Yet only half of all eligible Americans contribute to a retirement plan. That’s because all plans—including the 401(k), 403(b), 457, and even the IRA—are complicated, confusing, and costly. New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed financial advisor Ric Edelman has counseled thousands of savers and retirees and has accumulated his advice in this book. Edelman has created a step-by-step guide. With illuminating prose and simple explanations, he shares everything you need to know as a plan participant: how to contribute even when you think you can’t afford to, how to make wise choices among your investment options, and how to convert your 401(k) into income so you can provide yourself with the lifestyle you want in retirement. Along the way, he debunks the myths and clears up the confusion.

    With 77 million baby boomers entering the program, questions about what Medicare is and how it affects seniors are certain to arise. Medicare For Dummies addresses this uncertain topic and helps those eligible for Medicare benefits maneuver the complicated process. Topics include: summary of Medicare benefits; Medicare coverage options; Medicare rights and protections; updated information on changes to Medicare based on recent changes in healthcare legislation; how the economy affects Medicare; and more. * Includes up-to-date information on the changing healthcare landscape so recipients can take advantage of the new provisions * Helps readers make sense of Medicare in these uncertain times If you're one of the millions of Americans looking to get the lowdown on Medicare, this hands-on, friendly guide has you covered.

    If you’re like most people moving into the phase of life where protecting—as well as growing-- assets is paramount, you’re faced with a number of financial puzzles.  Maybe you’re struggling to get your kids through college without drawing down your life’s savings. Perhaps you sense your nest egg is at risk and want to move into safer investments. Maybe you’re contemplating downsizing to a smaller home, but aren’t sure of the financial implications. Possibly, medical expenses have become a bigger drain than you expected and you need help assessing options.  Perhaps you’ll shortly be eligible for social security but want to optimize when and how to take it.Whatever your specific financial issue, one thing is certain—your range of choices is vast. As the financial world becomes increasingly complex, what you need is deeply researched advice from professionals whose credentials are impeccable and who prize clarity and straightforwardness over financial mumbo-jumbo.Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz and the Schwab team have been helping clients tackle their toughest money issues for decades.  Through Carrie’s popular “Ask Carrie” columns, her leadership of the Charles Schwab Foundation, and her work across party lines through two White House administrations and with the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, she has become one of America’s most trusted sources for financial advice. Here, Carrie will not only answer all the questions that keep you up at night, she’ll provide answers to many questions you haven’t considered but should.

    Millions of Americans today are near financial disaster-spending more money than they are bringing in, and losing control of their money. Lauren Greutman knows how that feels. For years, she struggled with too many bills to pay and not enough money to pay them. When Lauren found herself drowning in debt, she finally faced her extreme spending habits and took action.In The Recovering Splender, Lauren shares her story and offers advice that is based on the many strategies she developed to change her own life and bring her family budget back to black. Lauren shows her readers, step-by-step, how to get rid of bad money habits, pay down debt, and stay within a budget.Some of the action chapters in the book are:Take an Inventory of Your SpendingDeclutter Your FinancesDo an Expense AuditCurb Your Spending and Define Your ValuesLauren exchanged the overrated, stressed-out American dream for a new one-a happier life filled with family, friends, and financial freedom-and now you can do the same!

    

    So what makes this one different? Well, you won't be overwhelmed with a bunch of 'tips' … or a strict budget (that you won't follow). You'll get a step-by-step formula: open this account, then do this; call this person, and say this; invest money here, and not there. All with a glass of wine in your hand. This book will show you how to create an entire financial plan that is so simple you can sketch it on the back of a serviette … and you'll be able to manage your money in 10 minutes a week. You'll also get the skinny on: Saving up a six-figure house deposit in 20 months Doubling your income using the 'Trapeze Strategy' Saving $78,173 on your mortgage and wiping out 7 years of payments Finding a financial advisor who won't rip you off Handing your kids (or grandkids) a $140,000 cheque on their 21st birthday Why you don't need $1 million to retire … with the 'Donald Bradman Retirement Strategy' Sound too good to be true? It's not. This book is full of stories from everyday Aussies — single people, young families, empty nesters, retirees — who have applied the simple steps in this book and achieved amazing, life-changing results. And you're next.

