Take Charge of your Money Now: Essential Strategies for Winning in any Financial Climate

Introduction 

Taking charge of your money is the first step toward taking charge of your life. No man has ever had his personal house in order whose financial house is in disarray. 

Why Bother with Another Money Book? 

In our first book, The Market Guys’ Five Points for Trading Success, we included a question that is often asked of us by people who have yet to hear us speak: “Why should I listen to anything you have to tell me?” It’s a fair question. You have every right to question the authority and credentials of someone who offers you their advice. You well know that there are many gurus and experts out there propounding their philosophies of health, wealth, and happiness. The philosophies, ideas, and strategies range from bizarre to inspirational. So how do you decide between sound advice and nonsense? To help you answer the question we just posed, it might be useful to plant another question in your mind. You are holding in your hand a book about taking charge of your money–and doing it now. Maybe you’ve gotten to this point without asking yourself this question: With the many hundreds of books published about money and personal finance, why bother with yet another money book? There are three key reasons why we’re confident this book will help you take charge of your money. 

1. Wall Street and Main Street 

We bring the lessons and insights of the world of professional trading and investing to the everyday needs and challenges of Main Street. You have to be in the markets to really understand how they work. You can’t simply read about the trading floor in New York or listen to the news reports on the financial networks. You have to put your own money at risk and know what it feels like to make a profit and suffer a loss. Have you made a great money decision and felt the excitement of winning? Or have you made a serious error and lain awake all night wondering how you’ll recover? Very few people get that opportunity, and even fewer are willing or able to take that experience and extend it to real- life financial issues. We have been in the trenches of Wall Street and know how the financial world operates. We’ve seen what it takes to win and what happens when you lose. We didn’t create The Market Guys as a marketing brand to make money in the world of business advice. The Market Guys brand grew out of our understanding and passion for the markets and investing. Along the way, we realized that professional trading and investing principles can be applied to personal finance with great success. Key lessons that every Wall Street professional knows are brought to you in this book to help you manage your money like the pros. 

2. Practical, Time- Tested Strategies 

Gimmicks may sound great in advertising, but they rarely stand the test of time. Through our many years in the financial business, we have had the privilege of working with millions of traders and investors around the world. We have seen the practices and habits of people who are successful with their money, and we have seen other practices and habits that are common to the unsuccessful people. This book brings our years of accumulated observations and experiences to you in an easy- to- follow format. We’re not developing a theory of finance here; many others have traveled that road before us. What we’re offering in this book is a map–a practical, useful guide to getting to your destination, regardless of your starting point. If you diligently follow the map, you can achieve success with your finances and take charge of your money! 

One of the reasons we’re so excited about offering you this book is that we are in front of audiences around the world every day, and we get their feedback. We know that the strategies and ideas contained in the pages that follow have already changed lives for the better. We’ve heard about the people who have taken charge of their money, and their stories inspire us. We want you to be one of those success stories. If you choose to act, you can do it! 

3. Protect and Grow 

The basic tenet of our approach to taking charge of your money is to manage risk first and then build from there. We are not part of the hype that tells you that the stock market is your own personal lottery ticket. We’re not going to try to convince you that you can buy and sell houses the way kids trade baseball cards. We know that if something smells fishy, it’s probably because it contains a rotten fish. We’ll talk to you about the fact that every professional knows you can’t grow your money if you don’t take care to protect it. The next goal, then, is to learn key strategies to help you grow your wealth in small, steady steps. This book isn’t about spinning the roulette wheel and hoping you land the big payoff. We’re offering you real meat- and- potatoes ideas, not long shots. If you’ve been looking for a money book that you can use as a how- to manual rather than a wish- I- could book, then keep reading. 

How Do You Use This Book? 

We wanted this book to be practical and usable right from the start. Sometimes you have to labor all the way through a book before you can piece together the ideas and put them to work. Other times, the themes are so arcane or pie- in- the- sky that even after you’re done with the book, you’re left wondering how it could possibly apply to your situation. Our goal was to avoid both of these traps. 

We have structured the book into four major sections. The first is all about markets. We start with the premise that you really need to understand whatever market you’re participating in. If you’re investing in the stock market, you need to know how stock markets work and how to avoid the traps and dangers. Along with that, each market has its own language and we talk about why it’s crucial that you learn to communicate in that specific language. 

The second section deals with the players–what people and institutions make up your market? The first player, of course, is you. 

We deal with some of the considerations that make you the best market player you can be. Beyond that, we talk about friends and foes within your market. This includes how to pick your friends, such as your financial advisor and broker. We also deal very strongly with your foes–those people and companies that are actively trying to harm you as a by-product of their own selfish interests. We make it a point to say, “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention!” The third section is concerned with your strategy. Now that you understand the markets and who the players are, how can you be most effective within that market? We introduce you to what you need for creating a financial plan and how to put your internal motivation to work for you. 

Finally, we’ve included a section on special circumstances. It would be great if life followed a prescribed set of rules and you knew what was coming next. That’s not life; the unexpected is always lurking right around the corner. We’ve included many of the common special issues that you may encounter including divorce, foreclosure, and bankruptcy. 

The chapters are designed as stand- alone nuggets. If you read only the first couple of chapters or you decide to jump ahead to the chapter on unexpected circumstances, you’ll be armed with useful information that you can use today. X

Our Take Charge of Your Money Now! Workbook is designed to make sure that you know and understand the key ideas. Again, this isn’t a test that must be completed in sequence. Jump around, find the parts that interest you, and then come back to the rest of the book later. Even better, take copious notes on the section that applies to you, and create your own personal reference manual. Use your own notes to teach someone else–your kids or grandkids, for example–and you’ll find that you become a better student and teacher at the same time! 

Why Now? 

You might be thinking that all of this sounds good so far, but what’s the urgency? You agree that you need to take charge of your money, but maybe later, not now. As we complete the manuscript for this book at the end of 2008, the financial world is being rocked. We’re watching events and changes that haven’t been seen in generations, if ever. Consider some of the momentous events of 2008: 

· Investor fraud worth $50 billion was perpetrated by a single money manager. 
· Oil prices ran to an all- time high of over $140 a barrel, and then dropped $100 within six months. 
· Christmas retail sales were the worst in forty years. 
· The Consumer Confidence Index dropped to the lowest point since its 1967 inception. 
· Unemployment reached a fifteen- year high and was expected to continue to rise. 
· The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 40 percent in 2008–the biggest one- year drop since the Great Depression. · Titans of the banking, insurance, and manufacturing industries failed at a record pace, setting the stage for massive government bailout packages.
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