fainancial

This wonderfully written (and quick read) has over 300 great tips ranging from filled how to save money, earn more money, and how to invest your money. A lot of this information is common sense but it is very nice to have it in a handy book form (also would make an excellent stocking stuffer, it's February and I'm already thinking of next Christmas....)

So why listen to Nancy Dunnan?

Well she is a well respected financial advisor that has been on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg she writes for Your Money magazine among others.

One of my favorite tips in this book is this and I quote:

"After writing your rent or mortgage check, make the next one out for savings. Begin saving 1% of your take-home pay and increase it by 1% each month. By the end of a year you'll be saving a respectable 12%."

Now I think that is wonderful since in my opinion I think a lot of people don't save money because it seems like they can't "live" without all of the money they make. This one tip explains to me that if I just live on 1% less each month (and save the money) I will have more money later on. The other tips in this book are very good as well, check it out.

Reed Floren

Found this book in a bag of books sent by a friend. Discovered it to be extremely down to earth. Being at the other end of the financial ruler(Retired) I discovered much of the content of this book I had learned and exercised which brought me to financial security in my fiftys.It is all in there for the young to learn. I will add one though. Watch the rich and live the way they do. The rich are not the flamboyant spenders,you will have to search for the quiet ones, they have the money and will always have it.Wealth is held, not thrown around like a football.One more tip; When you eleminate debt and stay out of it you are in todays world earning at least 8 to 18 percent per annum. That will give you a good start.

This is a fun book of handy advice about handling your money from somebody who obviously knows what she's talking about. I liked this so much I bought five copies for my nephews and nieces so they'll get a good start with their money.

To the extent that this gem of a book demonstrates how the way we handle money is a metaphor for much else that ails us, it helped me face and deal with an array of things that were dysfunctional in my life - not just my indebtedness. Written in a style that's both personal and universal, Margaret St. John's book has a formula that works.

This gem is a do-it-yourself guide to the solvency we all desire. The practical exercises are fun to do, and they hold the key to opening those doors of awareness as to why we do the things we do.... More than just a "how to manage your money" treatise, this book delves much more deeply into the beliefs that keep us indebted monetarily and otherwise. Excellently written, with plenty of anecdotes and personal experiences, I found it insightful and empowering. This book comes from the heart - Ms St. John has suffered through and found solutions to problems more common than most would care to admit. Thanks so much for sharing.

....and read this book! Written with the understanding and compassion which comes only from experience and hard work, Margaret St. John will help those willing to gain insight into the reasons they suffer with debt. The reader will empathize with people who reacted to early childhood circumstances by becoming adult debtors, and underacheivers. I learned the reasons we undermine our foundations with needless debt, and how best to allocate what we earn. The method used is practical and has helped many who thought there was no hope. This book helps even those of us who have no debt, but who, by mismanagement have wasted money we may need in time. Buying this book is a wise investment.

This is a very direct account of what I should have been doing for the past 10 years. It would have saved me a lot of money and left me in a position to retire. Instead, I did what everyone else does and put off the planning that my financial life so desperately needed.

I read this book and was shocked. Not only at how simple the author has made it to think strategically, but also at the mistakes I have been repeating over time.

A book worth its weight in gold!

Great book. Very understandable and insightful.

Condensed many topics into this easy to read book. It really makes me think.

People think, talk, breathe, dream, and do just about everything else - money! Money is everything to many, and a lot to everyone else. This book, with its beautiful insights, in it's absolutely magnificent tone teaches us the uttermost valuable lesson of where money SHOULD be in our lives. I have never been as happy as I am now, after being enriched with Blech's lessons; my financial fortunes (or misfortunes) are now in perspective. Anybody who questions the significance of money absolutely needs this book; and everyone else needs to affirm that they have it where it should be!
Just the way he always does, Benjamin Blech takes the most important and complicated lessons of our lives and spoon-feeds them to us, as pure honey, for the brain to digest and enjoy. He is unbelievable! And this may be his best work yet! You have no idea what you're missing out on if you do not read this book - even if you do read it purely for enjoyment's sake; and the few lessons along the way couldn't hurt either. Simply put, this is one of the greatest books I have ever read!

