Personal Finance 101 - A Beginner's Guide: What Every High School and University Student Needs to Know About Debt, Credit, and Money! [DOWNLOAD: PDF] (Digital)

~ Peter Salmon (Author)

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Product Description

Everything that you need to know about basic personal finances, from how to open a checking account to getting credit cards to how to use credit wisely and to your advantage to how to avoid getting into trouble with debt and credit to how to get a loan or grant for university to basic investing ideas, and more is in this book! Filled with a wealth of knowledge to help you gain good personal financial habits and retire wealthy, Personal Finance 101 - A Beginner's Guide is ideal for teens and twenty-somethings just starting out in the financial world. Parents will want to read this book with their young adults to give them the head start in financial life that they never received. Complete with numerous links to on-line resources, you'll want to refer to this book over and over again!

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Life is a game with rules just like football, basketball, board games, card games, and video games. All games have rules, and the better you know the rules, the better you are at playing the game and the easier it is to win. And the more proficient you are at playing the game, you know there are some insights you gain (that is, shortcuts that you can take) that give you an advantage, that give you an edge. It’s the same with personal finance.

No matter where you live, the financial world has rules. If you learn these financial rules, it will be much easier to keep the money you earn while having a lot of fun doing it! As the rich well know, it’s not how much money you earn that’s important, it’s how much money you keep!

The rules to personal finance are relatively few and simple to master. It only takes a little time and willingness on your part to master them and use them to make it possible to retire young and rich. Simply knowing the rules will not make you rich—you must apply your knowledge and learn other skills to reap the benefits that are your due.

Until very recently, there have been no courses in schools, colleges or universities on personal finance—what it is, how to control debt, what credit is and how to use it to your advantage, the pitfalls of too much debt and ruining your credit, what good debt is, and even what money is.

A few colleges and universities are starting to give courses on personal finance because of the vast numbers of young students getting into trouble with credit card and loan debt, but that is not the norm. For most people, they learn personal finance from four main sources:

· Family
· Peers
· Television and movies (the unreality from Hollywood)
· Advertisements

You have to admit, since most families in this country are not rich, family members may not be the best source for learning personal finance. Since only about 5% of the people in this country are considered rich, it’s a good bet that most of your peers are not rich, so they may not be the best resource for you, either.

Television and movies depict people with low to moderate income in loft apartments and large houses that in reality cannot be achieved or maintained with the level of income received from working in a coffee shop or any job that pays less than $150,000 a year. Unless you are in mid-level or upper management or own a successful business, few jobs today support that level of income. Common sense tells us this, yet people are still trying to live a Gates lifestyle on a worker income. People still insist on creating a lifestyle that they think they should have instead of working toward actually having that type of lifestyle.

An advertiser’s job is to touch your emotions to get you to buy things that you cannot afford and do not need and probably don’t really want. So reading print ads and listening to ads on the television and radio is the worst place to learn about personal finance. Do you know anyone who, once they see what a friend, neighbor or competitor has, must go out and immediately buy that item? I certainly do—both family members and friends. People give into impulse buying without considering what those purchases are doing to their financial lives. They could be investing for their future and actually have the money to spend $8,000 or $10,000 in an afternoon instead of needing to waste precious investment capital buying the newest electronic toy or pair of shoes or car or boat or house. Even if you are not into investing money, saving money to buy things you really want or need, such as a car or vacation to Mexico or house, is where your focus should be.

So, where do you learn about personal finance? You must take the initiative and learn it on your own. This book is designed to help you do that quickly and easily.

A carpenter has a toolbox with a set of tools and specialized knowledge that makes him successful. A surgeon has a set of tools and specialized knowledge that makes her successful. A systems engineer has a set of tools and specialized knowledge that makes her successful. You need a set of tools and specialized knowledge to make you successful in the world of personal finance. This book supplies you with the tools and specialized knowledge to help you start on your journey to becoming financially successful.

Product Details

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• Format: Adobe Reader (PDF)
• Printable: Yes. This title is printable
• Mac OS Compatible: OS 9.x or later
• Windows Compatible: Yes
• Handheld Compatible: Yes. Adobe Reader is available for PalmOS, Pocket PC, and Symbian OS.
• Digital: 84 pages
• Publisher: Golden Roc Financial Services, LLC (April 21, 2005)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,176,002 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great information for everyone!!!, June 14, 2005

By	P. salmon (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a great read! It lays out the rules for having credit cards and checking accounts that I wish I had when starting out with my personal finances. I finally found out how checks are used by banks and department stores. And I like the ways to protect myself from getting my personal information ripped off and my credit ruined. And the ways to get out of financial trouble if your in it are wonderful.

This book also has many ways to get free money in the form of grants for college and starting a business that I find useful. Many foundations and the government have a lot of money they give away every year. There is a lot of free money out there that I didn't even know about, like credit cards and special financing deals for cars and furniture.

I always thought that a budget was about counting pennies, but I was wrong. The way to create a budget in the book is easy and makes sense. And there is a lot of good information about easy investing for the future. I loved it!