Eric Tyson

Everyone will at some point or other in their lifetime come to the realization that wealth management is quite beneficial for realizing your projects. This can, and should start at an early age, and at the time I discovered this book, I was just waking up to the fact that I would have an advantage by knowing where I stood financially in the world.
I recommend this book for the absolute beginner. Any experience in personal wealth management will render this book of minimal usefulness.

"For someone who has their personal finances in order, this will be a boring and basic book. For someone who is just figuring out how to manage their finances, this is a great book. I read this book when I was feeling weighed down by our finances and debt. This book helped me think systematically about what we were doing with our finances, helped refine a plan to retire all our debt, and convinced me the need to save and invest for the future. Since I read this book, I have read a number of show more other books about personal finance and investing. While several of these books gave me a deeper understanding of the topics, not have contradicted what I learned in this book. Personal Finance for Dummies has all the advice I would hope a parent would pass onto their children about money. Unfortunately, a lot of parents don't know many of the things found in this book or don't think to teach their children how to effectively manage their money." show less

I did learn some things about investing and IRAs, but sometimes the author is very condescending. An example is in a chapter on how to save money on your cellphone: "Last but not least, be safe with your cellphone, especially when driving, and don't hold your cellphone to your ear when talking because of long-term concerns about the radiation emitted from these phones." Okay, sure, I won't hold the phone up to my ear when I use it--wait, huh? What does any of this have to do with finance show more anyway? And, often, the advice given about finance is logical, but impractical. Take this example in a chapter about getting health insurance: "If you have a preexisting condition [that is making it difficult to get health insurance on your own], find a job with an employer whose health insurer doesn't require a medical exam." Oh, sure, just let me up and do that in these uncertain economic times. On a positive note, the chapter on Roth IRAs was useful. It gave me a general overview of the whole process in layman's terms--something even the "experts" at my bank were unable to do.

If you are pretty sure that you are doing everything right and have a good grip on your finances, this book will help reassure you that you are well on your way to financial success. If, however, you are like most of the country and struggling with an ever-increasing cost of living in spite of a downturn in economic growth, this book will most likely leave you with a sense of hopelessness.

In short, this is a book for kids who are financially fresh and unmarred, blinking in the sunlight of an optimistic future full of possibility. Ah, it must be nice. show less

This was an incredibly useful book. It provides a concise road map for the home buying process along with tips on how to conduct the process. I will be referring here often during the next year.