THE GURU GUIDES

There are over 8,000 personal finance and investment books in print. Over 300 were published in 2002 alone. They come in every shape and form from quick “how to..” paperbacks to academic tomes to “get rich quick” treatises to detailed explanations of the “secrets” of the millionaires and rich dads who live next door. They are written by the expected—financial advisors, CPAs, and investment counselors—and the highly unusual—motivational speakers, psychotherapists, and at least one who bills himself as “a windsurfer, inventor, and prison fellowship ministry volunteer.” Almost every non-fiction best seller list contains at least one money management book and frequently more than one. Some money management gurus such as Suze Orman, described as the “queen of money advice” are sufficiently popular to have multiple books on the non-fiction best seller lists at the same time. Some stay on the best seller list for months, even years.

The financial gurus offer a wide range of advice which is often conflicting. For example, some argue that you should maximize your earnings, minimize your expenses, meet your obligations—and make sure that you have some sort of nest egg to provide for your old age and to pass along to the kids. Others say that wealth is to be spent while you’re alive, either on yourself or your loved ones, and your goal in life should be to LIVE RICH and DIE BROKE. It is small comfort to know that whether you believe that consumption is the path to grace or saving is the way to salvation, you will find at least one guru to support your position.

Readers are confused about where to turn to for information they can really rely upon, whose financial advice they should seek out and even what questions they should ask. When they do find answers to their questions, they are perplexed because they can’t be sure the answers are correct. After all, what are they to make of the financial gurus promises that readers of their books will learn how to “build a million-dollar portfolio on $3.50 a day,” “increase their income by 10 percent in nine weeks,” “earn an extra million in their lifetime,” “earn …up to a 50% return on their investments—guaranteed,” “double their money in the stock market—FAST,” and become wealthy on as little as a dollar a day?

The volume and confusing range of advice America’s financial gurus offer makes them perfect candidates for the synthesis and “sense making” that can be found in the Guru Guides(TM). The Guru Guide to Money Management dissects the advice of America’s top personal finance management gurus, exposes their conflicts and contradictions and separates the practical from the ethereal.

The Guru Guide(TM) to Money Management provides you with a clear, concise and informative digest of to the best thinking about money management today. Like the original Guru Guide(TM)(Wiley, 1998), we have designed this Guide to be more than just an overview of current thinking. We go further to link and cross-link the ideas to show where the experts agree and disagree. Finally, we provide an evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses.

OUR GURUS

In selecting our gurus, we began by making a list of established money management authorities and media personalities such Clark Howard, Jane Bryant Quinn, and Suze Orman. We added authorities on the rich such as Thomas Stanley who wrote The Millionaire Mind and investment wizards such as Warren Buffet, Arthur Levitt, Peter Lynch, and the Motley Fools, David and Tom Gardner. Then, we went looking for the new comers. We browsed the online and offline bookstores. We consulted with our friends and associates. Whose advice did they listen to? We cruised the Internet. We searched the mainstream press. What journal articles and books on money management were people reading and talking about? Who did the popular media—TV, radio, business periodical—cite on money management and investing issues? Who was widely recognized as THE authority in personal finance management and investing? Who was getting recognized? Who was being quoted? Who’s ideas were being discussed? Who’s were being cussed?

Because the economy has changed so dramatically in the last few years, we focused our search primarily on the most significant books and articles that had been published over the last few years. We checked the best-seller lists to see what people were reading, and we asked our friends, clients, and associates to recommend people they thought had unique money management and investing insights. We ultimately narrowed our list down to the 88 gurus listed here.

Robert Allen, author of Multiple Steams of Income

Ginger Applegarth, author of Wake Up and Smell the Money

Gloria Arenson, author of Born to Spend

Murray Baker, author of The Debt-Free Graduate

Gary Belsky, coauthor of Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them

Stacie Zoe Berg, author of The Unofficial Guide to Managing Your Personal Finances

Jacquelline Blix, coauthor of Getting a Life

Mark Bryan, coauthor of The Money Drunk

Julia Cameron, coauthor of The Money Drunk

David Caruso, coauthor of Let’s Talk Money

Nancy Castleman, coauthor of Invest in Yourself

Jean Chatsky, author of Talking Money

Jane Chidester, coauthor of BudgetYes!

