Financial Bliss: A Couple's Guide to Merging Money Styles and Building a Rich Life Together [Hardcover]

Bambi Holzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2007

"Financial Bliss" shows how couples can solve their money issues and provide for themselves and their future by understanding each other's financial tendencies, communicating effectively, and planning for their lives together. Featuring eye-opening stories of real-life couples, and simple yet powerful selflessness quizzes, this unique and practical guide contains indispensable advice on how couples can reach decisions about money in a realistic, non-confrontational, and constructive way. It is a smart, encouraging book that no couple should be without.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Both realist and reassuring, this is an invaluable guide that helps couples solve money problems and create a life plan." (Physician's Money Digest, April 2007)

“Both realistic and reassuring, this is an invaluable guide that helps couples solve money problems and create a life plan.”

-Physician's Money Digest

Book Description

"All couples have their own complex relationship with money: how they organize and pay their bills, how they balance their checkbook, and most importantly, how they spend and save their hard-earned dollars. Furthermore, arguments over money are the number-one cause of divorce. In Financial Bliss, readers will find out how they can get the most out of their lives together by understanding each other’s financial tendencies, communicating effectively, and charting a course for the future. Couples will learn how to:

* prepare for milestones like buying a house, starting a family, financing their children's education, and building their retirement

* match their own tolerance for financial risk with their partner’s

* reach decisions about money in a realistic, non-confrontational, constructive way

Combining eye-opening stories of real-life couples with simple yet powerful self-assessment quizzes, Financial Bliss is a necessary guide that helps smart couples solve their money issues and get set for life."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 17 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (January 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814408850
• ISBN-13: 978-0814408858
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,820,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Basic Treatise on Money Management for Couples, August 14, 2007

By 

L. Masonson (Monroe, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Financial Bliss: A Couple's Guide to Merging Money Styles and Building a Rich Life Together (Hardcover)

The author covers the common financial goals facing couples and sets out to provide guidance in the most areas. Holzer shows couples how to work together to have a fruitful financial life, how to organize their dual financial lives, how to work through life stage issues. She provides excellent checklists, exercises, financial statistics, and stories to convey her points. She forcefully suggests that complete financial records, files and legal documents be kept up-to-date and in a secure location. Leave nothing to change is her focus.

According to the author, most couples have different views on budgeting, investing and spending and they don't really spend the time to sit down and develop a joint financial profile and plan. Sometimes one of them manages one of these three areas because the other party does not have the skill or interest. This is not really an optimal situation.

In her chapter titled "Being Prepared for Emergencies," covering the importance of various types of insurance, she inexplicably does not mention the need to determine if long-term care insurance (LTC) should be considered. This is strange in light of the rising cost of this care for the elderly and the importance of preserving assets from being depleted, if LTC is needed and no insurance coverage was previously bought.

The two chapters on investing do not contain sufficient substance to be implementable by couples. When discussing investing, Holzer does not believe that buy-and-hold and asset allocation should be the way to invest all the time. Actually, she says she uses a combination of fundamental and technical analysis (using point-and-figure charts) to select investments, but she does not show readers how to invest successfully using these techniques. Mutual funds are her suggested investment vehicles for those who don't have the time to research their investments. For some reason, Holzer does not mention the use of ETFs as replacement for mutual fund investing. This is unusual in light of the 550 funds available and growing in volume and usage daily. Since ETFs have lower annual expense ratio than active mutual funds, the fact that they were not mentioned is unfortunate.

Overall, Holzer provides a good overview of how couples should work together to develop an action plan to better manage their financial future. Readers will find useful guidance and be able to see importance of working together to maximize their financials, retirement funds, estates, and credit. However, the lack of details on handling investments, the fact that ETFs were not mentioned as possible investment alternatives to mutual funds, as well the non-mention of long-term care insurance results in an incomplete picture for couples.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Worked for Us!, January 19, 2007

By 

S. Smith - See all my reviews

This review is from: Financial Bliss: A Couple's Guide to Merging Money Styles and Building a Rich Life Together (Hardcover)

Finances have always been a very tough topic for my husband and I. We have been married for less than a year and always had difficulties finding the right time and place to discuss them. After reading Financial Bliss together we found that Bambi Holzer's book offered some really straight forward ideas and topics that needed to be addressed. After reading the book my husband and I are finally on the same page. I would highly recomend this book to all couples.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Conversation to Have, March 14, 2007

By 

S. Hughey (CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Financial Bliss: A Couple's Guide to Merging Money Styles and Building a Rich Life Together (Hardcover)

This book has helped have the opening conversation with my husband on what has been a very touchy subject in society. We place so much emphasis

on money but no one really wants to talk about it. This book provides the perfect entry into that conversation with your partner around the subject of money. The work sheets are very helpful. This book made the conversation much easier.