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| Introduction | |
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| Take Charge of Your Money | |
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| First, Take Charge of Your Money | |
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| Where Are You Now? | |
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| Your Cash Flow | |
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| Your Net Worth | |
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| Why You Must Set Goals | |
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| Nitty-Gritty Budgeting | |
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| Plugging the Holes in Your Budget | |
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| A Budget for Today and Tomorrow | |
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| How to Boost Your Savings | |
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| Certificates of Deposit | |
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| Interest-Earning Checking Accounts | |
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| Money-Market Deposit Accounts | |
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| Money-Market Funds | |
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| Asset-Management Accounts | |
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| The Smart Use (and Common Abuse) of Credit | |
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| How to Get Out of Debt | |
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| Finding the Best Credit Deals | |
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| Credit a la Card: Finding the Best Credit Card Deal, Travel and Entertainment Cards, Debit Cards | |
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| Other Lines of Instant Credit: Overdraft Protection, Credit Card Cash Advances, Retail Installment Credit | |
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| Borrowing with Collateral: Equity in Your Home, Life Insurance Policies, Stocks and Bonds | |
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| Other Kinds of Loans: Unsecured Personal Loans, Debt-Consolidation Loans | |
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| How Lenders Size You Up | |
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| If You Are Denied Credit: What to Do | |
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| Other Laws that Protect Your Rights: The Truth in Lending Act, The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, The Fair Credit Billing Act | |
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| Banking Today | |
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| Sizing Up Banks and S&Ls | |
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| Banking Online | |
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| Sizing Up Credit Unions | |
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| Sizing Up Brokerage Firms | |
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| Your Home | |
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| Buying a Home | |
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| Three Reasons to Own | |
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| How Much Can You Afford? | |
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| What Kind of Home Should You Buy? | |
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| Starting from Scratch | |
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| Buying a Condo or Co-op | |
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| How to Get Your Money's Worth from a Real Estate Agent | |
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| Get a Home Inspection | |
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| How to Be a Mortgage Maven | |
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| What It Takes to Get a Mortgage | |
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| Loan Lingo: Interest and Points | |
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| Loan Lingo: The Different Kinds of Mortgages | |
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| Serious Mortgage Shopping | |
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| How Much Will the Payments Be? | |
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| Creative Financing for Difficult Markets | |
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| Should You Refinance Your Mortgage? | |
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| Selling Your Home | |
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| Hiring a Real Estate Agent | |
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| How to List Your Home | |
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| Selling without an Agent | |
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| Tax Angles for Home Sellers | |
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| Rent to Your Heart's Content | |
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| A Lease You Can Live With | |
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| Get Renters Insurance | |
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| When the Landlord Won't Fix It | |
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| Owning a Vacation Home | |
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| Buying the Place | |
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| Renting It Out | |
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| Should You Buy a Timeshare? | |
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| Selling a Timeshare (Alas!) | |
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| Homeowners Insurance | |
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| Coverage for the House and Contents | |
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| Liability Coverage | |
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| How Policies Differ | |
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| Finding the Best Deal | |
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| A Guide to Homeowners Policies | |
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| Take Inventory | |
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| Making a Claim | |
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| Other Types of Home-Related Insurance: Title Insurance, Flood Insurance, Umbrella Liability Insurance | |
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| Your Car | |
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| Controlling the Cost of Your Car | |
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| Choosing the Right Car | |
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| Getting a Good Deal: Set a Target Price, Consider a Twin, Shop Late in the Month, Check Inventories, Look for Incentives, Hire Some Help, Join a Club | |
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| Don't Win the Battle and Lose the War | |
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| The Lure of a Lease | |
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| Insuring Your Car | |
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| Liability Coverage: In Case You're at Fault | |
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| Crash Protection | |
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| Medical Payments: Coverage You May Not Need | |
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| Protection against Uninsured and Underinsured Drivers | |
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| Comprehensive Coverage | |
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| No-Fault Insurance | |
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| How Your Rate Is Set | |
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| Getting a Good Deal | |
