Personal Finance Guide

Effectively managing personnel–as well as one’s own behavior–is an extraordinarily complex task that, not surprisingly, has been the subject of countless books touting what each claims is the true path to success. That said, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton’s Now, Discover Your Strengths does indeed propose a unique approach: focusing on enhancing people’s strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses. Following up on the coauthors’ popular previous book, First, Break All the Rules, it fully describes 34 positive personality themes the two have formulated (such as Achiever, Developer, Learner, and Maximizer) and explains how to build a “strengths-based organization” by capitalizing on the fact that such traits are already present among those within it.

Most original and potentially most revealing, however, is a Web-based interactive component that allows readers to complete a questionnaire developed by the Gallup Organization and instantly discover their own top-five inborn talents. This device provides a personalized window into the authors’ management philosophy which, coupled with subsequent advice, places their suggestions into the kind of practical context that’s missing from most similar tomes. “You can’t lead a strengths revolution if you don’t know how to find, name and develop your own,” write Buckingham and Clifton. Their book encourages such introspection while providing knowledgeable guidance for applying its lessons. –Howard Rothman

Author: Marcus Buckingham, Donald O. Clifton

Hardcover: 
272 pages

Company: Free Press 

(2001-01-29)

ISBN: 0743201140

List Price: $30.00
Amazon Price: $9.95

Used Price: $2.75

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This grandfather of all people-skills books was first published in 1937. It was an overnight hit, eventually selling 15 million copies. How to Win Friends and Influence People is just as useful today as it was when it was first published, because Dale Carnegie had an understanding of human nature that will never be outdated. Financial success, Carnegie believed, is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to “the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people.” He teaches these skills through underlying principles of dealing with people so that they feel important and appreciated. He also emphasizes fundamental techniques for handling people without making them feel manipulated. Carnegie says you can make someone want to do what you want them to by seeing the situation from the other person’s point of view and “arousing in the other person an eager want.” You learn how to make people like you, win people over to your way of thinking, and change people without causing offense or arousing resentment. For instance, “let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers,” and “talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.” Carnegie illustrates his points with anecdotes of historical figures, leaders of the business world, and everyday folks. –Joan Price

Author: Dale Carnegie

Paperback: 
288 pages

Company: Pocket 

(1998-10-01)

ISBN: 0671027034

List Price: $14.00
Amazon Price: $3.46

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Money maven Suze Orman’s latest book, Women & Money addresses the complicated (and often dysfunctional) relationship women have with personal finance. Orman’s direct, non-condescending style is perfect for this subject matter–she begins with the premise that “Women can invest, save, and handle debt as well and skillfully as any man” and then tackles the important question–”So why don’t they?” Designed to educate and inspire, Women & Money also offers a “Save Yourself Plan,” a five-month program that “delivers genuine long-term financial security.” Want to know more? Watch a video message from Suze below, and take a gander at the first chapter of Women & Money–you’ll be “controlling your destiny” in no time. –Daphne Durham

Watch the video

For Women Only

I never thought I’d write a book about money just for women. I never thought it was necessary. So then why am I doing just that in my eighth book? And why now? Let me explain. All my previous books were written with the belief that gender is not a factor on any level in mastering the nuts and bolts of smart financial management. Women can invest, save, and handle debt just as well and skillfully as any man. I still believe that–why would anyone think differently? So imagine my surprise when I learned that some of the people closest to me in my life were in the dark about their own finances. Clueless. Or, in some cases, willfully resisting doing what they knew needed to be done. I’m talking about smart, competent, accomplished women who present a face to the world that is pure confidence and capability. Do you mean to tell me that I, Suze Orman, who make my living solving the financial problems of total strangers, couldn’t spot the trouble brewing so close to home? I don’t think I’m blind; I just think that these women became very, very good at hiding their troubles from me.Why not? They had years of practice hiding them from themselves.

Read more from Chapter 1…

Author: Suze Orman

Hardcover: 
272 pages

Company: Spiegel & Grau 

(2007-02-27)

ISBN: 0385519311

List Price: $24.95
Amazon Price: $13.85

Used Price: $8.65

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The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) has issued a report which supports the Pension Commission’s recent demand for reform in the structure of the basic state pension. In fact the report goes further than simply backing the report, it calls for reforms to be implemented more rapidly than the Commission has recommended.



