This book provides tips and techniques to lift your personal finances to the next level.

In each of the 52 compact chapters, the author provides an inspiring idea for tackling a money related issue. Some of these ideas are action oriented, while others are more reflective. These ideas help you evaluate financial priorities, manage credit and debt effectively, set and keep to your budgets.

This book is informative and thought provoking. Uniquely, the author does not provide specific financial plans and goals, as he feels such should only be dispensed according to individual circumstances.

Thus the ideas revealed in this book are practical, broad principles, not specific and detailed advice.

Topics covered in this book include:

• managing your way out of financial trouble
• avoiding impulsive purchases
• making a persuasive case to your boss for a higher salary
• selling your unwanted stuff on the internet
• getting the best fees for your services
• not paying more tax than you absolutely need to
• using money intelligently to generate better returns
• paying attention to small items of expenditure
• ensuring your senior years are comfortable
• getting the best price for your property when the time comes to sell
• teaching your children good money management
• managing your property assets and personal finances to the best effect

The tone used is personal and informal. The book is also formatted with different fonts, bullets and sections for ease of reading. At the end of each chapter, the author includes 2 frequently asked Q & As to help readers who have doubts about that topic.

John Middleton worked for 7 years in the financial sector. He has helped thousands of people take stock of their finances. His wealth of personal experience shines throughout this book.

As the author points out, whatever your personal financial situation, there is always room for improvement. You might want to pick up this book for some ideas to manage your finances more wisely.

Reviewed by Lee-Khoo Guan Fong

Robert Reby’s Retire Without Worry is a no-nonsense and easy-to-follow guide on diverse money matters ranging from stocks, bonds and funds to retirement planning, estate planning, taking care of taxes and much more. With the book’s question and answer format, you may finally have answers to questions you were dying to ask.

Written specially for lay readers in need of sound basic advice, the book is recommended for everyone, particularly those on the brink of retirement and who need to address the pending financial management concerns that they and their loved ones will all face.

Though the book is American-centric, you are still able to make use of the tips and examples given in the various sections of the book for the local context. What I enjoyed most is Section 9 on Finanical Planning. This section provides a step-by-step guide to a coming up with a financial plan. One of the points mentioned highlights the importance of having a competent financial advisor or planner. With proper financial advice from the advisor/planner, you would proceed more quickly and easily.

The author, Robert J. Reby, is a Certified Financial Planner and is much sought after by the financial and business press for his expertise and opinions.

Reviewed by Kwok Chee Leong Isaak

You might be plodding on your savings to get to your dream of being rich, but your partner is yelling at you about paying credit card bills or of buying a new car. Or that you are the one who opened the credit card statement and doing the yelling? This self-help, practical book starts with a common reality that faces every couple. There can never be an easy way out for couples to manage their money issues.

However, Rich, a clinical psychologist, proves us wrong. In simple down-to-earth language, the book is organised into two parts. The first part of the book illustrates the necessity of a conscious effort to understand our "money personality" from categories such as "gambler," "banker," "homesteader," "pioneer," "spartan," or "monarch" to help resolve differences in money-management styles and effectively negotiate financial matters between couples. Coupled with quizzes, exercises and techniques, it helps couples talk about money issues productively by drawing on differences between a man and woman’s perspectives in managing finances.

The second part focuses on strategies for growing money. Again, quizzes and exercises are provided to bring across Rich’s key concepts. For example, establishing shared dreams and goals between the couple, increasing the willpower to argue, identifying the financial, time and emotional cost of making a career shift, identifying our lifestyles according to our expenses; and saving money on utilities, recreation, transportation and household are ways in how a couple could cultivate rapport in financial management. The book also helps us to identify problems which are beyond self-help and required professional assistance.

Undoubtedly, this practical workbook is suitable for couples who are interested to coalesce and manage their finances.

Reviewed by Lee Yee Fuang

This book is specifically rotated to personal money management for Christians in the context of the uncertain economic future.

There are many quotes of passages from the Bible to support the author’s financial principles.

The book which combines one’s personal financial and faith in god is a good read to the many Christians in Singapore.

The authors updated this 4th edition of the “The new master your money; a step-by-step plan for gaining and enjoying financial freedom” with the changed economic environment since the 3rd edition published in 1997. Though they has not changed any of the basic biblical principles of money management in the book since it was first published in 1986.

