Personal Finance Textbook Recommendation

I’m thinking about buying a personal finance book and possibly some software for budgeting purposes. Anyone have a recommendations for a personal finance textbook for someone in their early 20s and/or good software.

There is a 10-in-1 finance for dummies collection (I’m not kidding) that I flipped through…it is decent.

You’re talking two different topics. For PFP (cash flow, retirement, investment, insurance sufficiency, estate, etc.) just go to amazon and pick a highly rated title for “personal financial planning”. For budgeting (assuming you want to track actuals): pick up Quicken or Money, which can download your credit card charges and infer budget category from vendor classification.

Are you a candidate in the CFA program? In my opinion the CFA readings will teach you more about managing your money than any ‘for dummies’ book will. This is a huge part of the reason that I decided to take the CFA exams – even if my math degree can’t get me into finance, I want to be able to manage my money like a pro.

> CFA readings will teach you more about managing your money Of the variety of topics covered by comprehensive PFP (see earlier post), CFA really only addresses investment planning. For the other ~80% of the process you’ll need additional guidance.

I’ve decided to get “Personal Finance (Hardcover) by Jack Kapoor (Author), Les Dlabay (Author), Robert J. Hughes (Author)” and the Quicken program. Thanks for the help Darien. http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Jack-Kapoor/dp/0073382329/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226517974&sr=8-5

lame. step up and get westerfield jaffe