Resources

Members of the The Garrett Planning Network, Inc. recently collaborated on Investing in an Uncertain Economy For Dummies

Michael Knight contributed a chapter entitled "Understand Investment Risks". You can download the chapter here.

Personal Finance Workbook For Dummies©

By Sheryl Garrett, CFP®

Need to get a handle on your personal finances? No problem - this practical, hands-on workbook shows you how to assess your situation and manage your money, walking you through a private financial counseling session. From budgeting and using credit wisely to planning for large expenses and determining your insurance needs, you'll discover how to make smarter financial decisions. Plus, the featured worksheets and checklists help you manage your day-to-day spending and plan for a robust financial future.

Just Give Me the Answer$: Expert Advisors
Address Your Most Pressing Financial Questions

By Sheryl Garrett, CFP®, with Marie Swift and The Garrett Planning Network, Inc.

Hiring a financial planner is often something people associate with the wealthy. But according to financial guru Sheryl Garrett, everyone should be able to work with a financial professional and take control of his or her financial fitness. InJust Give Me the Answer$: Expert Advisors Address Your Most Pressing Financial Questions,Sheryl Garrett along with Marie Swift and Members of The Garrett Planning Network have provided the answers to the most pressing financial questions consumers ask as they pass through various life stages. Sprinkled with real-life stories and specific examples,Just Give Me the Answer$is a one-stop resource for anyone looking to get - and keep - their financial house in order.

Garrett's Guide to Financial Planning:
How to Capture the Middle Market and Increase Your Profits, 2nd Edition

By Sheryl Garrett, CFP®

Americans are searching for affordable financial guidance that is completely objective and relative to their particular needs. Sheryl Garrett is a pioneer in advocating and offering this kind of financial planning advice. In this unique book, written especially for the financial services industry, she chronicles the evolution of the financial planning profession and challenges planners to look at how they will practice and serve their clients in the future. She offers practical insights on how to offer hourly-based, affordable financial advice to anyone seeking such direction. The time has come for qualified financial planners to follow Sheryl's example and her book is the perfect bridge to that new practice model. This is a "must read" for any financial planner who wants to stay on the cutting edge of the profession.

Money Without Matrimony

By Sheryl Garrett, CFP®, and Debra A. Neiman, CFP®, MBA

This book provides financial planning tools and strategies that enable unmarried couples to solve the financial, legal, and discriminatory dilemmas inherent in their living situation. The authors take a real-world approach to the issues, providing specific advice and direction for the more than 5 million couples across the unmarried spectrum. It is an invaluable guide for anyone, of any age, who is unmarried and lives with or is considering living with a partner.

The Four Pillars of Investing

By William Bernstein

William Bernstein gives investors the tools they need to construct top-returning portfolios without the help of a financial adviser. In a relaxed, nonthreatening style, Dr. Bernstein provides a distinctive blend of market history, investing theory and behavioral finance, one designed to help every investor become more self-sufficient and make better-informed investment decisions. Containing all of the tools needed to achieve investing success, this book presents practical investing advice based on fascinating history lessons from the market, exercises to determine risk tolerance as an investor and an easy-to-understand explanation of risk and reward in the capital markets.

Your Credit Score

By Liz Pulliam Weston

MSN Money personal finance journalist Liz Pulliam Weston gives you up-to-the-minute answers you can trust - and a proven action plan for building your credit, fixing it and maintaining it, starting today! You'll discover how your scores are affected by everything from applying for loans to closing accounts...how to cope with a credit crisis and bounce back from bad credit or bankruptcy...how credit counseling really affects your score...why paying old debts can actually damage your score...how to reduce your exposure to identity theft and much more!

Deal with Your Debt

By Liz Pulliam Weston

Live without debt? On what planet? For most people, it's just not practical. Here's the good news: you can manage your debt so it actually improves your financial well-being. You can pay off debts that are truly toxic and cut the costs of the debts you keep. You can keep debt from getting out of hand and get smarter about every debt you incur from now on. ReadDeal with Your Debtto learn how.

