Get a Financial Life
Get a Financial Life is a real-world guide for "millennials" that teaches young people tricks for becoming the masters of their financial universes.
Get a Financial Life focuses on what you need to know when you're just starting to pay serious attention to money matters. Whether you earn $20,000 or $200,000, Get a Financial Life can help you navigate the new world of personal finance.
From debt and housing issues to banking, investing, taxes, and insurance, the book offers solutions and tools, and covers everything a young person needs to know to get on the path to financial security. Kobliner reveals surprising information along the way, like why the latest trends in health insurance can hurt you, and why money market accounts can be among the worst places to save.
Other hot topics include how to:
- Dig yourself out of debt.
- Buy a home in spite of the credit crunch, mortgage crisis, and a low salary.
- Restore credit. Find out why credit scores matter, and how to get yours to 720 or higher.
- Find a safe bank amid the latest bank scares and what to watch out for in online banking.
- Profit from the stock market - the smart way - even if you don't have a lot of money.
- Save big money on insurance by shopping around and skipping coverage you don't need.
"Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown" is a personal and journalistic look at the free-wheeling lending that led to our nation's housing crisis. A veteran New York Times economics reporter, Edmund L. Andrews was intimately aware of the dangers posed by easy mortgages from fast-buck lenders. But, eager to buy a home and start a new life, he gave in to temptation and began a surreal adventure into the mortgage mayhem that nearly wrecked our economy.
"Busted" weaves together the author’s own ride to the edge of bankruptcy with the tragicomic stories of his lenders, the Wall Street pros behind them, and the policymakers in Washington who were oblivious until it was too late. The story takes Andrews to the offices of Alan Greenspan, the mansions of subprime-mortgage millionaires in southern California, a despondent deal makers’ convention in Las Vegas, and Wall Street. Rich with on-the-ground reporting, Busted is a darkly humorous exploration of the cynicism and self-destructive judgment that led to America’s biggest economic calamity in generations.
Edmund L. Andrews has been a reporter for the New York Times for 16 years. More About: 
Since the Bernard Madoff "Ponzi scheme" scandal broke, shocking investors and the Wall Street community, this insider's guide to investment rip-offs, scams and con artists has been in demand. The book, published in the late '90s, is designed to educate consumers and make them aware of how scams work.
It takes an investigative look at the reasons why Ponzi schemes and pyramid frauds are thriving everywhere. It closely examines why over 100,000 Americans are suckered into the schemes every year. Tips are offered to detect schemes and respond when they occur. More About: 
Who was Ponzi, the man whose name is synonymous with the classic “rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul” scam where money from new investors goes to reward earlier ones? (It's the kind of scheme that Bernard Madoff recently used to rake in $50 billion from gullible folks all over the world.) In December 1919, Charles Ponzi was an unknown 38-year-old, self-educated Italian immigrant with just $200 in his pocket. Six months later, he was the ten-million-dollar man, Boston’s famed “wizard of finance,” lionized by the public and politicians alike.
Based on exclusive interviews with people who knew Charles Ponzi, lent him their money, and exposed him, Donald Dunn’s Ponzi: The Incredible True Story of the King of Financial Cons takes an in-depth look at one of America’s most notorious financial con artists and the mad money-hungry era in which he thrived. More About: 
2008 marks the 75th anniversary of the New Deal, the series of programs initiated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to help Americans recover during the Great Depression (1933-43). Programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Civil Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration gave hope, support, and encouragement to millions of Americans. Several New Deal programs, including Social Security and Federal Insurance Deposit Insurance bank account protection, continue to help Americans today.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, stated a confident Roosevelt, and the country took him at his word. In many ways, America's New Deal brought out the best in us, and it can serve as a model for recuperation from the economic slide of 2007-2008.
Kathryn A. Flynn is Executive Director of the National New Deal Preservation Association. She is the author of Treasures on New Mexico Trails: New Deal Art and Public Artists in New Mexico. She lives in Santa Fe.
