What You Need to Do Now

Lately, the Dow tends to tumble with the frequency of a professional gymnast; the U.S. deficit is expanding at mind-boggling speed; the corporate world is still baring the scars of the dot-com bubble burst; and the global political landscape is more volatile than ever. What is an everyday investor to do?

This book is intended to return you to the basics, to help you put into today's context all the aspects of your personal finances that you've ignored, avoided, or failed to know about. That's because, now more than ever, you must tend to these fundamentals, because the best way to succeed in difficult times is to make sure you have all the basics covered, and this book will help you do that. As well as:

• Prepare for money emergencies by establishing a cash reserve, with tips on checking and savings accounts and safe places to keep your cash.
• Provide for your family with the right kind of health, life, disability, long-term care, auto, homeowners, and liability insurance.
• Preserve your assets with proper estate planning, from wills, titles, and trusts to probate, powers of attorney, and taxes.
• Secure your home with a thirty-year mortgage that's as big as you can get, and do so while you still have a job and can get the loan.
• Protect your income with the right questions to ask their employers about business continuity coverage, Phoenix plans, and other company-saving procedures.
• Defend your businesses with key man coverage, cross training, data backups, offsite storage, consultants, and other strategies.
• Help others in their time of need, to make sure that no one is left aside during this period of national disturbance.
• Plan your next investment moves by developing carefully designed, highly diversified long-term portfolios that will weather the storm.