Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties [Paperback]

Beth Kobliner (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0684872617 | ISBN-13: 978-0684872612 | Publication Date: June 6, 2000 | Edition: Revised and expanded

“A highly readable and substantial guide to the grown-up realms of money and business.” —Deborah Stead, The New York Times,

If you've been meaning to get your finances in shape but have no idea where to start, this is your playbook: The all-new edition of the New York Times bestseller Get a Financial Life busts open the system, teaching tricks for becoming master of your own money universe. No matter what's happening in the economy, all the guidance you need is right here. You'll learn how to:

• Pay off your credit cards and student loans and live debt free

• Start saving, even if you're living paycheck to paycheck

• Take advantage of the latest tax rules and save a bundle

• Find smart investments while still supporting socially responsible companies

• Come up with a down payment and buy a home, even in a tough economy

• Afford grad school

• Protect yourself from identity theft

And you'll discover why a 401(k) is your best friend—even if the market is tanking.

From tracking your spending to finding deals on insurance to navigating the new world of homebuying, this easy-to-understand, comprehensive guide provides an up-to-date road map of the world of personal finance. Whether you earn $30,000 or $300,000, are single or married, are drowning in debt or just looking for ways to keep your savings secure in uncertain times, you'll find the answers you need in Get a Financial Life.

“A daring book. . . . A life's worth of smart financial advice.” —Newsweek

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

For twentysomethings and thirtysomethings, controlling one's financial life is a challenge many times exacerbated by a lack of knowledge about how money works. Author Kobliner, herself under 30, has assembled an excellent collection of basic money management principles and has specially tailored this presentation to the particular interests of these age groups. She discusses investing in mutual funds, tax-deferred savings plans, staying away from ATMs, legal tax deductions, understanding the minimal return on bank passbook savings accounts, tearing up credit cards, 401k plans and IRAs, and other important topics. Kobliner, who narrates her own work, emphasizes the personal discipline required to implement these sound suggestions, an example of her keen insights with this targeted audience and her experience as a contributor to Money magazine. This neatly summarized material?short and sweet, just like this age group will want?nicely accompanies such well-known works as The Beardstown Ladies' Common-Sense Investment Guide (Audio Reviews, LJ 4/15/96) and Dave Ramsey's solid Financial Peace (Penguin Audiobooks, 1996). This will be a useful addition to all public libraries.?Dale Farris, Groves, Tex.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

As one grows older, it becomes increasingly apparent that the oft-repeated admonishment that it is never too early to start saving money is all too true. But the young are often disinclined to think about growing older, and they usually cannot "afford" to start setting money aside. Kobliner, herself a barely thirtysomething who writes for Money magazine, attempts to reach younger readers by speaking their language and tailoring fairly standard financial counsel to the needs and circumstances of those just starting out on their own. Included in her advice on budgeting, credit, banking, investing, retirement planning, home buying, insurance, and taxes are tips on car loans, credit cards, ATMs, bank accounts, mutual funds, retirement savings plans, apartment renting, and paying back student loans. David Rouse --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 333 pages
• Publisher: Fireside Press; Revised and expanded edition (June 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684872617
• ISBN-13: 978-0684872612
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Beth Kobliner is a personal finance commentator and journalist, and the author of the New York Times bestseller Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties. She was appointed by President Obama to the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability, a bipartisan committee charged with tackling the problem of financial illiteracy in our country. She has a regular segment on public radio's national program The Takeaway, produced in collaboration with the BBC World Service and The New York Times. She is a contributor to public radio's Marketplace, discussing teens and money with her daughter in the "Beth and Becca" segment. She is also a content advisor for Sesame Street's financial education initiative, and is proud to teach Elmo about money in their outreach video.

Beth contributes to The New York Times, Parade, O: The Oprah Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Reader's Digest; has been a columnist at Money and Glamour magazines; and has a regular money column in Redbook magazine, reaching 2.2 million readers a month. She has appeared several times on Oprah to talk about personal finance, and has been a repeat commentator on CNN, MSNBC, NBC's Today show, and CBS's Early Show, covering a wide range of topics related to financial literacy, including credit card debt, 401(k)s, responsible investing, student loans, budgeting, mortgages, and health insurance. She was the featured financial correspondent on the PBS program Your Life, Your Money, for which she was also script consultant.

