I'm going to start routinely running the Associated Press' Personal Finance Bookshelf feature here because 1) my company pays for this service; 2) we've no space to run it print-side; 3) these are interesting brand spanking new business books you'll likely be interested to learn more about; and 4) I'm an opportunist: This is a good thing feature, ready made that I can use, and I'm going to run with it.

So, here's the most recent installment of the AP Finance Bookshelf, which gives short reviews of 3 new books on finance topics. Enjoy!

Bookshelf: Budgeting fixes, economic IDs

By The Associated Press

One lesson from the Great Recession is that simplicity is a good thing. That's true both in managing our personal budgets and keeping the financial system afloat. Too many people and banks got stuck with complex financial obligations that they didn't manage properly, or in some cases simply didn't understand.
A couple new personal finance titles offer tips and proposals to help.
If you're looking to make your paycheck stretch a bit further, you may want to pick up "Be CentsAble: How to Cut Your Household Budget in Half." We also look at a couple of more issue-oriented titles, "Jimmy Stewart is Dead: Ending the World's Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited-Purpose Banking," and "Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages and Well-Being."

Here's a look at the new titles:

TITLE: Be CentsAble: How to Cut Your Household Budget in Half
AUTHORS: Chrissy Pate and Kristin McKee
PRICE: $14 (paperback)
SUMMARY: Stay-at-home moms tend to be among the smartest when it comes to handling money. In an era of rising household costs, they have to be.
Pate, a former high school teacher, and McKee, a former financial analyst, outline everyday savings strategies that go beyond coupon clipping.
The focus is on four basic areas: groceries and personal care products; cleaning products and utilities; miscellaneous "other stuff" that has to be bought for families and homes such as shoes, gifts and pet supplies; and entertainment and travel. Along the way, the authors highlight "CentsAble Tips" in boxes designed to look like coupons.
The advice may not be all new, but it makes sense. Examples: Make a grocery list and stick to it. Stockpile gifts when items are on sale. Replace paper towels with cloth towels. And lower your thermostat by 2 degrees. Savings no doubt will add up if you follow these tips.
QUOTE: "We look at our methods and planning as earning money rather than saving it. We find that having a dinner plan each week, for example, means we can spend more time visiting with friends, playing with our children, or simply relaxing. Having a plan that also saves money means we have room for more fun in our lives!"
PUBLISHER: Plume Books
— Dave Carpenter

TITLE: Jimmy Stewart is Dead: Ending the World's Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited-Purpose Banking
AUTHOR: Laurence J. Kotlikoff
PRICE: $27.95 (hardcover)
SUMMARY: This book opens with a dire declaration: The honest, trustworthy banker that Jimmy Stewart portrayed in "It's a Wonderful Life" is gone. Kotlikoff, a Boston University professor and former economist with the President's Council of Economic Advisers, uses the classic movie as a springboard to argue that banking should return to its simpler past. His prescription for financial reform is what he calls limited-purpose banking. He proposes transforming banks into financial intermediaries that would connect borrowers and lenders with savers and investors. They would never themselves own financial assets other than what they'd need to run their operations.
QUOTE: "The proposition that banking as usual is essential to our economy as opposed to extremely dangerous is predicated on a quaint view of banks that bears little resemblance to today's reality."
PUBLISHER: Wiley
— Mark Jewell

TITLE: Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages and Well-Being
AUTHORS: George A. Akerlof and Rachel E. Kranton
PRICE: $24.95 (hardcover)
SUMMARY: Akerlof, a Nobel Prize-winning economist from the University of California-Berkeley, and Kranton, a Duke University economist, explore the links between our identities and the everyday decisions we make about earning and spending money. Their goal is to add a more personal touch to economics. For example, market forces don't explain why the gap in smoking rates between men and women disappeared throughout the 20th century. Women began lighting up just as much as men because of changing gender norms, the authors argue. The book also shows how financial bonuses can run amok. In the banking industry, for example, financial incentives have motivated workers to do whatever it takes to ensure bonus pay, even if it might hurt the company and the economy. The authors' proposed fix: Get employees to identify with the company and its mission, so they advance its goals even without financial incentives.
QUOTE: "If employees think of themselves as firm insiders rather than outsiders, the pay differentials needed to induce high effort will be lower. The difficulties that arise when employees game incentive systems are also greatly reduced. Worker identification may therefore be a major factor, perhaps even the dominant factor, in the success or failure of organizations."
PUBLISHER: Princeton University Press
— Mark Jewell

I don't know anyone who still uses a "live for today" attitude when it comes to finance.