The New Retirementality

By Mitch Anthony

Sipping martinis and playing golf may be your dream of an ideal retirement, but chances are that's not where you'll end up. Because your retirement may span 30 years or longer, endless days of leisure can quickly lead to boredom, depression and discontent. What is appealing to most of us is a life of fulfillment and purpose, one in which "retirement" plays an important role-the passage from one stage of life to another.The New Retirementalityis the ability to achieve the freedom to pursue your own goals, at your own pace, on your own terms...regardless of your age. In this newly revised second edition of the book that defined what retirement will look like in the future, you will learn how to retire on purpose, with purpose - and change your life.

Worry-Free Investing

By Zvi Bodie and Michael J. Clowes

Make sure your money will be there when you need it - for retirement, college or anything else. This book outlines Six Steps to Worry-Free Investing for every risk-averse investor. Drawing on little-known U.S. government investments and three powerful risk-reduction strategies, it virtually eradicates risk while helping you achieve returns in excess of inflation.

The ETF Book: All You Need to Know About Exchange-Traded Funds

By Richard A. Ferri, CFA

Written by veteran financial professional and experienced author Richard Ferri,The ETF Bookgives you a broad and deep understanding of this important investment vehicle and provides you with the tools needed to successfully integrate exchange-traded funds into any portfolio. Each chapter of the book offers concise coverage of various issues and is filled with in-depth insights on different types of ETFs as well as practical advice on how to select and manage them.

Saving for Retirement without Living like a Pauper or Winning the Lottery

By Gail MarksJarvis

Over the years, Chicago Tribune financial columnist Gail MarksJarvis has taken the time to listen and respond to thousands of her readers about the issues, questions and concerns that are most important to them. Saving and investing for retirement has never been more important...and with this book, it's never been clearer what you need to do and how to do it. MarksJarvis eliminates the insider jargon, confusion and math, takes the mystery out of the stock market, simplifies investing techniques and more.

Live it Up without Outliving Your Money!: 10 Steps to a Perfect Retirement Portfolio

By Paul Merriman

This book offers ten straightforward steps to creating and maintaining the perfect retirement portfolio. From determining how much you will need to live on after retirement to recognizing and controlling the expenses of investing, the easy-to-understand strategies outlined within these pages can help you regain confidence in your retirement plan.

On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girl's Guide to Personal Finance

By Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar

This succinct guide will teach you how to balance your desire to live well today with the need to save and invest for tomorrow. You will learn how to achieve common life goals such as owning a home, providing for yourself or your family, taking fun vacations and retiring in comfort - all free from financial stress.

All About Asset Allocation

By Richard A. Ferri, CFA

Rick Ferri goes beyond sound-bite financial columns and TV programs to explain asset allocation in terms that anyone can understand. Using a concise style, this book features straightforward explanations of asset allocation, a review of the asset allocation process and guidelines for implementing strategies and programs.

All About Index Funds, 2nd Edition

By Richard A. Ferri, CFA

This book will help you discover your unconscious money beliefs and break their power, transforming the role of money in your life. It will give you practical, down-to-earth guidance along a new path to help you achieve fulfillment and prosperity far deepr than just financial success.

Conscious Finance

By Rick Kahler, CFP®, and Kathleen Fox

This book will help you discover your unconscious money beliefs and break their power, transforming the role of money in your life. It will give you practical, down-to-earth guidance along a new path to help you achieve fulfillment and prosperity far deepr than just financial success.

The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing

By Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, Michael LeBoeuf

This book is a slightly irreverent, straightforward guide to investing for everyone. Originally just the chat-line ruminations of Boglehead founder Taylor Larimore and forum leading cohorts Mel Lindauer and Michael LeBoeuf, their trusted advice has been brewed and distilled into an easy-to-use, need-to-know, no frills guide to building up your own financial well-being - so you can worry less and profit more from the investments you make. If you face a financial crisis or problem, or simply want to know what is prudent to do with the money you save, the Bogleheads will have the answers you need to help you gain your financial footing and keep it.

