether you are about to enter the competitive world of federal contracting or have been bidding for contracts for years and are now looking for updated information and ideas, this is the book you need.
The federal government awards billions of dollars in contracts for goods and services every year. This book will help you win a piece of that business.

“As so many Americans feel powerless to confront a financial system designed to serve the few, Shuman offers us real choices: tools that align our lives with our values. That's power. I love this highly readable, timely, surprising book.”
—Frances Moore Lappé, author of Daring Democracy and Diet for a Small Planet

Americans agree on very little these days, but red state conservatives and blue state progressives can agree on one critical point: Wall Street can no longer be trusted. Yet most of us continue to invest our money in the stocks and bonds of Fortune 500 companies, transferring our capital far from where we live and work. Local investing expert Michael Shuman offers another alternative. He shows how we can use two well-established—but rarely used—investment tools to keep our money close and get a return as good as or better than what we'd get investing in distant, indifferent corporations.

Shuman explains the nuts and bolts of self-directed IRAs and solo 401(k)s and how they can be combined with other recently legalized local investing tools. He details how to set these accounts up, identify and evaluate a whole range of local investment opportunities, and make sure account holders stay on the right side of the law. While the book is written for people without a lot of investment experience—Shuman explains concepts like “liquidity” and “diversification” in simple terms—even if you're as experienced as Warren Buffett, this book will make you rethink everything you know about investing. With Shuman's expert advice, you can strengthen your investment portfolio and your community, neighborhoods, and schools at the same time!

A Step-by-Step Guide to Blowing the Whistle—and Surviving the Storm That Follows

Corporate whistleblowers save lives, prevent fraud, and preserve the environment. But these results come through a long, difficult, draining, and often frightening process that leads many unprepared would-be whistleblowers to give up. Fortunately, they now have the support they need. This unprecedented and authoritative guide covers every step of the process—finding information to support your claims, determining whom to blow the whistle to, dealing with attacks from opponents, enlisting allies, understanding the law, and more.

• Offers not just authoritative, accessible information but advice on every step of the whistleblowing process

• Copublished with the Government Accountability Project, which has been aiding and protecting whistleblowers since 1977

• Illustrated with vivid examples drawn from GAP's thirty-year history

• Click here for Press Release

Corporate whistleblowers save lives, prevent fraud, and preserve the environment. Some even become famous. But what the general public sees is the end result of a long, difficult, draining, and often frightening process. Whistleblowers rarely have any idea what they're in for and, daunted by the ferocity of the resistance and their feelings of isolation and helplessness, some give up, and others are broken financially and emotionally.

Blowing the whistle will always require courage and perseverance, but it no longer has to be done alone. The Corporate Whistleblower's Survival Guide will serve as an expert advisor for anyone contemplating bringing corporate wrongdoers to justice. Tom Devine and Tarek F. Maassarani draw on the accumulated experience of the Government Accountability Project, which since 1977 has helped over 5,000 people take on organizations like AIG, the World Bank, Procter & Gamble, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals--and win.

Devine and Maassarani detail every consideration potential whistleblowers should weigh and paint a vivid picture of the tactics corporations use to attack whistleblowers and cover up or deny damaging revelations. If you are considering blowing the whistle, this book offers hands-on, practical advice on every aspect of the process--finding information to support your claims, determining who to blow the whistle to, enlisting allies, and taking advantage of what legal options exist. The Corporate Whistleblower's Survival Guide will enable readers to bring vital information to light while keeping their sanity, relationships, and careers intact.

Everyone wants to live a life that enables them to make the most of their unique gifts, interests, and passions-to find their true calling, the work they were born to do. Whistle While You Work is a liberating guide that uses powerful stories and exercises to help readers find truly satisfying, fulfilling work consistent with their deepest values. The authors combine a thoughtful and practical discussion about calling with examples showing how to apply these ideas to one's life. They mix in dozens of inspiring stories featuring individuals who have found, or are in the process of finding, their calling with straightforward advice and suggestions on how to discover one's calling. Most importantly, they provide readers with a solid path for embracing calling, a subject usually addressed abstractly in a useful, fun, and systematic way. Through a unique Calling Card exercise that features a guided exploration of 52 "natural preferences" -- such as Advancing Ideas, Doing the Numbers, Building Relationships, Performing Events -- the book gives readers a new way to detect and reflect on the core of their life's work. By using this and other tools in the book, readers develop their own answers to three critical questions: What gift do I naturally give to others? What gift do I most enjoy giving to others? What gift have I most often given to others? In answering those questions, they will reveal to themselves their calling-and ultimately move toward new realms of success and fulfillment. Whistle While You Work is an inspiring, effective, and entertaining approach to discovering one's calling. It will equip all of us with the mind-set, stories, coaching, and, perhaps most importantly, the hope we need to find our way ahead-and see a clear picture of what our right work is and what to do with our limited time here on Earth.Everyone wants to live a life that enables them to make the most of their unique gifts, interests, and passions-to find their true calling, the work they were born to do. Whistle While You Work is a liberating guide that uses powerful stories and exercises to help readers find truly satisfying, fulfilling work consistent with their deepest values. The authors combine a thoughtful and practical discussion about calling with examples showing how to apply these ideas to one's life. They mix in dozens of inspiring stories featuring individuals who have found, or are in the process of finding, their calling with straightforward advice and suggestions on how to discover one's calling. Most importantly, they provide readers with a solid path for embracing calling, a subject usually addressed abstractly in a useful, fun, and systematic way. Through a unique Calling Card exercise that features a guided exploration of 52 "natural preferences" -- such as Advancing Ideas, Doing the Numbers, Building Relationships, Performing Events -- the book gives readers a new way to detect and reflect on the core of their life's work. By using this and other tools in the book, readers develop their own answers to three critical questions: What gift do I naturally give to others? What gift do I most enjoy giving to others? What gift have I most often given to others? In answering those questions, they will reveal to themselves their calling-and ultimately move toward new realms of success and fulfillment. Whistle While You Work is an inspiring, effective, and entertaining approach to discovering one's calling. It will equip all of us with the mind-set, stories, coaching, and, perhaps most importantly, the hope we need to find our way ahead-and see a clear picture of what our right work is and what to do with our limited time here on Earth.

