|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
by Gerry Boyle '78
If when you hear the word "Roth," you think David Lee, not IRA, this is the book for you—or maybe for your kids. Got Money? by Jeff Wuorio '79 is a sort of Michelin Guide to money management, a collection of financial advice given in such down-to-earth terms that even the English majors among his readers will emerge enlightened. This is a book aimed at readers in their 20s and 30s, people who are so busy with new careers, new apartments, new cities that they've had neither the time nor the inclination to ponder the long-term implications of their financial decisions. Reading this book‹and keeping it on the shelf‹could save them, well, a lot of money. Wuorio knows of what he speaks. An English major at Colby, he became a newspaper reporter, not a financier, and learned about money management the hard way. After he received an inheritance, a financial planner convinced him to put some of the money into a municipal bond fund. The earnings were tax free, but years later another financial planner pointed out that Wuorio wasn't earning enough money to need the tax-sheltered fund. "In short, my little foray in munis probably cost me thousands of dollars I could have earned elsewhere," Wuorio writes. "So don't be blinded by the lure of tax free—sometimes a little whap from the tax paddle may actually be a good thing." Wuorio, who lives in Gorham, Maine, eventually turned his financial lessons into a career. For more than 15 years he has written on investing and personal finance for a variety of publications, including Money magazine, The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, Worth and Men's Fitness. He also has contributed to several on-line publications, including Quicken.com, and has geared this book to readers who are just as likely to go to the Internet for financial information as they are to consult a book or magazine. In addition to breezy prose, the book includes lists of Web sites offering information on financial topics, from buying a first house or car, to insurance options and the hazards of credit card debt. The point is simple enough: "Not only does that knowledge head off some pretty nasty financial pitfalls‹mountains of credit card debt, an inability to get a loan or buy a house‹but it can also open up some pretty attractive possibilities‹vacations that you can actually pay for rather than sloughing them off on a credit card, a nice home in which to live, college for your kids, and, perhaps most appealing of all, financial solvency that lasts . . ." The advice is pithy. Wuorio explains the difference between bonds and stocks, certificates of deposit (no, not all CDs contain music). He explains the benefits of renter's insurance, tells how to evaluate a financial planner's credentials and how to better understand your employer's 401K plan. Pretty dry stuff? Not in Wuorio's hands, according to glowing reviews in USA Today and The NewYork Times, among others. After all, this is a book that opens with a quote from that Buffet fellow. Jimmy, not Warren. |
|
readers write | periscope | from the hill | student life | faculty file | books & authors mules on the move | gifts and grants | alumni at large | obituaries | final period
©1999 COLBY COLLEGE |
