Jane Bryant Quinn - Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People

I ve had this book in my dreams for many years. Its the heart and soul of everything Ive learned about handling personal money well.

The big thing Ive learned is that managing money ought to be simpleand can be, as long as you get the principles right. In the money world, simple turns out to be sophisticated. Youre skipping the bells and whistles that are a waste of time. If a salesperson shows you a gee-whiz but complicated financial product, you can be sure of two things: You dont need it and its overpriced. You can get the same result with something easier, wiser, and lower-cost.

I didnt realize this when I started reporting on finance and investments. I dug into details, tried new things, tested every approach. I put my own money (meager savings, back then) into some of the bright ideas and products that the experts praised.

Big mistake! As time passed and I tracked results, I saw that those products were mostly guff. On the surface, they looked convincing, exciting, and even no-lose. Underneath, they were just a way of making banks, brokers, and insurance companies rich at my expense.

I learned something else as I went along. A few brilliant people (and companies) were creatingand are still creatinga handful of financial products and strategies that really work. Even better, theyre honest, straightforward, and fairly priced. You can put them into effect yourself, certain that theyll serve you well. You dont even have to mind them every minute because they mind themselves.

This short book explains them all. Ive chosen the best savings and retirement plans, the best mutual funds, the best mortgages, the best college savings plans, the best life insurance, and the best ways of making them all work. I know their worth because I use them, too. Theyre combined with a strategy for automatic investing and saving so that you can manage your money in your sleep.

You have other financial options, of course. Ive left them out deliberately, to make your planning easier. None are any better than the ones youll find in the following pages. Theyre just different and may suit certain special circumstances. They also require more time, effort, and study to produce the results you want. For all the details, see my best-selling personal-finance guide, Making the Most of Your Money. (My thanks to Consumers Union, which rated it the best one on the market.)

This particular book is designed for people who dont want a lot of details, just great ideas and reliable results. Youre busy, with your job, family, pastimes, friends. You want to do right by your money without having to think about it much. Happily you can. The strategies here are based on sound principles and common sense. Above all, they set you free so that you can get on with all the things that matter more. Thats my real dream. A world where you can trust your financial plan enough to forget about it, and give your mind and heart to the joys of life.

Jane Bryant Quinn
New York

I think I can change your financial life, from muddle-along to easy, permanent success. Thats why I wrote this book.

Easy sounds phony but trust me, its not. Of all the ways of managing money, nothing beats the simple ways. Ill go even furtherthe simple ways are not only smart, theyre also the most sophisticated. It takes a clear head and a wise eye to distinguish the good from the bad in the confusing world of personal finance. Only the good can make you financially secure.

From experience, I know how much time it takes to find the financial products that work the best, and time is what nobody has today. The path of least resistance carries you toward the usual stuff that the money industry sellsinvestment, insurance, and banking products with high (and often hidden) fees. Theyre what most people buy, so you figure they must be okay.

I wish that were so. When you really study this subject, as I have, you learn that whats on offer is mostly mediocre and sometimes downright bad. The products are expensive, which wastes your money. Theyre often complicated, with risky angles that you didnt know about. If you pick your own investments, you may choose things that dont go together well, leaving big gaps in your security fence. If you buy from brokers and planners who earn commissions, you may find yourself trapped in a poorly performing product that you dont understand. Even your companys 401(k) may be stuffed with losers. Maybe everything will still work out, but maybe not. No wonder so many people feel a little bit anxious about their money, and out of control.

It doesnt have to be this way! Managing money isnt hard as long as you keep it simple. Not only are simple products, er, simple to understand, they cost less, gain more in value, and leave you more secure. In this book, youll find the most straightforward, sensible products and strategies I knowand in case youre wondering, I use them all. In fact, theyre all I use.

Why am I so sure theyll lead you to success? Because simple systems fit into our busy daily lives. Thats where lots of personal-finance advice falls short. Youre expected to morph into some kind of experta lover of picture-perfect budgets, a student of stock price/earnings ratios, a sponge for new financial terms. If you could do thator wanted toyoud have done it already. Maybe youve even tried, by reading other money-management books. If so, I know what happened. You underlined sentences, made some notes to yourself, and then went to the movies. Maybe you tracked your spending for a couple of weeks before giving up. You thought about fixing your 401(k) but your mind (or gut) still clenched. Given this history, you assume youre a failurea klutz wholl never be any good at personal finance.

Not true. To start with, youre smart (this isnt a dummies book). Youre good at your job, wise about your children and friends, and know about stuff that mystifies meairplanes, synthesized music, quarks, patent law, ultimate Frisbee, cooking (yes, cooking). Youre perfectly capable of managing money, if only it interested you. But it doesnt, so you defer, denounce, deny (and worry in the night).