[.ca] Making The Most of Your Money (ISBN 0684811766)

From Amazon.com:
Bestselling author Jane Bryant Quinn has revised and updated her classic 1991 primer on finance, Making the Most of Your Money, to prepare readers for the challenging fiscal atmosphere that she sees in the coming century. Written in her familiar, easily understood style, it starts out by helping you determine exactly where you stand on money matters and explaining basic money management techniques. Next, Quinn offers comprehensive discussions about insurance needs, home ownership, college funding, investment planning, and retirement. A useful series of appendices provides additional information on insurance, college, bonds, pensions, and more.

This book has been valuable to me for eleven years.:
I originally bought this book called "Making the Most of Your Money" back in 1992 in order to help me with estate planning and general financial advice: I was only 24 years-old. That being said I don't know how Quinn could have stolen the title from Ray Linder's book since Quinn's original book was published before Ray Linder's book (1995). For the record, we have followed the advice of Quinn's original book. Overall our net worth increased substantially during the period 1999-2004 because we were diversified and we continued to invest throughout. We also saved around 15-20% per year: not as good as the 30% per year that another reviewer from Japan recommends, but still a decent amount considering we live in one of the most expensive areas in the U.S. I totally disagree with those who say that the 1991 version of the book pushes annuities and cash value insurance. My father-in-law who is a CFP and insurance agent always hated Quinn's advice because she recommended Term Insurance. We personally don't own any annuities, but our parents like them so maybe we'll invest in them in the future. I do agree with those who say you shouldn't rely on the book for detailed investing, estate planning, college savings, and insurance purchases. For that you should find a detailed up-to-date book on the specific subject that interests you and then consult a good CFP, accountant, or estate-planning attorney. There are a lot of things that have changed since 1991; as a result the book is out of date in many respects. In conclusion, the book was very helpful to me as an introduction to personal finance, estate planning, and purchasing insurance. It was a very good book when it was published 12 years ago. However, a lot of things have changed making the book out of date in specifics. But, I still believe that the general advice in the book is good.

Mostly 1970's advice:
The bulk of this book is just regurgitated information from a book that Quinn wrote back in 1979. The newest piece of information that I found were the new (ha-ha) Roth IRA's This book is really 180 pages of information fluffed out to 1,000 pages of mostly useless trash. The most useful stuff can be found on the internet for FREE. If you really want to read this book you can borrow it from your library for FREE. It will be there. This is not a hot book with a huge waiting list. I also found it amusing to see this book listed with Suze Orman's great book The Road To Wealth here at Amazon. No doubt this is just an attempt by Quinn to jump on Suze Ormans coat tails (just like she did with Venita Van Caspel in late 70's and early 80's) The Road To Wealth is an excellent book that has content which is also current by the way and Suze Orman has the credentials to boot. What credentials does Quinn have? I rest my case! Skip this book and buy The Road To Wealth, The Automatic Millionaire or something useful. You may also want to buy the original version of this book; Making The Most of Your Money by Ray Linder. JEESH QUIIN: You can't even come up with an original title for Gods sake!

Might have been a good book 25 years ago:
I was in a used book store and came across a copy of Quinn's earlier book called "Everyone's Money Book" that was released back in 1979. It is 800 pages and for all practical purposes the same book as Making The Most of Your Money (which was also being sold at the same used book store for two bucks) Why buy a book that has 25 year old infomration? Doesn't make sense. And please do not confuse these books with the original titles: Making the Most of Your Money by Ray Linder Everyones Money Book by Goodman Save your money. This book isn't worth it. The only thing keeping this book in amazon's top 10,000 (actually top 300,000) is that paid JBQ shill who spends all day and all night here clicking that five star button.

Incomplete, confusing and boring:
From reading passagers of this huge tome by Quinn, it is all so obvious what she has copied from other financial authors...and what she has left out. In some areas Quinn rattles on and on buut never seems to get to the point. Somewhat like asking someone for the time and they try (incorrectly) to explain how a watch works and leaves you wondering; what the heck was that all about? Another problem is that this book is now about 8 years old. A lot of changes have occurred in personal finance during the last 8 years. Although the book looks intimadating by it's size, the real problem is how much is left out. I recommend Suzes Orman's excellent book The Road To Wealth in place of, not in addition to this book. Other good books to get you up to speed include 10 Smart Money Moves For Women, Smart Women Finish Rich and 9 Steps to Financial Freedom.

Almost as Imporant:
As a companion book to "How to Make the Most of Yourself," this anthology can begin to reveal the other decisions of life that are important for everyone, and place in perspective the priorities we have, and those we make, and how. Usually leads to a comfortable life, if not always a happy one. Highly recommended for those who consider the deprivations of life as related to their finances and the power they possess rather than the satisfactions of life from other more elusive sources that cannot be spent but may be longer lasting and self fulfilling. Usually a help in making money!