Title and author: The Smartest Money Book You’ve Ever Read by Daniel R. Solin

Content Synopsis:

Similar to his previous books in The smartest book you’ve ever read Solin offers short, concise chapters on managing your money and planning your finances.

Solin begins with a discussion of the bad things that can happen to us that will lead to financial problems or even a crisis. This section is undoubtedly influenced by the severe economic recession of the last four years. After that, the book covers the basics of smart money management, including:

• The importance of managing your money and saving;
• Understand your financial position through a focus on net worth and budgeting;
• The importance of paying and avoiding debt;
• The pros and cons of investing in your home, or what he calls the Home Dilemma;
• The pros and cons of insurance;
• The Ins and Outs of the Investment Industry;
• Avoid self-defeating investment strategies, including day trading, and build a well-balanced long-term portfolio;
• Assess your risk capacity in light of likely returns;
• Realistic retirement planning;
• Estate Planning Basics;
• A summary at the end to bring all these things together into a checklist of do’s and don’ts.

Solin repeats throughout this book many of the lessons he provides in his previous books, The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read and The Smartest 401k Book You’ll Ever Read; however, as long as there is some duplication, it is not a bad thing. Much of the hard-hitting financial wisdom that Solin imparts is worth repeating, and this latest book serves as both a great introduction to the more specialized topics of his earlier books and a means of tying it all together if he has already read them. .

I recommend this book for several reasons:

If you don’t know much about financial planning and managing your money, this book provides excellent introductory material to bring anyone up to speed on all the critical areas they need to know.

The book is well written and easy to follow. It should be easily understood by almost anyone.

For those with some education in this area, the book serves as a great reminder of some basics we all need to remember and brings some simplification to areas that other authors often overcomplicate.

Solin takes on major financial institutions, including banks, financial advisors, brokerage firms, and the insurance industry; he tells him what he needs to know about how these industries put their interest in taking your money first and help you avoid getting scammed.

Solin also provides the reader with many links to Mint.com articles and other sources for further reading. In fact, he highly recommends Mint.com both for managing your finances and for additional information. Not surprisingly, Mint.com recommends the book. Solin insists that he has no financial agreement with Mint.com.

Utility:

This book is tremendously useful both as a comprehensive manual on financial planning and management and because it contains some excellent warnings about the dangers of placing blind trust in the financial industries. Even those who think they know a lot about finances and planning can benefit from this book.

Readability/Write Quality:

This book is very readable. It is written in relatively simple English with detailed explanations of terms used in the financial industry. The chapters are well organized and follow a logical progression. The chapters are very short, many no more than 2 or 3 pages, and are followed by a crisp summary that he calls “What’s the point?”

Author’s Notes:

Daniel Solin is Vice President of Index Fund Advisors, a free financial advisory company. He is a law school graduate who is also a certified financial planner. He is a regular writer for the Huffington Post and USNews.com.

He is the author of The Smartest Money Book You’ll Ever Read: Everything You Need to Know About Growing, Spending, and Enjoying Your Money, The Smartest Portfolio You’ll Ever Own: A Do-It-Yourself Breakthrough Strategy, The Smartest 401 ( k) Book You’ll Never Read and The Smartest Investing Book You’ll Ever Read. He is also the author of Does Your Broker Owe You Money?

Three great ideas you can use:

1. Understanding the basics of financial planning and management can be within the reach of almost anyone, and everyone should understand these basics. Those who don’t educate themselves on the basics are at the mercy of an industry that can exploit them.

2. The time-tested investment and financial management principles remain sound and should be followed rather than jumping from one new idea to the next marketed by those ignorant of the basics.

3. You need to take control of your finances by starting with solid budgeting, planning, and tracking. Once you’ve done that, the next step is to understand the do’s and don’ts of saving and investing wisely.

Disclosure Information:

The Smartest Money Book You’ve Ever Read by Daniel R. Solin

Copyright: 2012 by Daniel R. Solin. Published by Penguin Group USA, Inc.