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

Contents synopsis:

Similar to his previous books on The smartest book you’ve ever read Solin provides 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 crisis. Undoubtedly, this section is influenced by the severe economic recession of the last four years. After that, the book covers and the basics for smart money management, including:

• The importance of managing your money and saving;
• Understand your financial position through the focus on net worth and budget;
• The importance of paying off and avoiding debts;
• The pros and cons of investing in your home, or what he calls the home dilemma;
• The pros and cons of insurance;
• The Pros and Cons of the Investment Industry;
• Avoid counterproductive investment strategies, including intraday trading, and create a well-balanced long-term portfolio;
• Evaluate your risk capacity in light of probable returns;
• Realistic retirement planning;
• Basic concepts of estate planning;
• A summary at the end to put all these things together in a checklist of dos and don’ts.

Solin repeats throughout this book many of the lessons he offers in his previous books, The Smartest Investing Book You Will Ever Read and The Smartest 401k Book You Will Ever Read, however, to the extent that there is any duplication, it’s not a bad thing. Much of the hard-hitting financial wisdom Solin imparts bears repeating, and this latest book serves as a great introduction to the more specialized topics of his previous books and as a means of putting them all together if you’ve already read them. .

I recommend this book for several reasons:

If you don’t know much about financial planning and money management, 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. Almost everyone should understand it easily.

For those who have some education in this area, the book serves as a great reminder of some basic concepts that we all need to remember and brings some simplification to areas that other authors often complicate too much.

Solin takes on major financial institutions, including banks, financial advisers, brokerages, and the insurance industry; tells you what you need to know about how these industries put their interest in taking your money first and helping you avoid getting scammed.

Solin also provides the reader with many links to articles from Mint.com and other sources to read more. In fact, he highly recommends Mint.com both for managing your finances and for additional information. It’s no wonder 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 as it also contains some excellent warnings about the dangers of placing blind trust in the financial industries. Even those who think they know a lot about finance and planning can benefit from this book.

Readability / Writing 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 longer than 2-3 pages, and are followed by a crisp summary that he calls, “What’s the point?”

Notes on the author:

Daniel Solin is Vice President of Index Fund Advisors, a paid financial advisory firm. 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 Wallet Ever: An Innovative Do-It-Yourself Strategy, The 401 Smartest (k) Book you’ll ever read and the smartest investment 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 available to 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. Long-proven investment and financial management principles remain sound and should be followed rather than jumping from one new idea to the next marketed by those who ignore the basics.

3. You need to take control of your finances by starting with a solid budget, planning, and tracking. Once you’ve done that, the next step is to understand the dos and don’ts to save and invest wisely.

Publication information:

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

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