1. Mint.com — The ultimate money management mashup is Mint.com, which allows you to import data from multiple bank accounts and credit cards and manipulate it in all sorts of useful ways. Want to see a pie graph of last month’s food expenses, or generate weekly reminders, or compare different accounts side-by-side? All of this and more is at your fingertips with Mint, so sign up for your free account today and use their personalized technology to take charge of your money!
2. TwitPay — An award winner in the 2008 Mashup Awards, TwitPay is a simple website enabling any Twitter user to quickly send money to another. No signups are required; if you are already a Twitter member, that’s all you need to send anywhere from $0-$50 to someone through this sleek and useful service.
3. StockTwit — Ever wish you could instantly plug in to all of the best stock market-related conversations taking place on Twitter, but without painstakingly seeking out all of the participants in that conversation one by one? StockTwit is the answer to your prayers! Simply sign up for a Twitter account (if you don’t have one already) and log in to StockTwit. As soon as you do, you’ll instantly be able to read the hottest market conversations on Twitter and even get involved if you want to.
4. Stock Cloud — Even the savviest investors can become overwhelmed trying to keep tabs on all the press releases and announcements of publicly traded companies. But thanks to Stock Cloud, your days of fumbling through newspapers, magazines, e-mails, and newsletters may be numbered. Stock Cloud is a continuously updated mashup that displays, in cloud form, the ticker symbols of all companies who have issued press releases that day. The bigger a company’s ticker symbol in the cloud, the more frequently that company distributes press releases. Just click any company of interest to see the most recent releases.
5. BillMonk — BillMonk.com is a mashup that solves the always-pressing problem of letting 2 or more people painlessly share common bills, like rent or food. Here’s how it works: everyone who is splitting the bill(s) in question signs up. Then, all of them can send expenses to be shared to their account at BillMonk via text messages. Then they can just log in in later to finalize the splitting of the payment and let everyone know who owes what.
6. Wesabe — According to WalletPop.com, “If Chuck Norris were a personal finance tool, he’d be Wesabe!” Very simply, Wesabe is part-money management tool, part-community, a place where every member can draw upon the money-saving tips, advice, and experiences of the others and use them to help in setting financial goals, paying off debts, or even finding good deals in their local area. In its brief lifetime, Wesabe has become one of the most useful and popular money management mashups on the Internet.
7. PayPal — It may not be the newest kid on the block, but PayPal is a mashup in the true sense of the word, having combined two major credit cards and virtually any kind of bank account with a web interface. Thanks to this trailblazing application, anyone can send or receive money using only Internet monikers, rather than the sensitive bank details that were necessary to send and receive money prior.
8. Yodlee — Billing itself as a financial services mashup that offers access to “over 11,000 financial data sources”, Yodlee is one of the more popular such mashups to date. According to a company press release, “For the more than 15 million consumers who have used a Yodlee powered solution so far, the Yodlee Data Engine delivers the raw material and tools they need to understand and manage personal finances and make payments how and when they want; all through their trusted financial institutions.”
9. TextPayMe (now part of Amazon Payments) — Wired.com describes the virtues of TextPayMe in its article TextPayMe: Eliminating The IOU: “When a group of people dine out together, someone always lacks cash. They forgot to go to the ATM, but they’ll pay you back ASAP. Right. Funny, though, how people rarely forget their cell phones. Philip Yuen put these two observations together and came up with TextPayMe to let people send money using text messaging.” While TextPayMe has since been acquired by and incorporated into Amazon.com’s payment system, it still offers the functionality that made it popular from the very beginning!
10. NetWorthIQ — Ever wonder how your net worth stacks up against so-and-so down the street? A nifty little web app called NetWorthIQ is the closest you’ll probably come to finding out. Members are permitted to create a financial profile (which includes their net worth and other information) and then compare it those of other members.
11. Google Finance — If you’re looking for a way to get a quick read on the most important indicators of stock market activity, look no further than Google Finance. Here, you’ll find everything from recent market-related stories and press releases to sector summaries and world currency fluctuations, all displayed with the simplicity and cleanliness you’ve come to expect from Google applications.
12. GStock — Billed as “the supercomputer dedicated to stock market analysis”, GStock.com has been written about in the New York Times and InfoWorld for its consistently accurate picking of profitable investments. According to the homepage, 2 out of every 3 “buy and sell” stock picks made by GStock’s supercomputer in the last 3 years have made profits for users who followed the advice. In these turbulent financial times, why not give it a try?
13. CAPS (Motley Fool) — Another web community aimed at helping its members beat the market averages is CAPS, run by personal finance giant The Motley Fool. Featuring some 2,976,587 recommendations from over 120,000 people, investors who are looking to get an inside edge would be hard-pressed to find a better place to look for it!