Heck, I even, after mulling it over for about 30 min., put back a cute purse in T.J. Maxx the other day and decided to just go home and use one of the thousand other purses I already have (How's that for thrift?). Why did I have this moment of wallet consciousness? Because the $49.99 I could've laid down on that accessory will buy a few days of meals. And I think more about every single purchase I make now than I did, say, a couple of years ago, before my retirement savings got cut in half just like everyone else's ... But enough about me!

These three books, reviewed in brief by The Associated Press Personal Finance Team, take a look at a new attitude toward wealth.

Bookshelf: Is the richest man in town thrifty?

By The AP Personal Finance Team

The "live for today" attitude that helped run up credit card balances and drive down savings accounts is getting a new look these days as Americans struggle through the recession.
Two new book releases present arguments about how to change that attitude, while one offers insight into the tactics wealthy people across the country used to reach their goals.
__________
TITLE: Whatever Happened to Thrift: Why Americans Don't Save and What to Do About It
AUTHOR: Ronald T. Wilcox
PUBLISHER: Yale University Press
PRICE: $20 (paperback)
SUMMARY: Wilcox, a business professor at the University of Virginia, examines the rational and irrational reasons underlying Americans' failure to adequately save, particularly among the poor. Coming amid a recession, the book isn't uplifting — it shows how many of us are ill-prepared to support ourselves in retirement. Wilcox also demonstrates that our shortcomings pose national challenges, arguing that savings are essential to economic growth. Rather then dwelling solely on doom and gloom, Wilcox offers public policy proposals to encourage thrift, as well as tips for boosting household savings. He also presents suggestions for corporate executives to improve employee savings plans. And while he argues the credit card industry and corporate America share plenty of blame for our collective savings failures, he advises to look at ourselves first.
QUOTE: "Truthfully, we are at the root of the problem; for the most part, it is not the companies, the government, or some evil spirit that possesses us and causes us to spend too much. We are just fallible human beings operating in the world we live in as Americans."
— Mark Jewell
__________
TITLE: The Elephant in the Room: Sharing the Secrets for Pursuing Real Financial Success
AUTHOR: Barry Bridger
PUBLISHER: Wiley
PRICE: $19.95 (hardcover)
SUMMARY: Bridger takes an unusual approach by creating a fictional narrative involving a man named Michael Davidson and his wife, Jennifer, talking with his wise, prosperous aunt about their financial troubles. This short book details the characteristics needed for financial security.
Unlike most personal finance books, there are no charts, graphs or worksheets, and no specific advice for budgeting, money management or paying down debt. Rather, the author focuses on the attitudes, values and behaviors needed to transform a financial life from month-to-month anxiety to well-planned security.
Bridger's aim is to get readers thinking beyond the numbers and focusing on their goals, and to understand that the key is not how much they earn, but how they spend it.
QUOTE: "Everything we do affects the way we earn money, save money and spend money. Everything we believe and feel affects the way we act. Those behaviors, the way we act, the things we do, affect our financial future."
— Eileen AJ Connelly
__________
TITLE: The Richest Man In Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth
AUTHOR: W. Randall Jones
PUBLISHER: Business Plus, an imprint of Hatchette Book Group
PRICE: $25.95 (hardcover)
SUMMARY: Worth magazine founder Randy Jones set out to learn the secret to becoming rich. So he interviewed 100 self-made business people prominent in communities large and small across the U.S.
Some, such as Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Carl Icahn, are well known, while others are not quite household names. But Jones found they all share certain traits.
Jones uses an easy-to-read style to present those traits as 12 commandments readers should follow to build their own fortunes. Sprinkling in quotes and insights from his interview subjects, philosophers and famous writers, he directs readers to do things like "Get addicted to ambition" and "Moor yourself to morals," and above all, not to pursue money for the sake of money.
Borrowing his title from the toast at the end of the movie "It's a Wonderful Life," he maintains that a rich life is one that includes personal fulfillment and contributing real value to the world, not just the accumulation of dollars.
QUOTE: "There are people who have loads of money, and there are people who are rich. There is a decided difference between them."
—Eileen AJ Connelly

The reviewing, and even the pleasure reading, has been slow-going lately. In typical fashion I have about 4 books going, strewn about my bedroom floor, but none of them has really caught my full attention yet.

So, if I'm not reading (finishing) many books, not watching TV, have cut back on my movie habit and haven't mowed my lawn in days (weeks? Sorry, neighbors), what could I possibly be doing with my time?

One word: Facebook. Aka the time-suck where I run into old pals and stay up into the wee hours.

It's also the time of year: I can stay out later neglecting my lawn and not buying the tomato plants I need to buy.

