One of the Complete Idiot's Guide series of books, this 462-page book is an easy-to-understand introduction to online resources for financial planning and more: it also includes quite a bit of information about personal finanace.
Although these Complete Idiots books all have titles that imply that they are for "idiots," of course finance is not a subject for your average idiot. But this book is for the relatively inexperienced: its twenty-one chapters (in five parts) do a good job of introducing financial issues in a systematic, step-by-step manner.
The strength of this book is in its straightforward and friendly approach, using simple language to systematically introduce each new topic. It begins with an introduction to personal finance and financial planning and then goes on to describe how the internet can facilitate the process. It also includes information about investing on the internet. The book's last part describes security issues, including a description of online scams and ploys.
Starting with the most basic of questions, "What is Personal Finance?" the book doesn't assume you know much at all about the topic (it even has a section titled "A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned." It's basic method is to describe a variety of personal finance issues and then specify how internet resources can be used to facilitate the financial planning process.
The introductory chapter describes some of the online sites that provide overall financial planning resources: sites such as www.vanguard.com, www.quicken.com, and www.icfp.org. The book could have described more of those kinds of sites (there are far more of them out there than the book implies).
The second chapter describes how to use the Quicken program to make budget building easier. It takes the reader through the Quicken program step by step, illustrating each new topic with likely financial planning examples. It also describes how a spreadsheet can help with financial planning.
Later chapters deal with online banking, loans, and getting out of debt, describing in each case, the internet resources that are available. Example online resources include the Gomez Internet Banking Scorecard and, of course, the list of banks at the Quicken web site. Topics covered range from comparing online services and fees to set up an online bank account.
Later chapters provide discussions about credit and credit cards, including a section about how to apply for a credit card on the internet. The book also describes how to use internet resources to fix credit problems.
Online resources for getting a loan are described in some detail, from mortgages to car loans. Sites such as the HSH Associates payment calculator (www.hsh.com/calc-amort.html) are listed and described.
The book spends considerable time on the topic of online investing. It covers investment strategies, stock analysis and screening, financial charting, dividend reinvestment, getting professional advice, picking mutual funds, how to buy stocks online, and how to use the internet to keep track of your investments.
Additional resources described include auto, health and life insurance, filing taxes electronically (a brief description), tricks for saving money, planning for college, 401K plans, and retirement planning.
Overall this book is a good introduction to personal financial planning and how to use the internet to facilitate the process. It could have listed more internet sites for those who like to surf the net for financial information. A CD with extensive lists of online financial sites and related information and tools would also be a plus.