14. SaneBull — SaneBull is a web-based financial platform that feeds live stock quotes, real-time news, and robust investment tools to its users, all through a simple, easy-to-use interface. Whether you’re looking to get a handle on commodities and futures, US stock market indexes, currencies, exchange-traded funds, crude oil futures, or your own portfolio, you can do it all in more on one screen with SaneBull.
15. Wikinancial — Wikinancial is a community-driven site where investing junkies can test out various stock picking strategies and compare them to those of other members of the community. While there is no actual money at stake, the strategy testing can become quite competitive and help sharpen your knowledge for when it comes time to make actual investments in the stock market.
16. Buxfer — Buxfer can be thought of as a web app combining the best aspects of Mint and BillMonk in that it allows you to track your own spending and also who owes you, as well as how much they owe. If you find that staying on top of all these things the old-fashioned way (you know, Post-It notes, e-mail reminders, and writing on your skin) is impractical, Buxfer’s convenient web interface should offer a much easier and simpler experience!
17. Cyclr — Let’s face it: sometimes, digging your way out of the debt hole can feel like a long and lonely battle. But with Cyclr, paying down your debt need not be a solitary activity any longer. Sign up for the free service (currently in private beta) and you can network with other borrowers who owe the same amount of money as you do. Over time, you can motivate each other to keep paying down your debts and gradually “cancel out” each other’s outstanding balances. If you’re the kind of person who can’t exercise alone but tears up the gym with a friend, you’ll love Cyclr!
18. Mvelopes — Mvelopes takes a somewhat different approach to managing all your bank account information. Rather than simply displaying all of your assets in a chart or a graph, your money is divided into various “envelopes” that are devoted for some specific purpose or financial goal. Then, as you spend money, Mvelopes.com automatically updates the balance in each of your “envelopes”, enabling you to see how everything you buy concretely affects your goals in other areas. If you struggle with the conceptual side of money management and grasping the “big picture”, Mvelopes would be well worth your time!
19. MyBillQ — It’s one thing to manage your budgets, set financial goals, and keep track of who owes you, but what about your bills? Surely it’s at least as important to track those as everything else! Fortunately, MyBillQ makes the paying and tracking of one’s bills about as easy as it could theoretically be. Thanks to MyBillQ’s helpful reminders, you’ll never be caught off guard when the car insurance or rent bill comes due, and you’ll always be able to look back in the records to see exactly when and how much you paid for each bill. As the website says, “you’ll always know exactly what you have to pay, and when you have to pay it.” Who could ask for more?
20. LessAccounting — Do you run a small to medium-sized business? Ever feel like you’re in over your head delving into the books and trying to make sense of all those debits and credits? If so, LessAccounting might be the key to ending those headaches forever. Ditch the columnar pad and use their slick web interface to denote tax categories, generate quick invoices, track business expenses, and more.
21. PayScale — How does your salary compare to those with the same job as you? This used to be a rather difficult question to answer, but with the emergence of PayScale.com, it’ll never be a mystery again! Just sign up for an account and you can generate a free customized salary report based on your job title, location, education, skills and experience. The website offers customized reports based on whether you are a job candidate, current employee, job seeker, or HR professional.
22. WageExchange — A similar website that accomplishes the same task in a different way is WageExchange. Rather than relying on a centralized source of salary information (as PayScale does), WageExchange utilizes a social network in which all its members anonymously share their salary for comparison with everyone else’s. If you are curious and want to weigh PayScale’s salary report against other sources, WageExchange is a great place to start.
23. MoneyTrackin — Described by one user as an “online quicken/MS Money replacement” and another as “the most complete app in its field”, MoneyTrackin.com is a comprehensive, full-service, web-based money management platform. If you like the tracking capabilities of Mint, the shared bill management features of BillMonk, and the small business accounting technology from LessAccounting, you’ll be happy to know that MoneyTrackin incorporates elements of all three.
24. Zecco — Zecco is an online stock brokerage application enabling you to make up to 40 stock trades a month for free. Unlike most online brokers, however, Zecco incorporates a robust community feature in which hundreds of members share information, discuss strategies, and post breaking news for others to read. If you want an online brokerage with a sense of personality and belonging, Zecco is it!
25. MoneyBookers — PayPal might be the big dog in the online payment space, but it has a growing competitor in MoneyBookers, a similar website that extends payment services to foreign countries (including Russia, France, and Italy) where PayPal does not currently operate. You can request money, enter bids into auctions, make mobile payments and more with this versatile online payment system. If you’re unsatisfied with PayPal or live in one of the aforementioned foreign nations, why not give it a try?