The Number: A Completely Different Way to Think about the Rest of Your Life

By Lee Eisenberg

"The Number" is the amount of money you need to have socked away in order to be confident that your postretirement life will meet your expectations. Everyone's Number is different - and while it is important to save enough to last - Eisenberg says Americans need to also determine how they want the rest of their life to look. "It's not just 'how much' but 'what for'" he says. He provides a charmingly written consideration of an aging generation's retirement worries and of the investment business designed to profit from them. Heartfelt discussions of goals, health and health care, "downshifting" to enjoy life while spending less money and the meaning of postretirement life pepper its pages. His perceptive analyses of real and fictional people's financial hopes and strategies will inspire readers to reconsider their Numbers and their methods for investing. Sheryl Garrett, founder of the Garrett Planning Network, George Kinder, co-founder of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning, and many other leading financial planners are profiled in the book. Eisenberg provides additional thoughts on his web-log (www.thenumberbook.com).

The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing

By Benjamin Graham with updated examples by Jason Zweig

One of the greatest investment advisors of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham taught and inspired people worldwide. This revised edition includes updated commentary by noted financial journalist Jason Zweig, whose perspective incorporates the realities of today's market, draws parallels between Graham's examples and today's financial headlines and gives readers a more thorough understanding of how to apply Graham's principles of value investing.

Zero Debt

By Lynette Khalfani

If you want to be debt-free and achieve financial freedom, you need an action plan to guide you. This book is your step-by-step plan and it's simple and easy to understand.

The Prosperity for Life Financial Organizer

By Suzanne Fails, CPA, CFP®

This easy-to-use financial planning tool contains checklists and worksheets to help you accumulate and store vital personal and financial information. Each section has reminders and ideas about important financial planning tasks. Now you can experience peace of mind knowing that your crucial information is organized and at your fingertips.

Your Money Matters: 21 Tips to Achieve Financial Security in the 21st Century

By Jonathan D. Pond

One of the best-recognized names and faces in the financial advice world reveals how to greet the new century with money in your pocket. This book by Jonathan Pond breaks new ground by taking a human look at meeting life's financial challenges. Pond's tips present important lessons essential to achieving financial peace of mind and new ideas for prospering in the new century.

Ten Weeks to Financial Awakening: A Guidebook to the Creation of Your Own Financial Plan Using Quicken Software

By Paul Lemon

This isn't really a book, it's a complete financial planning program that will help you organize and control your finances and take control of your financial life. This book guides you step-by-step to developing your own financial plan.

Loans and Grants from Uncle Sam: Am I Eligible and for How Much?

By Anna Leider, Associates Octameron

How much federal aid should a family expect? Is there any real difference between lenders? Which repayment office is best? Loans and Grants takes families through the maze to make sure they get their fair share of the nearly $70 billion in available federal student aid. This book demystifies the financial aid process and defines confusing terms.

The Ultimate Credit Handbook: How to Cut Your Debt and Have a Lifetime of Great Credit

By Gerri Detweiler

A former director of Bankcard Holders of America, Gerri Detweiler draws on her years of expertise in counseling consumers with credit problems to write the definitive handbook on how to have more credit, get out of debt and live a lifetime of financial stability and prosperity.

The Winning Edge: The Student Athlete's Guide to College Sports

By Frances Killpatrick, et al

Take your sport to college! This book is much more than a rehash of NCAA rules and regulations. It shows students how to use their athletic skills to increase their chances for admission and financial aid at the school of their choice. The Winning Edge also includes practical advice from coaches in nearly every sport, including Joe Paterno (Penn State) on football, and Susan Craig (University of New Mexico) on softball.

College Money Handbook

By Petersons

This book is an annually updated reference guide to more than 1,600 individual colleges' student financial aid appropriations. It is designed to help prospective undergraduate students and their families discover what they might look for in financial aid from particular institutions, aid them in making comparisons between institutions and help them make decisions related to financial aid. The front matter provides a concise overview of the student financial aid system.

