Let's Get Real About Money! (Paperback)

by Eric Tyson (Author)
Key Phrases: getting motivated, median home prices, money avoiders, Social Security, Developing Your Personal Financial Action Plan, Hiring Financial Help (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"The book’s gem is a personal financial action plan that allows easy assessment of current assets and retirement goals…This book demystifies the many obstacles--from the logistical to the conceptual--to smart financial planning."

–Publishers Weekly

"Eric Tyson is the best personal finance writer at work today. In a field cluttered with hucksters, false gurus, and just plain bad advice, this book delivers powerful common sense. I trust Eric Tyson, and you should, too."

–Tom Ehrenfeld, former writer and Editor at Harvard Business Review and Inc. Magazine, author of The Startup Garden: How Growing a Business Grows You

Financial success doesn’t just "happen": it’s determined by your financial habits. Fortunately, you can develop good financial habits-and systematically eliminate the bad ones that stand in your way. Eric Tyson will show you how--step-by-step and hands-on.

Millions of people have benefited from Tyson’s best-selling books and award-winning columns. Now he brings together all he’s learned over two decades--including financial management secrets most professionals never tell you about.

Tyson will help you organize your finances…take control of your future…make plans you’ll actually implement…save, spend, and invest more effectively…choose the right advisors…reduce your risks…and put money where it belongs in your life (instead of making it your whole life!).

This meaty, action-oriented guide is packed with checklists and worksheets that’ll help you start today, get results fast, and make positive changes that will last a lifetime!

• Develop THE BEST HABITS, AND USE THE BEST strategies
  What you can learn from the nation’s best personal financial managers
• Take control of your finances, one step at a time
  Make plans that work--and make your plans work
• Transform your hopes and ideas into action
  Everything you need is here, including hands-on worksheets and practical exercises
• Get real, not real obsessed!
  Learn how to give money the right role in your life...not your whole life!

Real money solutions from the best-selling author of Personal FinanceFor Dummies, Eric Tyson!

• Save smarter, invest smarter, and spend smarter, starting today
• Reduce your financial risks–and eliminate your money anxieties
• For everyone interested in improving their personal finances…whether you’re saving for college, retirement, or anything else

Worried about money? Join the club. Now, do something about it! One of America’s best-selling personal finance authors offers real, practical solutions that work: steps you can take right now to start replacing money anxiety with financial fulfillment and happiness. Eric Tyson gets straight to the point, identifying the habits that put you at risk–and helping you replace them with the habits of financial success. Tyson offers plain-English, no-gimmick techniques you can really use: knowledge you’d have to pay a fortune for, if you could get it at all!

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Amazon.com Exclusive: A Letter From Eric Tyson, Author of Let's Get Real About Money!

Nearly two decades ago when I first began my work in financial counseling, I believed that people made financial mistakes due to a lack of personal financial education and due to sales pitches and misleading advertising that led them astray. While I still believe these two factors contribute to a lot of money misery, I’ve learned over the years that counter-productive habits and beliefs sabotage the best laid plans, too.

Let’s Get Real About Money! presents a compilation of what I have learned in my one-on-one work with individuals, as well as current research from leaders in the field into how to best develop productive financial habits and extinguish problematic ones.

Whether you play sports, card games, or enjoy solving crossword puzzles, there’s always room for improvement. This book provides the information, strategies and tools that can truly help you and yours make the most of your money and dreams.

In Let’s Get Real About Money!, I will show you how to organize your finances; take control of your future; make plans you’ll actually implement; save, spend and invest more effectively; choose the right advisors; reduce your risks; and put money where it belongs in your life.

The implicit message from most money books is that more is better. Quite simply it’s not. I know this from direct experience with many clients and readers over the years and this is supported by a wealth of cross-cultural research. It’s all about balance and making the most of what money does pass through our hands. Harmony comes from striking balances and avoiding extreme behaviors.

This action-orientated book provides you with checklists and worksheets that’ll help you start today, get results fast, and makes positive changes that will last a lifetime!

