Money Smart Week

This financial planning guide is an in-depth look into the lives of first-time employees and the financial decisions they face every day. Learn the tools you need to put your financial plan in motion!

"Drawing from her personal experience of paying off eighty thousand dollars of student loan debt, Melanie provides a wealth of money-saving tips to help her community of debt fighters navigate the repayment process, increase current income, and ultimately become debt-free."--taken from cover

"Every day we are faced with financial decisions. Should I buy that DVD player or 100 lottery tickets? What percentage of my salary should I allocate to my 401(k)? How much should I be saving for my daughter's college education? Will I be better off leasing or buying my next car? The problem for most of us is that we freeze up when making these choices; regardless of our level of formal education...We've become a society of math-o-phobes with profound consequences for our financial well-being."--taken from cover

"Finance for Normal People teaches behavioral finance to people like you and me--normal people, neither rational nor irrational. We are consumers, savers, investors, and managers...The book guides us to know our wants--including hope for riches, protection from poverty, caring for family, sincere social responsibility, and high social status. It teaches financial facts and human behavior, including making cognitive and emotional shortcuts and avoiding cognitive and emotional errors such as overconfidence, hindsight, exaggerated fear, and unrealistic hope. And it guides us to banish ignorance, gain knowledge, and increase the ratio of smart to foolish behavior on our way to what we want."-- taken from cover

"A user-friendly presentation of the essential concepts and tools for calculating real costs and profits in personal finance. Understanding the Mathematics of Personal Finance explains how mathematics, a simple calculator, and basic computer spreadsheets can be used to break down and understand even the most complex loan structures. In an easy-to-follow style, the book clearly explains the workings of basic financial calculations, captures the concepts behind loans and interest in a step-by-step manner, and details how these steps can be implemented for practical purposes."-- description provided by Wiley Online Library