Sherry Christie, coauthor of Money Shy to Money Sure and Overcoming Overspending

Jonathan Clements, author of 25 Myths You’ve Got to Avoid If You Want to Manage Your Money Right

Amy Dacyczyn, author of The Complete Tightwad Gazette

William Danko, coauthor of The Millionaire Next Door

Gerri Detweiler, coauthor of Invest in Yourself

Joe Dominguez, coauthor of Your Money or Your Life

Ric Edelman author of New Rules of Money and The Truth About Money

Marc Eisenson, coauthor of Invest in Yourself

Debra Englander, author of How to be Your Own Financial Planner

Susan Forward, author of Money Demons

David Gardner, coauthor of The Motley Fool Investment Guide and You Have More Than You Think

Tom Gardner, coauthor of The Motley Fool Investment Guide and You Have More Than You Think

Thomas Gilovich, coauthor of Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them

Ilyce Glink, author of 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Improve Your Personal Finances

Neale S. Godfrey, author of Making Change

Andrew Hacker, author of Money: Who Has How Much and Why

Bob Hammond, action of Life After Debt

Christopher L. Hayes, coauthor of Money Makeovers

Christy Heady, coauthor of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Managing Your Money

Robert Heady, coauthor of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Managing Your Money

David Heitmiller, coauthor of Getting a Life

Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich

Bambi Holzer, author of Retire Rich

Clark Howard, author of Get Clark Smart

Mary Hunt, author of Mary Hunt’s Debt Proof Living and
Mary Hunt’s The Complete Cheapskate

Mary Ivins, author of Financial Security for Women

Azriela Jaffe, co author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Beating Debt

Jason Kelly, author of The Neatest Little Guide to Personal Finance

Kate Kelly, coauthor of Money Makeovers

Mike Kidwell coauthor of Get Out of Debt

George Kinder, author of The Seven Stages of Money Maturity

Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing and Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant

Deborah Knuckey, author of The Ms Spent Money Guide

Kathy Kristof, author of Kathy Kristof’s Complete Book of Dollars and Sense

Phil Laut, author of Money is My Friend

Dee Lee, coauthor of Let’s Talk Money

Dwight Lee, coauthor of Getting Rich in America

Mark Levine, coauthor of Live Rich and Die Broke

Arthur Levitt, former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and coauthor of Take on the Street

Nancy Lloyd, author of Simple Money Solutions

Marshall Loeb, author of Marshall Loeb’s Lifetime Financial Strategies

Peter Lynch, coauthor of Learn to Earn

John Macko, coauthor of BudgetYes!

Richard McKenzie, coauthor of Getting Rich in America

Deborah McNaughton, coauthor of The Insider’s Guide to Managing Your Credit

Olivia Mellan, coauthor of Money Shy to Money Sure and Overcoming Overspending

Mark Miller, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being a Cheapskate

Ted Miller author of Kiplinger’s Practical Guide to Your Money

Edward Mrkbivka, author of Your Bank is Ripping You Off

Stephen Nelson, author of The Millionaire Kit

Maria Nemeth, in The Energy of Money

Holly Nicholson, author of Money & You

James O’Shaughnessy, author of How to Retire Rich

Suze Orman, author of 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, Suze Orman’s Financial Guidebook and The Courage to be Rich

Greg Pahl, author of The Unofficial Guide to Beating Debt

Joan Perry, coauthor of A Girl Needs Cash,

Stephen Pollan, coauthor of Live Rich and Die Broke

Jonathan Pond, author of Your Money Matters

Jane Bryant Quinn author of Making the Most of Your Money

Dave Ramsey, author of Financial Peace and More than Enough

Steve Rhode, coauthor of Get Out of Debt

Vicki Robin, coauthor of Your Money or Your Life

Terry Savage, author of The Savage Truth on Money

Charles Schwab, author of Charles Schwab’s Guide to Financial Independence and You’re Fifty—Now What?