You've Lost It, Now What? How to Beat the Bear Market and Still Retire on Time

By Jonathan Clements

This book has a feisty and easy-to-understand style that gives you a road map for the years ahead. It takes you step-by-step through the process of rebuilding your investments and explains how after reaching retirement you can squeeze the maximum out of your savings.

Personal Financial Planning for Gays & Lesbians

By Peter M. Berkery

This book discusses managing personal risks, savings and investing strategies, planning and reducing income taxation, preparing for retirement and estate issues. Co-published by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, a non-profit educational organization supporting gays and lesbians, this book helps individuals and couples confront and overcome legal and social realities with solid strategies for achieving financial goals.

JK Lasser's Gay Finances in a Straight World

By Peter M. Berkery and Gregory A. Diggins

Focusing on financial planning in a system that was not designed for persons with a same-sex orientation, this book helps them identify financial planning issues common to society in general, and to the gay community specifically. The authors help gays and lesbians plan for the life events likely to affect their financial status and successfully develop financial strategies that will help them successfully navigate these events.

Widowed: Beginning Again Personally and Financially

By Sharon Trusty, Barry M. Corkern and Sally Chandler Crisp

Part self-help, part narrative exploration, this book is the result of an unusual collaboration between a widow and her financial planner.

The Widow's Resource

By Julie A. Calligaro

This book provides answers to the financial and legal questions that a widow will face within the first six to nine months of her husband's death. It contains sample letters and to-do lists on perforated pages that tear out of the book for easy use.

Suddenly Single: Money Skills for Divorcees and Widows

By Kerry Hannon

This book provides divorced or widowed women with essential information that can transform their lives. The book should be viewed as an essential survival kit for all suddenly singles.

Retirement Bible

By Lynn O'Shaughnessy

A complete guide to the personal finance issues surrounding retirement, from 401(k)s to estate planning and trusts. The author discusses how to save money on taxes, calculating for a comfortable retirement, IRAs, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other investments.

The Budget Kit

By Judy Lawrence

This book has a simple, no-nonsense approach to understanding and managing one's financial life. The recommendations and examples are superb, and the "big picture" is communicated effectively. The book is a complete kit by itself, and the associated Web site offers more outstanding advice and useful tools.

Does Your Broker Owe You Money

By Daniel R. Solin, Esq.

This book discusses how investors can avoid being victimized by brokers and how to get their money back if they incurred losses on account of broker misconduct. An excellent primer for those wanting to get "the inside skinny" of the brokerage business. Shows investors the various forms of broker fraud, and helps them determine if they have a claim. Gives you the tools to assess if you have a claim and advises you on what your next steps should be.

Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor

By John Bogle

This book explains the various investment markets and different types of mutual funds (bond, stock, balanced, money market, etc.). It tells you how to understand and evaluate risk and gives advice on how to construct an investment program for whatever purpose you may have in mind. It also gives advice on how much risk is prudent for different investment time horizons.

Protecting Your Wealth in Good Times and Bad

By Rick Ferri, CFA

Protecting Your Wealth is an essential guidebook to a secure savings and investing strategy. Step by step, this book walks you through the process of developing and implementing a sound lifelong plan to grow and protect your hard-earned assets.

You Don't Have to Be Rich: Comfort, Happiness and Financial Security on Your Own Terms

By Jean Chatzky

Chatzky, who is with NBC's Today Show and Money Magazine, creates an insightful book that shows can show you how to make financial decisions to make you truly happy no matter your financial means. Practical advice. Highly inspiring.

The Richest Man in Babylon

By George Clason

A collection of parables written in the 1920s, this book is a timeless, inspirational work. Great advice on the subject of thrift, financial planning and personal wealth, that is just as sound today, as it was 80 years ago.

Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence

By Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

This is a best-selling book on how to get control of your money and your life. The authors help you take a look at how you handle your money, and whether it is a reflection of your values.

