Lee Eisenberg

Six roller-coaster years ago, Lee Eisenberg began research that led to the 2006 publication of his best-selling book about the financial and emotional challenges inherent in retirement planning: The Number: A Completely Different Way to Think About the Rest of Your Life. The book brought national focus on how Americans -- across the wealth spectrum -- were largely confused, anxious and reluctant to put a financial plan in place. The key message, delivered at numerous talks to industry insiders and their customers: the most enlightened way to think about the Number requires that each of us address two parallel questions and do so simultaneously: How much do I need? What do I need it for?

Eisenberg’s newly published book -- Shoptimism: Why the American Consumer Will Keep on Buying No Matter What -- adds a provocative second dimension to his ongoing inquiry into how we choose (or fail) to mindfully manage our personal financial lives. The Number took readers on a journey through the mists of financial planning and the challenges of personal saving. Shoptimism complements it by zeroing in on why and how we make our spending decisions: why some us live in consumption’s tight grip, while others balance its pleasures and pitfalls.

“Live for the Moment -- or Plan for the Future?” is an engagingly illustrated talk that bridges the themes expressed in both books: Why we save (or don’t); why we spend (or don’t). And it illuminates these intersecting issues from two points of view: those who market everything from mutual funds to baby diapers and those who pick and choose from among a boundless array of products and services. The takeaway: a set of keen, entertaining and actionable insights into the American psyche, 2012.