"Managing money and investing is too intimidating."
"I'm not a numbers person."
"My husband takes care of our finances."
"I'm just not good with money."
Jean Chatzky has heard all the excuses for why women don't deal with their finances. She used to make them herself. For the first time, Jean tells you how she made every financial mistake in the book--not paying her bills, going into credit card debt, letting her 401(k) lapse--before finally making the decision to take control of her money and her future.
Whether you've made these mistakes or you want to avoid them, if you're ready to take charge of your financial life then this is the book for you. In it, Jean shares these valuables lessons:
• Where to start
• How to decode financial jargon (it's easier than you think)
• How to get over your "I'm not smart enough to deal with money" feelings
• Why being a "good-enough investor" will make you more money in the long-term (while trying to be a "great investor" will drive you crazy)
• Why you might think you are bad at math, and why that doesn't have to be true
• How (and where) to save your money
• Why women make better investors--and higher returns--than men
Jean is famous for her ability to explain money and investing. In a clear and accessible way, she breaks down all the scariest parts of dealing with money--from investing in stocks to saving for your retirement--to make them doable, easy, and yes, even enjoyable. She also includes throughout a "Map to a Million," great tips on easy and quick financial changes you can make immediately . . . that really add up!
Are You Ready to Be Rich?
If you want to get rich, if you want to be wealthier than you are today, you really need to do only four things. That's right, just four things.
• You need to make a decent living
• You need to spend less than you make
• You need to invest the money you don't spend so that it can work as hard for you as you're working for yourself
• And you need to protect yourself and this financial world you've built so that a disaster--big or small--doesn't take it all away from you
Everything else is just window-dressing. The fees--and how to avoid them. The advisors--and how to hire them. The deals. The scams. The ins. The outs. They are all interesting. Some of them are even quite important. But until you have conquered the heart of the matter, they are all minutia.
The four cornerstones, by contrast, are the meat and potatoes of your financial life. If you do those things today, you'll start getting rich tomorrow. And once you feel set financially, you'll be able to start focusing on the truly important things in life. --from the Introduction
From the Hardcover edition.
Excerpts
$$$$$$$$$$$Chapter 1$$$$$$$$$$$...
"I Don't Know Where to Begin"
Don't Bitch
Getting Over the Unknown
I am one of the fortunate people who really like what they do for a living. One of the main reasons I enjoy my work is that it takes me out into the world. About once a month I travel to far-flung places such as Phoenix (Arizona), Pasadena (California), Fort Worth (Texas), or Fort Wayne (Indiana) to talk to groups of people--often groups of women--about money. My favorite part of these journeys isn't the half-hour or so prepared speech I get to give. It's the question-and-answer session that comes after. Some of the questions are always regional ("Is now a good time to buy a house in this market?" or "What do you think of the future of the big national corporate conglomerate that just happens to be based three miles down the road?"). But others are so wide-ranging I can count on them being raised whether I'm holding court in Detroit, Duluth, or Des Moines. Someone generally wants to know: "What's the best way to choose a financial adviser?" Someone else typically asks: "Should I be buying long-term-care insurance for me or my parents?"
But the question I get asked more than any other--the one I get asked every single time--is the following. It's never first. In fact, it's often last . . . as if the person speaking waited until the moderator said, "We have time for only three more." It usually comes out of the mouth of someone who feels a little silly asking it--who prefaces her question with an apology to me and the rest of the audience for being "so basic." And it goes like this:
I don't even know where to start. I mean, really. I feel like I know so little about my money that I don't even know where to begin. Can you point me to a book or a magazine or a website or something that can get me going?
Sometimes, the floodgates really open, and the questioner ends with the complete truth, confession-style: "I'm tired of feeling like a total idiot about my money."
I have to admit, the person who asks this question immediately becomes my favorite person in any crowd. Not just because she dug deep and was honest about wanting help. But because now that she's revealed that she's looking for help, I can do something for her.
As I collected--via e-mail--letters and excuses from women around the country about why they don't take a more active role managing their money, this feeling of total inadequacy popped up again and again. From young women, older women, women with college and graduate degrees, women in the workforce, stay-at-home moms . . . in other words, from all types of women, in all parts of the country.
This one, from Rebecca, a stay-at-home mom, is typical:
For anything else in my life, I would get on the Internet, read some articles, talk to some people I know, and make a decision. But I'm paralyzed when it comes to money. I don't even know where to start.
Jennifer, a publicist, put it even more succinctly:
I don't know where to begin.
This Is Where You Begin
You're in the right place: This is where you start. In this chapter, I'm going to give you a set of tools you can rely on to make any financial decision, to sound brilliant defending why you're making it, and to quickly get on the road to a richer life.
But first, let's explore why you can't get started with your money.
Rebecca put it really well when she said: "For anything else in my life, I would get on the Internet, read some articles, talk to some people I know, and make a decision." That, in a nutshell, is how women make nearly...
Reviews
Robert T. Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad...
"Simply brilliant."
About the Creator
Jean Chatzky is the editor at large for Money magazine and is the financial editor for NBC’s Today show. She is a columnist for Time magazine, the Daily News, and Travel + Leisure. She is also the host of an upcoming PBS weekly series, Jean Chatzky’s Your Money, and the author of four books, including the bestseller Pay It Down!
