Author: John F. Loase

Publisher: The Graduate Group. 209 pages

Book Review by Ramu Nakliba

This is an excellent work on making the right decisions on important aspects of your life. It relates statistics to life and success. In other words, how the right use of statistics can make all the difference between being happy or miserable in life, about being a financial success or a failure.

The author, John F. Loase, who is a professor of mathematics at Concordia College in New York, encourages readers to take an entirely new and refreshing approach to statistics.

Instead of coming up with images of numbers, tables charts and graphics when they think of the word “statistics,” he demonstrates how useful statistics is to make the right decisions in life so that you can achieve prosperity and happiness.

He says: “Decisions about education, real estate, exercise, weight, cars and stocks are all statistical. The higher your level of statistical knowledge, the better off you will be mentally, physically, financially and emotionally.”

As an example, he illustrates how statistics is critical in developing frugality. H points out that frugality is such a key value in accumulating wealth, as demonstrated in the highly useful book The Millionaire Next Door, which I read with such delight and relished the gems I discovered on how ordinary people became millionaires.

It is also worthwhile to note that the world’s most successful investor Warren Buffet uses statistical probabilities in deciding which companies to invest in and most importantly at what price, after reading and understanding their annual reports. It is no wonder that he holds the world’s record of having the highest average annual rate of return on stock investments for the longest time.

John F. Loase explains in easy-to-understand language the concepts of probability, mean, median and mode and the key differences among them. Most importantly, he gives real-life examples on how to use these key terms in making crucial decisions that affect you.

We summarize this book review by using the author’s own words:

“This book is all about essential topics, whose mastery can lead to better decisions and improved prospects in finance, health and satisfaction in life. Statistics is your neglected best friend.”

In short Statistics Made Easy is your financial key to a happy life.