Product Description

Simple steps to take control of your family's finances.

Most of us are so busy living our day-to-day lives we don't always have time to think through important financial decisions.

Written by top USA TODAY personal finance columnists Sandra Block and John Waggoner and reporter Kathy Chu, The Busy Family's Guide to Money cuts to the chase with real, practical financial solutions - fast. Learn how to rework the family budget or shop around for the best college savings account and get a handle on the most pressing financial issues your family faces.

The book covers concise, sensible information on how to:

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #555558 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781413308365
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review

"Contrary to what some popular money books would have you believe, we Americans are not idiots, we're not stupid - we're just BUSY! The Busy Family's Guide to Money dispenses with the disclaimers and digressions to offer stripped-down straight talk for people on the go. No time to read a money book? This one's for you." -- Jay MacDonald, contributing editor, Bankrate.com

"Money management books are in no short supply. What's been missing is a book that addresses the complexities of family finances in an easy-to-read style that doesn't dumb-down the content. The Busy Family's Guide to Money fills that vacuum." -- Patricia Kutza, Business and technology journalist

About the Author
Sandra Block, personal finance columnist, USA TODAY
Sandra Block, one of the country's most respected personal finance journalists, covers a variety of financial issues in USA TODAY'S news pages, including mutual funds, taxes and IRAs. Her column "Your Money" appears weekly in USA TODAY.

Kathy Chu, reporter, USA TODAY

Reporter Kathy Chu covers a variety of economic and personal finance topics for USA TODAY, ranging from disaster insurance to rising banking fees.

John Waggoner, investment columnist, USA TODAY

John Waggoner covers investing and mutual funds for USA TODAY. His column "Smart Investing" appears weekly in USA TODAY. He's also the author of Money Madness and The Fast Forward MBA in Investing.

Customer Reviews

Too Much Outgo and not Enough Income
This is essentially a guide on how to manage your money, especially if you're a busy family. My family's money problems can be summed up in seven words, "Too much outgo and not enough income." That being said there is something you can do between the outgo and the income. A budget is one thing and something I'd never really done before, that's good advice. Taking control of my healthcare, well, we've got the cheapest plan we can get, so we're doing what we can on that front. Planning for retirement, haven't started as we believe salting money away for out kid's college education is more important.

In short there is some helpful advice in this guide and some obvious advice as well. We learned somethings, somethings don't apply to us and somethings we'd already been doing. One thing we hadn't been doing was educating our kids on the importance of money management. Mostly they'd see something they want at Toys R Us and we'd just buy it for them. We're working on that now. That's part of the outgo we're cutting back on. These are tough times and it looks like they're going to get tougher, so like many, were cutting back on a lot of that outgo. And there is some good advice here on how to do just that.

A Saver and Investor I'm Learning to Be
This book is an excellent resource for family planning, money wise that is. I don't have kids yet, so I hadn't really given any thought to saving for college, but I am now. I've already started that savings account and my someday daughter to be isn't even a twinkle in my someday sweetheart's eye yet.

Though I'd never call this book an investment guide (the authors don't either) it's made me think about investing, which is something I never would have thought of before. I'm also thinking about starting a retirement account of some kind to go along with my future child's college account, also something I'd never have thought of before. Actually, I'm thinking a lot about money now and how to use it, which is good, because before I picked up this book I'd been treating it like it was only for spending and I couldn't get rid of it fast enough.

I don't know if I'd call my one people family a busy family as I have lots of time to myself, time for reading and reflecting, but someday when I have those kids and I'm rushing around to soccer games and pizza parlors, doing birthdays and school plays, well I'll be busy then, someday. And that's when what I've learned from this book will be put to good use.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane

Very Good Basic Guide to Money
This is a very good basic guide to money, geared primarily to families. One of the big advantages of this book is the USA TODAY format, which makes it an easy read. No need to sit down and immerse yourself in this book for hours at a time. You can pick it up, open it to a section, read for 10 or 15 minutes, and come away with some useful information. Conversely, though, I can see why some people might consider this book TOO simple. The "McPaper" format that is USA TODAY--with short articles, lots of sidebars, the Snapshot features, etc.--might not go over well with people who take their finances very seriously. I, however, didn't have a problem with it. In fact, within about 20 minutes of picking this book up for the first time, I got some very useful information about income tax deducions for medical expenses. That information alone made the book very worthwhile. For someone looking for basic, easy to digest financial tips, this book is a great place to start.