Personal Finance for Dummies [Paperback]

Eric Tyson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764550136 | ISBN-13: 978-0764550133 | Publication Date: October 10, 1996 | Edition: 2

"Eric Tyson is … helping people of all income levels to take control of their own financial future." — James C. Collins, Coauthor of the Bestseller Built to Last "Personal Finance For Dummies is, by far, the best book I have read on financial planning." — Althea Thompson, PBS Nightly Business Report "Eric Tyson will lead you through the thickets of your own finances as painlessly as I can imagine." — Clarence Petersen, Chicago Tribune

By the Author of Four National Bestselling Books!

Do you have trouble identifying and managing your financial priorities? Have you thought about investing, but aren't sure which of the thousands of choices fits best into your financial picture? Are you overwhelmed and confused by the retirement planning options available today? Well, help has arrived! Personal Finance For Dummies^®, 2nd Edition, by financial counselor and consumer advocate Eric Tyson, is your guide to money management success! This solid reference cuts through the jargon and provides you with sound advice, expert tips, and recommendations for how to quickly get your financial picture in order. Ask for IDG Books' …For Dummies^®Business Books, the Fun and Easy Way to Manage Your Money! Also look for Investing For Dummies^® and Mutual Funds For Dummies^®, both by bestselling author Eric Tyson, your essential references for smart investing!

Inside, you'll discover how to:

• Assess your current financial situation
• Get out of debt — and stay out!
• Decrease your spending and create a budget you can live with
• Pinpoint your investment priorities
• Plan ahead for your retirement and slash your taxes
• Understand stocks, real estate, and other wealth-building investments
• Make wise financial decisions when faced with major life changes — like downsizing or retirement
• Improve your insurance coverage and reduce its cost
• Determine whether you need to hire financial help and how to find it
• Use your computer to manage your finances

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Personal Finance for Dummies offers sound and practical advice for those who want to get control over their personal financial lives. Author Eric Tyson points out the most common mistakes that we all make in our approach to money and prescribes ways to save and invest for a secure future. Using worksheets, the book helps you to measure your own financial health by looking at factors such as how much debt you carry, your savings rate, as well as investment and insurance checkups. The book looks at how you should invest your retirement account, approach taxes, and provides a good overview on how to buy real estate.

Review

...by far the best book I have read on financial planning. -- Althea Thomson, PBS Nightly Business Report --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 2 edition (October 10, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764550136
• ISBN-13: 978-0764550133
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (146 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,677,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Tyson is a best-selling personal finance book author and has penned five national best sellers. He is also the only author to have four of his books simultaneously on Business Week's business book bestseller list.

His Personal Finance for Dummies, a Wall Street Journal best-seller, won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Business Book of the Year. Eric's syndicated newspaper column is read by millions of readers weekly. He is a former columnist and award-winning journalist for the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle. His website, www.erictyson.com, rocketed into the top one percent of financial websites within its first year of operation.

Eric's work has been featured and quoted in hundreds of local and national publications and media outlets including Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Money, Worth, Parenting, USA Today and on the NBC Today Show, ABC, Fox News, CNBC, PBS Nightly Business Report, CNN, and on CBS national radio, NPR's Marketplace Money and Bloomberg Business Radio. He's also been a featured speaker at a White House conference on retirement planning.

Tired of working as a management consultant to Fortune 500 financial service firms which more interested in maximizing short-term profits than in providing sound financial products and services, Eric founded in 1990 the nation's first financial counseling firm which works exclusively on an hourly basis. He started his new company with a simple mission: to provide objective, cost-effective personal financial advice, especially to non-wealthy Americans. Through family and friends, Eric had seen many otherwise intelligent people make horrendous mistakes in managing their money, in part, because the failure of our schools and colleges to teach personal finance.

In addition to his counseling work, Eric also hoped to make an impact in the writing and media fields. Much of the personal finance writing and reporting he saw and heard was biased, jargon-laden and, in some cases, filled with bad advice. For example, rather than telling people the hard truth - that one must live within one's means as a prerequisite to building wealth - many publications offer up hyped and unrealistic "get rich without making sacrifices or taking risk" type approaches.

In addition to his writing and counseling, Eric also taught the nation's most highly attended personal financial management course at the University of California. He has spoken at many corporations and non-profits. His educational background includes having earned his bachelor's degree in economics at Yale and an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Eric is the only best-selling personal finance author who has an extensive background as an hourly-based financial planner and who does not accept speaking fees, endorsement deals or fees of any type from companies in the financial services industry or product or service providers recommended in his articles, books and his publications.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

436 of 439 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading, June 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Personal Finance for Dummies (Paperback)

When I bought the first edition of this book, I was a poor post-graduate loaded with bad debt. At the time, I knew nothing about CD's, funds, stocks, bonds, insurance, 401(k)'s, home-buying, budgeting, saving, debt-reduction, taxes, or any other basic issues of personal finance. All I knew is that I never could seem to "get ahead" financially. Tyson's book led me from this sorry state through four years of self-education and growing self-confidence about controlling my own financial future. Even now, debt-free and market-positioned, I still reference this book when I encounter a new facet of my financial life.

No "get-rich-quick" scheme, Tyson lays out a solid framework for anyone interested in getting and maintaining control of their own financial situation throughout a lifetime. The ideas he lays out help a person not only educate him/herself concerning money, but also instill confidence that a financial situation can be corrected or controlled personally.

Although this book would serve as a valuable reference to ANYONE interested in their own financial future, it would especially be useful to a young person just "starting out" or to any person who feels overwhelmed by their own financial situation.

209 of 211 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most informative book on the subject I have ever read!, July 30, 2003

By 

R. G. May "Bibliophile" (Scholar at large) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Personal Finance for Dummies, Fourth Edition (Paperback)

I work as a financial professional, counseling individuals regarding the options in their employer-sponsored retirement plans. Although the counsel I can give is limited to their retirement plan, several have asked me for advice in other areas of their financial lives. I do not hesitate to recommend this book. Whether you are starting from square one in getting your financial house in order, or your checkbook is balanced to the penny every week, there is information in this book that will benefit you. The "For Dummies" format is perfect for this subject, and Eric Tyson does an excellent job of breaking into layman's terms the most complex of finance and investing concepts. Also, an excellent section on selecting a financial planner is provided. I have often seen the devastating effects that the wrong financial advice has wrought in people's lives. The list of criteria to apply when seeking a financial advisor is one of the most valuable tools I have seen on the subject. This book is one of the most valuable resources I have ever seen in helping the average person get control of their financial lives. Applying its principles will pay immediate as well as long-lasting rewards.

105 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, October 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Personal Finance for Dummies (Paperback)

Personal Finance for Dummies is one of the better Personal Finance Books written post 1995. Although there is a wealth of information, there are also a lot of holes. Nevertheless, a great book for anyone interested in Personal Finance. I also strongly recommend "More Wealth without Risk" and "Financial Self Defense" by Charles Givens and "The Truth about Money" to help fill in some of the holes that Mr Tyson missed.