Can You Really Find Personal Finance eBooks for Free Download?

It can be hard to find any summarized information online for personal finance education without having to give away your email address or buy something. I have been reading a lot of blogs and websites and books, but for some reason, I do enjoy the occasional ebook. Often times, ebooks offer a great compressed version of key information from people’s blogs or books.

Here are some resources that I have found that offer truly free ebooks or PDFs of some very useful information and education on personal finance and a wealthy mindset. (Some of them do want to sell you something also, but you can still get these for free without purchasing anything).

List of Free eBooks on Personal Finance & Motivation

• Dream Manifesto from Thomas Herold -Herold offers an amazing site with topics ranging from Mind and Body to Personal Finance, to Simplifying Your Life. I also find his blog very refreshing. Download his free eBook, The Priciples of Successful Manifesting, right now. [PDF]
• Mint.com found 30 Free eBooks for Personal Finance – This list offers free ebooks from accross the web on topics ranging from personal finance to credit to privacy and consumer advocacy. What can I say? Thanks Mint for compiling such a great list. It will take me a while to get through it.
• The Incidental Economist Offers a link to an eBook on Roth IRAs from Blogger J.D. Roth, host of Get Rich Slowly – Great resource for Roth IRA information.
• Jess & Graeme Stuart Showcase Some Great Wealthy Mind Free eBooks – The Stuarts mainly want you to join their sales team, but the ebooks they have compiled on their site are really nice and timeless for matters of wealth, laws of attraction, and business.

Enjoy, and let me know if you know of other great free reads to add to the list, besides all the wonderful websites and blogs in the financial blogosphere that is!

Random Posts

Key Points from Conspiracy of the Rich

I am reading a lot of financial books right now, and I plan to provide the key take aways that I get from the books, not necessarily a full review of each chapter. In fact, I’m not even going to outline the full “8 New Rules of Money” from Conspiracy of the Rich, instead, simply the main points that I found of value and how I’m going to apply them to my life. I have seen a lot of controversial blog post about whether Kiyosaki offers sound advice or just fluff, whether he has a legitimate story for his background or not, etc. My feeling is that he offers some good big picture suggestions that you then have to spend time researching on your own and deciding what will work for yourself.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Historical Key Points:

There is a lot of information about the history of the dollar, why banks can ‘print money’ and how our government will essentially never stop the bail out cycle because its in the federal gov’t and rich classes’ best interest to bail out the big banks. The purpose of outlining his beliefs of the conspiracy is to motivate those that read his book to action. To take control of their own financial situation, make educated and sound financial decisions, and increase their financial IQ as he calls it.

Financial Education Key Points:

Key Point #1 - Invest in all four areas of investment for true diversification.

1 – Business (Owning one)

2 – Income producing investment real estate

3 – Paper Assets (Stocks, bonds, funds)

4 – Commodities (Gold, silver, oil, platinum)

This may be easier said than done, but it makes a lot of sense to me. If you simply own your home (a liability as I have found out as of late) and have a few savings and a 401k accounts, you are putting all your eggs in very limited baskets.

How I’m applying this: The items from above that I have control over now are #1, #3 and #4. I am and have been a small business owner, but I want to be more strategic about a business plan in 2010. I own stocks, bonds and funds in my 401k,  but I am not happy with them. I’m going to move my Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA when I can figure out how to do it, and determine what is best to invest it in. I plan to look into and research investing in commodities because this is something that can be done with a smaller initial investment.

Key Point #2 – Learn how to sell. Him & Trump recommend doing a network marketing type of business to learn the ins and outs of selling.

How I’m applying this: Whether you agree with this point or not, it is inevitable that to be successful you have to build confidence in yourself, who you are, and what you offer. Don’t mistake confidence for arrogance or not being humble. They are  different things. I’m working on building my brand for myself, and what that means. I am in the marketing profession right now, and understand that if you don’t get people’s awareness and interest in your offerings, your business will not succeed. I believe you can sell your products or services without compromising integrity, value and trust with your potential customers. That’s what I plan to do.

Key Point #3 – Derivatives. Kiyosaki discusses how money can be a derivative of your financial knowledge. He defines derivatives as simply being a off shoot of something or something that comes from something else. So, instead of selling his own books by himself, Kiyosaki sells licenses to reprint his books to many publishers, and gets a derivative of his book, the product, through royalties.

How I’m applying this: I like this concept when applying it to yourself and what you can offer the world. Stop thinking about your hourly wage and start thinking about what value you bring and how to make it into value for others. This will lead to derivatives of, well, you. I have already been thinking of ideas for some time now. Applying all or any of these iddeas, and focusing your efforts (which Kiyosaki also says is key) is the hard part!

Key Point #4 – He challenges his readers to push the boundaries that they have set in their life. He says that you shouldn’t think, look or act poor because the world treats you as you treat yourself. This concept gives me a lot to ponder. He uses examples such as: he managed to drive his dream car by bartering services. He managed to live by the ocean by trading services as well. This point was of interest to me. As humans we often don’t think of creative ways to solve our biggest problems because we are so stuck in what we know or believe. However, there is always another way, it usually just involves accepting different options, and putting yourself out there. The concept of bartering is back big time these days since so many of us are struggling financially, and cool websites like Swap Mamas and various others make it easy to do nationally or locally. When you don’t have enough money to get what you need, its a great idea to find someone willing to trade you for something you do have or can do that has value.

How I’m applying this: I have often traded my design services with others for what their business offers. This is a win-win for both of us. I’m interested in finding new, creative ways to make what I want happen in life.

Despite the fact that Kiyosaki spends a little too much time (1/2 the book) on the history, and a little too much time discussing his game, Cash Flow, I found this book to be very useful and thought provoking for my next steps towards learning and improving my financial knowledge.