Budgeting Tools

We realize you may be fascinated with the wealth-building potential of stock market investing, but true financial success starts at home, with the money you already make. To that end, here are some of the best free budgeting tools on the web:

1. Household budget worksheet — You may wish your monthly and weekly expenses were lower, but the only way to accomplish that is to face the reality of what they currently are. Kiplinger’s household budget worksheet makes this easier than ever by allowing you to plug in both your desired monthly spending and actual monthly spending in various categories. Once you’ve keyed in all your numbers, just click “Subtotal” and you will see how much more or less you’ll need to pay, per month, to reach your goals. It always helps to reduce guesswork and theorizing to actual numbers, and this worksheet will do just that.
2. Free Personal Finance Software — Mint.com keeps track of all of your money (in real time), across all of your different checking, saving, credit card, loan, and investment accounts. Self-touted as “the best free way to manage your money” and described by Kiplinger’s as the “best budgeting site”, an account at Mint.com is a must-have for all personal finance junkies and budget-conscious individuals.
3. What is my cost of living? — A truly accurate and reasonable budget should take into account your cost of living. But how can you possibly calculate such a complex number on your own? Simple — use Salary.com’s Cost of Living Calculator, which will compare the percentage of your income that goes to food, transportation, and other categories with how much the general population spends on those things. This should give you a rough idea of whether your cost of living is reasonable and, if not, show you where you might try to make cutbacks.
4. How much will it cost to raise a child? — Bringing another life into the world is getting more expensive every year. And just when you think you’ve considered every expense, you realize one or two that you forgot. But no longer – this calculator from BabyCenter.com will let you run the numbers in almost every concievable category (from diapers to dental bills) and get a rough idea of what it will cost you to raise a child from birth to any age you specify (probably 18.)
5. Can one of you afford to quit — A common question among spouses is whether one of them can afford to quit their jobs — perhaps to stay at home and raise a child. Well, thanks to this nifty calculator, you don’t have to wonder anymore. By showing you a snapshot of your expenses and cashflow before and after the loss of one of your incomes, you can gain an accurate reading on whether quitting is feasible. At the very least, you’ll know what must be done to make it feasible in the future.

Saving Tools

Once you have established a reasonable budget, you can turn your attention to saving some of that money — be it for school, a home, vacation, or anything else you desire. Here are some useful tools for determining how much money to save and finding ways to save more:

6. Fuel Economy — The federal government’s free fuel mileage calculator lets you quickly and easily compare how much gas various cars and trucks suck down. Gas prices might be down right now, but after experiencing $4.00/gallon prices less than six months ago, it still pays to take fuel economy into account. Letting this calculator help you decide which car to buy could save you thousands of dollars over many years!
7. How much can you save in a year? — Most people underestimate how much money they could save if they really tried. This free calculator from MSN eliminates all the guesswork by letting you project how much you could save in the next year. Just input how much you have saved so far, what you think you can save regularly, how often you think you can save it, for how many years, and what interest rate you expect to get. Then click “Calculate” and out comes the money you will save this year if you follow through on those numbers.
8. How long ’till you’re a millionaire? — Some people save money for rainy day funds, or to insure against catostrophic problems like the sudden loss of income. But what if you want to become a millionaire? This calculator will break down exactly how long it would take, given your current saving, spending, and investment habits. Try it out: you never know how reachable this lofty goal might be!
9. How will taxes and inflation affect my savings? — One of the ever-present dangers — even to wise consumers who judiciously save and invest their money — is the risk of taxes and inflation eating away at your savings. Many people don’t like to think about this, so they just ignore it. But knowing how big a bite these twin monsters will take out of your assets is the first step toward making changes to minimize the damage, and this calculator will help you project it as accurately as possible.
10. How will my 401(k) savings affect my take-home pay? — Another common question would-be savers ask is “well I’d like to start saving for retirement, but how would that effect my take-home pay?” The only way to answer that question is to run the numbers, which this AOL tool makes quite easy. Just plug in the relatively few numbers it asks for and your question will be answered definitively, once and for all!

