This is a report from the economic fringes by Gary Rivlin, who spent two years writing this expose of the "poverty industry." While doing his research, Rivlin hung out at the annual check cashers convention, spent time in Tennessee with the small-town debt collector who founded the $40-billion-a-year payday cash… More About: BROKE, USA
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States and in many cases the victim has no knowledge of the theft until the situation is dire. Even then, most people have no idea what to do to get their lives back or how to regain their… More About: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Recovering from Identity Theft
Peter Gleick is scientist and freshwater expert as well as a MacArthur Foundation "genius." He drinks tap water. Why don’t the rest of us? "Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water" follows how water went from being a free natural resource to one of the most… More About: Bottled and Sold
Renovating a home is an expensive undertaking even when things go right. When things go wrong, unexpected costs and delays can be financially devastating. This book can help you make informed contracting decisions.
Kia Ricchi, a Florida-based contractor, says there are steps homeowners can take to ensure… More About: Avoiding the CON in Construction
Does shopping make you feel good or feel guilty? Do you buy more clothes than you really need? Spent looks at these difficult questions. Little Avis Cardella devoured her mom's fashion magazines and learned to aspire to the images of a glamorous existence. Grown up, her relationship with clothing and… More About: Memoirs of a Shopping Addict
The Little Book of Safe Money: How to Conquer Killer Markets, Con Artists, and Yourself is a guide to keeping your money safe from The Wall Street Journal’s investing and personal finance columnist, Jason Zweig. “Keeping your money safe,” says Zweig, “has gone from being a luxury to being an absolute… More About: The Little Book of Safe Money
Shoptimism is a guided tour through the parallel worlds of selling and buying. Part I, “Them Versus You,” explores “the Sell Side,” where marketing, retailing, advertising, and consumer-research forces take aim on the American buyer. Part II, “You Versus You,” looks at buyers and examines what people are looking at… More About: Shoptimism
Get a Financial Life is a real-world guide for "millennials" that teaches young people tricks for becoming the masters of their financial universes.
Get a Financial Life focuses on what you need to know when you're just starting to pay serious attention to money matters. Whether you earn $20,000 or… More About: Get a Financial Life
Many of us feel conflicted when buying cheap goods. You ask yourself, "How can this thing be produced so cheaply and still honor worker's rights and environmental safeguards necessary for all industry today? In "Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture," an Atlantic magazine correspondent looks at what may be… More About: Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture
Consumer Action is somewhat turned off by the "Dummies" series, not by the content of many of the books, which is excellent, but by the supposition that people who have not been educated on a certain aspect of life are inherently "dumb." Everyone can learn new things if they want… More About: Asset Allocation for Dummies
"Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown" is a personal and journalistic look at the free-wheeling lending that led to our nation's housing crisis. A veteran New York Times economics reporter, Edmund L. Andrews was intimately aware of the dangers posed by easy mortgages from fast-buck lenders. But, eager to… More About: Busted
Conversations on how to reform healthcare are long-standing and varied. But healthcare costs have soared, health insurance companies get richer and even those who pay dearly for health insurance frequently find that their policies don’t adequately cover them when they need their coverage most. Howard Dean—the physician and former governor… More About: Prescription for Real Health Care Reform
With economic uncertainty reaching unprecedented levels, Aaron W. Smith's nine-step plan is designed to help African Americans take control of their financial futures, emphasizing the importance of saving, budgeting, investing in retirement plans and risk management. According to Publishers Weekly, "Smith shares uplifting case studies of clients and public figures,… More About: In The Black
Whether it was a Ginsu knife, George Foreman Grill, Tony Robbins' motivational book, kitchen device by Ron Popeil, or any of the countless other famous products that have been marketed on infomercials over the years, you or someone you know has bought one—and you're not alone. Last year, one out… More About: But Wait, There's More
This new book—available March 6, 2009—outlines 10 steps you can take to protect yourself or your family from ID theft and medical identity theft, the fastest growing crime in America. By reading this book, you will learn what to do now to safeguard your bank accounts, online presence, credit record… More About: Stopping Identity Theft
Since the Bernard Madoff "Ponzi scheme" scandal broke, shocking investors and the Wall Street community, this insider's guide to investment rip-offs, scams and con artists has been in demand. The book, published in the late '90s, is designed to educate consumers and make them aware of how scams work. It… More About: You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man
Who was Ponzi, the man whose name is synonymous with the classic “rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul” scam where money from new investors goes to reward earlier ones? (It's the kind of scheme that Bernard Madoff recently used to rake in $50 billion from gullible folks all over the world.) In December 1919, Charles… More About: Ponzi
How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today’s message-cluttered world? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Or do our buying decisions take place below the surface, so deep within our subconscious minds, we’re barely aware of them? In Buyology,… More About: Buyology