• Winner of the 2001 Career Book of the Year award from ForeWord Magazine
• By the authors of the international bestseller, Repacking Your Bags (more than 220,000 copies sold)
• Through practical advice and a breakthrough exercise-Calling Cards-helps readers identify their callings and choose a way of life and work consistent with their gifts, passions, and values
• Takes a challenging concept-calling-and makes it accessible and practical to our everyday lives
• Numerous real-life stories and examples offer hope that meaningful work is possible and within our grasp

Many of today's business leaders champion learning as essential to business success, backing their belief with massive investments in Training and Development (T&D). In fact, T&D investments reach $56 billion per year in the U.S. alone. In this era of unprecedented opportunity, the time is right for T&D to become a full-fledged "player" in the world of business. At issue, the authors contend, is T&D's inability to seize this opportunity and deliver unmistakable value to its most influential customers-the exectuvies who pay for trainiing services but are unable to see clear business value being returned on their companies' training investments. The authors also contend that T&D must alter the traditional precepts that keep it "separate form the business" and "out of the loop" strategically. Van Adelsberg and Trolley suggest that the key to delivering unmistakable business value lies in transforming T&D-in spirit and in practice-from a funciton to a business. The authors draw on their experiences working inside Moore Corporation, DuPont, Mellon Bank, Kaiser Permanente, Texas Instruments, and other top businesses to illustrate how "Running Training Like a Business": 1. Eliminates the many hidden costs of training; 2. Re-focuses T&D from delivering training content to addressing business issues; 3. Makes T&D a full stategic partner in business decision making; 4. Ensures that training measurement is "baked in, not bolted on"; 5. Improves the effectiveness and efficiency of internal and/or external T&D organizations. Trolley and van Adelsberg lead the reader through a proven four-step process for transforming traditional training organizations into training enterprises capable of delivering unmistakable value, quarter after quarter and year after year.Many of today's business leaders champion learning as essential to business success, backing their belief with massive investments in Training and Development (T&D). In fact, T&D investments reach $56 billion per year in the U.S. alone. In this era of unprecedented opportunity, the time is right for T&D to become a full-fledged "player" in the world of business. At issue, the authors contend, is T&D's inability to seize this opportunity and deliver unmistakable value to its most influential customers-the exectuvies who pay for trainiing services but are unable to see clear business value being returned on their companies' training investments. The authors also contend that T&D must alter the traditional precepts that keep it "separate form the business" and "out of the loop" strategically. Van Adelsberg and Trolley suggest that the key to delivering unmistakable business value lies in transforming T&D-in spirit and in practice-from a funciton to a business. The authors draw on their experiences working inside Moore Corporation, DuPont, Mellon Bank, Kaiser Permanente, Texas Instruments, and other top businesses to illustrate how "Running Training Like a Business": 1. Eliminates the many hidden costs of training; 2. Re-focuses T&D from delivering training content to addressing business issues; 3. Makes T&D a full stategic partner in business decision making; 4. Ensures that training measurement is "baked in, not bolted on"; 5. Improves the effectiveness and efficiency of internal and/or external T&D organizations. Trolley and van Adelsberg lead the reader through a proven four-step process for transforming traditional training organizations into training enterprises capable of delivering unmistakable value, quarter after quarter and year after year.

• Addresses training's central challenge-how to meet organizational demands for clear business value
• Provides fresh and powerful strategic perspectives and tools to take training out of the limbo between "doing good" and delivering unmistakable value to the business, through a strategic assessment of training operations
• Draws on the authors' great successes running training like a business at major international corporations, including DuPont, Moore Corporation, and NatWest
• Sets out the steps training organizations must take to transform themselves into operating like a business