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Finances: Recommended Readings
The Money Book for the Young, the Fabulous, and the Broke
by Suze Orman
This is a book everyone should read whatever your age or income level. Even though this book is geared for the young and broke, if you are just beginning to learn about finances and you know nothing, then this is the book where you can learn about the basics and what to do with your money. Ms. Orman writes this book in an easy-to-read formatt and has it separated into sections that covers all aspects of finance such as how to save and how much to save, the process in buying a house, and retirement. I do have to say that this is a good starting book to read, but for more indepth coverage in topics such as in buying a house or planning for retirement, more reading or research should be put into it. Ms. Orman gives good down-to-earth and practical advices. If you learn just one thing from this book, it should be about the importance of your Credit Score, which Ms. Orman talks about and refers back to repeatedly.
Women & Money
by Suze Orman
This is my second book I have read that was written by Suze Orman. I was excited to read this one, since I thought her other book ( Young, Fabulous, and Broke) was great and very resourceful. But from the first, I have had some issues with her comments. She states that women do not want to take responsibility for their money today. But I have to disagree with this statement. Most of the women I know are responsible with their money and are the primary caretakers of the family's finances. I was very disappointed with the section on The 8 Qualities of Wealthy Women. I felt that the 8 Qualities were very "hokey" and watered-down. Ms. Orman writes about the differences in women's and men's roles in life and in finance and how we as women need to adapt some men qualities. But then she uses words such as "Harmony, Cleanliness, and Beauty" in describing women's qualities, which further separates women from men. Would any of those words be used to describe men's qualities? I don't think so.
Ms. Orman has created the Save Yourself Plan for women. This plan was created for women to better understand finance and how to improve their financial life. This is a five-month plan. The first month is devoted to Checking and Savings Accounts. The second month to Credit Cards and FICO Scores, the third month to Retirement Investing, the fourth month to Must-Have Documents, and the fifth month to Protecting your Family and Home. Although I wish Ms. Orman would have dived more into investing on stocks and bonds under the Investing section, I love this plan. I also love the fact that you can go to her website and read more about the topics and to use the different calculators that she has. But I especially love the TD Ameritrade incentive, which all women should utilize because as Ms. Orman would say, this is "free" money.
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