2008 marks the 75th anniversary of the New Deal, the series of programs initiated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to help Americans recover during the Great Depression (1933-43). Programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Civil Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration gave hope, support, and encouragement to… More About: The New Deal
Record numbers of people are falling behind on their financial obligations and their debts are being sent to collections. If you're one of them, you know that being contacted by debt collectors can be stressful, especially if they are harassing you, threatening you, and/or using abusive language. The federal Fair… More About: Stop Debt Collectors
People wanting basic advice about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, retirement planning, and tax strategies may find that picking a good book seems as daunting as deciding what to do with their savings and investments. Investing 101: Updated and Expanded can help you get on a path that you can understand… More About: Investing 101
Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It is an investigation into the commercialization of our most basic human need: drinking water. Having already surpassed milk and beer, and second now only to soda, bottled water is on the verge of becoming the most popular beverage in… More About: Bottlemania
Without proper insurance - health, auto, homeowners, life, disability, or long-term care - an unexpected event can quickly derail your financial plans and put your life savings at risk. Insurance is an essential part of financial planning, but many people are paying hundreds - sometimes thousands - of dollars more… More About: The Insurance Maze
Your home is the single most valuable thing you can own, yet making it pay can intimidate and confuse even the savviest investor. Finance expert Gerri Willis leads you step-by-step through the entire experience of buying, maintaining, and selling a home, and shows you how to come out ahead–maybe even… More About: Home Rich
The U.S. economy is wrapping up 25 years of some of the strongest, smoothest growth in its history—a performance so sweet economists have given it a name: "the Great Moderation." So why have so many people, even those making hundreds of thousands of dollars, arrived at the new century with… More About: High Wire
¿Se Habla Dinero? The Everyday Guide to Financial Success is a bilingual guide to the basics of financial success. (Scroll down for a Spanish version of this book description.) Getting ahead financially in the United States is a difficult task, and it is even more daunting for someone who comes… More About: ¿Se Habla Dinero?
When it comes to making decisions in our lives, we think we're in control. We think we're making smart, rational choices. But are we? In a series of illuminating, often surprising experiments outlined in his book, "Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions," MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely… More About: Predictably Irrational
Curtis Arnold, founder of Cardratings.com, passes along techniques he has used to escape credit card debt, "creatively finance" his wedding, car, and home purchases, and earn thousands in credit card "perks" every year. Along the way, he offers advice targeted to young consumers who are being aggressively targeted… More About: How YOU Can Profit from Credit Cards
In an age of information overload, many simply don't have the time, knowledge or organizational skills to create a simple, functional system for managing personal finances. Now in its fifth edition, "The Budget Kit: The Common Cents Money Management Workbook "is a best-seller that has helped hundreds of thousands of… More About: The Common Cents Money Management Workbook
Scams have always been with us, and they always will be - except now, technology makes scammers' jobs even easier, enabling them to reach out from anywhere around the world, and take advantage of more people than ever before. No matter how smart you think you are, you can easily… More About: The Truth About Avoiding Scams
"Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society."—Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. This short, snappy handbook countersthe anti-tax, anti-government rhetoric that permeates our culture and reminds us why taxes lie at the heart of a functioning democracy. Paying taxes is something almost everyone loves to hate. 10… More About: 10 Excellent Reasons Not to Hate Taxes
Blending social commentary with reporting, House Lust is a funny and disturbing portrait of the behaviors that drove the greatest real estate boom in history—and its eventual bust. Owning a home has long been considered the fulfillment of the American Dream. But in the last decade, as the real estate… More About: House Lust
You didn’t fill up the rental car with gas? Gotcha! Gas costs $7 a gallon here. Your bank balance fell to $999.99 for one day? Gotcha! That’ll be $12. You miss one payment on that 18-month same-as-cash loan? Gotcha! That’ll be $512 extra. You’re one day late on that electric… More About: Gotcha Capitalism
While there are many books that describe the mistakes investors make, but this one draws on the latest scientific research to explain why smart people can be so dumb about money—and how they can do better. In this book subtitled "How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You… More About: Your Money and Your Brain
Roth Individual Retirement Accounts were created in 1997. They are named for the late Republican Senator William Roth Jr. Roth IRAs are different from traditional IRAs. Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax contributions, so there is no allowable tax deduction. However, retired individuals do not have to pay taxes when… More About: The Kid's ROTH IRA Handbook
This book addresses "Dealing with All of the Trickiest Money Problems Between Family and Friends—From Serial Borrowers to Serious Cheapskates." Your next-door neighbor's two-year-old broke your most expensive vase, and your neighbor hasn't offered to replace it. Your best friend expects you to shop at the boutique she just opened,… More About: Isn't It Their Turn to Pick Up the Check?
