All Your Worth : The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan

by Elizabeth Warren; Amelia Warren Tyagi

• ISBN13: 9780743269872
• ISBN10: 074326987X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-03-01
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

You work hard -- really hard -- but it seems like there's never enough. Never enough to cover all the bills. Never enough to relax and have some fun. Never enough to save some real money. What has gone wrong? What is the secret that you haven't figured ou

Author Biography

Elizabeth Warren is a chaired professor at Harvard Law School. She has written several books, including The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are Going Broke. She has appeared on numerous television shows, including Dr. Phil and the Today show. The National Law Journal named her One of the Fifty Most Influential Women Lawyers in America. She lives with her husband in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Amelia Warren Tyagi, along with Elizabeth, is coauthor of The Two-Income Trap. She worked as a consultant with McKinsey and Company and cofounded the health benefits firm HealthAllies. She is a regular commentator on the nationally syndicated radio show, Marketplace, and she has written for Time and The Chicago Tribune. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and daughter. Elizabeth and Amelia are mother and daughter.

Table of Contents

Getting Started: The Truth About Money	1	(12)
PART ONE: 6 STEPS TO A LIFETIME OF RICHES
1 Step One: Count All Your Worth	13	(38)
2 Step Two: Escape from the Thinking Traps	51	(19)
3 Step Three: Count the Dollars, Not the Pennies	70	(40)
4 Step Four: If You Can't Afford Fun, You Can't Afford Your Life	110	(21)
5 Step Five: To Build Your Future, Pay Off Your Past	131	(35)
6 Step Six: Build Your Dreams a Little at a Time	166	(31)
PART TWO: POWERFUL TOOLS
7 Love and Money: Having It All	197	(24)
8 The Big Buy: Purchasing the Home That Is Right for You	221	(15)
9 Financial CPR: Protect Yourself When Things Get Tough	236	(33)
The Last Word: It's Not About Money	269	(6)
Acknowledgments	275	(2)
Index	277

Excerpts

Getting Started: The Truth About Money The rules of the game have changed.Somewhere in your bones, you already know this. Hard work and good intentions are no longer enough. Security, comfort, lasting prosperity -- you want it, you work hard for it, and yet the worry remains. Real financial peace seems so hard to achieve.You can't count on good old-fashioned hard work the way your parents did. Go to school, get a good job, do your work, don't go crazy with spending, and everything will work out, right? Not anymore. That advice may have worked in your parents' day, but today you have to besmartwith your money. Not just a little smart, but super smart. You have to learn the new rules -- the rules nobody told you and nobody talks about. And you have to learn them fast.Just for a moment, forget what you know about money. Forget about your bills. Forget the size of your paycheck. Forget your shopping trips and the shoes you just bought. We want to give you a new perspective on your money, a different way to think about it. We want you to explore new possibilities.What if we told you that this book could show you how to cover your bills, without worry or fear? No more bounced checks. No more anxiety about how you'll make it through the month. Just the power to pay your bills on time, and then to relax in security and comfort.Now, what if we told you that on top of showing you how to conquer your bills, this book could show you how to have some money for fun? No living like a Scrooge. No asking yourself every minute,"Can I really afford this?"Just some cash in your pocket for plain old just-because-you-feel-like-itfun.And now, suppose we told you that in addition to all of this, you could still have money to save? Money to getahead,each and every month. Enough money so that you could finally start to dream a little -- and make real progress toward those dreams. Enough to build somerealwealth.And what if we said you could do all this without counting pennies, without carrying around a calculator, and without thinking constantly about money? In fact, after a little up-front work, you could stop thinking about money altogether, and spend your days focusing on the things that really matter.Would you keep reading? Is This Book for You? At this point, you may be thinking, "Aw c'mon. I've looked at these financial books before. All windup and no delivery. They take your $26 and leave you no better off." All those get-rich-quick schemes that assume you have thousands of dollars lying around, just waiting for the right investment. All those chapters on how to buy stock options, how to choose a vacation home, how to plan your estate so that your kids can inherit millions without paying taxes. Who are they kidding?Or maybe you bought one of those "Billionaire Tells All" books, which promised to unlock all the secrets to becoming fabulously wealthy. And here you are, still trying to figure out how the heck you're supposed to "make your money work for you."And then there are the lectures on whattheythink your problem is."Stop taking expensive vacations." "Shift to a better mutual fund."But what if you haven't taken a real vacation in ages? What if you don't have two nickels for a mutual fund, or maybe you aren't quite sure what a mutual fund is?We'll let you in on a secret:Those books are not written for you.They are written for people who already have plenty of money, people who don't worry about making ends meet. Oh sure, the store is glad to take your money, but those books are written for people who are already rich and who want to get just a little bit richer. So, where isyourbook?Right here.All Your Worthis for anyone who ever worries about money. For anyone who works hard and plays by the rules, but discovers that the rules have changed. For anyone who wants t