The Busy Family's Guide to Money

I loved reading this material because it helped me see where I could do better with my finances. It was very easy to read and my head didn't spin after reading this. I was able to use the information from the book right away to make some changes to my finances. It also showed me the areas where I was doing the right things in my finances and now I know I'm on the right track! I studied the book first and then left it on the kitchen table, meaning to put it on the shelf. Before I could put it away, I noticed that everyone who came over picked it up and read through it for several minutes, selecting the areas that interested them the most. I think I might put this out on the coffee table instead of on the shelf so my friends and family can get guidance from it whenever they come over!

USATODAY and NOLO joined forces to bring readers the book titled, The Busy Family's Guide to Money. It's written by the USA TODAY money experts and it gives very easy and simple steps to financial security. This book was very easy to read, I read it in one day and it covered very important topics like controlling your debt, saving retirement and your child's college education, taxes, banking, wills and health insurance. I enjoyed reading this book because it made complicated financial matters seem uncomplicated. As the authors state, the purpose of the book is to concentrate on the things that every family need to know, like: Budgeting basics, saving for emergencies, saving for retirement, saving for college, making smart money decisions about purchasing a home, investing and protecting your family with insurance and basic estate planning. This is also a good book for young adults who are high school seniors, college bound or who have just graduated from college to read; at such a young age, they will be better financially equipped to handle major financial decisions as they mature in life.

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.

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

Nolo is great at compiling information and making it easy to understand. I found this book a complete gem! The quote I found the most inspiring from this book was, "Realizing that money is a tool to realize your life goals." We shouldn't look at saving as difficult or the enemy but try to understand how to save intelligently and make a workable saving plan. The first section goes over the conflict of money in a relationship and making compromises in a reasonable manner. There were several questions the book brought up that made me think of what I really wanted to do with my money. Next it tells you how to make a spending plan and gives you resources to find sheets to help you organize how much you spend each month and where it goes. It also spend considerable amount of time on debt and ways to get out of it. Then there is a rather big section devoted to insurance (health, disability etc). I really view insurance as the enemy but it is important and I will have to rethink my insurance plans. Nolo also give helpful advice and tells you how to compare and get the best rates for your cash. Next the is a large section on taxes and areas you may be able to save which was surprisingly easy to read. It also goes over: your goals, retirement, thinking ahead (wills etc.), saving for tuition, and even stocks and mutual funds. This book was an amazing resource. To recap, I found Nolo's book thorough and comprehensive. However, if you are looking for very specific details on saving money, the Nolo book have good general information and gives resources you can look into. But may not be as precise as you may want, so you will have to see a specialist but at least you know where to start! But what I really enjoyed about this book is it really made me think about saving money in different ways and made saving money look easier than I imagined. This book is well worth the price and will be a keeper for me for years to come!