Cotter Cunningham – Your Financial Action. Plan 12 Simple Step to Achieve Money Success
ISBN: 978-0-471-65030-0
224 pages
September 2004
Description
Your Financial Action Plan outlines twelve easy steps that can enhance your degree of economic literacy in addition to allow you to forge the monetary future you want.
Today, monetary data means monetary energy, and in Your Financial Action Plan, you’ll be launched to the essential private monetary points that have an effect on your life.
With this guide as your information, you’ll find out how to:
* Make essentially the most of your mortgage
* Maintain a great credit standing
* Build your retirement financial savings
* Negotiate along with your native financial institution to get the perfect offers
* Navigate the ins and outs of insurance coverage
* Create a will
* Handle tax deductions and credit
* And way more
Filled with sensible steering and in depth experience, Your Financial Action Plan will allow you to construct the kind of monetary life you’ve all the time wished.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword ix
Introduction xi
Chapter 1: Rainy Day Funds and Sunny Day Savings 1
Prepare for an Emergency
Understand Asset Allocation
Build a Financial Plan
Chapter 2: Bills and Chills 11
Gain Control of Your Expenditures
Chapter 3: Budget Bingo 15
Create a Comfortable Budget
Recognize Shopping Pitfalls
Chapter 4: Hanging It Up 25
Build Your Retirement Savings
Understanding 401(ok)s, Defined Benefit Plans,
Social Security, IRAs, and Other Pension Plans
Chapter 5: Bank On It 41
Check Up on Your Bank
Know What Records to Keep and Where to Keep Them
Chapter 6: Willing It 45
Decide Who Gets What
How to Give It to Them
A Look on the Deadly Business of Funerals
Chapter 7: Got Insurance? 51
Disability Insurance: The Gory Details
Life Insurance: How Much Do You Need?
Other Insurance You Need—or Not
Chapter 8: Driving Mr. Washington 63
Lease or Buy?
Showroom Errors
Insure Your Wheels
Chapter 9: Take Credit—Carefully 73
Borrow Responsibly
Understand Your Credit Report
Chapter 10: Dealing with Debt 85
Borrowing Responsibly
Credit Card Bill of Rights
Chapter 11: April 15 Blues 93
Manage Your Withholding Better
Use Tax Deductions and Credits
Chapter 12: This Old House 109
Should You Buy?
Create a Realistic Budget for Homeownership
Make the Most of Your Mortgage
Afterword: 12 Steps to Money Success 125
Appendix: Bankrate Form Letters 127
Glossary 173
About the Author 193
Index 195
Author Information
G. COTTER CUNNINGHAM is an authority on private finance. For over a decade, he has given shoppers professional recommendation on their essential finan-cial issues. Mr. Cunningham is the Chief Operating Officer of Bankrate, Inc., which operates Bankrate.com, the most-visited private finance fee data Web website on the earth. Mr. Cunningham and his colleagues present shoppers with comparative information and sensible recommendation on CDs, mortgages, auto loans, banking, taxes, and monetary planning. Bankrate.com helps shoppers to choose the perfect monetary establishment for his or her specific wants. Bankrate offers monetary information and knowledge to a community of greater than 75 companions, together with Yahoo!, America Online, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.
Cotter Cunningham has a novel background and perspective on private finance. He has spent nearly his total profession in finance, from working as a mortgage officer and operating an Internet-based bank card program, to advising corporations on monetary technique. Cotter believes step one in monetary independence is to foster a fundamental understanding of the who, what, why, the place, and when of economic issues. In Your Financial Action Plan, he offers readers with the data they want to plan their monetary future.
He lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, together with his spouse and kids.