Ron Blue is the President of Christian Financial Planning Institute. He found an Indianapolis-based Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firm that has grown to be one of the 50 largest CPA firms in the United States. In 1979, he founded a financial planning firm with the thought of helping American Christians to remove the fear and frustration when dealing with money.

Written in first person account, Ron uses a fictitious but very typical couple to illustrate the financial analysis, provide steps in financial planning, set financial goals, achieve financial success, expose the most common financial mistakes, plan tax and investment, determine the needs for life insurance and estate planning, so as to help you get your financial in order.

He shows to us that all of us have limited financial resources. We need to use more money than the money available. His sound advice in financial planning is allocating the limited financial resources to meet the unlimited demands.

At the end of the book, a glossary explains the financial terms to readers who lack knowledge in the field of economics.

Reviewed by Lee-Khoo Guan Fong

How do you acquire sufficient resources to allow you to live comfortably even as you, statistically speaking, live longer than your parents? Written for the baby boomers' generation, this book is about planning and investing wisely for a financially secure retirement.

To illustrate the transformation (or as the author calls it the ‘revolution’) from our parent’s time, look at the lovely model Karen Graham. Astre relates that in 1973, Karen had been replaced as Estee Lauder’s model at age 24. She came out of retirement at age 50 plus to represent their products again. As reported in the Toronto Star of 20 Apr 2000, Karen had said, "They called me back not because I look young for my age, but because I'm an active, vital person and I'm enjoying being in the second 40 years of my life.”

So where do you stand as you approach twenty odd years or more in retirement? Are you in the summer, autumn or winter financial season of your life? Find your financial season, work out where you are on the road to financial freedom using the worksheets in the book, start right and build up a strong ‘financial pyramid’. Pick up concepts such as the 10 percent solution and the DABL. What also makes this different from other works is that Astre names the Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP) stocks to consider at the end of the book.

Worth a read if you would like to find out more about a financial planning consultant’s sensible and practical advice on the importance of saving, investing, managing cash flow, portfolio building and ‘progressive plan of action’ for generating income streams.

Reviewed by Ng Hwee Miang

If one is to look for a book about investing in Asia and case studies that might give a glimpse into the future of burgeoning assets, this book would be an indispensable reference. Published and endorsed by CLSA Emerging Markets, one of Asia’s most independent brokers and written by Dr Marc Faber a.k.a. Dr. Doom, foremost international commentator and celebrated contrarian investment guru, “Tomorrow’s Gold” would give you a radical viewpoint about investing in Asia. If one is to read the book proficiently, the central theme that encompasses the whole content along with its numerous examples and delineated postulations is a cyclical manifestation of the ways humans invest. Investment has all along been an invented and an exclusive prerogative belonging to the humans and is ineluctably influenced by it. The latter is explained by the author through systematic detailed chapters meant for any readers keen on learning about investment in Asia. The first two chapters focused on extrapolating long-term economic trends followed by elucidating what is meant by prudent radical investment.

The gist of the book commences from chapter 5 and readers would find cycles in business, prices, stock markets and human endeavours especially intriguing, for it exhibits a sort of “karma” that we tend not to be perspicaciously aware. The last few chapters concentrate on the analysis of Asia and the US economy, with a special chapter devoted in discussing intricacies of the investment arena. Numerous forecasts, trends and in depth analysis armed with compelling examples pervade the book, and the author has successfully melded history, theory, economics and experience into one necessary for any investor to read.

Reviewed by Wilfred Loh

Credit card bills, insurance, mortgage payment, household expenses, and the list goes on… Many of us struggle to make ends meet; yet more bills seem to pile up every month. We are usually left with little (or no) money to pamper ourselves, much less, save for rainy days.

In All Your Worth, Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi, mother/daughter authors of the acclaimed The Two-Income Trap, show us how we can rid ourselves of debt, take control of our finances, and live the life that we have always wanted.

The approach is simple: Balance. Warren and Tyagi show how to create a balanced money plan by dividing our income into three essential categories: the Must-Haves (the monthly bills that have to be paid), the Wants (the money set aside for fun stuff) and the Savings (the money that we save).

The simple and easy to follow six-steps process in All Your Worth illustrates how to analyse our spending and get our money in balance. The six-steps process covers everything from counting all our worth, identifying negative thinking traps, cutting back on emotional spending to paying off debts and much more. Warren and Tyagi also emphasize the potential dangers of using credit cards, particularly for emotional spenders. Paying by cash is ultimately the most effective mode, which gives us better control over our spending.

