Smart Is the New Rich: If You Can?t Afford It, Put It Down

by Christine Romans

• ISBN13: 9780470925652
• ISBN10: 0470925655
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2010-09-01
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

A practical way to think about money todayAuthor and CNN veteran money correspondent Christine Romans believes we should live by three qualifiers: living within our means, living with less debt, and being less vulnerable. While some may say this is old-fashioned, today it's hard to argue with Romans' view.Smart is the New Rich explores how adopting a new approach to money can lead to a healthier financial lifestyle. Each chapter opens with a question about money to begin the conversation about earning, saving, spending, growing, and protecting your money. Using checklists and quizzes, Romans guides you through the "New Normal," helping you to think differently about your money and relearning good habits for prosperity. Reexamines the money rules abandoned during the consumer bubble and poses the essential questions we should ask ourselves before spend our money Provides an interactive, step-by-step guide to all things money, from credit, debt, and savings to investing, taxes, and mortgages A companion Web site allows you to chat with other readers about jobs, mortgage rates, investing, and savingFor thirty years, the financial rules for life revolved around abundant credit. That bubble has burst. Smart is the New Rich addresses why these rules no longer apply, and reveals what it will take to make the right money choices moving forward.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Reset Repair Recover

Pop!

The Retro Reset

Repair the Balance Sheet

Recover

The Payoff

Spending Your $$$$$

Going Retro

Living Beyond Their Means

The Value Consumer

The Recession Weary

The Conspicuous Consumer

A Fool and his Money

Be a Good $teward

The Payoff

Your Job

Turning the Corner

Top of your Game Every Day

Take a Pay Cut?

Switching Careers

Where are the Jobs?

Location, Location, Location

Education

Good Pay, No Degree

Green-Collar Jobs

You've Just Lost Your Job

You Have a Job - Protect it

You Think Layoffs are Coming

The Permalancer

Long-term Unemployed

No Job Yet? Write it off

The Payoff

Appendix Cover Letters: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Debt

Miracle or Mirage?'$it on an Apple Box'

Generation Debt

Respect Credit, Pay off Debt

The Dreaded $core $tudent Loans $200 $aved Now or Pay $396 Later

Keeping Down College Costs $tudent Loan Defaults

Mortgage Debt

Borrowing Costs Will Rise

The Payoff

Credit Cards

Credit Card "Rich"

New Rules, Rights, and Traps

Credit Card Gotchas

Debt Free in Three

Card Payment $trategies

Cutting Up the Cards

Debt Revolt

Boring is Better

Debtor Beware

The Payoff

Home $weet Home

POP!

Affordability

Mortgage Rate vs. Home Price

Getting a Loan

Renting

Losing a Home

The Inevitable $cams

The Payoff

Save, Invest, Retire

Good $teward

The Proverbial Rainy Day

Getting $tarted, $tarting Over

Finding your Magic Number

Fixing your 401k

You Didn't Bail, Bravo $abotaging your Retirement $tay Focused

The ETF IRA

The Payoff

Family Money

Lead by Example

Take out the Trash!

Generation Y

Paying for College $andwich Generation

Caring for a Parent 'Til Debt Do Us Part

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

The Payoff

Healthcare

Reform and You

Under 26 Years Old $tate Health Exchanges

CLASS Act

FSA Changes

Hospital Responsibility

Healthcare as Livelihood

The Payoff

$mall Business

The Disappearing Banker

'I Can Create Jobs!'

$ocial Butterfly $hop Local

Cupcake $isters

Yes to Carrots

Find the Money

The Payoff

Government

United $tates of Bailouts

They Got it Wrong

$pend $pend $pend

The Payoff

Notes

About the Author

Index

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