What are your thoughts on Conspiracy of the Rich? What are you going to apply to your life?

Related Posts

• November 11, 2009 -- Financial Ignorance and Conspiracy of the Rich

Free Finance Quizes:

Its always a good idea to take the time to test your knowledge to find out where you are with financial education and what you still need to learn.

• Rich Dad Financial IQ Quiz
  I’m pretty sure Robert first coined the term Financial IQ
• MSN – Can You Manage Your Finances?
  Offers some good insight on budgeting
• Bills.com Quiz – Credit, Debt, Budget, Wealth, Life Plan and Resources
  I liked the structure of this, gave me some ideas of areas to focus on including an insurance review, and getting our will notarized. I scored an 81% B on this quiz.
• Money Saving Expert
  15 to 20 minute quiz assesses your saving skills compared to others (UK based however)
• Rutgers Financial Fitness Quiz
  Looks at financial management, saving, investing and yes, impulse shopping habits
• ProProfs Financial Literacy Quiz
  You lost me at CPF and zakatable. I have a lot to learn.

I plan to continue adding to this list.

What other quizes have you tried and found useful?

Related Posts

• November 14, 2009 -- Top 3 Barriers in My Journey Toward Financial Freedom
• November 12, 2009 -- Who Am I Writing For?
• October 26, 2009 -- 365 Days to Financial Freedom

Credit.com Offers a Different Perspective from CreditKarma.com

Credit.com offers an additional resource that can complement your use of CreditKarma.com (read my review) or other credit report services.

Though Credit.com doesn’t offer as much detail or tools as CreditKarma.com, it did give me a higher overall score, which I found interesting. It ranked me as A to A- for all categories, where as on CreditKarma.com I had D in a few different categories such as length of open debt. From what I’ve read, the discrepancy is based on the recency of the data as well as which credit agency it is using to determine your score, and supposedly CreditKarma doesn’t go back in date as far as Credit.com does.  This factor alone is enough to take a closer look at Credit.com for accuracy.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Credit.com determines your score to be based on the following categories:

• Payment History (35%) Simply put - you have to pay your bills on time.
• Debt Useage (35%) Keeping low balances and having higher limits for your debt increases this value.
• Credit Age (15%) If you have accounts that have been opened for a while, this helps this score. (CreditKarma and Credit.com have very different perspectives on this)
• Account Mix (10%) Types of debt that you have (mortgage, credit cards, other loans)
• Inquiries (10%) Its a good idea not to have too many inquiries to your score (I’ve read that if you shop around, say for a mortgage, and have multiple pulls of your credit in a 2 week period, this doesn’t affect your score as much, but don’t quote me on this)

Keep in mind that for the full detail on actual accounts that are included on your credit report you’ll have to purchase one or get your free annual report. Under the FACT Act you are required to have access to at least 1 free credit report a year, and you can get that at http://www.annualcreditreport.com. This looks at the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. They will also report on court records for lawsuits, judgments and bankruptcy filings.

You can also possibly obtain your free credit report from your local credit union. The one I work at in Boulder provides a review of your credit report free to its members.

Its always a good idea to check your credit report, if at minimum to monitor and ensure that you don’t have any fraudulent activity. Also though, to learn how to improve it as I am.

Here’s a nice comparison: http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/2009/09/30/credit-report-cards-credit-com-vs-credit-karma/

What do you use to monitor your credit score and credit report? Do you use a credit monitoring or  identity theft service?

Related Posts

• November 23, 2009 -- Review of Free Credit Score Analysis Tool: Credit Karma
• January 21, 2010 -- My Greatest Financial Fears Explained

Think Twice Before You Cut Up Your Old Credit Cards

A Truly Free Credit Score and Helpful Analysis of the Factors Affecting Your Credit

Unlike many of the ‘free’ credit score sites out there that say they are free, Credit Karma truly is free.

Credit Karma provides secure access to your credit score with many features that help you analyze how your debt and payment has affected your overall score.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Not only does this tool provide you with your credit score, it shows you:

• A Report Card of the factors that affect your score and where you fall
• Your score and how it shifts over time with charts and graphs
• A snapshot of where your score is compared to the national average
• A comparison of your credit to other members of the Credit Karma community
• A credit simulator that suggests how changes will impact your credit score (My score went up 8 points if I added a new credit card with a 3500 limit, crazy!)
• They also have helpful debt calculators such as mortgage affordability, debt payoff calculators, etc

What I found most interesting was the section called “Report Card”. It ranks certain criteria that is used to determine your credit score from A through F. It was very helpful for me, because I realized something critical in the way I have been managing credit cards and how I will manage them moving forward.

I have to admit, I was one of the typical college students that fell prey to the open 3 or 4 credit cards during the freshman orientation. I didn’t spend a lot on these cards, but when I wised up, I took the advice of someone that I should close any cards that I’m not using as that negatively affects my credit. So, I’ve been doing that over the years. When I don’t want a card any more, I close it. WRONG!

It turns out I have a “D” score on my credit score (which is overall “good” right now at 729) for Average Age of Open Credit Lines as well as Total Accounts. I’m very intrigued by the fact that doing something as simple as keeping some of my unused credit cards open will improve my credit score. I had NO idea. And as such I always close old cards that I’m no longer using.

Another thing I found interesting was that if you opened and did a balance transfer, with the simulator your score went down. However, if you just open a new credit card, your score goes up. I suppose this is because it indicates that you can handle more debt.

I highly suggest trying this tool out, if you are willing to overlook the offers and sales pitches on the page, it is a great way to actively monitor and improve your credit score.

Related Posts

• November 24, 2009 -- Review of Free Credit Score Analysis Tool: Credit.com
• January 21, 2010 -- My Greatest Financial Fears Explained