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From Publishers Weekly
Tyson, syndicated columnist and bestselling author of Dummies guides to personal finance, investing and mutual funds, provides a solid guide to breaking counterproductive money habits and adopting a healthy approach to personal finance. His first suggestion—assess your money knowledge—is simple for readers to implement, thanks to several handy quizzes that identify the gaps that lead to common mistakes. Tyson offers tips for dealing with procrastination, money avoidance and disorganization, as well as assessing money beliefs and practices. The book's gem is a personal financial action plan that allows easy assessment of current assets and retirement goals. Common sense advice on budgeting strategies, reducing expenditures and taxes, and borrowing and debt management adds up to an effective, if familiar, plan for achieving control over and maximizing financial assets. Chapters on investing, managing risk, insurance and hiring financial help round out this comprehensive approach. This book demystifies the many obstacles—from the logistical to the conceptual—to smart financial planning. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: FT Press (Prentice Hall); 1 edition (November 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132341611
• ISBN-13: 978-0132341615
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #277,721 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Getting Real About Not Just Your Money, December 11, 2007

By	Tricia Huff (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews

". . . my best days at work don't even come close to the best days with my kids." p. 86 of Eric Tyson's "Let's Get Real About Money." Often, personal finance literature takes a quietly dismissive tone when discussing the claims of family, time and quality of life. Tyson's latest book has an unusually open acknowledgment from a financial advisor that it takes more to be happy than climbing the corporate ladder and stockpiling our nest egg. If you have ever thought other finance writers have sidelined the real issues of balancing work and money with family, then you will feel validated by the serious attention Tyson gives these concerns. When does climbing the corporate ladder deliver diminishing returns? How do I teach my kids good financial habits? The personal consequences of super savers, those who save compulsively, are explored alongside of the expected cautionary tales of high consumption debtors. I was heartened by Tyson's balanced approach to money management.
My one criticism of the work is not the content, but the cover. The front displays a fist of money, which along with the title, suggested a hardnosed, possibly humorous book. The subtitle, "Profit from the Habits of the Best Financial Managers", led me to believe the book was a compilation of stories, quotes and interviews of successful financial managers. Instead, it was primarily Tyson's take on personal side of personal finance. Nothing wrong with his take, and I applaud him for much of it, I just thought I was sitting down for an amusing, possibly a bit satiric look at the financial world, and what I got was a book full of compassionate sensible advice. If you are looking for a rollicking read, wait and pick up this book when you are in a more temperate mood. But if you are struggling to balance family life with your work and financial needs, and want to hear some contrarian (at least in the financial world) options, then Tyson's book is definitely worth reading.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eric Tyson does it again!, December 3, 2007

By	Dexter L. Hall (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have bought several books by Eric Tyson, and this is his best. Eric Tyson provides you with a concise way to handle your personal finances. After reading this book you will not need to purchase another personal finance book from another person. This book also teaches you how to invest in quality mutual funds.Tyson is the best personal finance author out there.Tyson also talks about investing in your personal health. If you purchase this book you will never be the same.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute highest recommendation as a crucial survival aid in today's modern world., April 4, 2008

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Written by syndicated columnist and best-selling financial author Eric Tyson, Let's Get Real About Money: Profit from the Habits of the Best Personal Finance Managers is a no-nonsense guide to putting a personal financial action plan tailored to one's needs and goals. Starting off with simple personal finance quizzes ideal for evaluating ones' money savvy, chapters address how to get motivated, how to assess and overcome negative money beliefs and practices, basic net worth calculation, money issues involved in relationships/marriage/divorce, why people tend to have trouble saving enough and when one might be saving too much, right and wrong reasons to borrow money, investing and insurance plans, when to hire financial help, and much more. A broad-ranging guide packed cover to cover with "must-know" information for everyone financially responsible for themselves and others, Let's Get Real About Money deserves the absolute highest recommendation as a crucial survival aid in today's modern world.