I want to invest, where do I start?

Personal finance involves planning for life's transitions. Here are some practical guides for making important financial decisions.

Boot Your Broker--A Do-It-Yourself Kit for Online Investing
By LauraMaery Gold & Dan Post
Que Corporation
1997
ISBN: 0-7897-1231-8
While this is our strongest recommendation for learning to invest online, it also provides good information about financial planning in Chapter 4--"Educate Yourself About Investing", and includes links to useful financial planning Web sites.

The Budget Kit, Second Edition--The Common Cents Money Management Workbook
By Judy Lawrence
Dearborn Financial Publishing, Inc.
1997
ISBN: 0-7931-2343-7
This isn't a book of information. It is a workbook, not unlike those you used in school, that provides you with a visual approach toward setting up spreadsheets that capture your entire financial lives. Good for thinking, gathering, and organizing, but we recommend that you use personal finance software when you're ready to "work" your plan so calculations are done automatically and are easy to update.

Ernst & Young's Personal Financial Planning Guide, Second Edition
By Robert J. Garner, Robert B. Coplan, Barbara J. Raasch, Charles L. Ratner
John Wiley & Sons
1998
ISBN: 0471-16484-4
If you like to get a complete picture before beginning a task, then this is the financial planning guide for you. Its 500 pages cover different family situations like raising college-bound children, single parenting, dealing with elderly parents, coping with divorce, etc. It also takes you through the fundamentals of financial planning--building wealth, assets, estate planning, investment planning, and more. No pictures in this book, just good basic information!

How to Turn Your Money Life Around--The Money Book for Women
By Ruth Hayden
Health Communications, Inc.
1992
ISBN: 1-55874-225-5
Zero in on your financial lives, ladies. This book asks some interesting questions about what you've learned about money. Then it helps you unlearn the unnecessary, focus on the necessary, and get on to the road of success. And it does it through providing basic information through case histories of women.

Keys to Personal Financial Planning, Second Edition
By D. Larry Crumbley and L. Murphy Smith
Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
1994
ISBN: 0-8120-1919-9
You can carry this tiny book around in your purse and learn about financial planning on the bus or while you wait in line for the next teller. It's one of the Barron's Business Keys series and provides good basic information on all manner of subjects like "ways to real wealth" (marrying it, inheriting it, leveraging it), "fixed-income investments" (notes and bonds), or "ethics of financial planning" (giving, repaying debts, providing for one's family). It also includes a glossary and tip lists like "ten tips for intelligent investing."

Mutual Funds on the Net--Making Money Online
By Paul B. Farrell, J.D., Ph.D
John Wiley & Sons
1997
ISBN: 0-471-17486-6
This book has a decent financial planning section, but as its title suggests, devotes most of the book to learning about and investing in mutual funds on the Internet. See Step 2, "The Key to Successful Financial Planning," which has good basic information on planning tools, online classes, and financial software.

A Woman's guide to Investing--A Straight Talking Guide with the Information and the Inspiration You Need to Get Started
By Virginia B. Morris and Kenneth M. Morris
Lightbulb Press
1997
ISBN: 0-9650932-0-4
This book from Lightbulb Press follows the same format as the Wall Street Journal book on personal finance. You'll want to read the entire book, but even just flipping pages, you can pick up vignettes of information. In a 30-second flip through, we found out that 1) investors generally demand return on their investments that beat the yields on long-term government bonds (p. 105), 2) buyers need to beware of high commissions on certain products like some annuities or insurance policies (p. 65), and 3) one owner on a joint ownership account can withdraw all funds legally (p. 30).

Personal Finance for Busy People: The Book to Use When There's No Time to Lose
By Robert A. Cooke
McGraw Hill
1998
ISBN: 0-07-012556-2
The author and publisher have gotten off to a good start in making good their title claim for this book. They've organized the book well and left enough white space so it's a quick read. This is a book geared towards action. It provides basic information, written in a style that encourages decision making. For example, in Chapter 3, "Protect Your Earning Power from Calamities," the author asks, "Why not buy term insurance and run your own savings account?" The book then answers the question by saying that "many people do just that "and it gives some bulleted advantages for doing so. It then gives you other advice on how to plan and strategize. Very clear instructions to this novice.

The Savvy Investor's Internet Resource
By Bryan Pfaffenberger and Claire Mencke
IDG Books
1996
ISBN: 0-7645-3010-0
This complete guide to investing on the Internet also covers personal financial management subjects such as paying bills online and finding personal finance resources. See Chapter 4, "Determining Your Investment Goal," and Chapter 3, "What is Investing."

The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Personal Finance
By Kenneth M. Morris and Alan M. Siegel
Lightbulb Press
1997
ISBN: 0-684-84696-7
The colorful, callout, graphic format of this Lightbulb Press book makes it easy to skip around and skim to find quick information. Even if you want to read the whole book, you can do it quickly, for information is presented in short segments rather than long chapters. The negatives of this format are that the background graphics sometimes make text a bit hard to read, and it's easy to get distracted to a different section before finishing the current one. Information is good and easy to understand and the book includes the Wall Street Journal Personal Finance Decision Maker.

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