The Best Paperbacks to Save You Greenbacks

The AP Personal Finance Team

You've likely been forced to reassess spending and saving habits and learn more about the financial world in the past year. Three new personal finance books offer varying strategies for developing money management skills and understanding how our complex financial system works.

Financial planner Jacob Gold outlines the basics of cash flow, debt management and investment planning, while Dallas radio show host Bob Brooks focuses on managing debt by setting boundaries for spending.

In a third book, Wall Street veteran and cartoonist Jack Guinan attempts to define terms that will help you understand the financial world better. He covers terms like derivatives, commercial paper and debenture and explains them in simple terms.

Here's a look at the new titles:

Financial Intelligence: Getting Back to Basics After an Economic Meltdown

AUTHOR: Jacob Gold

PRICE: $14.95 (paperback)

SUMMARY: Author Jacob Gold, a third generation financial planner, says that following the financial meltdown, it's only through proper financial education that we can get back on our feet and move forward. That means retraining our minds to understand the basic rules, strategies and theories of money management. Chapters focus on understanding the basics of cash flow, debt management, insurance planning to protect financial assets and investment planning. Gold discusses mutual fund basics, how to do a retirement plan analysis and estate planning.

QUOTE: "The first decade in the new millennium will go down as the decade of bubbles. The run up of technology, housing, financials and commodities created billions of dollars of profit for people around the world, but when the bubbles burst even more money was lost than originally made," Gold writes. "I hope you always remember that the art of investing is not how much money you make when we are living in a bull market; it is how much you can prevent from loss in a bear market."

PUBLISHER: Sterling & Ross Publishers

—David Pitt