The Millionaire Next Door

By Thomas Stanley and William Danko

Contrary to what many may believe, most millionaires are not flashy. This book gives you a good look at the profile of a typical millionaire, how they got there, and how you can learn from their habits. Who knows, you might even become the next Millionaire Next Door.

Saving Money: An Easy, Smart Guide to Saving Money

By Barbara Loos

Formerly published under the title I Haven't Saved a Dime, Now What?!, this book has been repackaged, and sold under the Barnes & Noble Basics label. It is designed to walk you through the often puzzling and worry-producing world of money.

Retiring: An Easy, Smart Guide to an Enjoyable Retirement

By Hope Egan, CFP®, and Barbara Wagner

Formerly published under the title I'm Retiring, Now What?!, this book has been repackaged and sold under the Barnes & Noble Basics label. All you need to know to make retiring worry-free, from planning your retirement to making your money last and where to live. Designed to make retirement more fun, the book even includes the inside track on travel for seniors.

Seven Stages of Money Maturity: Understanding the Spirit and
Value of Money in Your Life

By George Kinder, CFP®

This is a book that searches for the spiritual meaning in wealth, and tells the stories of three composite characters throughout the book. You learn how to evolve through the seven stages (innocence, pain, knowledge, understanding, vigor, vision, and aloha) necessary to achieve financial and emotional security. Named as "one of the most influential people in the financial planning industry" (Investment Advisor magazine, June 2003), George is the founder ofThe Kinder Institute of Life Planning, a personal empowerment and training organization that offers the highly-acclaimed Seven Stages of Money Management Workshop.

Affluenza, The All-Consuming Epidemic

By John De Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas Naylor

The term "affluenza" suggests a disease from over consumption. The theme of the book is that we are consuming more than is healthy for ourselves and our society - and we are not any happier for it. Good food for thought.

Serious Money, Straight Talk about Investing for Retirement

By Rick Ferri, CFA

Serious Money explains why stockbrokers, investment firms, financial consultants and the mass media do not always have your best interests at heart. In this hard hitting book, author Richard Ferri takes the investment industry to task for spending too much effort on selling and too little on meeting the needs of serious investors.

101 Tax Saving Ideas

By Randy Gardner, JD, CPA, CFP®, and Julie Welch, CPA, CFP®

This useful and expertly written book is a great guide for ideas on how to save money on taxes, not a dry, technical tax manual. It could very well save you some money on your next tax return. Updated every year, the book is a reliable resource, chockfull of tax-saving ideas.

Who Gets Grandma's Yellow Pie Plate?

By Marlene Stum

This is a sensible, down to earth guide on how to handle the distribution of family items from one generation to the next. The goal is to have the process be a celebration of the deceased person's life, rather than allowing emotions to harm or destroy family relationships.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Best Investment Advice for the New Century

By Burton Malkiel

This is an investment classic, originally published in 1973. It has just been updated, and now takes into account the dot-com meltdown. Among other topics, Malkiel gives an entertaining history of past market bubbles, and explains why it's not worth trying to beat the market. There is also a life-cycle guide to investing in the market.

The Only Investment Guide You Will Ever Need

By Andrew Tobias

This guide has been updated many times and available for more than 20 years. This is an easy-to-read book covering many of the basics of personal finance, from investments and life insurance to Social Security.

4 Steps to Financial Security for Lesbian and Gay Couples

By Harold Lustig

Since gay and lesbian partnerships do not have legal marriage status , there are different approaches to titling of assets, tax planning, and estate planning. This is a good overall guide with sound advice. The concepts apply to all non-legally married couples.

The Essence of Success, 163 Life Lessons from the Dean of Self-Development

By Earl Nightingale

This is a classic collection of lessons that touch on many topics, many of which relate to money. Goal setting, being creative, managing risk, making the most of opportunities and various other topics are covered. Each lesson is only a few pages long, so it is easy to read a few lessons at a time.