The Wall Street Journal Guide to the New Rules of Personal Finance
Essential Strategies for Saving, Investing, and Building a Portfolio in a World Turned Upside Down
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Everything you thought you knew about saving, managing risk, and securing your financial future has changed.
The world is very different in the wake of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Retirement accounts have been eviscerated, risk appetites diminished, and questions raised about age-old personal finance strategies such as "buy and hold" and the efficacy of relying heavily on stock mutual funds.
In The Wall Street Journal Guide to the New Rules of Personal Finance, Dave Kansas offers guidelines for understanding the new regulations for finance firms, the rising importance of international investing, and the very different environment that now exists for home buyers. With valuable chapters on debt reduction, diversification, retirement planning, real estate, commodities, and other vital topics, this essential volume is designed to help the individual determine which tenets of an investing strategy remain sound and which deserve re-examination. It is the ultimate guide to profitably investing your money in a world that has fundamentally changed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
LIMNED WITH BASIC ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES AND RATIONAL ANALYSIS, THIS FINANCIAL GUIDE FROM A FORMER EDITOR AT THE WALL STREET JOURNAL SHOULD DISAPPOINT FANS OF THE SOPHISTICATED BUSINESS BROADSHEET AS WELL AS THOSE DRAWN BY THE ALARMIST TITLE. KANSAS WASTES NO TIME IN CONCEDING THAT, YES, WALL STREET "PRACTICALLY DESTROYED ITSELF IN AN ORGY OF DELUSION AND GREED AND TRANSFORMED ITSELF INTO SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY," BUT SPREADS RESPONSIBILITY FAR AND WIDE. AS SUCH, SIDEBARS PROFILING SPECIFIC PEOPLE, ORGANIZATIONS AND PRACTICES READ LIKE CLUES IN A MURDER MYSTERY: DID THE FED, LED BY ALAN GREENSPAN, KILL THE ECONOMY WITH AN "EASY-MONEY POLICY"? WAS IT THE BIG BANKS, WHO "MAGICALLY TRANSFORMED SUBPRIME MORTGAGE DEBT INTO SOMETHING FAR MORE ATTRACTIVE"? OR ARE OVEREAGER FIRST-TIME HOMEOWNERS TO BLAME? IF KANSAS KNOWS, HE'S NOT TELLING. THOUGH HE DISPENSES SOME HELPFUL INVESTMENT ADVICE ("PAY YOURSELF FIRST," "DIVERSIFICATION IS VITAL," "ALWAYS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FREE MONEY"), IT'S NOTHING THAT WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN JUST AS APPLICABLE PRE-RECESSION; FURTHER, HE OFFERS NO ASSURANCE THAT INDIVIDUALS CAN PREVENT ANOTHER CRISIS, NO MATTER HOW RESPONSIBLY THEY HANDLE THEIR MONEY.