Credit & Debt Tools

With budgets and savings properly calculated and tallied up with free web tools, you can start to assess your creditworthiness. Here are some of the top free tools for getting a handle on your credit and debt:

11. How much money will my FICO score cost or save me?” — We all know that our FICO scores influence whether we get loans and, if so, the interest we pay. But few are aware of exactly how the numbers are determined. Clearly, it would be helpful to know this before walking into a bank and taking out a mortgage or a car loan. And thanks to the free calculator on MyFICO.com, you can now calculate exactly how much your APR and monthly payments should be based on your FICO score and how much you are borrowing.
12. Debt consolidation calculator — Everyone has seen the late-night TV commercials hawking debt consolidation as the answer to your prayers, but is it? No two financial situations are completely the same, so the fact is, you can’t know for sure whether debt consolidation makes sense without running your own numbers. This calculator from MSN MoneyCentral will untangle the hype and tell you whether it’s worth your time or not.
13. Balance transfer calculator — Balance transfers are another alleged “solution” that is often sold to the debt-having public as a miracle solution to their problems. But just like debt consolidation, whether it makes sense for you can only be determined by you. This calculator from Bankrate.com will give you a better idea of whether a balance transfer would lighten your load or dig you further down into the hole of debt.
14. Car Loan & Finance Calculator — Car loans are one of the most common forms of debt today, and it’s easy to get caught up in how “great” of a deal a dealership salesman says you’ll be getting. But only some serious number-crunching like that offered by Cars.com’s Loan and Finance calculator will cut through the clutter and determine whether the deal is worthwhile or not. Highly recommended for anything thinking of financing a new or used vehicle!

Housing Tools

Committing to a 30 year home mortgage is the biggest financial decision most people ever make. Here are some the best free web tools for analyzing the various mortgages you are offered as well as calculating your housing costs:

16. How much can I spend for housing? — The biggest question when it comes to housing and mortgages is how much you can spend on housing. That is exactly what this calculator answers by asking you for numbers pertinent to everything from your monthly mortgage payments to homeowners insurance to utilities and property taxes. Spend a few seconds plugging them all in and you’ll know once and for all how much house you can afford!
17. How much should I put down on a home? — The size of your down payment is another common question answered by a free calculator from Mortgage-calc.com. Think of this as a home mortgage version of the Loan & Finance calculator from Cars.com. If you’re overwhelmed by sales pitches and hype about the “great deal” your lender is giving you, take a few minutes to run the numbers through this calculator. The results may surprise you!
18. Mortgage Calculator — The mortgage calculator from MortgageCalculator.org is a great resource for visually-oriented people in that it breaks down your payment plans and projections into appealing charts and graphs. If you find these visual aids to be more helpful as motivators or planning tools, this calculator will serve you well!
19. Fixed-rate or adjustable? — The age-old question of home mortgages is “should I get a fixed-rate or adjustable?” While it would be tough for any one calculator to answer this by itself, the good folks at Interest.com have posted an entire page of calculators aimed at helping you answer this difficult question. If any website is equipped to help you find an answer, it’s this one!
20. Rent or Buy? — Should you buy a home or rent one? It’s a tough question to answer, and quite a few numbers need to be crunched to figure it out. Fortunately, this calculator is equipped to do just that, enabling you to project rent payments, interest rates, home equity, and more. Don’t make this decision without consulting this free tool first!