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| How to Make Sure You Get Paid | |
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| Your Money and Your Life | |
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| The Money Side of Marrying | |
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| What to Know Before You Marry | |
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| Prenuptial Agreements | |
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| Considering Joint Ownership | |
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| When Seniors Tie the Knot | |
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| The Dollar Side of Divorce | |
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| Community-Property States | |
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| Non-Community-Property States | |
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| Angles on Alimony | |
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| Child Support | |
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| Staying Out of Court | |
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| Do It Yourself? | |
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| Your Kids and Your Money | |
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| Raising Money-Smart Kids | |
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| Teaching the Value of Money: What Preschoolers Can Learn, Elementary-School Age: Start Good Habits, Teenagers: Make Allowances | |
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| Kids Owe Taxes, Too | |
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| Ways to Give Money to Children: Using Custodial Accounts, Putting Your Trust in Trusts | |
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| Paying the Price of College | |
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| Where to Stash Your College Cash | |
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| State-Sponsored College Savings Plans | |
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| Zero-Coupon Bonds | |
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| U.S. Savings Bonds | |
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| Coverdell ESAs: The Roth Alternative | |
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| When College Bills Are Due: Hope Scholarship Credit, Lifetime Learning Credit | |
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| Getting Financial Aid | |
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| Sources of Aid: Pell Grants, Federal Loan Programs, Private Loan Sources | |
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| Scholarships of Broad Interest | |
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| Funeral Finances | |
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| Put It in Writing | |
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| Pay Now, Die Later? | |
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| A Better Way to Pay Ahead | |
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| When the Funeral Is Now | |
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| The Cost of Burial | |
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| Finances after the Funeral | |
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| The Money Squeeze of Aging Parents | |
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| Do They Need Your Help? | |
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| Durable Power of Attorney | |
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| Where Will They Live? | |
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| Should They Move In? | |
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| Options for Elderly Housing: Independent Living, Assisted Living, Continuing Care, and Nursing Homes | |
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| When Your Parents Need You | |
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| Helping at a Distance | |
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| Protecting Your Life and Health | |
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| Buying the Right Life Insurance | |
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| What Have You Got? | |
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| When Should You Buy Life Insurance? | |
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| How Much Do You Need? | |
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| The Life Insurance Menu | |
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| The Case for Term | |
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| The Case for Whole Life | |
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| Variations on Whole Life | |
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| The Itch to Switch | |
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| The Best Policy at the Best Price | |
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| Second-to-Die Insurance | |
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| How Safe Is the Insurance Company? | |
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| Making Sure the Right People Collect | |
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| Picking the Payoff Method | |
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| Mass-Market Life Insurance | |
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| Buying Health Insurance | |
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| Fee-for-Service: Health Coverage the Old-Fashioned Way | |
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| Preferred Provider Organizations | |
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| Health Maintenance Organizations | |
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| When COBRA Kicks In to Protect You | |
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| How to Check Up on Your Health Plan | |
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| Flexible Spending Accounts | |
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| Health Savings Accounts | |
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| What If You Can't Work? Why You Need Disability Insurance | |
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| Medicare | |
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| Tips for Buyers of Medigap Insurance | |
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| How Medigap Insurance Plugs the Holes | |
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| Long-Term-Care Insurance | |
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| Health Insurance for Pets | |
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| Insurance for Healthy Teeth | |
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| Think Twice About This Insurance | |
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| Life Insurance on Kids | |
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| Credit Life Insurance | |
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| Hospital Indemnity Insurance | |
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| Dread-Disease Insurance | |
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| Student Accident Policies | |
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| Credit Card Insurance | |
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| Investments for Today and Tomorrow | |
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| How to Have Investing Smarts All the Time | |
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| You're Going to Need a Plan: Set Exciting Goals, Adopt a Clear-Cut Strategy, Pay Attention, Control Your Risks, Make Investing a Habit, Don't Get Stuck in a Rut, Don't Fool Yourself | |
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| How Not to Get Ripped Off | |
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| Hiring Help: How to Pick a Financial Planner | |