Richard Polese is the author of Discovering Dixie: The Magnolia Trail Travel Guide to the Deep South and coauthor of Passions in Print: Private Press Artistry in New Mexico. He lives in Santa Fe.
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Record numbers of people are falling behind on their financial obligations and their debts are being sent to collections. If you're one of them, you know that being contacted by debt collectors can be stressful, especially if they are harassing you, threatening you, and/or using abusive language.
The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) gives you legal rights when it comes to debt collectors. Stop Debt Collectors: How to protect your rights and resolve your debts tells you how to exercise your rights, resolve your debts and fight back against unfair debt collection tactics.
Stop Debt Collectors explains:
Gary Weiss, a business reporter, looks of what really happens in every corner of the financial system: from Internet tip sites and boiler rooms, to fee-happy mutual funds and hedge funds, to the bluest of blue-chip securities firms. With anecdotes and character studies, Wall Street Versus America tells how investors are being victimized—while sleepy regulators, biased arbitrators, and the media all look the other way.
You'll learn, for instance, how respectable institutions such as Bear Stearns and Morgan Stanley push the ethical envelope, and how Washington, under both Democrats and Republicans, simply has not kept up with innovations in Wall Street greed.
Gary Weiss's book is about the dark side of Wall Street—not just a few bad apples, but a whole rotten barrel.
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People wanting basic advice about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, retirement planning, and tax strategies may find that picking a good book seems as daunting as deciding what to do with their savings and investments. Investing 101: Updated and Expanded can help you get on a path that you can understand and stick with.
Author Kathy Kristof, a Los Angeles Times consumer reporter, takes the mystery and anxiety out of investing by keeping choices manageable. She walks readers through the investment cycle and the ways they can think about their financial lives, rather than presenting stand-alone concepts like stocks and real estate. This expanded edition has new information about 529 college savings plans, annuities, Roth IRAs, reverse mortgages, and why declining markets can be good for you. It includes a cautionary look at home mortgages as investments. There’s even a portfolio for the "lazy investor."
Kristof is known for her weekly syndicated personal finance column, which reaches 40 million readers online through more than fifty major newspapers. Cited as “maybe the best reporter of all the personal finance columnists" in the TJFR 1999 Blue Chip Newsroom ranking of the top 100 American business journalists, she has received numerous writing awards and honors, including the title of 1998 Consumer Advocate of the Year by the California Alliance for Consumer Education. She is a sought-after speaker for investment conferences and appears regularly on radio and television news programs. Kathy lives in Los Angeles with her two children.
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Without proper insurance - health, auto, homeowners, life, disability, or long-term care - an unexpected event can quickly derail your financial plans and put your life savings at risk. Insurance is an essential part of financial planning, but many people are paying hundreds - sometimes thousands - of dollars more than they need to, and often, they buy the wrong kinds of coverage. With your family's financial future at stake, you can't afford to make the wrong decisions when shopping for insurance.
In The Insurance Maze: How You Can Save Money on Insurance and Still Get the Coverage You Need, industry expert and writer Kimberly Lankford breaks through the clutter and jargon of the industry and helps you make the most of your coverage and avoid expensive mistakes that can jeopardize your financial future.
Some of the topics addressed include:
Your home is the single most valuable thing you can own, yet making it pay can intimidate and confuse even the savviest investor. Finance expert Gerri Willis leads you step-by-step through the entire experience of buying, maintaining, and selling a home, and shows you how to come out ahead–maybe even way ahead.
Americans used to raise their families in one place, knowing that their homes would someday make them wealthy. These days, on average, people spend just nine years in a house; it’s become a medium-term investment in a volatile real estate market. Home Rich is the first book that offers simple rules specifically designed for this brave new world of home buying and selling.