Liz Pulliam Weston is a personal finance columnist whose twice-weekly columns for MSN Money reach more than six million people each month. In her new book she provides a complete action plan for improving your credit score. Credit scores—numbers that sum up your credit history based on information in your… More About: Your Credit Score
Until recently, there were only two main ways you could get cash from your home: sell it or borrow against it and make monthly loan repayments. Reverse mortgages offer a third way of getting money from your home. If you are a homeowner, age 62 and older, you are eligible… More About: The Complete Guide to Reverse Mortgages
Watch out, spammers! Michael Berry's revenges against the purveyors of e-mail pollution are funny, savage and inventive. "With warm hearts I offer my friendship, and my greetings, and I hope this letter meets you in good time. It will be surprising to you to receive this proposal from me since… More About: Greetings in Jesus Name
Like many great adventures, the 100-mile diet began with a memorable feast. Stranded in their off-the-grid summer cottage in the Canadian wilderness with unexpected guests, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon turned to the land around them. They caught a trout, picked mushrooms, and mulled apples from an abandoned orchard with… More About: Plenty
If you don't have a traditional employer health plan you might be looking for good, affordable health insurance. The New Health Insurance Solution includes ways to cut your health insurance costs in half if:
Everything you need to get out of debt and repair your credit, from the Nolo Press, the pre-eminient self-help legal publisher. Feeling overwhelmed by your debts? If you're ready to regain your financial freedom, this book is exactly what you need! To make the process easier, Solve Your Money Troubles also includes… More About: Solve Your Money Troubles
Sarah Bongiorni and her family resolve to forgo Chinese imports for one year. Her experiment, according to one reviewer, ,"requires surprising feats of will power and ingenuity." Chuck Jaffe, Senior Columnist, MarketWatch host, Your Money (www.yourmoneyradio.net), says, "You will never go shopping the same way again! It's impossible to read… More About: A Year Without 'Made in China'
Many of us have tried to call a halt to our spending at one time or another. But what if we decided not to buy anything for a whole year? Obviously, we would need necessities like food and soap, but how would be manage without new clothes, treats, entertainment? Not… More About: Not Buying It
Many investment professionals believe that the simplest and most efficient investment strategy is to buy an index mutual fund. Legendary mutual fund industry veteran John C. Bogle—founder of the Vanguard Group and creator of the world's first index mutual fund—has relied primarily on index investing to help Vanguard's clients build… More About: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
Be forewarned: This book is a joke, but it uses irony to great effect to spotlight America's love affair with shopping! "Reverend" Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping shares his hilarious but spot-on views on American consumerism in this book, a companion to Super Size Me creator Morgan Spurlock's… More About: What Would Jesus Buy?
Consumer Action advises consumers to go slowly when considering reverse mortgages, as there are some bad deals out there. But we recognize that reverse mortgages are helpful for many house-rich, cash-poor seniors. People who do not have heirs and therefore do not have to consider the issues of leaving money… More About: The Reverse Mortgage Advantage
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