Unlike other financial books, All Your Worth also offers practical tips on how to manage love and money matters with our partner, so as to enjoy a satisfying and rewarding relationship. Moreover, self-test exercises, worksheets and other financial tools included in the book help us identify financial ‘blind spots’ and deal with our financial problems.

Witty and engaging, All Your Worth is indeed a comprehensive guide that shows us how to manage our money and build wealth.

Reviewed by Lim Hwa Shan

Be prepared. This is not a get-rich-quick book. Neither is it a book that suggests you to embark on a prolonged savings plan of 30 to 40 years before you can be wealthy enough for retirement. As Masterson argues, this conventional approach to building wealth based on the power of compounded interest, works only for people with sufficient years of working life ahead. Many people face the need for a financial remedy when they are too old to choose this “waiting path”.

Drawn from years of experiences behind his personal success and the successes of those he mentored, Masterson offers a practical and modest six-steps programme to enable you to achieve financial independence within 7 to 15 years, regardless of your existing financial situation.

In brief, Masterson’s six-steps approach

• Early and honest evaluation of your current financial situation
• Setting your goals – determine to become rich, as a priority, without procrastinating another day
• Develop wealth-building habits by thinking and doing what wealth builders do
• Build personal wealth progressively and exponentially by getting the most out of your current job, developing additional income streams and building equity.
• Create streams of passive income – have wealth flow in even while you spend your time as you prefer
• Finally, gaining wealth and financial independence, with a steady stream of income available for you to retire at your own will.

A book written by a self-made millionaire, it is definitely an inspirational and worthy read for those seeking financial improvement or even financial freedom.

Reviewed by Chong Thong Yang

It was quite surprising for me to find out that the author, Deborah Wilburn, writes a regular financial column in a bridal magazine. She is a financial columnist for various women’s magazines with over two decades of experience. This is an interesting book aimed specifically at couples tying the knot. It isn’t a book you would read through at one sitting but something to be worked out in several sessions. There is even a worksheet for budgeting the wedding itself (of course, being an American book, this list lacks important local customs like the tea ceremony and multiple dresses).

Otherwise, Wilburn’s book looks like good advice that I’ll take if I ever plan to get married. She covers things like attitudes towards money and credit cards, saving towards retirement, and even uncovering dreams! Apparently Wilburn’s husband had a secret dream of starting a business. When his business dream turned into albatross, the stress of the debt almost destroyed their marriage. She also discusses how to fight about money and what to do if a spender marries a saver.

Some of her points are quite valuable: that couples should have common financial goals to work towards and for marriage partners to retain some financial separateness. Debts from before your marriage should also not be combined. There are also quirky bits of writing like being “a spineless jellyfish in the face of temptation”.

No book is perfect. One notable omission of her book is planning for kids: the cost of having kids then bringing them up and educating them can be perfectly horrendous. Some details like wedding insurance probably does not apply to Singapore (no, the insurance does not cover the cost of your fiancée not turning up, it only covers the wedding photographer). I’m also not convinced about her bias that women are better at finances than men.

Reviewed by Timothy Pwee

Would you like to enhance your financial quotient? Definitive books such as Rich Dad Poor Dad taught us the importance of what is now labeled FQ (financial quotient). Ben Lim’s book shows us the way to enhancing our financial intelligence in some twenty odd guidelines with our money and investments simply in 26 written chapters.

The guiding principle: pay yourself first, exercise financial discipline and make your money work for you. The harder your money works for you, the higher your financial quotient is likely to be. Ben Lim is an experienced educator and chartered financial analyst (CFA). He advises and shows the reader how to conduct a personal financial audit, assess net worth, budget, and the importance of taking a ‘telescopic’ view of investments. Is cash king? What is good debt and what is bad debt? What are bonds, mutual funds, REITS? The non-financial savvy among us might find it worthwhile to check this book out for insights into financial planning in the local context. The author expresses the hope that the reader will become his own Chief Financial Officer in his own life.

Useful information such as web sites of stock exchanges, market news, financial information and insurance companies can also be found at the end of the book. Since the book was published in 2004, most of the web sites should be current, albeit there may be updates and changes knowing the volatility of the Internet.

Reviewed by Ng Hwee Miang

You are out of school and entering the workforce. Hooray, money is rolling in and you anticipate a life of enjoyment finally. But wait, there is the enormous study loan waiting to be repaid. Then another red flag rears up – to save money for a flat if you are planning to “tie the knot”. Suddenly, “money not enough” takes on new meaning.

