Personal Finance For Dummies audiobook

What have I become? I used to be cool! I majored in film and writing because I was going to be the next Orson Wells AND write the next Great American Novel! WHAT HAPPENED?! Alas, dreams give way to reality, which is much richer than you would expect. Unless you read "richer" as "having actual dollar dollar bills ya'll," in which case um, no. I have a beautiful wife and daughter, but we live with her folks out in the country. I spent the first 26 years of my life with absolutely no concept of personal finance. Worse than that, even. I took out high interest private student loans when I was 18 and went to college for 5 years because I was still hoping I'd figure out what I wanted to do. I wasted so much of that loan money on useless crap. It makes me blind with rage just thinking about myself back then. I have spent the last three years whipping myself into financial shape, and when I sat down and read Personal Finance for Dummies, I knew my transformation was complete. I entered the cocoon a passionate young man and emerged from my pupa a grizzled adult who cares only about making the most money possible with my limited skills and ruthlessly providing for my family. This is who I am now. God help us all. That said, while I found Eric Tyson to be dry and probably on the opposite political/ideological spectrum as myself, he did a good job explaining the oft maddening realms of money, mortgages, investing, interest rates, and all that crap. It provided a nice foundation for prospective homebuying, which is the whole reason I went "money mad." My wife looks at me with the same look Dr. Frankenstein gave his monster. "YOU NEED TO BE PUTTING MONEY IN YOUR 401K ESPECIALLY IF THEY HAVE A 5% MATCH ARE YOU DENSE?!" she would say to me when I was working at Half Price Books. I have become a monster.

Finish this on the flight back from Cancun. It takes some humility to read "for dummies" books but I actually learned a ton and felt that it provided a very comprehensive, easy-to-understand explanation of conservative investing principles. I learned about ETF's, mutual funds, stocks, bonds, real estate investing, small biz investing, and general principles such as diversification and risk tolerance. Tyson could have organized the book a bit better (sometimes this issue is exacerbated when reading on Kindle because you can't easily find old notes or chapters), but his writing style seems relatively unbiased and it is great to learn about all the different sources of bias in financial brokerage firms and media coverage. Highly recommend for any millennial seeking to take control of his or her finances.

I picked up this book after reading Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry. In that book, the author exposes a lot of the conflict of interest and hypocrisy that are inherent to much of the personal finance industry (financial planners, most of whom are actually broker/dealers, as well as popular gurus), but she recommended Personal Finance for Dummies as legitimate good advice. Eric Tyson, the author, has a lot of experience as a financial counselor, helping people who've messed up (from a little to a lot) get themselves back on track. This perspective does color his prose a little -- for example, he seems to view most broker/dealers as barely better than swindlers, and has nothing good to say about most annuities and life insurance products -- but it makes for authentic advice. It can also make you feel bad if you've fallen for one of the bad ideas; but at least he probably would blame the dealer and not you. The other thing I noticed reading it cover to cover is that it can get repetitive (there is lots of hammering on the evils of consumer debt, for example) -- but that is partly by design so that you don't have to read it all the way through. The book is organized such that you can flip to any chapter dealing with whatever question you have, and he'll cross-reference with other parts of the book as needed. Happily, the table of contents is highly detailed as well, so that you can easily see which chapters might benefit you.The best praise I can give this book is, "Boy, I wish I'd read this when I was in college!" I am grateful that my parents instilled in me such good money habits (for example, I've never [intentionally] carried a credit card balance), so I avoided most of the serious mistakes he rails against, but I would've felt so much more prepared and in control of my finances if I had read this before starting my career, and I would've improved some of my mediocre financial choices.Key points that stood out to me:(view spoiler)[- Our economy may run on consumption, but from a *personal* finance standpoint (which is, after all, the topic of the book), consumer debt (i.e., "bad debt," which was used to acquire something that won't appreciate in value) is always bad news. This includes carrying a credit card balance and taking out a loan for a car. [I am guilty of the latter because of attractive interest rates, but it's still non-appreciating property.] It is impossible to read this book and escape this point.- All mutual funds and almost all insurance and annuity products can be found in no-load (commission-free) varieties. Commissions on mutual funds can be as high as 5% of your share purchase price; commissions on annuities may be as high as 100% of the first annual premium! You pay these commissions, either directly or in the form of lower performance or higher fees, as compared to the no-load varieties.- The best way to hire a money manager, for all but the very richest among us (i.e., the 1%, and if you're in the 1% you're probably not reading this book), is to buy low-cost actively managed funds. The best money managers only work with enormously large balances, which you probably don't have. Both this book and Pound Foolish sing the praises of the Vanguard Group (www.vanguard.com) in providing low-cost, no-load funds, both indexed and actively managed.- There's no such thing as free advice. Any free advice is always trying to sell you something. That may be selling you on their funds, or on the idea that day trading is a good idea because they make commissions on your trades, or directly selling you products for which they earn a commission even if other products might have better returns or be better for your strategy. (hide spoiler)]Incidentally, I find it curious that some reviewers gave the book a lower rating because "most of the book didn't apply to me." The best time to read advice, or at least know that such advice exists, is before you need it! Then you'll remember the advice (or at least remember to look it up) when the situation comes upon you. But I have also been told that unlike me, most 20-somethings aren't highly focused on long-term goals and planning for retirement. ;)If you want this advice in shorter form, written to target a younger and hipper generation, look for Financially Fearless: The LearnVest Program for Taking Control of Your Money. Yes, she is also trying to sell you something (namely the LearnVest money management program), but I personally didn't feel like her company got in the way of her advice (which is not free, because somebody paid for the book :) ). Now that I've read both books, I don't see any conflict of interest in Financially Fearless; but I am older and stodgier than she is, so I needed more advice about things like child care expenses and saving for college.