Robert Sheard, author of The Unemotional Investor

Don Silver, author of The Generation Y Money Book

Thomas Stanley, coauthor of The Millionaire Next Door and The Millionaire Mind

Barbara Stanny, author of Prince Charming Isn’t Coming

Julie Stav, author of Fund Your Future

Brooke Stephens, author of Wealth Happens One Day at a Time

Stephen Strauss, coauthor of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Beating Debt

Howard Strong, author of What Every Credit Card User Needs to Know

David Teitelbaum, author of The Procrastinator’s Guide
to Financial Security

Eric Tyson, author of Personal Finance for Dummies

Ralph Warren, author of Get a Life

Our gurus are the best and/or most popular personal finance management and investment writers and thinkers. You won’t agree with everything they have to say—we don’t either—but we are confident that they will stimulate your thinking, point you in new directions, and challenge many of your best-loved assumptions about what it takes to effectively manage your money and invest for success.

ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK

We have designed this book to be your reference manual to the current challenges we all face in managing our personal finances. It is organized around key money management issues. We cover each issue in a separate chapter and present a summary of the best thinking of a panel of money management gurus about that issue. We show where the gurus agree and disagree. When our gurus offer different approaches—such as a different sequence of steps to follow in addressing an issue or solving a financial problem—we use tables, charts, and exhibits to illustrate the similarities and differences.

We have organized our gurus’ ideas into eleven chapters.

Chapter 1: Understanding Your Relationship with Money provides an overview of our gurus’ recommendations concerning how you can root out any dysfunctional thoughts you might have about money and replace them with healthier money attitudes and beliefs. With our gurus’ help, we show you how to start feeling like a million when it comes to managing your money and thinking like a millionaire.

Chapter 2: Getting Your Financial House in Order provides step-by-step guidance from our gurus on how you can calculate your net worth and cash flow. We show you how to read and evaluate your net worth and cash flow statements and how to begin developing financial and life goals. We conclude this chapter with our gurus’ advice on how to determine if you need professional advice and assistance in managing your money and how to select a financial planner who is right for you.

In Chapter 3: Making Money and Protecting Your Income , we present our gurus advice on the right and wrong ways to make money and show you four strategies for boosting your income. We conclude this chapter with some sage advice on cutting your taxes and show you the steps our gurus say you should follow to find a bank that’s right for you where you can stash all of your new found cash.

Chapter 4: Spending and Saving shows you how to determine if you are overspending and presents nine strategies for getting your spending under control. We then review our gurus’ step-by-step guidance for developing a spending plan (a.k.a., a budget) that works. We conclude this chapter with five money saving ideas from our gurus that will help you simplify your life and start living happily as a tightwad.

In Chapter 5: All About Insurance we review our gurus recommendations for how you can get the best deals on life, disability, health, long-term care, homeowners/renters, and auto insurance. We share our gurus’ guidance on how to determine the amount and type of insurance you need and how to find an insurance company that is right for you.

In Chapter 6: Debit and Credit we present our gurus guidance on how to determine if you are carrying too much debt. We then outline a “rapid debt reduction” program that our gurus praise as a effective and painless way to pay off your debt and explain why they say “quick fix’ schemes such as using a home equity loan to pay off debt is a bad idea. We conclude this chapter with an overview of our gurus advice on selecting and using credit and debit cards and the tips they offer for using credit cards wisely.

Chapter 7: Borrowing for Big-ticket Items covers our gurus recommendations for how to get the best deal on auto loans, student loans, and home mortgages.

Finally in Chapter 8: Investment Basics and Chapter Eleven: Investing for Retirement we turn to the topic of investing. We discuss what our gurus say are the pros and cons of different types of investments (stocks, bonds, real estate, and so on) and tell you what they say are “investments to avoid.” We then look at what our gurus have to say about the advantages and disadvantages of investing through mutual funds and summarize their advice for picking a mutual fund that suites your investment style. We conclude the book with a review of our gurus advice for investing for retirement. We show you methods they recommend for calculating how much you will need for retirement and review what our gurus say are five essential strategies for minimizing market risk and maximizing return when it comes to managing your retirement investments
We conclude the book with an appendix in which we provide biographies for all of the gurus, including in many instances postal addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses where they can be reached.

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