The Wall Street Journal Guide To Starting Your Financial Life

Your Road to Lifelong Financial Independence It’s about time you felt empowered to better manage your money because–in tough economic times more than ever–your financial freedom depends on making smart choices. But it’s hard to know where to begin, especially when you’re just starting out. And of course, it only gets more complicated as you go through life: How do you establish good credit? Do you buy or rent? What kinds of health coverage do you really need? How do you actually stay afloat in an uncertain market? The Wall Street Journal Guide to Starting Your Financial Life gets you off on the right financial foot, from tackling everyday choices like cell-phone plans and pet ownership to big decisions such as smart investment strategies and buying a car or a house. You’ll learn: • How to open your first checking and savings accounts, get your first credit card, and establish good credit • The ins and outs of starting a job, including information about taxes, choosing health insurance options, and saving for retirement • How to budget for big purchases and expenses, such as paying off student loans, buying a car, and affording your housing • Strategies for buying the little things you want and need without going broke • The basics of investing, how to manage an inheritance, and the documents you need to protect your assets This valuable resource puts you in the driver’s seat, so you will be in control of your money and on your way to achieving lifelong financial independence across any economic terrain.

Three years after the economic meltdown began, many of us are still reeling from its devastating effects. Maybe you're among the millions of homeowners who fell behind on their mortgages or you lost your home to foreclosure. Maybe you lost your job and have struggled to find a new one, meanwhile struggling with a drastically reduced income. Or perhaps you're one of the roughly 1.5 million Americans filing each year for bankruptcy. Or maybe you emerged from the meltdown relatively unscathed, but you've been recently divorced or widowed. Now, along with all the other accompanying emotional hardships, you must deal with a household budget that is dramatically changed. Maybe you experienced an unexpected health crisis that drained your savings or retirement account. Or perhaps you've simply grown tired of having so much debt. As tough as these situations are, they aren’t hopeless.. You have options. When the old \ rules for managing your finances no longer apply, you can take control of your situation, wipe the slate clean, and start over. Here, in the accessible, empathetic, and easy-to-understand style the Wall Street Journal Guidebook series is known for, veteran WSJ personal finance reporter Karen Blumenthal walks you through everything you need to know to leave the past behind you and get your financial life back on track. This includes how to: -Build a trusted team of professionals to help you navigate your new financial landscape -Get your credit record - the support beam of your financial scaffolding - back in order -Recalibrate your budget and weigh your big ticket expenses -Determine whether you can afford to stay in your home -Adjust your debts to your new situation -Assess your health coverage and other necessary insurance -Invest for your future retirement and other needs -Craft a sustainable plan for long-term financial health Whether you're recently divorced or widowed, or have declared bankruptcy or lost your home to foreclosure, or simply want to start with a clean slate, you can make a fresh financial start. Covering housing, insurance, health care, investing, debt, taxes, wills, and more, this book shows readers at all life stages and income levels how to adapt and adjust their finances to their new circumstances and get on the path to a better financial life.

Covers banking services, credit, home finance, financial planning, investments, and taxes.

Traces the history of money and discusses stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures, and options.

From America’s most authoritative source: the quintessential primer on understanding and managing your money Money courses through just about every corner of our lives and has an impact on the way we live today and how we’ll be able to live in the future. Understanding your money, and getting it to work for you, has never been more important than it is today, as more and more of us are called upon to manage every aspect of our financial lives, from managing day-to-day living expenses to planning a college savings fund and, ultimately, retirement. From The Wall Street Journal, the most trusted name in financial and money matters, this indispensable book takes the mystery out of personal finance. Start with the basics, learn how they work, and you’ll become a better steward of your own money, today and in the future. Consider The Wall Street Journal Complete Personal Finance Guidebook your cheat sheet to the finances of your life. This book will help you: • Understand the nuts and bolts of managing your money: banking, investing, borrowing, insurance, credit cards, taxes, and more • Establish realistic budgets and savings plans • Develop an investment strategy that makes sense for you • Make the right financial decisions about real estate • Plan for retirement intelligently Also available—the companion to this guidebook: The Wall Street Journal Personal Finance Workbook, by Jeff D. Opdyke Get your financial life in order with help from The Wall Street Journal. Look for: • The Wall Street Journal Complete Money and Investing Guidebook • The Wall Street Journal Complete Identity Theft Guidebook • The Wall Street Journal Complete Real Estate Investing Guidebook

A practical approach to affording your kids from cradle to college. Bringing home your bouncing baby boy or girl should be an exciting time of celebration–not cause for worry about how you’re going to pay for feeding, clothing, and caring for your new bundle of expenses. The average family will spend between $11,000 and $16,000 during a new baby’s first year, and more than $200,000 before a kid’s eighteenth birthday. Unfortunately, a second child only doubles your costs, with little economy of scale for each additional baby. Before you start using these statistics as birth control, take a deep breath and know that you can have a family and make a comfortable future for your children while saving for your own important goals. The Wall Street Journal Financial Guidebook for New Parents shows you the way, with information on how to: • Safeguard your child’s well-being with wills, trusts, and life insurance • Best weigh your child-care options and decide whether to go back to work • Save on taxes with child-friendly tax credits and deductions plus tax-advantaged benefits at work • Manage your family’s health-care costs • Save for long-term costs by setting up a college fund • Spend smart and save money at every stage of your child’s development • Continue to contribute to your own retirement savings From maternity (and paternity) leave to flexible spending accounts to 529 college plans, The Wall Street Journal Financial Guidebook for New Parents provides all the information you need to meet your child’s expenses while also protecting your family’s financial security.