Investing Tools

At long last, you are ready to use the web’s best free tools to analyze and improve your investment decisions! Here are some that we suggest:

21. IRA Conversion Analyzer — Should you leave your retirement nest egg in a traditional IRA or convert to a Roth IRA? What are the costs, pros, and cons? Don’t wonder; find out with this free tool from HarborFunds.com!
22. What is your risk tolerance? — No investment portfolio can be built without taking your risk preference into consideration. How willing are you to sacrifice risk for greater returns? When do you need to withdraw the money you are investing? How much of that money do you need to withdraw at that time? All of these questions and more must be answered to assess your risk tolerance and select investments that match it, and Kiplinger’s handy risk tolerance form will help greatly in this regard.
23. Economic Forecast Calendar — Hands-on investors will greatly appreciate this economic forecast calendar courtesy of MarketWatch.com. Never again will you invest without a firm grasp on where the economy as a whole is headed, and you’ll wonder how you ever did before!
24. IRA Selector — The IRA selector helps determine which type of IRA will provide you with the greatest amount of after-tax income upon your retirement. If this is a concern of yours, you would do well to see what this calculator has to say!
25. How do fees affect my returns? — No mutual fund or index fund (or any other managed investment) can be evaluated without taking its fees into account. While some fees are innocuous enough to leave your returns mostly intact, others can take a gigantic bite out of your money thereby making an investment less attractive than you thought. This SEC calculator will help you determine whether the fees you pay are reasonable and show just how much of an impact they have on your returns.

Luckily, you don’t have to; at least, not yet. The Internet is bursting with personal finance e-books which you can read right on your computer screen – for free. We took the liberty of tracking down the top 25 free personal finance e-books that are actually worth your time. Read the descriptions below and investigate any books that pique your interest!

Personal Finance 101 (The Basics)

The following books are aimed at educating you on the basics of personal finance. The mentality of saving money, learning to prioritize your spending decisions, and other foundational concepts are covered here. If you are just starting to get your finances in order, consider these books an excellent place to start!

1. Money Matters: Your Guide for Financial Security. This free guide serves as a primer on such personal finance basics as coming up with good financial goals, devising plans to reach them, getting organized, selecting the right financial advisor or accountant, and the basics of stock and bond investing. The book also touches upon debt and how to borrow money intelligently (as opposed to the unintelligent borrowing engaged in by many people.)
2. Taking Control of Your Finances. Ask any personal finance expert when the best time to begin saving and planning for the future is and they will reply “the younger, the better.” And while it is never too late to start taking control of your money, this is absolutely correct advice. With that inn mind, the FDIC whipped up this helpful report aimed at young people who want to get a head start on financial freedom. Read it and you’ll learn some of the most common money management mistakes to avoid, as well as several tips on how to start saving and managing the money you already make.
3. Banking Basics. No personal finance education would be complete without learning the ins and outs of the banking system, and who better to educate you than he Federal Reserve? While this e-book is somewhat broad and conceptual (explaining what banks are and how they operate), this knowledge is invaluable. You need to understand the nature of the institutions you are entrusting your money to and how you fit into their plans. Consider this required reading before learning about more advanced topics in personal finance.
4. Pathways to Getting Ahead. One thing that separates financially successful people from everyone else is how they prioritize asset-building. Rather than allowing money to flow in and out of their lives with no discretion or priorities, they spend on assets (savings accounts, investments, homes, even businesses) that will grow and put money in their pocket day after day, month after month, year after year, like clockwork. This excellent guide will introduce you to this thought process and get you thinking about assets you might build for yourself.
5. Simple Strategies for Managing Your Money We realize the information in these e-books are somewhat abstract and hard to wrap your head around at first. This FDIC report reduces all of the concepts and principles you just learned to quick checklists that you can run down to ensure you’re doing the most important things right. Everything from avoiding scams to saving money to dealing effectively with banks is covered. We advise reading some of the above 4 books first and “washing it all down” with this one.

Asset Building 101 (Saving & Investing)

Once you know the basics of personal finance, you are ready to begin building assets – savings and investments – that will compound and build your wealth over time. This is the cornerstone of financial freedom, because a healthy savings account and a diverse portfolio of well-performing investments eliminates worries about sudden financial disaster. The following 5 e-books will introduce you to asset building by offering various practical tips, strategies, and suggestions.

