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Financial Fresh Start

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Financial Fresh Start

Your Five-Step Plan for Adapting and Prospering in the New Economy

AMACOM,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

You can repair and rebuild your financial situation despite national economic travails.

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

In the aftermath of the 2008 recession, many Americans had to try to climb out of a financial hole. In her informative manual for US consumers, financial expert Shari Olefson provides useful advice on how people in financial trouble can find a fresh start. The book might benefit from stiffer proofreading in spots and Olefson’s tips can be obvious – don’t spend, protect your investments, and so on. However, she’s only laying a foundation. Once that’s established, she does a good job of communicating worthwhile information, including how new financial regulations affect consumers. getAbstract recommends her counsel to those seeking to clear up their financial lives.

Summary

“Financial Armageddon”

In the past, most people didn’t openly discuss their personal financial situations. Polite conversation didn’t include such matters as going through a home foreclosure or deciding on purpose not to pay an onerous debt. Unfortunately, in recent years, these topics have become familiar conversational fodder. The 2008 recession and its lingering after-effects caused many middle-class people’s financial circumstances to deteriorate.

Money matters remain so difficult for many people that they regard their current situation as a financial armageddon. Even though this calamitous new economic environment is hard to face, you can improve your finances if you know what to do. Special opportunities have emerged to help Americans mitigate or eliminate their financial troubles and gain a fresh start. You can take five basic steps to improve your financial situation:

“Step 1: Adapt Your Banking and Borrowing”

New banking regulations will make future banking costs higher than former banking fees. The reason is simple: Since new rules preclude the use of certain methods banks historically employed to make money, financial institutions must recoup...

About the Author

Lawyer, mediator and journalist Shari Olefson also wrote Foreclosure Nation: Mortgaging the American Dream.

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