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Personal Finance for Dummies, Fourth Edition :: 0764525905
Description
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| Personal Finance for Dummies offers sound and practical advice for those who want to get control over their personal financial lives. Author Eric Tyson points out the most common mistakes that we all make in our approach to money and prescribes ways to save and invest for a secure future. Using worksheets, the book helps you to measure your own financial health by looking at factors such as how much debt you carry, your savings rate, as well as investment and insurance checkups. The book looks at how you should invest your retirement account, approach taxes, and provides a good overview on how to buy real estate. Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
This book is especially good for the person who wants a broad overview of investing. It will give you a solid foundation to begin growing your money from. After reading, I opened a Scottrade account because they had the lowest rates ($7), and no inactivity fee. [...] to get a referral for 3 free trades.
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Author: Guest
Okay, so here's your problem: You've finally realized that you need to get your finances in order, start saving for retirement, and begin a basic investment plan to grow your money, but where do you start?
Here's the best one: "Personal Finance for Dummies" by Eric Tyson. In my situation, I'd finally paid off my credit card debt and wanted to start preparing for retirement, even though I'm in my mid-30's, so I had a late start. Tyson's book gave me the perfect foundation to start. It's not a get-rich-quick book, or anything like that. Its main mission is to educate anyone who picks it up about the basics of personal finance. This includes everything from paying down consumer debts, to buying insurance, to investing in retirement plans like 401(k)'s or 403(b)'s, and even getting into stock and bond markets. If you don't know the difference between a mutual friendship and a mutual fund, then this book will get you started in the right direction.
Tyson packs the book with as many details as possible, at least enough for you to finally start putting money into the company retirement plan and getting your financial house in order. Yes, this is basic stuff, but that's the point. Tyson is not trying to tell you how to beat the market (which you can't do, anyway), he's not promising you that you'll be a multimillionaire in three months. No, all he's doing is showing you how to invest, where are the best and safest places to put your money for now and the future, and the things to avoid (like investing in risky stocks or funds).
This book is for beginners, not for anyone who already has a firm understanding of basic financial concepts. One reviewer did state that Mr. Tyson advocates that you not balance your checkbook. This is somewhat true, but Tyson does not state that people should not track their money. Rather, he believes that if people fund their retirement automatically and pay their bills automatically, as well as cut down on debts and over-spending that so many of us do, then it's not that necessary to pore over every penny in the checkbook. Sure, you should have a pretty good idea what's in your checking account, and Tyson does advocate looking it over every now and then, but if you're always scanning your account because you may not have enough money to pay a bill, or something like that, then your financial problems are deeper. Tyson does not advocate ignoring the checking account. Actually, his philosophy towards checking accounts is that they should mostly be used for paying bills, while the remainder of your money should be growing somewhere in places like money market funds, which makes a lot of sense.
Once again, if you've just started getting serious about learning about the important basics of financing, then "Personal Finance for Dummies" is perfect. Once you've completed reading this one, you'll want to check out Tyson's other "for Dummies" books like "Mutual Funds for Dummies," "Investing for Dummies," "Mutual Funds for Dummies," and "Real Estate Investing for Dummies." Each one of Tyson's other books goes into detail about the specific areas touched on in "Personal Finance for Dummies."
Another book that's helped me out has been "401(k)s for Dummies" by Ted Benna and Brenda Watson Newmann. Like Tyson's books, it explains the basics that you'll need to know before investing your money. It's not as big as Tyson's book, but that's because it covers 401(k)'s, IRA's, and other similar investment vehicles. If you're getting ready to invest in a 401(k), you may want to give it a look to avoid any pitfalls or mystery.
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Author: Guest
Excellent verbage of terms usually over complicated in most magazines and articles. Because of this it's made assimilating the data and incorporating it's advice much much easier. Should've bought it years ago.
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Author: Guest
This book teaches the fundamental basics which is what I was expecting from a book like this.
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Author: Guest
Well, for starters, this book lives up to its title. This really is very basic stuff. I mean, there is even a section on eating your vegetables, and other extremely basic life lessons.
Unfortunately, while there is a lot of information in the book, it doesn't go to into detail about the different financial plans and services you should get into. More time is spent on nutrition than on, say, the Roth IRA. And, the main problem with finance books is once the book is published, it becomes outdated. Things change every day. Finance magazines are more up to date
But one part of the book REALLY bothered me.
At one point, the author argues that it isn't all that necessary to balance your checkbook. Is he serious? Balancing your checkbook, if anything, gives you first hand knowledge of your basic finances on a monthly basis and a reminder of what you have spent. If only to double-check your spending, this should be the FIRST thing anyone interested in finance should do. To have the author of a personal finance book actually advise against it is highly questionable.
Still, there is a lot of info here and, if you want a very basic knowledge, it is worth reading.
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