6. How SIPC Protects You. The old adage “safety first” applies to savings and investing as much as anything else. Accordingly, this e-book educates you on what to do if your stock brokerage firm closes or goes under and how the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) tries to recover the money you invested with the broker. You will also learn the critical distinctions between that the SIPC does and does not protect against. Read this before investing any amount of money in anything!
7. 66 Ways to Save Money. The most common rationalization for not saving money is “I don’t make enough to save any of it.” The answer offered by the authors of this e-book is “bull!” In it, you’ll learn 66 practical ways to cut your expenses, get better deals on everything from financial services to transportation to grocery shopping, and re-direct all or most of the saved money to your savings or investments. If you’ve ever found yourself saying that you don’t make enough to save, or are just interested in new ways to save more money than you currently do, check this e-book out!
8. All About The Foreign Exchange Market in the US. A somewhat more advanced topic, which is discussed in this NewYorkFed.org e-book, is the U.S. segment of the global foreign exchange market. If you are already set up with a savings account and US investments and want to learn more about getting into foreign investing, this e-book is a terrific place to start.
9. Get The Facts on Saving and Investing. If you have been wanting to start saving and investing but didn’t know where to begin, this report is here to help. In addition to getting a broad overview of saving and investing in general, you will learn several specific tips and receive worksheets you can use to quickly calculate your expenses, net worth, and income. These will come in handy time and time again as ways of checking on the progress you are making toward your goals.
10. Tools of the Trade: A Basic Guide to Financial Derivatives. Another advanced but worthwhile savings and investment topic is the nature and advantages of financial derivatives. Here, you will learn how various derivatives can be employed as tools for managing your financial risks (such as inflation or unemployment.) You will also learn important questions to ask anyone trying to get you to invest in derivatives, allowing you to know, for sure, whether doing so will truly advance your goals.

Debt 101 (Credit Cards)

Credit cards allow you to spend money you don’t have. This is the area of personal finance where many people start to have trouble, taking on more debt than they can afford and digging an ever-deeper hole that becomes nearly impossible to get out of. The 5 e-books below will educate you on how to get out of that hole (if you are currently in it) and then proceed to establishing good credit and sound debt practices.

11. Credit Repair Guide. Many people need to clean up their existing credit report before they can work on improving it. If you’re one of those people, this free Credit Repair Guide will be immensely helpful. You’ll learn the essentials of how credit scores are determined (including yours), and how the e-book author improved his own credit score from 616 to a pristine 742! You can’t afford not to know the tips and principles discussed in this free guide.
12. Building a Better Credit Report. This e-book clues you in on credit-related scams, how to quickly pay down your debts, and legal vs. illegal ways to improve your credit report. If you’ve already read the Credit Repair Guide and want to learn some additional tips not discussed there, check out the Building a Better Credit Report guide!
13. A Consumer’s Guide to Credit Cards. If you’re like most people, you arrive home each day to find your mailbox stuffed with “pre-approved” credit card offers and solicitations. Maybe you’ve wondered “how do I cut through all this clutter and find the one, right credit card for me?” This free e-book will help you answer that question, as well as avoid being ripped off by credit card companies who have their own best interests at heart. Don’t even think about applying for a credit card before you read this guide. In fact, you should probably read it even if you do have a credit card already, to see if it’s the best one for you!
14. SHOP: The Credit Card You Pick Can Save You Money Every credit card offer you receive tells you it’s the right one for you. The gleaming headlines and testimonials from happy customers make it seem like you’d be a fool to look anywhere else. But the exact opposite is true: only a fool would apply for a credit card without looking anywhere else. To that end, this e-book offers helpful guidelines and criteria for choosing the right card for you, based on an assessment of your spending habits. You will also learn the importance (or unimportance) of APR, cash advance fees, grace periods for interest-free repayment, annual fees, and more.
15. Healthy Credit. If all of this seems overwhelming and you are thinking about skipping it, this e-book will motivate you not to do that by explaining how profoundly your credit report and score affects your financial life as a whole. Your credit score could literally be the difference between getting a loan or not getting it (and, if you get it, how high your interest rate is.) You will also learn how to stay financially secure once you are.

Financial Security 101 (Privacy & ID Theft)

No matter how financially intelligent you are, how much money you save, or how high your credit score is, it can all vanish in the blink of an eye – if you don’t know how to protect yourself from security risks. Identity theft is on the rise, e-mail hoaxes abound, and you can never be too safe from threats to your private financial records. Following are 5 free e-books that will educate you on the most prevalent risks and how to protect yourself from them.