Home Rich addresses the needs of homeowners in all regions and at all income levels, featuring helpful case histories, practical charts, and clear instructions. Gerri Willis has written a comprehensive, reader-friendly guide for creating a special personal space that you will love living in–and that others will also value and happily pay for when the time comes for you to sell.
Willis is the anchor of CNN’s weekend business program Open House, which provides how-to essentials on all things real estate. She is also the personal finance editor for CNN Business News and offers viewers worldwide financial advice in her daily “Five Tips” segment. Prior to joining CNN, she was the senior financial correspondent for SmartMoney magazine and a 1992 Columbia University Knight-Bagehot fellow. She is also the author of The SmartMoney Guide to Real Estate Investing. More About: 
In an age of information overload, many simply don't have the time, knowledge or organizational skills to create a simple, functional system for managing personal finances.
Now in its fifth edition, "The Budget Kit: The Common Cents Money Management Workbook "is a best-seller that has helped hundreds of thousands of people across America develop effective budgets and gain financial freedom.
Even if you are using a financial software program, you will find the concepts in The Budget Kit to be essential to your understanding of budgeting.
In the completely revised and updated fourth edition, Lawrence tackles the challenges faced in the digital society. The increased use of debit cards, automatic withdrawals, direct paycheck deposits and online bill payment systems have distanced us from our money like never before. Judy guides you through the electronic shift to a cashless society, and keeps you connected to your money. More About: 
"Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society."—Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
This short, snappy handbook countersthe anti-tax, anti-government rhetoric that permeates our culture and reminds us why taxes lie at the heart of a functioning democracy.
Paying taxes is something almost everyone loves to hate. 10 Excellent Reasons Not to Hate Taxes makes the case for thinking about taxes in a fresh and progressive way and offers plenty of material for anyone interested in countering the conservative anti-government, anti-tax agenda.
Written by activists, economists, teachers, political scientists, and businesspeople, 10 Excellent Reasons Not to Hate Taxes offers an array of powerful arguments that will reframe the tax debate. Chapters on the effect of taxes on the economy, education, the environment, and the distribution of opportunity will arm readers with a wealth of arguments to turn the tables when thinking—or arguing—about taxes and provide a menu of ideas for how to transform the tax code into a tool for social justice.
This book will spark a lively and much-needed debate about all manner of tax issues, from the inheritance tax and flat taxes to tax cuts and the role that taxes play in the growing economic divide in the United States.
Stephanie Greenwood is a master's candidate in public policy at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. She was previously a research analyst for Good Jobs New York, a nonprofit watchdog and advocacy organization, and her writing has appeared in The Nation, Dollars and Sense, and Sojourners. David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist for the New York Times whose widely acclaimed writing focuses on taxes. He is the author of Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich and Cheat Everybody Else. He lives in New York. More About: 
Blending social commentary with reporting, House Lust is a funny and disturbing portrait of the behaviors that drove the greatest real estate boom in history—and its eventual bust.
Owning a home has long been considered the fulfillment of the American Dream. But in the last decade, as the real estate market boomed, Americans’ fascination with homes turned into a frenzy. Shelter has been transformed from a basic necessity into an all-consuming passion.
Newsweek’s Daniel McGinn travels the country to explore the roots of this mania. Even as the real estate boom has turned to bust, Americans remain obsessed with houses—many of us are still trading up, adding on, or doubling down to buy vacation property. But for others, this zeal for housing has carried a painful price, one that’s evident in the soaring foreclosure rates and mounting despair as millions of homeowners (and their lenders) realize they’ve stretched too far to buy the home of their dreams.
McGinn explores the arms race for square footage and introduces readers to a menagerie of characters from the real estate world—from “renovation psychologists” who treat remodeling-addled clients to a guy who trades vacation time-shares the way kids trade baseball cards. McGinn also jumps into the fray himself by enrolling in real estate school and buying an investment property, sight unseen, over the Internet. More About: 
Until recently, there were only two main ways you could get cash from your home: sell it or borrow against it and make monthly loan repayments. Reverse mortgages offer a third way of getting money from your home. If you are a homeowner, age 62 and older, you are eligible to apply for a reverse mortgage loan that converts your home equity into tax-free income.
