REVIEWS BY TIFFANY SPEAKS
Not enough cash and too much financial stress? The following books will ease the angst. From banking basics to retiring rich, these selections provide fascinating insight into the world of money.
Promising prosperity
Procrastinators rejoice! The author of bestsellers such as The Automatic Millionaire, Smart Women Finish Rich
and Smart Couples Finish Rich brings good news with his latest
book, Start Late, Finish Rich: A No-Fail Plan for Achieving
Financial Freedom at Any Age. With feel-good sensibilities, David Bach delivers levelheaded strategies for reaching financial goals. "You don't prepare for a marathon by trying to run 26 miles the first day of training," advises the writer. "You build up to it gradually."
In this book, Bach's previously coined "Latte Factor" is turbo-charged to become the "Double Latte Factor." The premise for both is cutting back on little things like fancy coffee drinks and premium cable. These extravagancies add up and could be building a nest egg rather than just a waistline.
Bach's clever approach will make readers feel as if they're having a one-on-one conversation with a friendly personal financial counselor. His good-news message requires a shift from focusing on past mistakes to planning and preparing for attainable future goals. Each page offers easy-to-follow life-changing tips, including a four-week action plan for getting a raise. Powerful, poignant and pleasing, Start Late, Finish Rich can't be read fast enough. Bach doesn't claim to have the Midas touch, but this book is pure gold.
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On your mark, get set, go!
Steven B. Smith's Money for Life Success Planner: A 12-Week Companion to Achieve
Financial Fitness supplies a knockout punch to banking blues. This guide supplements the author's Money for Life, a budgeting how-to book, but is also an excellent independent source, providing worksheets, tips and activities for managing money. With 12 weeks of action plans, Smith gives defined goals and step-by-step tactics. He insists the secret to financial fitness isn't making more money, but spending less. Based on the envelope-budgeting method in Money for Life, Smith's new book motivates consumers to stay with a plan and carefully monitor their transactions. Preparing for a "cashless" society and staying out of turmoil requires changing habits and behaviors. With a simple approach, online tools and perforated pages, this planner relieves the challenge of getting fiscally fit. Smith, CEO of In2M Corporation, a financial software and services company, lays the groundwork and coaches and coaxes the reader to the finish line.
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Economics with ease
Kenneth M. Morris and Virginia B. Morris explain finance in a clear, easy manner. Their newest editions of The Wall Street Journal guides are must-haves for understanding money matters. With clear and colorful illustrations, the guides break down financial jargon and the what's what of banking. Color-coded sections enable readers to flip to the section that best addresses their current needs.
Whether heading to college and curious about checking accounts or paying for college and trying to understand
financial aid, The WSJ Guide to Understanding Personal Finance speaks to the money-handler in all of us. This fourth edition covers the latest in online banking, new check-cashing policies and estate planning. Confused by various interest rates on savings accounts? The authors smartly use a loaf of bread to explain the differences. Mastering basic economics in a short guide is quite a feat; this guide is the book you might have wished for when struggling through Econ 101 in college.
The latest edition of The WSJ Guide to Understanding Money & Investing, another successful Morris update, delves into the world of finance with clarity and wisdom. This short guide is encyclopedic—covering everything from the introduction of the euro to the role of technology in changing markets—and should be required reading for all individual investors. The bold graphics and simple explanations turn the overwhelming into the accessible. Offering fascinating history lessons, such as the background of the words "salary" and "greenback," the guide explains in layman's terms the world of Wall Street. Easy to digest, this third edition is a welcome addition to the libraries of new investors and old pros.
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It's elementary, my dear...
From finance guru Robert Kiyosaki's best-selling Rich Dad's Advisors series
comes The ABC's of Getting Out of Debt. Garrett Sutton, a Business Week best-selling author and corporate
attorney, offers practical advice and explains how debt and credit aren't all bad news, despite worrisome statistics. In 15 years U.S. consumer credit card debt climbed from $200 billion in 1990 to a projected $985 billion this year. With simple direction, Sutton provides a "road map for winning with credit." His advice for having a written plan and avoiding identity theft are top-notch, and he aptly explains why your credit report is "more important than any school report card." Using real-life examples, the author tackles the woes and blows of credit. From battling the debt collectors to reading a credit report and making repairs, Sutton's book is salve for credit wounds. Tips such as writing the credit bureau short concise handwritten letters are particularly helpful. The ABC's of Getting Out of Debt makes credit and debt management seem, well, almost elementary.
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Tiffany Speaks is a former business writer for Newsweek Japan who does her budgeting and writing from Norman, Oklahoma.
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