Beth is a regular lecturer on consumer finance and related public policy issues at universities including Brown, Harvard, Howard, MIT, SUNY Westchester Community College, and Yale, as well as at corporations and conferences including Campus Progress National Youth Conference, MTV, PepsiCo, and the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).

Beth has worked extensively with the Federal Trade Commission's "Project Credit Smarts" campus outreach campaign and other organizations to promote credit card awareness, and was a featured speaker at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., discussing the hazards of credit card debt. She was a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' National Commission on Retirement Policy, and has testified before a U.S. Senate policy committee on young people's attitudes toward Social Security. Beth sits on the board of the Heinz Foundation's Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER), is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, and has seen her work anthologized by the Brookings Institution. She is a member of the New York Financial Writers' Association and the Society of Professional Journalists.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Up-To-Date Edition Of The Popular Personal Finance Work, August 9, 2000

By 

Irvin Goodman - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties (Paperback)

This updated version of Beth Kobliner's work (5/2000) can help the folks in their 20's and 30's get a handle on their finances. Even with a college education, most students fail to come away with sufficient knowledge on how to manage their dough. This book is an easy read, not filled with useless info. There is special emphasis on paying off college loans, getting credit cards, buying a car, and financing a first house or apartment. Things that you really need to know. The main chapters include: Figuring out Where You Are and Where You Want to Go, Finding the Best Loans and Getting Yourself Out of Hock, How to Get the Most from Your Bank for the Least Amount of Money, All You Really Need to Know About Investing, Living the Good Life in 2030 !!, Getting an Apartment or House of Your Own, What Insurance You Need and Don't, Finding the Right Policies and Forgoing Coverage You Don't Need, Making Your Life Less Taxing. There is info on using the Web to help you save, spend and invest wisely, how to refinance your high-rate debt and avoid hidden fees and traps, taking advantage of the latest tax breaks- including deductions for student loans, and planning your long range savings program. In addition, there are details on car leases, credit reports, mutual funds, and more. A wealth of information available for less than 12 bucks. Highly recommended. A great gift.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent introduction to managing your finances, July 8, 2001

By 

Anoop Ghanwani (Rocklin, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties (Paperback)

I bought an earlier version of this book way back in 1996. I had just gotten my first job and I was looking for information on how to manage money and to find out how much I could "afford" when buying a car and/or other expensive stuff. This book helped with all of that. It helped me understand the basics of personal finance, loans, insurance, 401(k), etc. There's lots of good advice in there, so I'd certainly recommend buying this book. The information is this book is beautifully organized and very easy to digest.

Unfortunately, I haven't learnt a whole lot about personal finance since reading this book. I've read numerous books on personal finance after this one. All of them tend to say more or less the same things as this book, but they haven't said it as well.

Bottomline, if you understand the basics of personal finance (such as the principles of compounding, the importance of investing early in a 401(k), why it's bad to have credit card debt, etc.), you can probably afford to skip this book. Otherwise, it's a must have.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An easy-to-use reference guide, January 6, 2002

By 

Toomanybooks (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties (Paperback)

I bought the original edition of this book after seeing Ms. Kobliner on a morning news program. I was rather uninformed about my finances at that point. I had several thousands of dollars of credit card debt, was about to finish grad school and get married, and didn't have a job waiting. Worried about merging my bad financial life with my future husband's relatively well-organized one, I bought this book.

Together, my husband and I read it and developed a road map for what we thought we needed to accomplish. It gave us the basics to get our financial life on track, including paying off all the credit card debt (we carry none at all), getting a mortgage, buying a new car, and starting retirement plans. Now that we arethinking about insurance, starting a family, planning for college funds, etc., this was the first place I thought to turn for well-seasoned advice.

This book covers a lot of topics in an accessible format, but I acknowledge that for someone who is already aware of their finances and has some knowledge, it may be repetitive. But I always find myself wanting to go back to it when I have questions--so today I'm buying the updated edition, and letting a financially challeneged friend keep the other one.