The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Managing Your Money

Offers advice on creating a long-term financial plan, shopping for insurance and mortgages, managing credit card debt, and establishing a good credit rating.

Table of Contents:
I. GETTING THE MOST FOR YOUR MONEY. 1. Grab Good Financial Planning by the Tail. Recognize That Time Is Money. Why Put Off Today What You Can Do Tomorrow? Ignore the Statistics and Stick to Your Plan. Excuuuuse Me! Okay, Here's the Money Part.2. Managing the Debt Monster. Determining If You Are in Debt Trouble. Measuring Your Financial Health. Developing a Budget. Adding Up the Pluses and Minuses. Understanding Why Sticking to the Minimum Can Hurt. Controlling Your Debt Once and for All. Using Your Savings. Getting Outside Help. Battling Debt's Biggest Culprit. Becoming a Debt-Buster. Filing for B-A-N-K-R-U-P-T-C-Y.3. Creating Easy-to-Follow Shopping Habits. What Supermarkets Don't Tell You. Smart Shopping 101. 10 Ways Not to Spend Money!Starting Today. The Online Shopping Experience. Fiber-Optic Wars. Flying the Friendly Skies on the Cheap.4. Everyday Money Language You Should Know. Watch Those Conflicting Reports! Watch the Rates: They're the Big Clue! Know Where to Go for All the Good Stuff. Learn How to Understand the Mumbo Jumbo. Determine What Kind of Investor You Are. Ask the Right Questions-Get the Right Answers!II. WHY YOU NEED WALL STREET. 5. Secrets to Simple Investment Strategies. Creating Your Investment Profile. Knowing the Pluses and Minuses of Taking the Plunge. Investing in Stocks: A Crash Course. My Name Is Bond. Getting Started with Mutual Funds.6. So Who Really Wants to Be a Millionaire? Learn to Be Selfish. Establish Your New Routine. You Better Shop Around. It Doesn't Hurt to Have Some Exposure Across the Big Blue. Don't Just Buy-Diversify! Reduce Your Exposure to Uncle Sam. Build a Portfolio of Mutual Funds. Consider DRIPs. Use a Discount Broker If You Don't Need the Full Service. Know When to Sell Your Investments.III. THE ABCS OF REALLY SMART BANKING. 7. Top Money-Making Secrets Your Friendly Banker Won't Tell You. How Banks Stay in the Black. How Banks Work the Rates. Loan Rates That Jump in the Night. How Fee Robbery Got Its Start. A Buck Here, a Buck There!but Wow, It Adds Up! How Check-Cashing Outfits Rob You Blind. The Bigger They Are, the Worse It Gets. How Bad Can It Get? Really Bad! How You Can Negotiate.8. Interest Rates 101. Understanding How Banks Are Cashing In on Your Ignorance. Learning the Rate Basics and the Lingo. Knowing How Banks Create (and Play with) Their Numbers. Understanding How Banks Brew Up Their Rates.9. How to Get the Best Deal on a Checking Account. Checking Account Basics. Dropping Interest Rates: How Low Can They Go? Identifying What Kind of Checking Creature You Are. Understanding Fees: You'd Better Shop Around. Avoiding the Trap: There's No Such Thing As a Free Checking Account. A Savings Tip That Might Not Save You Anything. Protecting Yourself Against Forgery.10. Investing Safely with Uncle Sam. Two Choices: Your Money's Safe or It Isn't. He Who Laughs Last!. You Shouldn't Overdo the Safety Angle. Uncle Sam Is As Solid As the Rock of Gibraltar. Treasury Money Funds Are an Option. Any Savings Bonds Today? "I" Is for "Inflation". FDIC Protects Your Bank Deposits up to $100 Grand. How to Beat the $100,000 Insurance Limit. How Much Money Can You Afford to Lose? How Long Can You Be Without the Money? So Really!How Safe Are Banks?11. Savings and CD Accounts: Beating the Averages. Understanding Savings Account Basics. Shopping for Savings Accounts. Knowing Where the Money Is-In a 2 Percent Rut.12. Why Credit Unions May Be the Best Place to Park Your Money. How Credit Unions Work. How to Join a CU-It's Easy! How CUs Beat the Banks' Rates. Credit Unions Also Offer $100,000 Insurance Protection.IV. CREDIT AND LOANS-BORROWING MONEY WHEN YOU NEED IT. 13. How Strong Is Your Credit Rating? Big Brother Is Watching You. Getting Your Credit Score. Making the Biggest Mistake of All: Not Starting Early. Learning the Three Cs Are Just an Old-Fashioned Pipe Dream. Determining If You're Good, Bad, or Gray. Boosting Your Chances of Getting Approved. How Credit Inquiries Can Haunt You. Guarding Against Mix-Ups. Protecting Yourself from Fraud. Helping Hands. Maintaining Good Credit. Knowing Other Ways to Strengthen Your Credit.14. The Right Credit Card for You. Credit Cards: Personal Debt Enemy #1. Credit Cards: Just Try Not Having One. Credit Cards: Different Types. Ouch: Those Fees Hurt! The Biggest Secret of All: Watch Your Habits!15. To Lease or Not to Lease. Knowing the Biggest Rip-Offs. Determining If You Should Buy or Lease. Used Cars: Buying Right and Selling Right. Getting the Best Financing.16. Mortgage Shopping: Let's Make a Deal. Learning the ABCs of How Mortgages Work. Calculating What It's Gonna Cost. Finding the Cheapest Mortgage the Quick, Easy Way. Determining Who Lends the Money. Paying Through the Nose in the Early Years. Paying Faster May Not Pay. Identifying the Right Time to Refinance-You Could Save Thousands of $$$$$. Cracking Down on "PMI". Putting the Tax Savings in Your Pocket. The Point Is, Points Add Up! With Reverse Mortgages, the House Is Paying You!17. How You Can Win-Or Lose-With Home Equity Borrowing. Home Equity in a Nutshell: Your Nest Egg Is on the Line. Why Banks Love Home Equity Loans. Pros and Cons of Home Equity Loans. Home Equity Scam Operators.18. Protect Your Credit-And Your Privacy-Before It's Too Late! Identity Theft Is on the Rise. Your Money and Your Life. Everything Is up for Grabs or for Sale-You Name It. Isn't Somebody Doing Something to Protect You? Your Social Security Number-The Heartbeat of Your Privacy. How to Say "No" Politely. Identity Theft Is Everywhere. What to Do If You've Already Been Victimized.V. GETTING A HANDLE ON YOUR PAYCHECK. 19. You, Your Employer, and Your Paycheck. The Pink Slip Arrives. How to Get More Out of Your Paycheck. A Great Employee Benefit. The Fabulous 401(k).20. How Much Do You Really Know About Your 401(k)? 401(k) Is the Way to Play. The Inside Goods. Read the Fine Print. Go for the Gusto. Avoid These Mistakes.VI. TAKING CARE OF YOU AND YOUR FINANCIAL FUTURE. 21. Getting the Right Insurance Coverage for Your Needs. Making Sense of Insurance Mumbo-Jumbo. Insuring Home Sweet Home. Understanding Car Coverage. Knowing the Do's and Don'ts of Buying Life Insurance. Insuring Your Paycheck. Identifying Some Insurance Products You Don't Need.22. Tackling Your Taxes. The Latest Changes. The Most Common Tax Mistakes. How to Find a Tax Pro.23. Retiring R-I-C-H! Why It Pays to Sock Money Away. Why We Avoid Thinking About Tomorrow. Retirement Accounts Explained in Simple English. Pension and IRA Changes. Another Way to Save for Retirement. What to Do Now That You're Retired. The Early Bird Gets!. Count on You! A Final Word.Index.