    They’re wrong. When University of Chicago professor Harold Pollack interviewed Helaine Olen, an award-winning financial journalist and the author of the bestselling Pound Foolish, he made an off­-hand suggestion: everything you need to know about managing your money could fit on an index card. To prove his point, he grabbed a 4" x 6" card, scribbled down a list of rules, and posted a picture of the card online. The post went viral. Now Pollack teams up with Olen to explain why the ten simple rules of the index card outperform more complicated financial strategies. Inside is an easy-to-follow action plan that works in good times and bad, giving you the tools, knowledge, and confidence to seize control of your financial life.

    And everything is based on the “science of investing” – evidenced with studies from peer-reviewed journals.Overall, this adds up to a complete retirement guide, packed with the latest and best knowledge. Don’t enter your retirement without it.

    A guide based on the tenets of the award-winning financial platform, "You Need a Budget," argues that a well-planned budget does not involve deprivation and counsels readers on how to prioritize financial goals, reduce stress through strategic cash flow allocations and meet the challenges of unplanned expenses.

    In the first episode of her “Bad With Money” podcast, Gaby Dunn asked random people at a coffee shop two questions: First, what’s your favorite sex position? Everyone was game to answer, even the barista. No holds barred. Then, she asked them how much money was in their bank accounts. Deathly silence. People were aghast. “That’s a very personal question!” they cried. And therein lies the problem.Gaby argues that our inability to speak honestly about money is our #1 barrier to understanding it, nurturing a stigma that leads to our shame, embarrassment, and anxiety, which in turn prevents us from taking ownership over this important part of our lives. She wants you to know that there are real reasons to feel helpless when it comes to managing your money, and that the patronizing know-it-alls on TV who blow air horns in your face and charge you up the wazoo for their self-help seminars do not have the answers.But despair not, there is a light at the end of this dark, moneyless tunnel. Through her own journey toward “financial literacy,” Gaby uncovers the real reasons that we feel so disempowered when it comes to finance—deeply rooted habits we inherited from our families, systemic imbalances, and intentionally-complicated terminology that makes it impossible for regular people to feel competent. Bad With Money isn’t going to tell you how to get rich or erase your debt, nor will it offer up a litany of humiliating confessions about horrible financial decisions that Gaby has made (okay, maybe some): it is an invitation from a friend who is just as clueless as you are. Equal parts memoir and journalistic investigation, Gaby covers topics like the financial dynamics of dating, the costs of mental health, and how to maintain your self-respect as a freelancer. In addition to debunking the “entitled millennial” stereotype, Gaby reveals essential truths like how “401K” is not the name of a sci-fi movie, why it feels like your bank teller is speaking a foreign language, and how to decide whether to take an unpaid internship.Weaving her own stories with the perspectives of various researchers, artists, students, her parents, a financial psychologist, her exes, and more, she reveals the ways that money makes us feel confused, hopeless, and terrified, and what it might look like to start taking control of our financial futures.