This book helped me when I first started out in my career. I had no clue what IRA, IRA-Roth were, CDs, Mutual Funds, etc. This book really helped me.

A good book for people who are beginners into investing and want to learn about Mutual Funds and ETFs.

If you read this book from cover to cover and you STILL can't figure out the best way to buy (or not buy) a house, perhaps you should live with your parents forever. Seriously, this book covers everything in just the right amount of detail.

That I found this book overwhelming & confusing. Okay fine. Roll your eyes & laugh all you want. I guess I'm dummer than a dummy. This year I took the leap into the small business world. I run an Organic farm with my husband. We don't have employees, we have livestock & crops. We are a general farm.My problem with the book is that even though it is for small business, it was too big business for me. So many situations didn't apply & had me sweating bullets. I started to over think everything & bury myself in endless amounts of paperwork, getting little else accomplished in the day. I tried talking to other local farmers for business advice but didn't get much out of them. I talked to an out of state friend & when they understood all the crazy I had going on, they started to help by explaining a few things to me. Now I am on a somewhat smoother path.Despite my lack of understanding, I didn't feel it was fair to rate the book any less than 4 stars. When I have a better grasp on some things, sections of the book are more clear to me. Also, some of the IRS speak is much more clear thanks to reading the Dummies book.I hope that as time goes on things will work more seamlessly. I intend on holding on to this book to reference to. I imagine it will become more helpful to me the more all this business stuff takes root in my brain & isn't in one ear & out the other.After calling my local help center for small business's I was very glad to have read this book. The woman I spoke to mentioned many of the things the book mentioned & thankfully I understood what she referred to & didn't feel stupid. How about that! It took me a few months to read the entire book while setting up my small business - which still isn't finished but getting there. It is amazing how many little things there are to do. I look forward to the day when having our organic farm as a business comes to me as naturally as just plain ol' farming!

As someone with no knowledge of investing, I have gained a general knowledge of the terms and concepts of investing as well as gaining the confident to be able to identify the different kinds of investments I can research more. In this small condensed book, Eric Tyson provided a basic overview of the world of investing but more investigation is needed to fully grasp each subject. SummaryInvesting in your 20s and 30s for Dummies is an easy-to-read overview of basic investing. Eric Tyson offers insightful advice, investment warnings and investment strategies for investors who might be just starting out or for those who already have investing experience that might want to refresh their minds. Content includes:Part 1: Understanding Investing Terms and ConceptsPart 2: Preparing Your Investing FoundationPart 3: Beginning InvestmentsPart 4: Advanced InvestmentsPart 5: The Part of Ten (Investing Tips)Main beliefs that are addressed:•You own personal comfort matters•Costs matter•Market timing is much harder to predict than folks realize•There are better times than others to sell•Think long-term•Diversify•Emphasize value•Ignore the minutiae•You are what you read and listen to Investing in Your 20s & 30s for DummiesEric Tyson

Purchase the buildings occupied by their own businesses and essentially pay the rent to yourself. If you own a business that rents, do yourself a favor become your own landlord! Under current tax law, you can pocket substantial tax free profits when you sell your home for more than you paid plus the money you sunk into improvements during ownerships. Single tax-payer up to 250k tax free capital gain; married couples filing jointly is 500k - you must occupy this property for 24 months out of the past 60 months. Remember to check out old properties - plumbing, electrical systems, poor soundproofing as a host of economic and concessional obsolescence. In condos, you must review the governing documents before you purchase the property to see exact what you legally own. Mortgage lenders usually require a much higher down payment and charge higher loan fees and interest rates on loans to buy land bc they see it as a more speculative investment.

This book had everything that I needed to learn about buying a home (detached and attached residences, financials,mortgages, contracts, useful tips and more!)I spent a week before downloading articles and doing research about the home buying process and I noticed I often got distracted. This book helped saved me time instead of going online and researching different sites and articles. This book has it all to start your journey to the difficult and confusing times of buying a home. I highly recommend this book to MY WIFE!

Okay y’all don’t hate!!! I’ve never read a “For Dummies” book before. I always assumed the series would be overly simplistic and quite literally written for morons. Honestly, this book was extremely helpful, informative, detailed, and thoughtfully laid out. I think a book like this is preferable to reading similar info online on sites like nerdwallet.com or bankrate.com because you won’t encounter any sponsored or biased content. Highly recommend.

Really helped me understand basic personal finance. Soon after reading, I opened a Roth IRA. I also changed my investment strategy in my 401k, and I began investing in some of the funds that Eric suggests across all accounts. The book does a great job of simplifying information and making data-driven investment suggestions. I’d highly recommend it to anybody trying to get a better understand of how to schedule their investments.

A helpful book on the home buying process.