Making the Most of Your Money

Rating:
Summary: Excellent as a base.
Review: Ms Quinn has written a very good book on personal finance. I bought this book when I saw it was recommended by Charles Schwab. The book is very big and it is a lot of reading, although, easy to read and understand. I don't totally agree with her opinion on stock splits. They are tricky. If you check AMTD, AMZN, CMGI, MSFT, LU and a few others, you will see that it is indeed easy and predictable to more than double your money very quickly with splits. On the other hand check NBTY, RI and some others-- dead in the water. Obviously, I play splits and believe in them, but you have to be careful. I do prefer to see someone like JBQ warning investors on splits than seeing others pushing splits as a get rich quick scheme. It doesn't work all of the time. Overall a good book. I also suggest More Wealth Without Risk and The Millionaire Next Door. These are also "Wealth Building Books" not "Get Rich Quick Books". Nice book. But I wouldn't make this your only financial book.

Rating:
Summary: Mostly 1970's advice
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Almost as Imporant
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Almost as Imporant
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: This book has been valuable to me for eleven years.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Incomplete, confusing and boring
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Might have been a good book 25 years ago
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book to help fund Quinn's retirement
Review: I really don't know why this book is still around and find the 5 star reviews supporting this old, outmoded book laughable. This book, Making The Most of Your Money by Quinn was not very good for it's time (1991) and it is way out of touch with today's financial needs.

Yeah, I know the book came out in 1997 which means it was probably written back in 1996 but for the most part is the same book Quinn wrote back in 1990 and was released in 1991.

I do recommend the original version of this book Making The Most of Your Money by Ray Linder. Aside from the fact that the only worthwhile information that Quinn offers her was copied from real financial pros (Quinn is just a writer, not a financial anything), even the title was copied from anotehr author.

Talk about uncreative and sneaky. Five star reviews I agree that this is an excellent book that has been making money for Quinn, not the readers. So when you say this is an excellent book you are only half right. What you always neglect to mention is who the book is excellent for. Certaintly no the readers.

Buy Suze Orman, Jonathan Pond, Ray Linder, Eric Tyson or Dave Bach. Don't buy Quinn. Not unless you want to looose all of your money.

Rating:
Summary: An indespensible step-by-step guide to achieving wealth.
Review: This book is solely responsible for peaking my interest in personal finances and guiding to me financial success. This is NOT a get-rich-quick scheme, but rather a comprehensive wealth of knowledge. It is laid out in such a way as to guide the reader from simple personal budgeting to investing in securites to establishing a solid retirement nestegg. It covers saving and paying for college, life insurance, etc... all in one step-by-step format that is easily adapted to any lifestyle and will serve as a valuable reference tool for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: One big boring discussion
Review: Before I say why I disliked this book, I will say that in my opinion, most books on personal finance are poorly written, are inapplicable to their target audience, and/or just plain wrong. This is a large book, and I will credit it for defining or explaining just about every conceivable savings/investment vehicle. For whatever this book lacks, or where i feel it treats an idea wrongly, this book is nonetheless, very thorough.

HOWEVER, - most of the information is inapplicable to the general public, some of the information discusses financial products that are not commonly available, if at all, and most of the sections can be distilled down to a few sentences, this is not to mention that if you followed many 'money saving strategies in the book, you would not have time to sleep or eat chasing after that extra nickel. With the new tax codes written from the Reagan years on, there are no more write offs for most people, everything is way to expensive, and bank interest is a joke. Here is a synopsis of the book:

1. Save more money

If you use her college planner, you will see that unless you are amongst the top income earners in america, you will have to choose between food and saving for college tuition. If you have money to implement Mrs. Quinns suggestions, you dont need the book because you will have a financial rep. and a lawyer of your own to make these decisions for you.

Of course I add a lot of my own bias to this book. Unfortunately I can stand most financial magazines, writers and books because they do not proceed on the assumption that the american economy has exploited the american family, and the very fact that this book needs to address parents saving incredible amounts of money for their children's college tuition while the baby is still in its bassonet is proof positive of the book's own insanity.

My suggestion is that you do not buy this book and help to fund Mrs. Quinn's retirement, but that you buy smaller, shorter, more focused books on individual topics. For most people I believe you should start with one of the 'Dummies' series and go from there. Good luck.