Booktopia Comments
This is US based content and some chapters may not appropriate for the Australian market.
Product Description
Did your investments take a hit in the recession? You're not alone. Between 2007 and mid-year 2009, the average 401K lost 31 per cent of its value. Ouch. It's time to take control of your investments with "Personal Investing: The Missing Manual".
Financial experts agree that with the right guidance, consumers can make investments better than many professionals. This lively and easy-to-understand guide gives you the confidence, tools, and insight you need to evaluate financial products and make smart investments that target success over the long term.
You'll learn how to set long-term goals for critical, high-cost events such as retirement, your children's education, and future health care needs. Then you'll learn what types of investments will best help you achieve those goals. In step-by-step fashion, this book shows you how to research mutual funds, stocks, bonds, and other financial products to create a portfolio of diversified investments.
About the Authors
Bonnie Biafore has always been a zealous planner, whether setting up software demos, cooking gourmet meals, or scheduling a vacation to test the waters of spontaneity. Ironically, fate, not planning, turned this obsession into a career as a project manager. When she isn't managing projects for clients, Bonnie writes about project management, small business accounting, personal finance, investing, and technology. She's also branching out into other "dry" topics with articles for the Wine Enthusiast. As an engineer, she's fascinated by how things work and how to make things work better. She has a knack for mincing dry subjects like accounting and project management into easy to understand morsels and then spices them to perfection with her warped sense of humor. Bonnie is the award-wining author of more than a dozen books including Quicken 2009: The Missing Manual, QuickBooks 2009: The Missing Manual, Project 2007: The Missing Manual, the Better Investing Stock Selection Handbook (which won an APEX Award of Distinction), Online Investing Hacks, and On Time! On Track! On Target!. She also writes regularly about financial topics for Better Investing bankrate.com and interest.com. When unshackled from her computer, she hikes in the mountains, cycles, rehabilitates horses, cooks gourmet food, and, most importantly, tries saying no to additional work assignments.
Amy Buttell is a journalist who writes about personal finance, investing, healthcare and accounting. She got started writing about investing and personal finance when she realized she owned several mutual funds recommended by a broker and had no idea whether they were any good or what she needed. That event along with her insatiable curiosity landed her first assignment as mutual fund columnist for Better Investing magazine, a position she still holds today after nearly 10 years on the job. She writes for Bankrate.com, Creditcards.com, the Journal of Financial Planning, AARP: The Magazine, The Investment Professional, and Cyberhomes.com. She is the author of The Better Investing Mutual Fund Handbook and contributed to the book, Online Investing Hacks. She lives in Erie, PA with her two sons and two cats in a house near Lake Erie.
Carol Fabbri is driven to teach as many people about personal finance as she can.
On any given day you'll find Carol writing, speaking, or presenting on the topic. She believes that the biggest roadblocks to making good investment decisions are emotional baggage regarding money and a lack of clarity in the industry--both of which can be improved with financial education. By combining her background in management consulting and the finance education she gained at MIT Sloan, Fabbri replaces people's preconceived ideas about finance with knowledge, and breaks down the psychological barriers hindering good investment choices. She has helped thousands learn to manage their money. Fabbri is the managing partner of Fair Advisors, an independent financial advisory firm. She is also launching the Fair Advisors Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to improving financial literacy in the US. In 2009 she received the TIAW World of Difference award in recognition for her efforts to advance the economic empowerment of women. She is frequently quoted in national publications like The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Smart Money. Carol's other passions are her husband and her son. She used to have hobbies but then she became a mom.
