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“You will spend more with credit than with debit and more with debit than with cash.” This is Rule #18 in Jean Chatzky’s book, Money Rules: The Simple Path to Lifelong Security
Chatzky is a bestselling author and the financial editor for NBC’s Today Show.  She compiled a list of financial “rules” gathered from her own observations and experience, other financial experts, and ordinary people who are money-smart. She vetted the rules, threw out more than she kept, and boiled them down to a list of 94, collected into an easy-to-read book with large print, illustrations, and plenty of white space.
With the vast array of financial books on the market, what makes Money Rules different is its simplicity.  Chatzky presents the information in easy to understand sound bites, one rule per page. You don’t have to be a financial whiz to understand her advice. This book is a quick read, too.
 One of my favorite is #9: “An hour of your time is worth__________.”
Chatzky presents a formula to determine whether it is worth your money to hire someone to do a task you dread.  She writes, “Here’s a quick and dirty way to compute your hourly rate. Remove the last three zeros from your annual salary and divide the remaining number in half. For example, if you earn $30,000 a year, that gives you a rate of $15 an hour. Use this handy formula – in combination with your enjoyment/hatred of the task at hand – to decide when it’s okay to hire others and which tasks aren’t worth doing at all. The weeding of the garden you could hire someone to do for $15 an hour? If you hate it and earn more, hire help. If you love it and earn more, don’t.  And if you earn less yourself, plug in your iPod, pour yourself a cold one, and start digging.”
 If you are concerned about money: making it, keeping it, spending it, investing it, or protecting it, Jean Chatzky dishes up simple guidelines that can help anyone. With a reasonable list price of $12.99 and less than an hour of reading time, you’ll find helpful reminders and new insights on money. 
 A sampling from Money Rules: The Simple Path to Lifelong Security by Jean Chatzky:
#4 If you don’t ask for more money, the answer will always be “no.”
#6 The four most powerful words in any negotiation: “can you do better?”
#19 Carry Benjamins, not Jacksons.
#26 Just because someone will lend it to you doesn’t mean you should borrow it.
#35 Just because you have a coupon doesn’t mean you should go shopping.
#45 Shop with cheapskates.
#69 Date your stocks, don’t marry them.


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