    With her signature mix of insight, compassion, and soul-deep recognition, she equips women with the financial knowledge and emotional awareness to overcome the blocks that have kept them from making more out of the money they make. At the center of the book is The Save Yourself Plan--a streamlined, five-month program that delivers genuine long-term financial security. But what's at stake is far bigger than money itself: It's about every woman's sense of who she is and what she deserves, and why it all begins with the decision to save yourself. Join the Movement to Save Yourself with this Unprecedented Offer to Readers of Women & Money: Suze Orman believes that having an account of your own is the cornerstone of long-term financial security, and so she has begun a national movement called Save Yourself to turn this wish--that every woman have an account in her own name--into a reality. She is joined in this crusade by the financial brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, which has come up with an extraordinary offer for readers of WOMEN & MONEY. Follow Suze's Save Yourself Plan and open an account in your name with TD Ameritrade. Commit to an automatic deposit of at least $50 per month for twelve consecutive months, and TD Ameritrade will provide the incentive in the form of a $100 deposit into your account in the thirteenth month. In other words, you save $600 or more over the course of a year, and TD Ameritrade will reward that effort with a $100 bonus. Learn more inside the book or at www.saveyourself.com.Offer valid for one new TD AMERITRADE account (non-retirement) opened between 2/27/07 and 3/31/08, and funded by 12 monthly consecutive automatic electronic deposits of $50 or more. First $50 must be deposited within 30 days of opening account. To be eligible, you must be a U.S. resident aged 18 or older. See www.saveyourself.com for obligations and limitations and to accept this offer. This is not an offer or solicitation in any jurisdiction where TD AMERITRADE is not authorized to do business. Random House, Inc., does not endorse, is not associated with, and has no responsibility for the TD AMERITRADE offer. TD AMERITRADE, Random House, Inc., and Suze Orman are separate and not affiliated, and each of them is not responsible for the services and information provided by the other(s). TD AMERITRADE, Inc., member NASD/SIPC.

    She gives her readers even more of what they love about the blog: lots of creative, helpful ideas and advice for moms on a budget along with stories from her own journey to discovering what the Good Life is really all about.

    Many retirees or soon-to-be retirees have heard a plethora of advice. Take 100 (or 120) and subtract your age to get your equity allocation, put the rest in bonds or cash. Buy only bonds. Buy only high dividend stocks. Or some combination! Buy equity-indexed annuities or some "guaranteed" income product. All examples of a potentially harmful myth many folks believe to be smart, strategic moves.Investors believe preparing for retirement requires a radically different set of tools or a dizzying array of products. Navigating the world of retirement products and services can be a full-time job. But investing for retirement is, in practice, not much (if at all) different from investing. In Your Retirement Plan, Ken Fisher will give readers a workable strategy to either develop their own retirement investing plan or work more successfully with a professional to increase the likelihood of achieving long-term goals while avoiding common pitfalls. The book will include easy-to-follow steps likeHow to think, correctly, about investing time horizon. How to better figure how much income you need How to determine if a portfolio can provide that income How to figure how much to save each year to achieve retirement goals What pitfalls to avoid And more. . . . In this retirement planning book that's not just for retirees, Fisher will hand readers the tools and confidence they need to better plan for the future.

    That won’t happen if you use a few tricks for squeezing higher payments from your assets—from your Social Security account (find the hidden values there), pension (monthly income or lump sum?), home equity (sell and invest the proceeds or take a reverse mortgage?), savings (should you buy a lifetime annuity?), and retirement accounts (how to invest and—critically—how much to withdraw from your savings each year?). The right moves will not only raise the amount you have to spend, they’ll stretch out your money over many more years.You will also learn to look at your savings and investments in a new way. If you stick with super-safe choices the money might not last. You need safe money to help pay the bills in your early retirement years. But to ensure that you’ll still have spending money 10 and 20 years from now, you have to invest for growth, today. Quinn shows you how. At a time when people are living longer, yet retiring with a smaller pot of savings than they’d hoped for, this book will become the essential guide.

    But for too many Americans, that's the fate that awaits unless they take steps now to plan for the future.Whether you’re twenty-five and starting your first job or fifty-five and watching the career clock start to wind down, today is the day to get serious about your retirement.In Retire Inspired, Chris Hogan teaches that retirement isn’t an age; it’s a financial number—an amount you need to live the life in retirement that you’ve always dreamed of. With clear investing concepts and strategies, Chris will educate and empower you to make your own investing decisions, set reasonable expectations for your spouse and family, and build a dream team of experts to get you there.You don’t have to retire broke, stressed, and working long after you want to. You can retire inspired!