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.
Conversations on how to reform healthcare are long-standing and varied. But healthcare costs have soared, health insurance companies get richer and even those who pay dearly for health insurance frequently find that their policies don’t adequately cover them when they need their coverage most.
Howard Dean—the physician and former governor credited for reviving the Democratic Party after the 2004 elections—has ideas on what needs to be done to successfully reform healthcare. He suggests offering Americans the option to participate in a public healthcare program, much like Medicare. “America has had ‘socialized’ medicine since 1964,” says Dean. “It’s called Medicare; it covers every American over 65, and the majority of them are happy with the program. The rest of America deserves a similar option.”
In his new book, Dean explains:
This new book—available March 6, 2009—outlines 10 steps you can take to protect yourself or your family from ID theft and medical identity theft, the fastest growing crime in America.
By reading this book, you will learn what to do now to safeguard your bank accounts, online presence, credit record and more from the potential financial damage of identity theft.
An identity theft is stolen every four seconds in the U.S. The Federal Trade Commission reports that more than eight million people (a growing number of which are children) are victims of identity theft every year - with losses of more than $15 billion annually.
The book offers action-oriented advice designed to prevent identity theft:
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: 
How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today’s message-cluttered world? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Or do our buying decisions take place below the surface, so deep within our subconscious minds, we’re barely aware of them? In Buyology, Lindstrom presents findings from his three-year, seven-million-dollar neuromarketing study. This experiment looked inside the brains of 2,000 volunteers from all around the world as they encountered various ads, logos, commercials, brands, and products. His results prompt questions about long held beliefs on what seduces our interest and drives us to buy. Among his findings:
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: 
¿Se Habla Dinero? The Everyday Guide to Financial Success is a bilingual guide to the basics of financial success. (Scroll down for a Spanish version of this book description.)
Getting ahead financially in the United States is a difficult task, and it is even more daunting for someone who comes from a different culture. This book offers information for financial survival and success, written in both English and Spanish.
¿Se Habla Dinero? walks readers through the fundamentals of personal finance and money management and explains how to open and use bank accounts; establish and manage credit; save and borrow money for education; and master basic investing techniques. This bilingual guide makes intimidating topics easy and gives readers the confidence they need to move forward.
Lynn Jimenez of San Francisco, CA, is an award-winning business reporter for KGO Radio 810. She has delivered business reports from the options floor of the New York Stock Exchange for 17 years.
Una guía bilingüe que proporciona las bases del éxito económico.
Salir adelante económicamente en Estados Unidos es una labor ardua, y más difícil todavía para aquellos que provienen de culturas diferentes.
Esta es la razón por la que la autora Lynn Jiménez ha creado ¿Se Habla Dinero?: la guía diaria que le llevará al éxito financiero. Este libro ofrece en dos idiomas: inglés y español yde manera sencilla y clara, la información necesaria para la supervivencia y el éxito financiero.
¿Se Habla Dinero? Guía al lector a través de las nociones fundamentales de economía personal y administración del dinero. Explica cómo abrir y usar cuentas bancarias, cómo establecer y administrar crédito, cómo ahorrar y tomar prestado dinero para la educación y cómo manejar técnicas de inversión básicas. Esta guía bilingüe hace que algunos aspectos intimidatorios resulten fáciles y proporciona a sus lectores la confianza que necesitan para seguir adelante.
La población hispana hoy en día está alcanzando rápidamente la clase media de esta nación. ¿Se Habla Dinero? Es una herramienta importante que ayudará a sus lectores a subir la escala del éxito financiero.
Lynn Jimenez de San Francisco, California, es una reportera de negocios galardonada que trabaja para la estación de Radio 810 KGO. También ha transmitido reportajes breves de negocios desde el piso de opciones de la Bolsa de Nueva York en San Francisco por diez ye siete años. More About: 
If you don't have a traditional employer health plan you might be looking for good, affordable health insurance. The New Health Insurance Solution includes ways to cut your health insurance costs in half if:
According to the new book "Sick" by Jonathan Cohn, America's health care system is unraveling. Every day, millions of hard-working people struggle to find affordable medical treatment for themselves and their families and are unable to pay for prescription drugs and regular check-ups, let alone for hospital visits. Some of these people end up losing money. Others end up losing their health or even their lives. In this work of original reportage,Cohn travels across the U.S., the only country in the developed world that does not guarantee access to medical care, to investigate why this crisis is happening and to see, first-hand, its impact on ordinary people.
Cohn tells tragic and infuriating stories. In Boston, a heart attack victim becomes a casualty of emergency room overcrowding when she is turned away from the one hospital that could treat her. In South Central L.A., a security guard loses part of his vision when he can't find affordable treatment for his diabetes. In the middle of the prairie heartland, a retired meatpacker sells his house to pay for the medications that keep him and his aging wife alive. And, in a tiny village tucked into the Catskill mountains, a mother of three young children decides against a costly doctor's visit and lets a deadly cancer go undetected because her husband's job no longer provides health insurance.
"Sick" weaves these stories with reporting from Washington and inside the medical industry. This book is a chronicle the decline of American's health care systemand it lays bare the consequences if we don't replace it. More About: 
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: 