Unravel the Mysteries of the Financial Markets—the Language, the Players, and the Strategies for Success Understanding money and investing has never been more important than it is today, as many of us are called upon to manage our own retirement planning, college savings funds, and health-care costs. Up-to-date and expertly written, The Wall Street Journal Complete Money and Investing Guidebook provides investors with a simple—but not simplistic—grounding in the world of finance. It breaks down the basics of how money and investing work, explaining: • What must-have information you need to invest in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds • How to see through the inscrutable theories and arcane jargon of financial insiders and advisers • What market players, investing strategies, and money and investing history you should know • Why individual investors should pay attention to the economy Written in a clear, engaging style by Dave Kansas, one of America’s top business journalists and editor of The Wall Street Journal Money & Investing section, this straightforward book is full of helpful charts, graphs, and illustrations and is an essential source for novice and experienced investors alike. Get your financial life in order with help from The Wall Street Journal. Look for: • The Wall Street Journal Complete Personal Finance Guidebook • The Wall Street Journal Personal Finance Workbook • The Wall Street Journal Complete Real Estate Investing Guidebook

The conservative, thoughtful, thrifty investor’s guide to building a real-estate empire. Profitable real-estate investing opportunities exist everywhere as long as you know what to look for and understand how to make prudent deals that transform property into profits. David Crook, of The Wall Street Journal, shows how to make safe and sane investments that ensure a good night’s sleep as your real-estate portfolio grows, your properties appreciate and your income increases. The Wall Street Journal Complete Real-Estate Investing Guidebook offers the most authoritative information on: • Why real-estate investing is a great wealth-building alternative to stocks and bonds and why it’s crucial that you avoid get-rich schemes • How to get the financing and make the contacts to get started • How to start small and local, be hands-on and go step-by-step with a vacation home to rent out, a pure rental property or a small apartment building • How to find and value great properties, do the numbers and ensure you have that beautiful thing called cash flow • How the government blesses real-estate investors with tax breaks and loopholes, and how you can be one of the anointed • How to deal with the nuts-and-bolts of being a landlord and have a strife-free relationship with your tenants

Almost Everything You Need to Know About Leading the Good Life Too many decisions. Too many choices. What today’s smart consumer must have is a money-and-time-saving guide for conducting the “business of life”—both the big challenges, such as getting top-notch health care for the family and the best education for the kids, and the pleasurable ones, like plotting the family summer vacation. Nancy Keates and her expert colleagues atThe Wall Street Journalprovide all-new material that gives the lowdown on: The Savvy Traveler: How to cut to the chase and not only avoid the indignity of cramped plane seats and overpriced tickets, but also get the best and safest seats at the same time. The Fine Art of Dining and Drinking: Landing the hottest table in town—at a discount; picking wine without becoming a wine snob; and learning about “barley matters”—the newest, hottest beers. How to Speak Geek: Demystifying tech trends, with smart advice on not only what high-tech gadgets to buy but how to shop for them. Everything You Need to Know About Buying, Selling and Financing a Car: How to get the best and safest vehicle at the best price. Real Estate: Will the bubble burst? Here’s how to be an informed buyer and seller along with the basics of remodeling and designing your home. How to Be an Informed Patient: Choosing a hospital, playing private investigator with your M.D., and learning about the tests you really ought to have (even if you have to pay for them yourself). Getting Real Bang for Your Education Bucks: What you need to know from preschool through college and graduate school. The Great Balancing Act: Managing work and family, and finding out how to avoid the overstretched child and parent syndromes. Financing Your Life: It was easy in the 1990s, but the world has changed dramatically. Here’s how to deal with the new world of saving, investing and borrowing money. Shopping: The New Sex? Throw away your Kama Sutra. The number one thrill in shopping is getting a good deal—here’s how to play the game and get the best stuff at the best price. The Wall Street Journal Guide to the Business of Lifeis both an instruction manual for living life to the fullest and a fun read about what really matters in the day-to-day. It has all the basic insight and information you need to navigate through life along with hilarious side trips such as “The Three-Decorator Experience” and “Cruises: Sailing New Waters.” From the Hardcover edition.

Are you looking for a mere job—the kind where you do virtually the same thing day after day, year after year, and spend the hours counting down the minutes until the clock hits five p.m.? Or are you looking for a career—the kind that engages your interests and passions, constantly presents new and exciting opportunities and challenges, and allows you to grow personally and professionally? If you chose the latter, this is the book for you. In The Wall Street Journal Guide to Building Your Career, former Wall Street Journal careers editor Jennifer Merritt shows you how to build the foundation for the fulfilling professional career that leads to that corner office. She'll walk you through how to: • Select and nab that important career-launching college internship • Ace your first interview—and blow them away in the second round • Navigate the unwritten rules of any office culture • Negotiate tastefully and successfully for the salary your skills are worth • Get that critical promotion when you're at the peak of your learning curve • Choose the mentor (or mentors) who can best help you achieve your goals • Leap ahead of other high achievers racing you to the top Drawing on advice from industry experts, career coaches, and ordinary people who've made the climb themselves, Merritt offers insider tips for landing and moving up in the kind of job that's not just about earning a paycheck but about realizing your ambitions and achieving the kind of success you've always dreamed of.