16. Identity Theft. If all you know about identity theft is that there are an awful lot of newspaper stories and TV news reports about it, this e-book is required reading. It will tell you exactly what identity theft is, the many ways in which ID theives can impersonate you out in the world, how to stop them from doing so, and what to do if you are indeed the victim of identity theft. Think of this guide as “Identity Theft Prevention 101.”
17. Identity Theft and Your Social Security Number. As you will learn from the e-book above, many identity theft plots center around a person’s Social Security number. This e-book delves deeper into that topic by explaining why and how someone who has your Social Security number can completely destroy your finances, doing everything from opening credit cards in your name to making huge purchases on your dime. Fortunately, the tips in this e-book also explain how to prevent this from happening and how to report it if you think you have been victimized by it already.
18. ID Theft: What It’s All About. This e-book offers another eye-opening overview of identity theft, straight from the Federal Trade Commission. Since the FTC deals with and responds to thousands of identity theft cases every day, it stands to reason that they are an excellent source of information for how to spot and avoid such scams yourself. This 36 page pamphlet is one you wont want to miss!
19. Phishing and Pharming: Helping Consumers Avoid Internet Fraud. Never heard of phishing? Okay – ever hear of those bogus e-mails from Nigerian “royalty” begging to transfer a multi-million dollar fortune into your bank account? Now you’ve heard of phishing. Unfortunately, phishing scams can be much more complex and convincing than the Nigerian royalty ones most of us know to avoid. This guide will help educate you on how to spot a phishing scam before it’s too late, saving you precious time and money each time you successfully spot one.
20. Privacy Choices for Your Personal Financial Information. This e-book explains, in a tidy 6 pages, how you can opt out of sharing personal information with the companies you do business with, as well as which information banks and financial companies are entitled to share about you. Tragically few people know this information, and so they are left guessing. Don’t be one of them! This could be the best 30 minutes of reading you embark upon in this entire article.

Wise Consumerism 101 (Consumer Awareness)

Do you know someone who always seems to somehow, miraculously, get good deals on everything they buy? Have you ever wished you could do the same? You can! With practice and reading, you can become a wise consumer, one who carefully researches and plans every major purchase in order to ensure getting the best possible deal. While this will take time, the following 5 resources will get you a nice running start.

21. The Consumer Handbook. The Consumer Handbook is bar none the best place to start learning how to be a wise consumer. By the time you’re done, you’ll know how to get the best deals on everything from cars to credit cards to insurance to vacations, as well as how and whom to complain to when something goes wrong. Don’t be scared off by the hefty (for an e-book) 178 pagecount! There’s valuable information on every page and you’ll be glad you invested (there’s that word again!) the time in sucking it all up.
22. Ten Questions to Ask When Choosing a Financial Planner. Picking a financial planner isn’t always easy. Between worries about conflicts of interest (many planners get paid a percentage of anything they sell you) and fears of overpaying, it’s easy to let analysis-paralysis prevent you from making a decision. That’s why this super-helpful guide from the Certified Financial Planners offers 10 essential questions to ask anyone trying to sell you financial advice. Armed with these questions, you’ll feel confident about whomever you choose to put in charge of your long-term finances and know with a reasonable degree of certainty that they are competent to do the job.
23. Consumer’s Almanac. The Consumer’s Almanac offers a number of “cheat sheets” and checklists for tying together all the concepts and principles you’ve learned, such as monthly calendars and worksheets for tracking your expenses and progress toward your savings/investment goals. Use them often for the best results!
24. What You Should Know About Buying Life Insurance. Many people assume you cannot get a good deal on life insurance. They assume that a policy from one company is essentially the same as any other. Wrong! Insurance policies are not commodities, but sophisticated risk management tools that can be tailored to your exact needs, net worth, and risk preference. This e-book explains how to get the best deal on life insurance by ensuring you research multiple companies and different types of policies based on your own needs, rather than accepting the first cookie-cutter policy you are offered.
25. Know Before You Go… To Get a Mortgage. Part of being a wise consumer is knowing what risks are out there and how to intelligently manage or avoid them. This e-book helps educate you on that with regard to getting a mortgage. Like insurance policies, mortgages can and should be tailored to your exact needs and resources. You will learn how to do that, as well as which types of mortgages may and may not be suited for someone of your financial standing. Don’t apply for a mortgage without consulting this trim 16 page booklet!

We realize that you probably don’t have the time to read all 25 of these e-books. That’s okay – what is important is that you read the ones most relevant to your decision making, especially those aimed at alerting you to risks and mistakes that are commonly made. With enough reading and dedication to applying what you’ve read. you will no doubt reach financial success sooner than most. Good luck!