Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People

by Jane Bryant Quinn

Are you too busy to pay much attention to your money? Do you worry that maybe you haven't been doing the right things? This book is for you, from Jane Bryant Quinn, the most trusted voice in personal finance today. Her classic bestseller, Making the Most of Your Money, guided a generation toward smart and sensible financial choices. Here she strips away the extras, choosing the best financial ideas and products available today. They're all you need to create a successful and long-lasting financial plan. It's money management the No Worry way.

To start with, she tells you to forget all the complicated stuff the financial industry sells. You don't need it, it costs too much, and some of it is downright bad. It's designed to make the banks, brokers, and insurance companies rich, not you.

The best ideas (a super-short list!) are simple, low in cost, and easy to use. They're also sophisticated and smart. The strategies shown here are followed by some of the most successful planners and money managers around today, yet they're something everyone can understand. They'll give you what you need from your money -- regular savings, financial security, long-term investment growth, personal control, and best of all, peace of mind.

Once you've set up a No Worry plan, you won't have to pay much attention to it. The choices you'll find here are all good ones. All you have to do is arrange for automatic payments and contributions and then get on with the rest of your busy life. You can focus your energies on your job, family, leisure, and friends, secure in the knowledge that your finances are okay.

Here's what you'll do on the No Worry








The investment ideas alone will open your eyes to the newest strategies for accumulating wealth (without making big mistakes!). Jane Bryant Quinn will change the way you think about money. She has the answers busy people need.

Genres: Finance, Personal Finance, Nonfiction, Money, Business, Self Help

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. I wish I had read this ten years ago and then every year since, like an annual financial kick in the pants. The only caveat is that this book was written in 2006, before the subprime mortgage crisis and before the rocketing costs of higher ed, so some parts are out of date. However, the basic concepts haven't changed. I saw that she has a more recent book that seems to cover the same information published in 2008 and title "Making the Most of Your Money Now."

Quinn is very accessible and easy to read. She's like the wise financial guru that I certainly didn't have who sits down and explains everything with infinite patience and even a little humor. Her advice is solid and grounded, and the book is full of terrific resources.

She begins the book with a focus on saving. I particularly liked her suggestions for how to decrease spending without having to keep a tedious budget. After she tackles the importance of saving, she talks about how to pay off any consumer debt. Only after these topics are covered does she talk about having an emergency fund (she calls it a "cushion fund"), mortgages, college savings plans, and how to invest smartly.

There's no B.S. here, and her advice is sound. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and feel like it's one that I should have permanently on my shelf.

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of the financial basics, with a heavy emphasis on how you can automate the process (set up direct deposits, automatic bill pay, etc.) to streamline your investing, savings, and debt repayment. Although the tone was heavy on the "fear factor" in some places (particularly in the retirement and insurance chapters) compared to Suze Orman's optimistic tone, but overall, Jane Bryant Quinn provided good, basic advice in the major areas of personal finance: debt repayment, insurance, wills & trusts, saving for retirement, saving for college, and investing. She kept it simple in each chapter, providng three options to follow - the smart and simple financial strategies for busy people, as promised by the title.

[Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not that busy.

[Keri Stillwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written financial plan.

[Dwain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quinn's book was pleasant. Quinn's voice is very motherly and it is so much more comfortable to hear financial advice from somebody's mother than it is to hear it from some overbearing Wall-Street guru. Most of the book is a very quick read, or listen, as the case may be; however, she goes into a lot of detail about very specific products, which can get a little tiresome. For example, Quinn talks about many different kinds of 529, and tells you which states and which companies offer the best options for different phases of life. This is great if you are looking to invest in a 529, but let's your mind wander if this isn't your goal at the moment. Quinn also has a lot of very practical advice for people, like myself, who are not going to spend hundreds of man-hours researching, planning, and organizing. For example, she actually recommends that you put off organizing yourself (especially your filing system) until later. The reason is that most people will get bogged down and give up, which would be entirely counter-productive. What I like most is that everything Quinn talks about and recommends is simple. It doesn't require a finance degree to understand, explain, or maintain. It also doesn't require daily study and monitoring to make sure that you aren't going to lose your money.

