The Savage Truth on Money, Third Edition

Our entire economy--from individuals to state and federal government--have violated the most basic Savage Truth that headed Chapter 1 in the very first edition of this book and remains unchanged: Live within your means. Don't spend it all! Think of how different our economy would be if we had all learned that lesson, especially both parties in Washington! It's a story as old as the grasshopper and the ant, or the Bible, and the moral remains the same: During the good times, prepare and save for the tough times or they will devastate you. Now we begin a new cycle. Are you prepared? Have you hedged your bets on your financial future? Are you ready to be a survivor who goes on to become even more successful in the next economic boom? Let the fully revised new edition of The Savage Truth on Money help you navigate your future in the new normal. There will be good times ahead for America, make no mistake about that. Surely your grandparents, or great grandparents, who may have lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s must have been pessimistic about the future. Similarly, those who faced a deep recession in the early 1980s--with interest rates at 20 percent and unemployment at 12 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average under 800--found it difficult to believe our economy would recover, and even boom. In the global panic of 2008, which sent the Dow down to 6700, few were predicting a recovery extended bear market of the 1970s, few could see into the future to a technology revolution that would send the stock market soaring to nearly 27,000, push unemployment to record low levels, and create low mortgage rates not seen since the 1960s. Back then, few had enough belief in the future to keep investing in stocks when the outlook was gloomiest. But those who did believe in the future--and invest for it--were well rewarded. This new edition of The Savage Truth on Money contains those same Truths that would have saved so many people from so much financial woe, if only they had been heeded. They're as appropriate today as ever. I've included some updated references to drive the point home. After all, if we don't learn from our mistakes, we'll go on making them. It's never too late to start over. It's also a guide to your opportunity to save yourself and redirect your finances in a new economic and political reality. Whether you're just starting out and are disillusioned about your prospects, or you've watched your fortune go down the drain and wonder are worried about how you'll manage your investments and plan your retirement, life, this is your roadmap to the future. To be financially successful requires that we withstand the emotions that destroy financial plans and goals. We must understand the lessons of the market and then create plans that control our natural tendencies to be motivated by fear and greed. But as I said in the original Savage Truth, all of that is a waste of energy if we don't have the self-discipline to believe in the future and stick with well-made plans.