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| How to Make Money in Stocks | |
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| What Makes a Good Stock? | |
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| Where to Find Out About Stocks | |
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| Getting a Little Technical | |
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| What's Your Plan? | |
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| How to Find the Right Broker: Full-Service Brokers, Discount Brokers, Online Brokers | |
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| Opening Your Account | |
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| If You Need to Tangle with Your Broker | |
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| Investing with a Club | |
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| Stupid Stock Tricks | |
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| What You Should Know About Bonds | |
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| A Primer for Bond Buyers | |
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| Why Quality Counts | |
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| Buying and Selling Bonds at a Discount | |
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| Before You Buy Any Bond | |
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| How "Zeros" Can Add Up | |
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| Uncle Sam's Bonds: Treasury Bills, Treasury Notes, Treasury Bonds | |
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| U.S. Agency Securities: Close Enough to the Real Thing: Ginnie, Fannie, and Freddie: Mortgage-Backed Securities | |
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| Collateralized Mortgage Obligations: Take a Pass | |
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| U.S. Savings Bonds | |
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| The Enduring Allure of Municipal Bonds: Different Ways to Buy Munis, Advantages of Funds and Unit Trusts, Zero-Coupon Municipals, Insurance on Your Munis, Swapping Munis to Save Taxes | |
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| Making It Big with Mutual Funds | |
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| How Funds Work | |
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| Sales Loads and Other Charges | |
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| How to Pick a Winning Fund | |
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| Different Strokes for Different Folks | |
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| How to Tell How You're Doing | |
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| Should You Be Open to Closed-End Funds? | |
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| Exchange-Traded Funds | |
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| Money-Market Funds: Keeping It Short | |
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| Unit Investment Trusts | |
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| Investing in Real Estate | |
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| The Lure of Leverage | |
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| Tax Breaks in Real Estate | |
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| Exchanging Rental Properties | |
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| Selecting Profitable Rental Properties | |
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| Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) | |
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| Real Estate Limited Partnerships | |
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| The Risks in Raw Land | |
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| Walk On By: Investments You Can Live Without | |
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| Gold's Lost Luster | |
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| Silver: Not as Good as Gold | |
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| Collectibles: Buy What You Like | |
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| Stock Options: Opt Out | |
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| No Future in Commodities | |
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| Taxes You'll Pay (or Not) on Your Investments | |
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| Tax Angles on Savings Accounts | |
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| Working Around the Kiddie Tax | |
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| Learning to Love Your Basis | |
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| Capital Gains and Losses | |
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| Saving Taxes on Stocks | |
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| Saving Taxes on Bonds | |
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| Saving Taxes on Mutual Funds | |
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| Taxes on Life Insurance Proceeds and Annuities | |
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| Deduct Your Investment Expenses? Maybe | |
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| Your Retirement and Estate Planning | |
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| Money Enough to Retire On | |
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| How Much Will You Need? | |
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| Where Will You Get It? | |
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| How Much Time Do You Have? | |
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| Checking Up on Your Pension: Defined-Contribution Plans, Defined-Benefit Plans | |
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| The Growing Role of the 401(k) | |
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| Employee Stock Ownership Plans | |
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| Profit-Sharing Plans | |
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| Individual Retirement Accounts | |
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| Roth IRAs | |
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| Variable Annuities | |
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| Retirement Plans If You're Self-Employed: Keogh Plans, Simplified Employee Pensions, SIMPLE IRAs | |
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| Social Security: Don't Sell It Short | |
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| What to Do with a Lump Sum at Retirement | |
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| Using Home Equity for Retirement Income | |
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| Where There's a Will, There's an Estate Plan | |
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| Six Steps to a Good Will | |
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| Estate-Planning Basics | |
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| The Role of Probate | |
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| How Large Is Your Estate? | |
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| Your State Wants a Share, Too | |
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| Putting Your Trust in Trusts | |
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| The Overselling of Living Trusts | |
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| Good Reasons to Change Your Will | |
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| Appendix | |
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| State Securities Regulation Offices | |
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| Federal Reserve Banks | |
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| Guide to Recordkeeping | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Index | |