Essentially, the reforms that are proposed are for simplifications to be made to the current variations in available state pensions for those who are eligible. Means testing, currently used in determining eligibility and the extent of the pension available, would be dropped in favour of an across the board pension rate. Additionally, tax breaks for those who try to save for a personal pension would be put in place to encourage saving.



These reforms would serve to make pension availability, and budgeting for retirement, much clearer to understand and buy into, thereby preventing nasty surprises for the individual late in life, or the government as a generation becomes dependant on a state pension. A recent survey by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) concluded that very little provision is being made for the future by those aged 18-40 and that a very large number of UK citizens could well become dependant on state pensions.



Personal finance has become a boom sector amongst that same generation, with online access to personal finance databases such as http://www.moneynet.co.uk and http://www.fool.co.uk providing a wealth of options for UK consumers. However despite the fact that many of those options include savings and pension schemes, it appears that they are rarely taken up, with consumers opting for credit card deals, mortgages, insurance, and personal loans instead.



Pension experts have showed their backing for the proposed Pension Commission reforms with their overwhelming response in the PPI report, and it is to be hoped that the simplifying of the state pension will bring the importance of the issue to the attention of the age range identified by the FSA.



Disclaimer

All information contained in this article is for general information purpose only and should not be construed as advice under the financial Services act 1986. You are strongly advised to take appropriate professional and legal advice before entering into any binding contracts.

About the Author:

Michael Hanna is a keen writer, and internet marketer living in Scotland:



Contact details:

E-mail: samqam@googlemail.com

Phone: 0131 561 2251

Michael’s Website: Taxi Belfast

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Personal-finance author and lecturer Robert Kiyosaki developed his unique economic perspective through exposure to a pair of disparate influences: his own highly educated but fiscally unstable father, and the multimillionaire eighth-grade dropout father of his closest friend. The lifelong monetary problems experienced by his “poor dad” (whose weekly paychecks, while respectable, were never quite sufficient to meet family needs) pounded home the counterpoint communicated by his “rich dad” (that “the poor and the middle class work for money,” but “the rich have money work for them”). Taking that message to heart, Kiyosaki was able to retire at 47. Rich Dad, Poor Dad, written with consultant and CPA Sharon L. Lechter, lays out his the philosophy behind his relationship with money. Although Kiyosaki can take a frustratingly long time to make his points, his book nonetheless compellingly advocates for the type of “financial literacy” that’s never taught in schools. Based on the principle that income-generating assets always provide healthier bottom-line results than even the best of traditional jobs, it explains how those assets might be acquired so that the jobs can eventually be shed. –Howard Rothman

Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter

Paperback: 
207 pages

Company: Business Plus 

(2000-04-01)

ISBN: 0446677450

List Price: $16.95
Amazon Price: $7.99

Used Price: $3.00

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America’s most sought-after executive coach shows how to climb the last few rungs of the ladderThe corporate world is filled with executives, men and women who have worked hard for years to reach the upper levels of management. They’re intelligent, skilled, and even charismatic. But only a handful of them will ever reach the pinnacle — and as executive coach Marshall Goldsmith shows in this book, subtle nuances make all the difference. These are small “transactional flaws” performed by one person against another (as simple as not saying thank you enough), which lead to negative perceptions that can hold any executive back. Using Goldsmith’s straightforward, jargonfree advice, it’s amazingly easy behavior to change.Executives who hire Goldsmith for one-on-one coaching pay $250,000 for the privilege. With this book, his help is available for 1/10,000th of the price.

Author: Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter

Hardcover: 
256 pages

Company: Hyperion 

(2007-01-09)

(2007-01-09)

ISBN: 1401301304

List Price: $24.95
Amazon Price: $14.75

Used Price: $14.24

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This grandfather of all people-skills books was first published in 1937. It was an overnight hit, eventually selling 15 million copies. How to Win Friends and Influence People is just as useful today as it was when it was first published, because Dale Carnegie had an understanding of human nature that will never be outdated. Financial success, Carnegie believed, is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to “the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people.” He teaches these skills through underlying principles of dealing with people so that they feel important and appreciated. He also emphasizes fundamental techniques for handling people without making them feel manipulated. Carnegie says you can make someone want to do what you want them to by seeing the situation from the other person’s point of view and “arousing in the other person an eager want.” You learn how to make people like you, win people over to your way of thinking, and change people without causing offense or arousing resentment. For instance, “let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers,” and “talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.” Carnegie illustrates his points with anecdotes of historical figures, leaders of the business world, and everyday folks. –Joan Price

Author: Dale Carnegie

Paperback: 
288 pages

Company: Pocket 

(1998-10-01)

ISBN: 0671027034

List Price: $14.00
Amazon Price: $3.36

Used Price: $3.09

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– How would you spend an extra $4,000 a year for the next twenty-five years?