Below are three new business books the AP has taken the time to capsulize. I guess the "personal finance team" is not too busy friending their former elementary school best friends to review some books... (P.S. You are looking at The Mercury's "personal finance team.")

Bookshelf: Things they won't tell you
The AP Personal Finance Team

"It all sounds good, but what aren't they telling me?" As a consumer that's a question you might ask about your plumber, auto mechanic or any other service-provider. If you're intrigued, that's the concept behind the new compilation of SmartMoney's collection of its regular "10 Things They Won't Tell You" feature.

While investors with a bit of an appetite for risk may want to learn more about emerging markets in Riches Among the Ruins. These are just a few of new personal finance titles that might help you sort out your money questions.

_____________________

TITLE: 1,001 Things They Won't Tell You: An Insider's Guide to Spending, Saving, and Living Wisely

AUTHOR: Jonathan Dahl and the editors of SmartMoney, The Wall Street Journal magazine

PUBLISHER: Workman Publishing

PRICE: $16.95 (paperback)

SUMMARY: If you're a fan of lists, you're in for a treat. This book compiles 100 updated installments of SmartMoney's popular monthly feature, "10 Things They Won't Tell You" into more than 500 pages.


The lists are intended to give readers an insider look into a variety of topics, such as using ticket brokers and going to the eye doctor. The book is divided into chapters such as family, education, home, food and drink, and health.

The lists often impart interesting research and are written in a playful tone that make them fun to flip through, if not carefully study. Under "Alternative Healers," for instance, categories include, "I'm not a doctor but I play one in my office" and "Hypochondriacs are my specialty."

Topics aren't always obviously related to personal finance, such as the lists on campus security and yoga instructors. But the implications for the consumer are always kept in mind. As Dahl writes in the introduction, "Who doesn't love a list?"

QUOTE: "It's what you aren't told by the experts that is almost as important as what they do say."

__________

TITLE: Riches Among the Ruins: Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy

AUTHOR: Robert P. Smith

PUBLISHER: AMACOM

PRICE: $24.95 (hardcover)

SUMMARY: If you think playing the markets in the U.S. isn't for the faint of heart, try trading in the debt of emerging market governments. Fortunes can be made or lost on an overnight currency fluctuation, corruption, or an outbreak of disease — think Mexico and swine flu.

Robert P. Smith is an American who has made and lost tens of millions of dollars trading debt in downtrodden economies. He started in the late 1970s, when such deals were virtually nonexistent. In "Riches Among the Ruins," Smith recounts adventures such as ducking shakedown artists in Nigeria, and racing through the streets of Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein. In post-communist Russia, he lost more than $15 million in a single day when the ruble collapsed.

Beyond the war stories, Smith offers lessons relevant for U.S. investors seeking opportunity overseas. Smith also shares his take on the importance of narrowing the gap between rich and poor; the U.S. role in the global economy; and an increasingly integrated world trade system.

QUOTE: "At the end of the day, a country has to rescue itself, because outside sources — the IMF, the World Bank, investment banks, and other nations — often have secondary motives that may not align with the country's national interest."

__________

TITLE: Bank on Yourself

AUTHOR: Pamela Yellen

PUBLISHER: Vanguard Press

PRICE: $25.95 (hardcover)

SUMMARY: Former financial consultant Pamela Yellen maintains that you can't rely on mutual funds, stocks or real estate to provide long-term financial security. She says you can buy cars, fund your child's college, take vacations and make major purchases by using her "Spend and Grow Wealthy" program, which she promises will also enable you to fund your retirement nest egg.

Her secret is a dividend-paying whole life insurance policy offered by a handful of companies, plus a "paid up additions rider." After paying premiums for a few years, the policy is used to fund loans to yourself. You then pay back those loans, with the interest you would have paid to banks or credit card companies, helping to build up your reserves.

The book is filled with anecdotes and personal stories of people who have used the plan. But there are few worksheets or specific details on exactly how it works, and Yellen warns readers that discussing the plan with most finance or insurance professionals will yield criticisms of her advice, because they are not trained in the specialized program. Throughout the book there are references to the related Web site, www.bankonyourself.com, which is where readers are directed to go for a referral to a "Bank on Yourself Certified Advisor."

QUOTE: "Your retirement plan investments are typically subject to market risk and volatility. However, your principal in a B.O.Y. plan won't vanish due to a stock or real estate market correction. And your growth, as soon as it's credited to your plan, is locked in."

Associated Press article about a cool Manhattan bookstore that I, a self-confessed bookstore addict, would love to visit:

Click here.

Or copy and paste: http://www.pottsmerc.com/articles/2009/05/15/business/doc4a0c1f65afc0a130790777.txt