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ENDORSEMENTS
“A great credit score can help you finish rich! Liz Weston gives solid, easy-to-understand advice about how to improve your credit fast. Read this book and prosper.”
–David Bach, bestselling author of “The Automatic Millionaire”
“Excellent book! Insightful, well written, and surprisingly interesting. Liz Weston has done an outstanding job demystifying an often intimidating and frustrating topic for the benefit of all consumers.”
–Eric Tyson, bestselling author of “Personal Finance for Dummies”
“In a country where consumers increasingly pay more when they have bad credit, Liz Weston’s book provides excellent tips and advice on ways to improve your credit history and raise your credit score. If you just apply one or two of her insightful suggestions, you’ll save many times the cost of this book.”
–Ilyce R. Glink, financial reporter, talk show host,
and bestselling author of “100 Questions Every
First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask”
“Your credit score can save you money or cost you money–sometimes a lot of money. Yet, most people don’t even know their scores, much less know how to make them better. Liz Weston can help you fix that. In this easy-to-understand guide you’ll learn how to make sure your score helps you get the best deal on loans and insurance. You can’t afford not to read it.”
–Gerri Detweiler, consumer advocate and founder of UltimateCredit.com
“No one makes complex financial information easy to understand like Liz Weston. Her straight-talk and wise advice are invaluable to anyone with a credit card or check book–and that’s just about all of us.”
–Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D., author of “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office”
A simple three-digit number is now critical to your financial life.
This number, known as a credit score, is designed to predict the possibility that you won’t pay your bills. Credit scores are a handy tool for lenders, but can have enormous repercussions for your wallet, your future and your peace of mind.
That would be scary enough if we were just talking about loans. But your credit score affects far more than that. Insurance companies, landlords and even employers use credit to evaluate applicants. A good score can win you cheaper premiums, better apartments and improved job prospects; a bad score can cost you all three.
In Your Credit Score, MSN/L.A. Times personal finance journalist Liz Weston comes to the rescue with specific, up-to-date answers you can trust. Weston explains how to bounce back from bad credit or bankruptcyand tells you exactly how credit counseling, debt negotiation, and other credit solutions can affect your score. Along the way, Weston exposes the myths about credit scoring that can cost you real money if you fall for them.
Your Credit Score gives you what you need most: an action plan for building your credit, fixing it, and maintaining it starting today!
How many credit cards should you have…
…and what should you know about carrying balances?Which credit inquiries hurt your score?
…and which don’t?Will closing accounts really help your credit score?
You may be surprised at the answer.How credit counseling does and doesn’t affect your score
Crucial new information, straight from the source.The fastest way to improve your credit score
Who can actually help-and who’ll rip you off?What you should do before you apply for a mortgage
An action plan that could save you thousands of dollars.
Have you paid a late fee on a credit card or bounced a check in the past year? Did you misplace a bill, a statement or some other financial record that you desperately needed to find? Are you confused about how much insurance you should buy, which health plan you should choose, the right way to save for college or retirement?
Do you ever wish you could spend less time worrying about money?
Then you’re in luck. In “Easy Money”, the Internet’s most-read personal finance expert shows you how to harness today’s technology, tools and techniques to simplify your financial decisions and get on with your life.
Put an end to bounced checks, unfair fees and questions about where all the money went. Protect yourself against identity theft. Organize and streamline your finances so you reach your goals without worry or stress.
The book shows readers how to buy houses and cars, get the most out of their credit cards, establish a “no-sweat” plan for retirement and implement an easy way to save for college. Easy Money is for everyone who has money to manage or financial decisions to make, especially the millions of Americans who find themselves overwhelmed with the amount of work it takes to manage their finances. Easy Money makes it easy to use technology to simplify financial decision-making and achieve financial success.
» Buy it now at Amazon.com
Most people will carry debt for much of their lives – that’s just reality. But most books on debt focus mainly on how to pay it all off, and live forever without it. Too often, following that advice leads only to failure. People either give up or pay off the wrong kinds of debt. They strand themselves with too little flexibility to survive a financial crisis and land in bankruptcy court. They neglect saving for retirement, homes, or college, and end up poorer than they should have been.
For most people, it’s more realistic and smarter to manage debt effectively, rather than eliminate it completely. In Deal with Your Debt, award-winning personal finance columnist Liz Weston shows you how. Weston explodes the myths surrounding debt and reveals which debts can actually contribute to your wealth and flexibility. At the same time, she identifies your truly “toxic” debts, helping you pay those off as rapidly as possible.
Deal with Your Debt offers realistic (and often surprising) guidance on everything from home equity loans and 401K borrowing to small business loans. Follow Weston’s guidance and you can make debt work for you, not against you!
Debt free – is it really the way to be? Not always, and here’s why
Build your personal three-step debt management plan
Know what you owe, how it fits into your overall portfolio, and what to do nextQuestions to ask before you tap your home equity
Avoid the hidden pitfalls of home equity borrowingThe truth about student loans, car loans, and retirement loans
Know the small print, and save thousands
“A wonderful basic personal finance book….[with] enough counterintuitive ideas to keep even people who know a bit about personal finance reading further.”
-The New York Times
“Financial columnist Weston provides a workable happy medium between fear and fecklessness… A godsend for the financially befuddled, bewildered, or just plain anxious.”
-Publishers Weekly