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Published:
November 13, 2018

Personal Finance For Dummies

Overview

Sound personal money management advice with insights for today’s world

Personal Finance For Dummies has been tackling financial literacy for 30 years. This tenth edition continues to share the sound advice that’s helped millions of readers become financially literate while demystifying the money matters of the current era. Get familiar with the financial pillars of earning, saving, investing, borrowing, budgeting, and protecting your assets. Dig into modern concerns like navigating the housing market, weathering the highs and lows of an unpredictable market, evaluating new stuff like cryptocurrency, and budgeting to achieve your financial goals. Take the anxiety out of money matters by building a solid financial plan, learning to spend and invest wisely, and managing your debt. Follow the advice that's helped readers for three decades!

  • Become financially literate so you can minimize debt and set realistic goals
  • Learn the basics of investing and start making smart investment choices
  • Demystify insurance so you can protect your health and your assets
  • Control your spending and build better budgets so you can afford the big stuff

Personal Finance For Dummies offers sound advice for all ages and levels of personal money management. It’s never too early or too late to start making sense of your finances.

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About The Author

Eric Tyson is a nationally recognized personal finance counselor, writer, and lecturer. He has been featured in hundreds of press outlets, including Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, and Money. He has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, ABC, CNBC, PBS Nightly Business Report, and CNN.

Sample Chapters

personal finance for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

A lot of financial advice ignores the big picture and focuses narrowly on investing. Because money is not an end in itself but a part of your whole life, connecting your financial goals to the rest of your life is important.You need a broad understanding of personal finance to include all areas of your financial life: spending, taxes, saving and investing, insurance, and planning for major goals such as education, buying a home, and retirement.

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Articles from
the book

If you’re like most people, you must live within your means to accomplish your financial goals. Doing so requires spending less than you earn and then investing your savings intelligently (unless you plan on winning the lottery or receiving a large inheritance). To put yourself in a position that allows you to start saving, take a close look at your spending habits.
Take charge of your finances. Procrastinating is detrimental to your long-term financial health. Don’t wait for a crisis or major life event to get your act together. Read this book and start implementing a plan now! Don’t buy consumer items (cars, clothing, vacations, and so on) that lose value over time on credit.
How a person relates to and feels about money has a great impact on how good they are at managing their money and making important financial decisions. For example, knowing that you have a net worth of negative $13,200 because of credit-card debt is useful, but it’s probably not enough information for you to do something constructive about your problem.
Some of life’s changes come unexpectedly, like earthquakes. Others you can see coming when they’re still far off, like the birth of a child or a big storm moving in off the horizon. Whether a life change is predictable or not, your ability to navigate successfully through its challenges and adjust to new circumstances depends largely on your degree of preparedness.
Accumulating bad debt (consumer debt) by buying things like new living room furniture or a new car that you really can’t afford is like living on a diet of sugar and caffeine: a quick fix with little nutritional value. Borrowing on your credit card to afford an extravagant vacation is detrimental to your long-term financial health.
Your financial net worth is an important barometer of your monetary health. Your net worth indicates your capacity to accomplish major financial goals, such as buying a home, retiring, and withstanding unexpected expenses or loss of income.Your net worth is your financial assets minus your financial liabilities: Financial Assets – Financial Liabilities = Net Worth Add up your financial assets A financial asset is real money or an investment you can convert into your favorite currency that you can use to buy things now or in the future.
A continuing stream of studies has indicated that many Americans, especially younger adults, are by and large financially illiterate. The vast majority of survey respondents have “failing” scores — meaning that they answered less than 60 percent of the questions correctly.Many folks do indeed have significant gaps in their personal financial knowledge.
A lot of financial advice ignores the big picture and focuses narrowly on investing. Because money is not an end in itself but a part of your whole life, connecting your financial goals to the rest of your life is important.You need a broad understanding of personal finance to include all areas of your financial life: spending, taxes, saving and investing, insurance, and planning for major goals such as education, buying a home, and retirement.
The investments discussed here sometimes belong on their own planet (because they’re not an ownership or lending vehicle). Here are the basics on these other common, but odd, investments. Precious metals as investments Gold and silver have been used by many civilizations as currency or a medium of exchange. One advantage of precious metals as a currency is that they can’t be debased by the government.
Why do you borrow money? Usually, you borrow money because you don’t have enough to buy something you want or need — like a college education. A four-year college education can easily cost $100,000, $150,000, $200,000, $250,000, or more. Most people don’t have that kind of spare cash. So borrowing money to finance part of that cost enables you to buy the education.
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Frequently Asked Questions

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