If you find the above familiar, this book is for you. Targeted at people in their 20s to 30s, Suze Orman delivers a “no-holds-barred” assessment on the many issues faced by these young people (termed by her as “YF&Bers”) today. In her book, you find topics ranging from credit card debts to getting “sponsors” while trying to establish a career in your dream job as that can sometimes mean a starting salary too low to live on.

Suze Orman organizes ten major issues into an easy read. In each chapter, she gives a detailed view of the situation, suggests strategies through a “Question and Answer” format and summarizes the important points.

Written in the US context, there are still many theories which we can draw references from. For example, Suze Orman talks about the small savings you can get from haircuts by shifting from a 2-months haircutting cycle to a 3-months cycle. There are of course more substantial items such as investing for the long term and saving for your retirement – with the little you can spare - by compounding interest. Expect also, some unconventional suggestions in the chapter on “Career Moves”.

This is one book that aims to break YF&Bers from the “broke” cycle and to keep them out. What is more, the book does not stop there but moves towards helping YF&Bers create more cash for the future. A good read for those who relate to many of these issues.

Reviewed by Grace Leong

At 31 years of age, Martin Lewis was hailed as Britain’s Money Saving Expert. UK TV reporter Paul Ross has dubbed him “The Dumbledore of Debt”. It is not surprising as he has a knack for dishing out crash diet tips for quick savings, a healthy eating guide to managing debts, and a financial fitness programme to strengthen money muscles. All this is in his calorie-counting book - The Money Diet.

Lewis’ Money Diet formula consists of ten golden ingredients designed to build up money-saving muscles to stay financially healthy. He provides clear-cut, down-to-earth advice on minimising spending, yet maintaining the lifestyle of your choice. His advice should not curb your spending power but rather help stretch your dollar even further. Going for the cheapest options, looking for the best buys, and reviewing your routine spending, can reap great savings.

Lewis believes consumers must make rational and smart decisions and be careful of others’ agenda. He shows how companies persuade consumers into happily parting with their money. You must ask questions before making any transaction. A lack of information coupled with our fear of asking questions is why product providers wield power over us. Lewis says it is a choice between our pride and our wallet as questions empower us. It is time to hit back!

It has been two years now since Lewis exploded on the scene and the Welsh graduate seems to be still going strong. His revised edition of the book is on the bestseller charts in the UK and he also recently launched, Make Me Rich, a British money advice show of his own. You could call him the financial equivalent of Jamie Oliver (but Oliver still looks better). He maintains a website and blog at www.moneysavingexpert.com.

Reviewed by Ambika Raghavan

The 14 outstanding portfolio managers profiled by R J Shook are the cream of the crop with sterling long-term track records. They are leading mutual fund mangers in their respective investment fields like large-cap, small-cap and international. According to Shook, less than 1% of mutual fund managers think independently and are not influenced by current sentiments or by news headlines. This results in most mutual funds performing worse than broad index funds. His 14 are among the elite of mutual fund managers who regularly do better than the indexed funds. They do this by using their own thorough analysis to make buy and sell decisions. This also results in longer holding periods than their peers. The essence of these managers is captured in this book and shared here for the benefit of both veteran and novice investors.

Common advice offered by most of these exceptional portfolio managers is to use the bottom-up approach in investment. This technique focuses on an individual company’s fundamentals and differs from the top-down method that uses broad economic and industry trends to identify interesting stocks. Companies selected should have unique products run by a management team with a solid track record. Companies that are in businesses with strong barriers to entry are another good pick. As it takes time to get to know a corporation, how it trades, and whether it is a good investment in the long run; it is useful to adopt the buy-and-hold approach. By combining these key factors, you can earn huge profits through identifying great growth companies early in their life cycles before they are noticed and then held as long-term investments. Examples of companies these fund managers profited from using these techniques include Intel, Nintendo and Porsche.

This is an easy read without much jargon and uses anecdotes to showcase the successes of these top performers. Based on interviews with the 14, the book recounts what they went through and how it shaped their investment philosophies. As investment is not foolproof, mistakes made by these professionals and what they have learned over time are also detailed. This helps readers to avoid making the same errors. Most importantly, this book demonstrates that one can take a simple commonsense approach of being disciplined and looking to the long-term when investing.

Reviewed by Foo Sue Chuein