Easy Money: How to Simplify Your Finances and Get What You Want Out of Life

by Liz Pulliam Weston

Book Overview

Pulliam Weston ( Your Credit Score ), columnist for MSN Money and author of the nationally syndicated column "Money Talk," provides a practical, easy-to-understand guide to taking control of personal... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0132383837
• ISBN13: 9780132383837
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: FT Press
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Very Helpful Basics for All Ages

Money troubles plague people of all backgrounds, of all income levels, of all races and colors. It is usually the prime reason that couples split up. People routinely think "If I just had a little more money, everything would be all right." Then they do make more money - and promptly their living expenses expand to use up that money as well. The solution is a sound financial plan. Liz Pullman Weston's book "Easy Money" has a gold seal on it claiming she is the "Internet's #1 Personal Finance Expert". I found this a bit extreme when I first began the book - I've read many books with similar claims. However, Liz really is what she claims. She handles thousands of questions on websites, on TV and radio. No matter how desperate your situation, she's probably seen worse and has seen a solution. I don't mean to unreasonably praise her, but to give you comfort. Really, even if you're near bankruptcy, she probably has some suggestions that can help you out. She starts from the beginning and goes step by step. First you have to get a handle on your current situation, no matter how bad or good it is. Get yourself financial software, a notebook, Excel, whatever it is that is going to work best for you. Next, once you have a solid grounding on what your situation is, you need to start making small, tweaking changes to head in a positive direction. Switch your bank accounts to free accounts. Move to financial software (if you don't have some already) and get it to auto pay. Set up electronic payments to save you stress and stamps. Then come the larger changes. Work to set up a small "pad" in your checking account, to prevent costly bounces. Try to save a little each month so you can work up to having a savings of 3 month expenses, so that a hiccup like a job loss or injury does not destroy your finances. Liz has both the concrete tips (how to set up your desk area to make bill paying easy) and more philosophical style tips (do a "buy-nothing-month" and see how much money you save if you only buy the real essentials). It's important to keep in mind that - despite news media hammering that the entire US is debt-ridden - that many people DO manage to live within their budgets. 1/4 of US households do not use credit cards. Another 30% of households use them, but pay in full every month. So there are a lot of people out there who have figured out how to do this, and do it successfully. I for example now pay my balances in full each month. It wasn't easy - I used to have a lot of debt - but I followed a system very much like this and climbed out of that hole. It definitely is possible. Liz offers step by step instructions, checklists, reminders. She provides information on getting credit cards, on buying a house. She tells you not to lease a car, and to really learn to be content with the life you have. More money doesn't always help. Also, she encourages you to give yourself some kudos. We all make mistakes. Every person has made a "silly" financial dec

Excellent for Those With Trouble Managing Money

I am a Certified Financial Planner® who works for a firm that handles very rich people. I have managed my personal finances well enough that my net worth is far higher than that of most people of my age and earnings history. In short, I haven't had the financial problems that would make me part of the target audience for this book, nor have the clients whom my firm serves. On the other hand, I do know a good deal about personal finance. I give you this background so that you can better evaluate my review. If you have trouble budgeting or saving, this is the book for you; at the very least, it's one of the books that you should read. Ms. Weston's advice is correct, clear, and, provided you have the will-power, easy to follow. Friends who have trouble managing their money frequently ask me for advice. From now on, I'm simply going to recommend this book, which has it all in one place.

Easy to read, Practical financial tool for EVERY home!

I found Easy Money: How to Simplify Your Finances and Get What You Want out of Life by Liz Pulliam Weston an easy read. Yes! - A financial help book that didn't have me confused and trying to understand what I was reading!! Ms. Weston did an amazing job of giving practical advice in an easy to read format. The very first chapter, "Setting up your financial life" had me eager to get to work on my finances and how I pay my bills, etc. As suggested, I created a new spreadsheet to be sure I am always aware of my bills, even those that only show up twice a year. This also helped me to budget everything else - just by putting down in one location what bills show up when. The next chapter is "Take charge of your spending". We all can use this advice - It is sticking to it that really makes the difference! This chapter had me excited all over again to get to work on my budget! I can see myself referring to this book for a long time to come! There are chapters about credit cards, retirement investing, saving for college, insurance, buying homes & cars, being a savvy shopper and more! Easy to read and understand, this is a comprehensive practical guide that every home should own! I read this book with a highlighter in hand as there was so much useful information! I cannot recommend this book highly enough!! - 1smileycat :-)

A great beginner's guide to finances

I'm still getting my footing in the wide, wild world of personal finances. While I've read books by other noted authors, I figured another one couldn't hurt. "Easy Money" turned out to be a great addition to my financial bookshelf. If you're one of those people who's terrified of money, or who is baffled by the stock market, banks, and other financial institutions, this is your book. If you're deep in debt and not sure how the heck you got there, this is a great place to start. If you're just trying to figure out what to do once you know how to balance your checkbook--you get the idea. Liz Weston covers all the basics here. She goes from explaining great ways to keep track of your money, to good advice on what to do with it when it comes to everything from investments to mortgages to getting rid of debt. Along the way she makes some wonderful suggestions for resources, including a wealth of useful websites that should be bookmarked for future use. She doesn't get as deeply into things like stock market investing and other such things as some other authors do, but she touches on it enough to give the reader an idea. Basically, this is the book you want if you aren't quite ready to invest, but want to have a good foundation for doing so. One thing that I really liked is her balance between being brutally honest about bad spending habits, and not guilting the reader. For example, she makes it clear that buying a too expensive car or house just for social status is a bad idea, but she doesn't guilt people who already made that mistake. Instead she does her best to offer advice even to those who are stuck in the mire of debt. She also speaks in plain English that shouldn't intimidate readers. While it isn't a complete guide to finances, and you should definitely follow up with other books on the subject, this just became the first book I'm going to recommend people read if they're totally clueless. Nice work!

Very good overview of finances, especially for young people

I plan on giving this book to my teenagers so that they can start their financial life on the right foot, as well as understand all of the products and services there are out there. This book deals with simple ideas of budgeting, using software tools, bill paying, how to deal with credit cards as well as more advanced topics such as investing, insurance and mortages and buying a home. It is written in a breezy and easy to understand style and makes for quick reading. Highly recommended, especially for young people and those who need an introduction to managing their personal finances.