Ali Velshi - AARP How to Speak Money. The Language and Knowledge You Need Now

MAKING YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU

Maybe youre thinking its time to review your investment strategy and make the most of the money you have today. Maybe youve already built a financially successful retirement egg and want to protect what youve built. Or maybe you need to bulk up your earnings to ensure your familys future.

Welcome to money for grown-ups. Where do you turn for credible information?

Dedicated to helping you protect your assets, stretch your dollars, and bolster your longterm security, AARP can offer you powerful solutions. Whatever your strategy for managing money, weve got suggestions that will help from saving money on that next big purchase to planning your charitable giving. If youre taking your job to the next level or building up a second career, weve got strategies that will help you make your mark.

You may think your money or your financial advisor should be working harder for you. You may be watching market trends and seeing new opportunities. And, of course, you want to protect yourself and your loved ones from scams and data breaches. We can give you the support you need.

And turn to us for fun, too. (Is it time for that car, that trip, that weekend home youve always wanted?) Because that, too, is what this time of your life is about.

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50 and older improve their lives. For more than 50 years, AARP has been serving our members and society by creating positive social change. AARPs mission is to enhance the quality of life for all as we age; lead positive social change; and deliver value to members through information, service and advocacy. This information in this book is for educational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.

Contents

Copyright 2012 by Ali Velshi and Christine Romans. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Velshi, Ali.

How to speak money : the language and knowledge you need now / Ali Velshi and Christine Romans.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-11495-7 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-19337-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-19339-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-19338-9 (ebk)

1. Finance, Personal. 2. Money. I. Romans, Christine, 1971- II. Title.

HG179.V45 2012

332.024dc23

2011033518

To Ed and Lori.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Tom Wynbrandt. Without his collaboration, this book would not have happened. Also to our morning business producer Katy Byron, the excellent staffs of CNNs Your Bottom Line , Your Money , and American Morning , and a special mention to our intelligent, enlightened, and visionary bosses and executive producers (see Chapter 5: How to Speak Jobs) at CNN for giving us the platform on which to Speak Money. Thanks to CNN president Ken Jautz who, 10 years ago, put us together on the anchor desk and sparked a collaboration that led to this book. You have good taste.

The folks at CNNMoney.com inspire and educate us every day. And of course our respective spouses speak money better than we do and have taught us that money is secondary to that other valuable languagecompromise.

Introduction

Why Weve Written This Book

Welcome to How to Speak Money.

Allow us to introduce ourselves. Christine and Ali are colleagues at CNN; both business reporters and anchors. Like many co-workers, we spend more time at work with each other than we do with our spouses. Weve also grown to be friends and confidantspartners in financial (reporting) crimeover the past 10 years. Im not sure looking back to when we met at work 10 years ago that we would have thought wed be this tight a decade later. Back then, our differencesin our backgrounds and in our approaches to moneywere greater than our similarities. Or at least thats what we thought.

The biggest thing we had going for our relationship over the years is that we spoke the same language. Were not talking about English. We were both fluent in the language of money. We understood terms like 12-month trailing revenue and slow stochastics and we relished the latest news about the 200-day moving average. Business geeks, indeed. Truly, there wasnt a ton we had in common other than that we understood very clearly what the other said when we spoke in story meetings and on TV. (We share a love of high-caloric food; but thats for another book.)

Over the years, by force and by choice, we ended up working very closely together; more so than we did with other co-workers. Our perspectives were different, but complimentary. Wed fill in for each other when one of us was sick, wed help each other solve problems. Once in a while, wed grab lunch or an after-work drink.

Like co-workers, or any pair, who spend a lot of time together, we fought. The fight we remember most clearly was years ago when Christine seemed overly excited about the danger of the U.S. credit rating being downgraded. Ali thought it was unimportant. The fight may seem unimportant to you, but back when it was happening, we were pretty passionate about our positions on it. Turns out that Christine was right to be as concerned as she was. Ultimately, years later, the U.S. credit rating was downgraded. Christine remains kind enough not to remind Ali about that fight. Many of our fights turn out that way. Many of yours probably do, too.