Smart Couples Finish Rich: 9 Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner

Like many savvy business people of the 21st century, David Bach offered his first pearls of financial wisdom to women, in his bestselling book Smart Women Finish Rich. Recognizing that these women are often accompanied by significant others and that money arguments are the number one cause of divorce in America, Bach has now broadened his scope. Presumably intended to help change this depressing statistic, Smart Couples Finish Rich is a well-written financial planning tool, packed with useful charts and information, inspiring examples, and practical advice.

For people who've been disappointed by the shallowness of some of the "quick tips" self-help books out there, the subtitle of this book is a little misleading. Bach's nine steps are not instant change techniques or chirpy little quips to recite to yourself whenever you go to balance your checkbook. Instead, the first few steps include a series of exercises that will help you determine what you know (and don't know, or understand) about saving and investing, what role money should play in your life (which includes understanding your values), and how to work together toward a common financial goal. From there, Bach teaches his readers how to account for "disappearing" money, how to build retirement, security, and dream baskets of wealth (providing detailed options for all three), and how to avoid the most common financial mistakes most couples make. Though the focus of the book is predominantly on working with your existing income, Bach includes a final chapter entitled "Increase Your Income by 10 Percent in Nine Weeks."

Bach's writing style is engaging and his advice is user-friendly. A successful financial planner, he obviously believes passionately in all the "fringe" benefits of being financially responsible but employs a no-nonsense approach that makes financial smarts available to everyone. So whether you're 25 and just starting out on the earning, saving, and spending road or you plan to retire next year; whether you've recently got hitched for the first time or you've just entered your fourth marriage; and whether financial planning comes first or last on your list of fun things to do, the advice in Smart Couples Finish Rich is worth heeding. It's not about becoming a money-obsessed bore, it's about getting smart... and rich. --S. Ketchum

Price: $14.95

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Silver Investing Shocking Secrets

Silver has numerous practical uses that make it an attractive investment. Silver is a commodity that has the potential to rocket three times more than the gold in this decade. Silver has far more industrial uses than gold and as the global economy comes out its recession, it demand is going to skyrocket. Silver has many industrial applications such as conducting electricity, creating bearings, welding, soldering, brazing, photography, washing machines and many more.

Silver can play an important role in your portfolio. Because of its precious metal status, you can use it as a hedge against inflation. Now, you can invest directly in silver by buying and selling silver coins and bars. Two popular silver coins are the Silver Maple Coins (produced by Royal Canadian Mint) and the 100 oz. Silver Bar. Silver futures contracts like the gold futures contracts give the most direct access to the silver market. The most liquid silver futures contracts are the COMEX Silver futures contracts. This is the standard silver futures contracts that get traded on the COMEX Division of NYMEX. The other is the CBOT Mini-Silver. This contract is available for electronic trading.

ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) have become highly popular in the last two decades. They give you the benefits of both stocks as well as mutual funds. Now, you can find many ETFs tracking a basket of commodities. You can find Gold ETFs as well as Silver ETFs. The most popular one is the iShares Silver Trust Fund that is managed by the Barclays Bank. The bank hold the silver bullions in its vault. This ETF tracks the spot price of silver. So by investing in this ETF, you can profit from the silver price volatility. However, right now there might not be many ETFs that solely track this commodity. As the demand for silver increases and its price skyrocket, you will soon find many new ETFs tracking this precious metal.

Now, if you have been trading stocks and know something about stock investing that most probably you will love to invest in a silver mining company. The problem is this that most of the mining companies mine a number of metals that might include silver. What this means is that the stock of those mining companies will not reflect the gyrations in the silver market in the true sense. Though a percentile of their stock price variation can be linked to this precious metal. What you need to do is to look for a company that exclusively mines silver. This will give you a direct exposure to the silver market.

One of the silver mining companies is the Pan American Silver Corporation. It has got six mines. Some of these mines are located in Peru, Mexico and Bolivia. Another silver mining company is the Silver Wheaton Corp. Many silver mining companies have smaller interest in other metals too. This is one of the few companies that generate all its revenues from silver mining activities.

Trading Silver futures in my opinion is the best way to get direct exposure to this precious metal market. You can trade these futures contracts electronically. Now, if you are new to futures trading, you can practice for a few months paper trading. Meanwhile try to learn the intricacies of the silver market. This way, you can specialize in trading silver futures!

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Gold and Silver Investment Guide

Ever wondered why silver has taken over gold as the most rare precious metal? Read on the article below and discover the top 5 reasons on why we should buy silver in this current uncertain economy.

Reason 1: Silver mining demand are not enough to meet the current demands. Silver are often a by-product of mining copper, lead, zinc and gold. Getting silver is a bonus for mining companies.

Reason 2: Worldiwde economic growth e.g. China & India - resulting to more goods (esp electronic goods) being produced. Silver is the indispensable metal in most electronic goods (e.g. handphones, films, jewellery) as it is the most electrically conductive, thermally conductive and reflective.

Reason 3: Declining dollar (US, Euro) - With confidence dwindling in fiat currencies such as US dollars and Euros, people and investors are turning to real money which have withstood centuries, such as gold and silver.

Reason 4: Rising tide in investing demand - Gold and silver, are also known as commodities. Recently, there have been an increase in commodities demand. Gold is peaking now, and silver, the more neglected real money with gold, will gain investor's demand as people realise the gold prices are too high.

Reason 5: Gold/Silver Price Ratio - Gold and silver price ratio have always been 1:16. The current ratio is 1:69. Apparently, there are potential for silver prices to move closer to that of gold's as silver are becoming more rare compared to gold in the current era.

Hope that you have enjoyed reading the top 5 reasons to invest in silver. For more information, videos and books on investing in precious metals in the current uncertain economy, please visit my blog http://investinginpreciousmetals.info.

Getting Started With Silver Investing

If you want to invest some money, but are not comfortable with the stock markets at the moment, you can consider making investments in some precious metals like silver. As the price ratio for silver to gold is near historic low at this moment, this is really a great time to make decision on investments in the silver.

Basically there are 3 methods to make investments in the silver:

Buying the bullion, investing in securities and purchasing the jewelery.

Bullion

Just like gold, silver is also available to you in 99.9 % purity in the form of bars and coins. Silver coins are issued by the US Government which have face value ( like $10 or $20) to enable it to be used as currency even if prices of silver nosedive. Silver bullion is available in the form of solid bars with a weight range from ounce to one hundred ounces. Bad news in making investment in them is that these bars could get really heavy if huge sums of money is invested in them, but a good thing about this is that large weight makes them cumbersome to steal!

Securities

If you plan to make large investments, then security backed by silver would be the right way to go. Many brokerages now offer some mutual funds which are usually tied to the silver value by making investment in the bullion, shares of silver mining industry or silver futures.

"World Precious Mineral Fund" is a fine example of silver backed mutual fund.

Yet another good investment option is ETF (Exchange Traded Fund), a kind of security which was invented in the year 2002. In this you make direct investments in silver bullion quantity which is then stored at a secure and safe place and is insured by the fund. An example of silver ETF is "Silver Trust Fund" from ishares.

Jewelry

Making investments in the silver jewelry has an additional benefit that you get to wear the piece in which you are investing.

If you make investments in some unique or antique silver jewelry piece, then you are adding some value to the artistry and craftsmanship. This may result in the price of antique increasing more than the value of silver and is thus a safe investment for you even in the case of drop in the price of silver.

Michael has been writing articles online for 10 years. Check out his latest website Exilim Digital Cameras which help people find more about Casio camera battery.