Financial Literacy Essentials for Dummies - Eric Tyson

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Résumé :

Your to-the-point guide on the essentials of managing your finances

The first step in becoming a better personal financial manager is understanding the pillars of personal finance. Financial Literacy Essentials For Dummies is your cheat sheet on understanding how to better manage your finances. Distilled down to the essentials, this book makes it easy for anyone to learn the basics of managing money. You won't be able to escape life's many expenses, but with this book, you can get a grip on smart spending, saving, investing, and beyond. Start by creating a realistic budget for your situation and make a plan for achieving your goals. Money doesn't have to be scary with this Essentials guide.

• Get quick-and-easy explanations budgeting, savings accounts, and debt
• Understand how much you can really afford to spend, and learn to spend smarter
• Make a plan for getting out of debt-or avoid getting into debt in the first place
• Ensure that you have enough of a buffer to deal with unexpected expenses

Need easy-to-understand information to help get your finances on track? Financial Literacy Essentials For Dummies is the guide for you....

Biographie:

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 1

Icons Used in This Book 2

Where to Go from Here 2

Chapter 1: Introduction to Financial Literacy 3

What Is Financial Literacy, Anyway? 3

Budgeting and transaction accounts 4

Investing 4

Insurance 4

Why It Matters: The Power of Knowing Your Money Stuff 5

Identifying hurdles to financial success 5

Understanding your personal and emotional hurdles 6

Developing good financial habits 7

How to Avoid the Oops, I Bought a Timeshare Scenario 7

Assessing free financial content online 8

Protecting yourself from supposed financial gurus 9

Considering the influence of advertising 11

Preventing Common Money Mistakes 12

Chapter 2: Budgeting Basics 15

Creating a Budget 15

Tracking Expenses: From Lattes to Rent 16

Tracking spending the low-tech way 17

Tracking your spending on free websites and apps 21

Getting a handle on overspending 23

Figuring Out Your Savings Rate 25

Calculating Your Financial Net Worth 28

Adding up your financial assets 28

Subtracting your financial liabilities 29

Crunching your numbers 30

Interpreting your net worth results 31

Emergency Funds: Because Life Throws Curveballs 31

Preparing financially for the unexpected 32

Assessing your resources 33

Surveying societal safety nets 36

Table of Contents iii

Chapter 3: Saving Like a Pro 41

Savings Accounts 101: Where to Stash Your Cash 41

Getting Help from Technology: Let Robots Do the Work 43

Assessing financial software 43

Understanding how apps can benefit and harm your bottom line 44

Managing your money with software and apps 46

Chapter 4: Debt Demystified 53

Good Debt versus Bad Debt 53

Consuming your way to bad debt 54

Recognizing bad debt overload 54

Assessing good debt: Can you get too much? 56

Managing Debt: Good, Bad, and Unexpected 56

Planning for educational expenses 57

Using credit cards strategically 58

Anticipating medical bills 58

Strategies for Debt Repayment 59

Using savings to reduce your consumer debt 59

Decreasing debt when you lack savings 61

Reducing your credit card's interest rate 62

Turning to credit counseling agencies 66

Filing bankruptcy 67

Stopping the Spending/Consumer Debt Cycle 72

Resisting the credit temptation 72

Identifying and treating a compulsion 73

Chapter 5: Investment Strategies 75

Understanding Investment Vehicles 75

Reducing risk with bonds 75

Investing in stocks 77

Checking out mutual funds and exchange-traded funds 81

Deciding whether real-estate investing is for you 89

Building wealth through small business investing 93

Are You a Daredevil or a Safety Net Enthusiast? 94

Realizing risks 94

Managing risks 96

Making sense of returns 97

Matching risk-taking to your investment goals 98

Diversification: Not Just a Fancy Word for Variety 99

Allocating your assets 100

Allocating money for the long term 101

Resisting the urge to trade 102

Investing lump sums via dollar-cost averaging 103

Chapter 6: Credit Scores and Reports: The Magic Numbers 105

Why Your Credit Report and Credit Score Matter 105

Making Sense of Credit Reports 106

Obtaining your credit reports 107

Reviewing your credit reports 107

Fixing credit-report errors 107

Getting Your Credit Score 108

Inte...

Sommaire:

Eric Tyson is a veteran financial counselor who has dedicated his life to helping people achieve financial success. He is the author of bestselling titles including Personal Finance For Dummies, Investing For Dummies, Investing in Your 20s & 30s For Dummies, and Personal Finance in Your 20s & 30s For Dummies. This book includes insight from Eric's expert co-authors: Ray Brown and Robert S. Griswold MSBA CRE CPM (Home Buying Kit For Dummies), Bob Carlson (Personal Finance After 50 For Dummies), and Margaret Atkins Munro EA (Taxes For Dummies)....