(by 4 people)
Do you manage your financial life or does it manage you?
With so much information available on the topic of personal finance, it's sometimes difficult to discern exactly who to trust and which information will actually help you create the financial future you desire.
With the publication of Judy's first book, "Common Cents: The Complete Money Management Workbook" and forerunner to The Budget Kit, she became a pioneer in the financial field by providing realistic and sound financial principles readers could apply immediately using the unique and specially-designed forms and spreadsheets she included within the workbook.
To help you narrow down the field, Judy has selected a number of quality products, books, and web sites that provide quality information and guidance on managing your money.
You may also benefit from reading articles from previous issues of the "Common Cents Budgeting Tips" newsletter.
Judy also offer a 7-week free e-course called "Budgeting without tears" click here to sign up
For more information visit my website The Money TrackerBudget Coach
- Coaching Program
- I offer three (3) Coaching Programs each designed to meet your individual needs within the budget and timeframe you determine is appropriate for your situation:
Click on the link for more information.
Online Budgeting System
Online Budgeting SystemBudgeting System: Mvelopes Personal
My readers have been successfully using the best selling workbook, The Budget Kit: Common Cents Money Management Workbook for over two decades.
Now that we are into this 21st century, it only seems fitting to introduce an Internet tool that complements the Budget Kit Workbook for managing your budget.
Many visitors and readers are ready to move to the next level and are contacting me asking for an easy online budgeting tool to do the calculations and other budgeting services. They also want to utilize the power, convenience and efficiency of the Internet.
For the first time in over 20 years, I am introducing an outside Internet product called Mvelopes Personal, that I feel is a great high-tech complement to my very successful, low-tech Budget Kit Workbook.
The Budget Kit
The Budget KitThis "foolproof way to organize and maintain a personal budget" ("Publishers Weekly") has literally changed the lives of those who have used it. Included are user-friendly worksheets covering such financial issues as the monthly and yearly budget, monthly expense records, and and a gift record. New to this edition is a highly motivational "Debt Pay-Off Chart" to help readers see at a glance their progress toward financial control and ultimate financial independence.
Invest in Yourself:
Invest in Yourself: Six Secrets to a Rich Lifeby Marc Eisenson (Author), Nancy Castleman (Author), Gerri Detweiler
Amazon.com
Written by three veteran consumer experts who escaped the rat race, Invest in Yourself is a comprehensive guide for saving money and becoming a better person in the process. The book offers six secrets to the rich life--the first is to determine what you want in a career, write Marc Eisenson, Gerri Detweiler, and Nancy Castleman. "By carefully investing your time, energy, and maybe a little money, you can find out where you really want to go--and then do what you need to get there," they write. "It's one of your best investment opportunities, way better than anything you can get in the stock market." The other five keys: invest in intangibles like family and friends; pay off debts and get into a 401(k); keep learning new skills; manage your own money and get an "ace in the hole"--a tiny business of your own. Invest in Yourself offers a myriad of tips for squeezing the most out of a dollar. It tells you how to negotiate to get the best price on just about anything, including motel rooms and used cars, and gives the lowdown on turning your kids into savers and investors, controlling college bills, cutting home buying costs, and planning for retirement. The book is also a good clearinghouse for Web sites, helpful phone numbers, and information about newsletters like Loose Change and The Cheapskate Monthly.
The Get Out of Debt Kit:
The Get Out of Debt Kit: Your Roadmap to Total Financial Freedom by Deborah McNaughton.Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Free Yourself from the Debt Trap!
Living beyond our means and financing unaffordable lifestyles on the back of credit cards has become synonymous with American consumer culture. Some consumers feel the nagging beginnings of problems, while others are nearly imprisoned by debt. No matter what your situation is, debt issues will drain you mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially. If you're one of the tens of thousands of consumers who feels your debt might be out of control, here is help from someone who has walked the same road.
The Complete Cheapskate:
The Complete Cheapskate by Mary Hunt. How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out, and Break Free from Money Worries Forever.In need of a Money Makeover?
Let America's most popular cheapskate show you how to go from financial chaos to freedom and security--painlessly and in less time than you ever imagined.
Mary Hunt has helped thousands live a debt-free life with her popular newsletter, "The Cheapskate Monthly." In The Complete Cheapskate, Mary puts all the very best money advice she has in one place. Becoming a classy, dignified cheapskate is not all that difficult, and Mary shows how with her user-friendly principles of saving, restraint, and living debt-free.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Your Money
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Your Money (3rd Edition)by Christy Heady, Robert K. Heady, Jody P. Schaeffer
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Your Money shows that any numbskull can master personal finance. In this second edition, a father-and-daughter writing team, Robert K. Heady and Christy Heady, give readers the best advice culled from their many years of experience in consumer rights and money management. The Headys believe that money must be managed for the long haul and that there are no quick ways to build wealth. The guide is easy to read, witty, and scornful of the hype dished out by banks and other peddlers of personal finance. It provides a plethora of personal-finance tips for consumers, including how to get the best deal on a mortgage, pay off debt, and bank online. The authors expose financial pitfalls such as bank-sold mutual funds, dealer financing for motor vehicles, extended warranties, and those dreaded bank fees.