The biggest problem with Quinn's book is that the title gives an inaccurate idea of what will be addressed in the book. After reading the title and the back cover I thought I was starting a book about strategies, but the book is really more of an introduction to personal finance. Much of the book is very basic, so anyone who is not a real novice to investing, insurance, etc. will be bored to tears, but for those who really are novices, it was a good introduction. Although this isn't a problem, it does limit her audience.

[Steve]

"Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People" is a good comprehensive general overview of personal finances in life. It introduces most of the types of financial accounts and products one needs to be aware of.

Quinn recommends making a list of all your bank accounts, debts, insurance, retirement accounts, college savings, brokerage house or mutual fund accounts, real estate holdings, and other investments, along with their current values. The list doesn't stop here, though--next to each item, Quinn recommends, "write down why you own it". This helps ensure that the account is in line with your goals, and helps jog the memory when it comes time to make modifications to the account.

The basic recommendations in the book (each get a chapter), are:

* be aware of your spending and saving, and have a "Cushion Fund" for unforeseen circumstances
* pay off any debt (car, home, and college possibly excepted)
* have the right insurance, including life and disability if you have dependants
* buy a house with a simple fixed-rate or variable mortgage
* save for children's college as soon a possible
* invest in target retirement or index mutual funds

Other themes include automating as much of your financial responsibilities as possible, including automated bill pay and savings contributions, and choosing simple offerings over complex financial instruments.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great step by step book that covers everything and gives instruction on who to contact or what to look for when doing all your financial planning. This includees, Insurance, Wills, Trusts, Mortgages, 401Ks, IRAs, what mutual funds to buy, what to avoid, all about diversification, college tuition, and the list goes on. If you want a general understandig of this get the book on tape and listen to it with a pad of paper and a pen.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple and straightforward guide to basic financial health and investing. I recommend the audiobook if you want a good introduction to these concepts; if you want to actually put the program she describes and the included exercises into practice, get the book itself, as one is unlikely to take notes while, for example, listening to the audio book in the car.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Non-Fiction, Financial) This book provides a great overview for financial strategies. Quinn lays a fantastic groundwork for anyone with any amount of money to get their finances headed in a positive direction and keep them headed that way with minimal work. Her book is set up as a to-do list, so I found myself marking steps and to-dos to become more financially organized. Highly recommended!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am very hesitant to read anything with the author pictured on the cover—especially any sort of financial advice book. That said, this short and sweet book has good basic advice for anyone who doesn't want to delve too deep into personal finance but does not want to raked over the coals by the financial products industry.

[Aasim Waheed · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't find anything in this book that was for "busy people"! I'd skip this one and read "Start Late, Finish Rich" by David Bach instead, which is much better by far, in my opinion (see comments elsewhere in my book list). This book has a better section on iife insurance and wills. My rating 3/10.

[Lychee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally have a financial plan thanks to this book (on cd)! I've listened to three or four books about financial management and this one reinforced what I learned from the others, helped me choose between competing adivce, plus put it all together. Now I have to enact my plan.

[Leanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and learned a lot of useful tips. I liked her "hands off" saving and investing approach. I'd reccomend this book to anyone who wants a basic introduction to investing, saving, and insurance plans.

[Renee Pie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The copy I got from the library was from 2006 and is wildly out of date. Because the info is so outdated, rendering much of it useless, I wouldn't even recommend it to folks trying to learn money basics.

[Rayfes Mondal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title says it all. I didn't learn anything and thought it was a bit too simplistic but there wasn't really anything I disagreed with except about ETFs not being everyday investors though the book was written in '06 when those and retirement target date mutual funds were still new too.

[LK]

Not a fun read -- what's fun about finances? -- but I do think this is going to help me make some choices. I wish I'd read it 10 years ago.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for the advice on how to save for kids college and invest for retirement. Solid, straight forward advice and detailed when I wanted it to be.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

very helpful for people who want to build up our financial health.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of clear, simple financial and organizational advice that I still refer to today, several years after first reading it.

[Cari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read it a few years ago and just borrowed it again to re-read the mortgage chapter.

For a book about personal finance, it's very good.

[Asriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone looking to set their financial house in order. Quinn details everything from how to set up automatic bill payments to wills and living wills to retirement savings.

[Aaron Beitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clear summary of a ton of different investing topics and good advice as well.

[Ravi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute must for busy people!

[Dagny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good revew

[Amr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read, yet quite comprehensive and covers many topics.