A Must-read! I'm 32 and watched stocks of mine like Lucent go to ZERO. (So much for my savvy investing and early retirement plans.) But Taking Stock helped to give me a prespective and feel better about things. It was, in parts,very empathetic (I have to say that I felt better knowing that other people lost as much as I did...) but it was also upbeat, reflective, and really funny at times. One of the most important things is that the book encouraged me to move forward, figure out what matters, and put my energy into that...I think that it is an important read that will help put things into a healthy perspective.

I have to admit it -- I was one of those crazy people who clicked the "refresh" button every ten seconds to see how my stocks were doing. And they were doing great! And then, before I knew what had hit me, it was all . . . gone.

I had a really difficult time dealing with it. But I got over it. And nothing, *nothing*, helped me to do that, to get on with my life, more than this one book.

Blech writes with humor, with poignancy, and with insight. He's been there, and he takes us with him as he describes his own journey from despair back to having financial and spiritual perspective.

Buy this book. You'll be glad you did.

Are you stuck in the rut of working more and enjoying it less? Have you found your profits dropping while overhead skyrockets? Looking for a way to live your life the way you want to live? If so, buy this book today. In today's difficult investment climate many of us financial advisors have been trapped into doing more service duties, administrative functions and are making less. The authors are living our dream of enjoying the lifestyle we deserve. They show and demonstrate step-by-step complete with specific recommendations of software, hardware and technologies to improve your practice and help you make more money. This well written and extremely interesting book will give you hope and vision to make changes in your practice to enhance your quality of life. I bought this book because I am planning to spend more time in my condo in Colorado and needed ideas on how to do it. The authors delivered exactly what I need to know. As an extra bonus, Joel has been terrific about responding to my questions and emails. Thanks gentlemen; when's the next book coming out?

This book is an excellent resource for anyone starting up a financial planning office or seeking to make an existing office run more smoothly and efficiently. A survey of current systems, processes and technology to save a planner time and money. Dave and Joel know what they're talking about.

This book is the cornucopia of ways to help you streamline your practice and make it more efficient. While it contains some excellent reviews of products, its value is in showing you how with a few pieces of software and equipment your practice can operate more smoothly and that you will have more time to do what you want or need to do as opposed to worrying about filing papers and other mundane tasks.

Be forewarned though, you will need to spend time executing... the best things in life do require some effort!

Caroline Ames.Blessed and damned by incredible wealth, tortured by her past, and her own destructive passiona her whole life was a Prologue to Love.

The Agony of the richest woman in the world...

"I thought Tom loved me. I thought he understood. But he lied to me; he didn't understand at all;he wouldn't listen.Why does everyone believe his own particular reality is the only reality?If Tom had only listened while I tried to show him my own reality!But he could hear and see only himself and his own codes and convictions. It's possible that I am this way too."

I picked this book off the college library shelf 25 years ago on a Friday afternoon. I only left my desk when absolutely necessary until I finished reading the book. Without a doubt, the best book I have ever read. Atlas Shrugged runs a close second.

I first read this book as a young teen and was impressed, not realizing how much subtle information was in the book about the state of the world.
Over the years I have read this book several times, and just recently found it again. I can only say that if you are open minded enough; you will be amazed at the information in this book about the new world order.

Finally, an Austrian School based model of the macroeconomy. Time and Money pulls free market theory together to show that capitol drives the economy and not government, as mainstream economic theories would lead us. Powerful yet easy to read and understand. Well worth your time and money.

For anyone interesting in Austrian macroeconomic theory, this is the book for you. (...)

Perhaps textbook writers will now incorporate capital-based macro in their products. This book makes a convincing case for integrating capital-based macro into mainstream again.

Talk about a book that everyone should read, but no one will, this is it. A terrific, plain language explanation of the origins of money and how understanding money leads to political sophistication and concommitant societal benefits.

This book makes many cogent arguments that deal with war and external defense, interior political and civil stabilty, the societal need for a stable currency, the need for a rule of law to protect private property rights, and the implications of the velocity and movements of global currency trading. It does a great job of explaning financial derivitives, options, inflation, debasement of the currency via political corruption, and financial globalization of trade and currencies.

