Recommended Reading

Personal Financial Planning by G. Victor Hallman, Jerry S. Rosenbloom
With more than 135,000 copies sold in previous editions, Personal Financial Planning has become one of today\'s top answer books for people who want to know what to do with their money, and why. This streamlined seventh edition provides in-depth coverage and analysis of the latest tax law changes. In addition, it features an entirely new chapter on planning and paying for education expenses, including the new 529 plans; ramifications of the GST estate tax repeal; new checklists and questions to tie up each chapter; and more.

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle
Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing will show you how to incorporate this proven investment strategy into your portfolio. It will also change the very way you think about investing. Successful investing is not easy. (It requires discipline and patience.) But it is simple. For it’s all about common sense.

The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman
Orman is back in a brand-new, fully updated edition to The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, her personal finance classic that offers thoughtful, easy-to-follow steps toward a life of financial freedom. Here is the most up-to-the-minute information on a wide range of financial topics that plague us today: credit card debt, bankruptcy, paying for education, wills versus trusts, the best retirement account, life insurance, and more. Combining real-life recommendations with Suze’s own brand of inspiration and motivation, this is the only guide you’ll need to provide for yourself and your family.

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley, Phd, William D. Danko Ph.D
Stanley and Danko have been studying the wealthy in this country for 20 years. Using their two decade's worth of surveys, interviews, and data available nowhere else, they have compiled a detailed picture of who the rich are and how they live that will change forever your perception of what being wealthy really means.

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, Jason Zweig
The hallmark of Graham's philosophy is not profit maximization but loss minimization. In this respect, The Intelligent Investor is a book for true investors, not speculators or day traders. He provides, "in a form suitable for the laymen, guidance in adoption and execution of an investment policy" (1). This policy is inherently for the longer term and requires a commitment of effort. Where the speculator follows market trends, the investor uses discipline, research, and his analytical ability to make unpopular but sound investments in bargains relative to current asset value. Graham coaches the investor to develop a rational plan for buying stocks and bonds, and he argues that this plan must be a bulwark against emotional behavior that will always be tempting during abrupt bull and bear markets.

Since it was first published in 1949, Graham's investment guide has sold over a million copies and has been praised by such luminaries as Warren E. Buffet as "the best book on investing every written." These accolades are well deserved. In its new form--with commentary on each chapter and extensive footnotes prepared by senior Money editor, Jason Zweig--the classic is now updated in light of changes in investment vehicles and market activities since 1972. What remains is a better book. Graham's sage advice, analytical guides, and cautionary tales are still valid for the contemporary investor, and Zweig's commentaries demonstrate the relevance of Graham's principles in light of 1990s and early twenty-first century market trends.

The Soul of Money by Lynn Twist
This compelling and fundamentally liberating book shows us that examining our attitudes toward money-earning it, spending it, and giving it away-can offer surprising insight into our lives, our values, and the essence of prosperity

Money, A Memoir: Women Emotions and Cash by Liz Perle
Having attained the right to earn and spend their own money only decades ago, women have a more complex relationship to cash than men, argues Perle (When Work Doesn't Work Anymore) in this eye-opening book. Much less a memoir than a call to action, Perle uses her own unhealthy relationship with money as a springboard for a provocative discussion about women's finances—how money anxieties influence a woman's life decisions; how a woman's financial preparedness affects the way she feels about herself; and how, despite their tremendous buying power, women stand a greater chance than men of going bankrupt and of not having sufficient funds for retirement. A primary message—that women need to be less ambivalent about money and more active in investing in the future—and in urging readers to think about money in terms of not only what it can purchase, but how it has shaped their lives.

Values Based Estate Planning: A Step by Step Approach to Wealth Transfer for Professional Advisors by Scott C. Fithian
Estate planning has more procrastination, indecision, and inertia associated with it than any other area of planning. Affluent baby boomers, in particular, as the beneficiaries of the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history, have a daunting set of financial concerns with which to contend. Here at last is a step-by-step approach to estate planning that equips planners and financial advisors to help clients tackle this important process once and for all.

Links & Resources

Internal Revenue Service
US government agency responsible for tax collection and tax law enforcement. Provides downloadable income tax forms, instructions, agency publications, ...

Social Security Administration
Official website of the US Social Security Administration.

College Funding
Collegeboard.com offers online SAT registration and SAT score sending, SAT test preparation with real SATs questions, Information about the Advanced ...

Stock Options
Making you smarter about stock options, incentive stock options, employee stock purchase plans, ESPPs, restricted stock, restricted stock units, RSUs, ...

Bank Rates
Free, objective information and rate quotes for consumer bank products such as mortgage rates, home loans, credit cards, CDs, auto loans, home equity loans, ...

Social Investment Forum
The Social Investment Forum site offers comprehensive information, contacts & resources on socially responsible investing.

The Alliance for Investor Education
The Alliance for Investor Education is dedicated to facilitating greater understanding of investing, investments and the financial markets among current and prospective investors of all ages. We pursue initiatives for education and join with others to motivate Americans to obtain objective information and increase their knowledge and understanding of investing