Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul?
The American economy is dragging, with unemployment rates rising and consumer debt hitting $2.5 trillion. Many people are in deep and need help. Here, a Certified Financial Planner explains the mathematics of debt; strategies to deal with credit card, mortgage, student, and other loans; why debt consolidation and taking loans from a 401(k) can lead to problems; truths about bankruptcy; and how to use debt while eliminating it.
*Includes essential resources and websites, sample letters and forms, loan forgiveness programs, bankruptcy resources
*Author a Certified Financial Planner
*Covers every kind of debt, mortgages to credit cards to student loans
*National credit card debt is growing exponentially
Shipping imperfect software is like going into debt. When you incur debt, the illusion of doing things faster can lead to exponential growth in the cost of maintaining software. Software debt takes five major forms: technical, quality, configuration management, design, and platform experience. In today’s rush to market, software debt is inevitable. And that’s okay—if you’re careful about the debt you incur, and if you quickly pay it back.
In Managing Software Debt, leading Agile expert Chris Sterling shows how understanding software debt can help you move products to market faster, with a realistic plan for refactoring them based on experience. Writing for all Agile software professionals, Sterling explains why you’re going into software debt whether you know it or not—and why the interest on that debt can bring projects to a standstill. Next, he thoroughly explains each form of software debt, showing how to plan for it intelligently and repay it successfully. You’ll learn why accepting software debt is not the same as deliberate sloppiness, and you’ll learn how to use the software debt concept to systematically improve architectural agility. Coverage includes
Managing tensions between speed and perfection and recognizing that you’ll inevitably ship some “not quite right” code Planning to minimize interest payments by paying debts quickly Building architectures that respond to change and help enterprises run more smoothly Incorporating emergent architecture concepts into daily activities, using Agile collaboration and refactoring techniques Delivering code and other software internals that reduce the friction of future change Using early, automated testing to move past the “break/fix” mentality Scripting and streamlining both deployment and rollback Implementing team configuration patterns and knowledge sharing approaches that make software debt easier to repay Clearing away technical impediments in existing architectures Using the YAGNI (“you ain’t gonna need it”) approach to strip away unnecessary complexity
Using this book’s techniques, senior software leadership can deliver more business value; managers can organize and support development teams more effectively; and teams and team members can improve their performance throughout the development lifecycle.
The high-yield leveraged bond and loan market (“junk bonds”) is now valued at $3+ trillion in North America, €1 trillion in Europe, and another $1 trillion in emerging markets. What’s more, based on the maturity schedules of current debt, it’s poised for massive growth. To successfully issue, evaluate, and invest in high-yield debt, however, financial professionals need credit and bond analysis skills specific to these instruments. Now, for the first time, there’s a complete, practical, and expert tutorial and workbook covering all facets of modern leveraged finance analysis. In A Pragmatist’s Guide to Leveraged Finance, Credit Suisse managing director Bob Kricheff explains why conventional analysis techniques are inadequate for leveraged instruments, clearly defines the unique challenges sellers and buyers face, walks step-by-step through deriving essential data for pricing and decision-making, and demonstrates how to apply it. Using practical examples, sample documents, Excel worksheets, and graphs, Kricheff covers all this, and much more: yields, spreads, and total return; ratio analysis of liquidity and asset value; business trend analysis; modeling and scenarios; potential interest rate impacts; evaluating and potentially escaping leveraged finance covenants; how to assess equity (and why it matters); investing on news and events; early stage credit; and creating accurate credit snapshots. This book is an indispensable resource for all investment and underwriting professionals, money managers, consultants, accountants, advisors, and lawyers working in leveraged finance. In fact, it teaches credit analysis skills that will be valuable in analyzing a wide variety of higher-risk investments, including growth stocks.