To start with, she tells you to forget all the complicated stuff the financial industry sells. You don't need it, it costs too much, and some of it is downright bad. It's designed to make the banks, brokers, and insurance companies rich, not you.

The best ideas (a super-short list!) are simple, low in cost, and easy to use. They're also sophisticated and smart. The strategies shown here are followed by some of the most successful planners and money managers around today, yet they're something everyone can understand. They'll give you what you need from your money — regular savings, financial security, long-term investment growth, personal control, and best of all, peace of mind.

Once you've set up a No Worry plan, you won't have to pay much attention to it. The choices you'll find here are all good ones. All you have to do is arrange for automatic payments and contributions and then get on with the rest of your busy life. You can focus your energies on your job, family, leisure, and friends, secure in the knowledge that your finances are okay.

Here's what you'll do on the No Worry plan:

• Save more money without feeling pinched
• Get rid of debt the automatic way
• Keep yourself safe, with the right amount of insurance at the lowest cost
• Zero in on the right mortgage, every time
• Pick the best college savings plan for your kids
• Understand your finances, in ways you never did before
• Find the smartest and simplest ways of investing money, to earn superior returns over the long run

The investment ideas alone will open your eyes to the newest strategies for accumulating wealth (without making big mistakes!). Jane Bryant Quinn will change the way you think about money. She has the answers busy people need.

-- Joseph Nocera, author of A Piece Of The Action

-- Burton G. Malkiel, author of a Random Walk Down Wall Street

-- Andrew Tobias, author of The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need

To start with, she tells you to forget all the complicated stuff the financial industry sells. You don't need it, it costs too much, and some of it is downright bad. It's designed to make the banks, brokers, and insurance companies rich, not you.

The best ideas (a super-short list!) are simple, low in cost, and easy to use. They're also sophisticated and smart. The strategies shown here are followed by some of the most successful planners and money managers around today, yet they're something everyone can understand. They'll give you what you need from your money — regular savings, financial security, long-term investment growth, personal control, and best of all, peace of mind.

Once you've set up a No Worry plan, you won't have to pay much attention to it. The choices you'll find here are all good ones. All you have to do is arrange for automatic payments and contributions and then get on with the rest of your busy life. You can focus your energies on your job, family, leisure, and friends, secure in the knowledge that your finances are okay.

Here's what you'll do on the No Worry plan:

Save more money withoutfeeling pinched

Get rid of debt the automatic way

Keep yourself safe, with the right amount of insurance at the lowest cost

Zero in on the right mortgage, every time

Pick the best college savings plan for your kids

Understand your finances, in ways you never did before

Find the smartest and simplest ways of investing money, to earn superior returns over the long run

The investment ideas alone will open your eyes to the newest strategies for accumulating wealth (without making big mistakes!). Jane Bryant Quinn will change the way you think about money. She has the answers busy people need.

Introduction

1. Getting Started

Why Am I Even Reading This, I Don't Have Time!

2. Spending and Saving

I'm Too Busy to Budget, Fuhgeddaboudit

3. Wipe Out Your Debt

Financial Ecology: Use Your Money, Don't Throw It Away

4. Your Safety Net

I Really Don't Mean to Scare You, But...

5. Buying a House

At Last — A Way Through the Mortgage Maze

6. Paying for College

College! Yikes! No Way Can I Save That Much

7. Better Investing

Good News: The Smartest Investments Are the Simplest Ones

8. Wrapping Up

Keeping Score, Keeping Track, Keeping Cool

Appendix: The Ballpark Estimate

Acknowledgments

Index