Personal Finance

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This market-leading text offers a student-friendly, practical introduction to managing personal finances. The structured pedagogy helps students learn how to save and invest, manage student loans, file taxes, decrease credit card debt and plan for the future. Throughout the text, students receive advice from personal finance experts, and read a variety of real-life scenarios about people facing a wide range of financial challenges. Many examples, mathematical in nature, illustrate the critical importance of achieving long-term financial goals through investing. The Ninth Edition captures student interest and focuses the reader's attention on the most important concepts. Key Feature New You Must Be Kidding, Right? narratives open every chapter and introduce the financial topics to be examined. Each narrative is followed by a question and four potential answers. The results are often unexpected and provide an excellent opportunity to engage students. New Good Habits in Personal Finance boxes in every chapter provide practical advice for managing personal finances for life. Updated Advice from a Pro boxes are co-authored by some of the United States' best personal finance experts from both academia and the financial planning industry. Topics include "Seven Money Mantras for a Richer Life," "How Inflation Affects Borrowing," "Saving, and Investing," and "Control and Reduce Your Credit Card Debt." New Instant Messages brief inserts provide practical advice on personal financial issues and opportunities. Directives include "Compare salaries and living costs on the 'Net," "Save $4.66 for Every $1 Not Saved Earlier," "Tax-free Employee Benefits," and "'Chase'ing College Students on Facebook." Updated Did you Know? boxes address topics including "Value of Additional Education," "How to Get a Raise," "Student Loans Can Cause High Debt-to-Equity Ratios," and "Timesharing Is Not an Investment." Financial Planning Cases require students to consider key concepts when analyzing typical personal financial problems, dilemmas, and challenges that face individuals and couples. Also featured are the popular Harry and Belinda Johnson case study, which follows a young married couple, and the Victor and Maria Hernandez case study, which focuses on a family moving from mid-life into retirement. These cases can be analyzed in a logical series from chapter to chapter as the families deal with changing needs and priorities. Because the cases are designed to be both continuous and independent of the other chapters' cases, each case can be analyzed by itself. The series of case questions requires data analysis and/or critical thinking, and this effort reinforces mastery of chapter concepts. End-of-chapter On the 'Net features offer 2-to-3 Internet-based exercises, activities or focused questions that encourage students to research and apply chapter concepts using on-line calculators and other Web resources. Table of Contents I. Financial Planning 1. Understanding Personal Finance 2. Career Planning 3. Financial Statements, Tools, and Budgets II. Money Management 4. Managing Income Taxes 5. Managing Checking and Savings Accounts 6. Building and Maintaining Good Credit 7. Credit Cards and Consumer Loans 8. Vehicle and Other Major Purchases 9. Buying Your Home III. Income and Asset Protection 10. Managing Property and Liability Risk 11. Managing Health Care Expenses 12. Life Insurance Planning IV. Investments 13. Investment Fundamentals 14. Investing in Stocks and Bonds 15. Investing Through Mutual Funds 16. Real Estate and High-Risk Investments V. Retirement and Estate Planning 17. Retirement Planning 18. Estate Planning