It contains a marvelous retelling of history thru the eyes of a currency sophisticate, one who incorporates a history of revolutions, and the subsequent rebuildings of the societies that gain prominence in their aftermath.

The backdrop for this fascinating tale is the rise of the micro-chip, the story of the digital revolution. This running-wild tale illustrates how technology has outstripped the ability of dictators to throttle it, and how society has commensurately reaped the benefits. It's a paradigm for the future and deserves to be more widely understood. It has shaken up the strangle hold of one political philosophy ruling the media, and in the future it will reform tort law and academia. It's all here for those willing to study it.

Read it!

Fantastic book, clearly written. A history of the systematic shift in power from governments to asset markets, especially in the Reagonomics era (which includes the 1990's). A 'must', along with "Inventing Money" and "Wall Street Capitalism", for those who want to understand the financial system and it's consequences.

I finally understand what Options and derivatives are. This is a wonderful, fun book which guides the reader through the history of monetary exchanges. Did I say fun? You have to read his description of Berkeley in the late 60s. Although I lived through it, I never understood the inflation or high interest rates of the 70s and how it related to taking the dollar off the gold standard. Oh yes I can see clearly now!

One of the most common (mis)interpretations of the east Asian currency crises of the late 1990s is that they were caused by George Soros and other speculators, hedge fund principals for the most part, who shorted those currencies and the respective bonds in order to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I was happy to se that Mr. Pettis knows better. He writes that he was in regular contact with three large macro hedge funds in 1997, in his capacity as an emerging markets specialist for Bear Stearns, "including the most famous of these, and our discussions about Asia generally centered on ways to gain protected access to LONG rupiah positions. There was very little interest in shorting the currency."

Indonesia and its rupiah provides a particularly vivid example of the capital structure trap that Pettis adumbrates so admirably in this book.

Michael Pettis has succeeded in mystifying the collapse of EM economies. His approach is new and indeed very methodical. I found the book intellectually challenging and have learned quite a lot reading it. I highly recommend it for those who want to understand how LDC economies rise and fall. Having a background in corpporate finance is crucial to enjoying the book though.

This is a MUST READ for institutional investors worldwide! For the first time I have a confident sense of what is at the core of emerging market instability. Now if only some government policy makers would read this (even they would understand it!), the causal conditions might start to improve.

"Wealth Mentality: Program Yourself to Get and Keep the Wealth You Want" is a book about the mental attitudes that are required in order to define and accumulate wealth. The definition of wealth can be quite different between different people. For one it might be monetary riches, for another it might be the free time and money to persue goals, and for another person it might be something entirely different.

The author points out that some people seem to acquire wealth easily while others seem to be continually chasing wealth without ever actually acquiring any. The difference between those that are successful and those that are not is often their mental attitude. Is it enough to be positive? Is it enough to regularly research options? The author argues that these things are not enough. It requires a mentality that leaves the person receptive to opportunities as they come along and able to act on those opportunities. Throughout the book the author teaches how to change your belief system and program yourself to automatically become aware of opportunities as they come along, how to maintain that system, and how to develop a plan to actually move toward your goals.

While it does not cover any aspect of finance, investing or similar parts of wealth generation, it is a very good book on the mentality required as a precursor to getting and keeping wealth.

Like many people, I've been trying to "get rich" for quite some time. I've tried many things and it has never seemed to work out. I've blamed everything and everyone (including myself) at various times. Wealth Mentality forces you to take a long, hard look in the mirror to find out if your way of thinking is the true culprit. It helps you examine thought and belief barriers that work against building long-term wealth. I highly recommend it to those who want to be proactive about developing wealth!

Wealth Mentality: Program Yourself To Get And Keep The Wealth You Want by businessman and investor S. Ross Ingram (International Center for Strategic Planning) is a psychological "self-help" guide to overcoming emotional and personality obstructions standing in the way of achieving personal wealth, whether it be for a comfortable lifestyle, or to insure sufficient funds to send children through college, or preparing for a secure retirement. A practical guide that places as much importance on personal psyche and image as practical behaviors to avoid bad credit or ill-fated business decisions, Wealth Mentality is a solid primer that is highly recommended for the non-specialist general reader looking to improve his or her personal financial situation and prospects.