— How much more secure would your retirement be with an extra $100,000 or more?

— How much more time could you spend at your family dinner table if you could work an hour less each day?

— What would you do in retirement if you could retire three years earlier?

Your 401(k) plan is probably one of your most important future sources of financial security. This book makes it easy for you to take the five steps needed to add more than $100,000 to your retirement nest egg without taking more risk or saving more money. This can allow you to improve your lifestyle, increase your benefits, identify the hidden costs and also improve your standing within your company by proactively helping your employer to take needed action.

Author: David B. Loeper

Paperback: 
197 pages

Company: Bridgeway Books 

(2007-10-15)

ISBN: 1934454079

List Price: $15.95
Amazon Price: $4.15

Used Price: $2.90

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The success stories speak for themselves in this book from money maestro Dave Ramsey. Instead of promising the normal dose of quick fixes, Ramsey offers a bold, no-nonsense approach to money matters, providing not only the how-to but also a grounded and uplifting hope for getting out of debt and achieving total financial health.

Ramsey debunks the many myths of money (exposing the dangers of cash advance, rent-to-own, debt consolidation) and attacks the illusions and downright deceptions of the American dream, which encourages nothing but overspending and massive amounts of debt. “Don’t even consider keeping up with the Joneses,” Ramsey declares in his typically candid style. “They’re broke!”

The Total Money Makeover isn’t theory. It works every single time. It works because it is simple. It works because it gets to the heart of the money problems: you.

Author: Dave Ramsey

Hardcover: 
272 pages

Company: Thomas Nelson 

(2007-02-06)

(2007-02-06)

ISBN: 0785289089

List Price: $24.99
Amazon Price: $12.28

Used Price: $12.75

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With first-chapter allusions to martial arts, “flow,” “mind like water,” and other concepts borrowed from the East (and usually mangled), you’d almost think this self-helper from David Allen should have been called Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance.

Not quite. Yes, Getting Things Done offers a complete system for downloading all those free-floating gotta-do’s clogging your brain into a sophisticated framework of files and action lists–all purportedly to free your mind to focus on whatever you’re working on. However, it still operates from the decidedly Western notion that if we could just get really, really organized, we could turn ourselves into 24/7 productivity machines. (To wit, Allen, whom the New Economy bible Fast Company has dubbed “the personal productivity guru,” suggests that instead of meditating on crouching tigers and hidden dragons while you wait for a plane, you should unsheathe that high-tech saber known as the cell phone and attack that list of calls you need to return.)

As whole-life-organizing systems go, Allen’s is pretty good, even fun and therapeutic. It starts with the exhortation to take every unaccounted-for scrap of paper in your workstation that you can’t junk, The next step is to write down every unaccounted-for gotta-do cramming your head onto its own scrap of paper. Finally, throw the whole stew into a giant “in-basket”

That’s where the processing and prioritizing begin; in Allen’s system, it get a little convoluted at times, rife as it is with fancy terms, subterms, and sub-subterms for even the simplest concepts. Thank goodness the spine of his system is captured on a straightforward, one-page flowchart that you can pin over your desk and repeatedly consult without having to refer back to the book. That alone is worth the purchase price. Also of value is Allen’s ingenious Two-Minute Rule: if there’s anything you absolutely must do that you can do right now in two minutes or less, then do it now, thus freeing up your time and mind tenfold over the long term. It’s commonsense advice so obvious that most of us completely overlook it, much to our detriment; Allen excels at dispensing such wisdom in this useful, if somewhat belabored, self-improver aimed at everyone from CEOs to soccer moms (who we all know are more organized than most CEOs to start with). –Timothy Murphy

Author: David Allen

Paperback: 
267 pages

Company: Penguin (Non-Classics) 

(2002-12-31)

ISBN: 0142000280

List Price: $15.00
Amazon Price: $7.69

Used Price: $7.50

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