The Financial Peace Planner:
The Financial Peace Planner: A Step-By-Step Guide to Restoring Your Family's Financial Health by Dave Financial Peace RamseyFrom Publishers Weekly
When it comes to solving money problems, Ramsey knows whence he speaks: he had made and lost a real estate fortune by age 30. His straightforward guide to fiscal tranquility covers the basics of career (work hard in a job you're good at), savings (sock away 10% of your take-home pay), investments (invest long-term with pretax dollars) and spending (live below your income).
Overcoming Underearning(TM):
Overcoming Underearning(TM): Overcome Your Money Fears and Earn What You Deserve by Barbara StannyFrom Publishers Weekly
Stanny let the men in her life-first, her father, Richard Block of H&R Block, and then her husband-manage her money, but a divorce and a financial crisis served as a wake-up call. Since then, the author of Secrets of Six-Figure Women and Prince Charming Isn't Coming has taken her message on the road to show underearners how to achieve a greener financial future, and here lays out her five-step plan for those with money worries who want to earn, as the subtitle suggests, what they deserve.
Earn What You Deserve:
Earn What You Deserve: How to Stop Underearning & Start Thriving by Jerrold MundisThis book is a great tool to use if you know you are earning less than you deserve, or have done so in the past. It helps you bring to light patterns within you that contribute to underearning, and gives practical and spiritual methods for earning more money in your life. You do not have to be a chronic underearner to benefit from this book- it can benefit anyone who has had past experiences with lack. The book will help you realize you are not alone, and there are ways to release experiences of lack and limitation in your life through spiritual and practical means. Especially helpful for people who are interested in Debtors Anonymous, or feel their debt is overwhelming. It covers the 12-step program used by Debtors Anonymous, but applies it specifically to those who underearn. A powerful self-help tool!
More Recommended Books
- Click here for More Help Books
- More recommend Reading on Emotional, Attitude, Compulsive Spending, Children and Money
Featured Website of the Week
- Money Whiz Family Finances
- Comprehensive web site loaded with consumer finance information and advice. Included are chats (Judy Lawrence is an occasional guest,) money make-overs, newsletter, message boards, calculators, and much more.
Recommended Web Sites
Now, with such an abundance of online information, the real skill is using effective searching techniques for finding the most helpful information. The other skill is to be discerning about the accuracy, value and security of the information and web sites you do find and actually use.
Rather than spending endless hours doing a keyword search on the major search engines, I recommend starting out with the Web sites listed in this section. They all have a phenomenal amount of valuable information and have a primary focus or informative section on general basic money management. with topics covering, but not limited to:
Budgeting, Credit, Credit cards, Debt, Spending, Spending guidelines, Saving money, Money attitudes, Recovery issues.
Many of these Web sites provide excellent articles, books, and online newsletters - often for free or discounted.
Rather than spending endless hours doing a keyword search on the major search engines, I recommend starting out with the Web sites listed in this section. They all have a phenomenal amount of valuable information and have a primary focus or informative section on general basic money management. with topics covering, but not limited to:
Budgeting, Credit, Credit cards, Debt, Spending, Spending guidelines, Saving money, Money attitudes, Recovery issues.
Many of these Web sites provide excellent articles, books, and online newsletters - often for free or discounted.
- American Savings Education Council
- User-friendly educational materials on savings and achieving savings goals.
- Bank Rate Monitor
- Information on credit, mortgage, savings, loans, low rate credit cards and calculator.
- Consumer Credit Counseling Services / Atlanta
- A non-profit organization that provides free credit counseling and offers debt repayment plans for overextended consumers. They negotiate with creditors for reduced or eliminated interest charges. Telephone counseling available 7 days a week.
- Financial Step - Comprehensive Financial Services Web Directory
- This site provides a list of numerous web sites for a large variety of financial topics including, personal finance, mortgage, banking, and many more.
- Good Advice Press
- The Good Advice Press folks, who wrote Invest in Your Self: Six Secrets To a Rich Life, help people get out of debt, save money, and live better on less. Find out how with the valuable resources, articles, and virtual university available at their site.
- Click here for more helpful websites
- There are also now hundreds of convenient and well-designed calculators at various web sites for developing basic budgets, calculating debt payoff or savings and determining loan terms and total costs.
Other Web sites offer special debt management counseling and payment services. Be cautious as you explore these particular companies, even if they are listed as non-profit. See "Getting Online Help" on page 63 for a review of what to expect for legitimate debt management services.
Great Stuff on Amazon
The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 07/25/2008)
Bridal Bargains, 8th Edition: Secrets to throwing a fantastic wedding on a realistic budget (Bridal Bargains)
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 07/25/2008)
Accounting For Dummies (Accounting for Dummies)
Amazon Price: $14.95 (as of 07/25/2008)
The Healthy College Cookbook: Quick. Cheap. Easy.
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 07/25/2008)
Principles of Marketing, 12th Edition
Amazon Price: $142.66 (as of 07/25/2008)
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