This guide explains everything you need to know about reverse mortgages and how to use them to your advantage. Practicing attorneys Tyler Kraemer and Tammy Kraemer lay out a step-by-step process to getting a reverse mortgage.
Tammy Kraemer has been an attorney practicing business, real estate, and intellectual property law for almost ten years. She is currently in private practice. She worked in general counsel for a mid-size software company with worldwide offices. She also worked at a large regional law firm in their corporate law and securities department. She has written and edited numerous articles for newsletters and law journals.
Tyler Kraemer has been an attorney in private practice focusing on estate planning, real estate, finance, and business law for almost ten years. His clients include lenders, borrowers, mortgage brokers, real estate brokers, real estate buyers and sellers, and business owners. Tyler has been a part of outside general counsel for the REALTOR® trade association and the for-profit multiple listing service, which included giving daily advice on homeowner issues. He has participated in National Association of REALTOR conferences and workshops dealing with all facets of homeowner issues. More About: 
Everything you need to get out of debt and repair your credit, from the Nolo Press, the pre-eminient self-help legal publisher.
Feeling overwhelmed by your debts? If you're ready to regain your financial freedom, this book is exactly what you need! To make the process easier, Solve Your Money Troubles also includes sample letters to creditors, as well as worksheets and charts to calculate your debts and expenses and help you create a repayment plan.
The 11th edition now covers the latest bankruptcy laws, the Fair Debt Collection Act and the new credit-scoring system used by some credit bureaus.
Step by step, Solve Your Money Troubles shows you how to:
The New Complete Book of Home Buying can help you find the best houses and avoid the lemons in today'schanging housing market. Information is offered on how to use the Internet effectively, whether to buy a new or existing home and what to watch for in an older home. The book contains many hands-on, helpful features such as checklists, mortgage tables, investment and tax strategies and tips for first-time buyers.
It's hard to think about buying a home, especially if you are a newcomer who lacks the knowledge of the U.S. housing market or the language skills to handle negotiations. Where do you begin? How do you know if you're ready? What forms must you fill out? How can you avoid being taken advantage of? You might even feel that owning a home is so far beyond your means that it's unattainable. According to the author, the Rev. Luis Cortés Jr., purchasing a home is easier than you think.
Rev. Cortés guides readers through the complicated home-buying process and shows them how to turn their dreams into reality. The home-buying experience can be difficult, but a house provides more than just a roof over your head. It is an investment that promotes stability, empowers owners and enhances families' financial well-being. A home is a key piece of the American Dream for many people. This book guides potential homebuyers in learning the process, developing a plan, setting a goal and working toward achieving it.
The author, the Reverend Luis Cortés Jr. is the president and CEO of 
The U.S. credit reporting system keeps detailed financial histories on more than 200 million Americans. Evan Hendricks' Credit Scores & Credit Reports is a well-informed, informative, and well-written guide to a subject of great and growing importance to consumers. Hendricks, a foremost privacy expert, examines in detail the credit scoring and credit reporting systems and helps consumers understand what they can do to improve their credit scores and ensure that their credit reports are accurate. Hendricks also explains how the system sometimes doesn't work and how consumers have been frustrated in their efforts to correct errors in their credit reports. According to Hendricks, there is also a link between credit reports and the burgeoning problem of identity theft.
Other topics include: how credit card companies use credit scoring to raise your interest rates; the role of credit scores in auto and homeowners insurance; the difference between mortgage rates for consumers with excellent, good, fair and poor credit scores; the damages to consumers and their creditworthiness flowing from credit report inaccuracy and identity theft ; credit reports and debt collection; the debate over credit scoring and discrimination; the politics of credit reporting. More About: 