About the Author :
Robert K. Heady is a nationally syndicated columnist who writes about personal finance and banking. His trusted Tribune Media Services column, "The People's Money," runs in scores of newspapers. As founding publisher of Bank Rate Monitor (now http://www.bankrate.com) from which he retired in 1998, Mr. Heady pioneered the surveying of U.S. bank rates and averages in news media, beginning with a rate table in The New York Times in 1983. Eventually his consumer rate tables began reaching more than 50 million US households every week via The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, CNN, and dozens of other major dailies. He is a frequent guest speaker and has appeared many times on CNN's Your Money and Moneyline, Good Morning America, ABC's 20/20 and World News, CBS's Morning News, The Today Show, NBC's Dateline, and PBS's Nightly Business Report, as well as AP, ABC, CBS, NBC and National Public Radio networks. Christy Heady is an award-winning financial journalist and the author of the best-selling book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Money on Wall Street, and co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Your Money and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Money in the New Millennium. She has been interviewed as a financial expert on dozens of national television and radio programs including CNBC, NPR, and WGN. Heady's work has been featured worldwide on CNN's Moneyline program and in publications such as the Christian Science Monitor, Consumers Digest, Your Money Magazine, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, and the Chicago Tribune. She is a frequent contributor of international business and investing articles to print and online publications. Heady is also the founder of the personal finance Web site, theWhiz.com, geared to help mainstream America learn basic money management skills.