With easy-to-follow, quick-witted exercises, you'll discover all the ways that money touches your life -- from saving and spending to insurance to retirement. Pencil your way to financial security! What would it be like to know that you were making the very best decision for every dollar you spent or saved? Can you imagine balancing your budget by the beginning of next month? Wouldn't it be great to know whether a pro's advice is right for your situation? How valuable would it be to have a customized financial plan that would serve you for life? What you hold in your hands is the first step to achieving all of the above. Whatever your income, lifestyle, or financial concerns may be, The Motley Fool Personal Finance Workbook will help you put more power into every dollar. Like a financial global positioning system, The Motley Fool Personal Finance Workbook will show you exactly where you stand right now and the most direct path to where you want to be. The Motley Fool's legendary smarts and math-made-easy will show you: -How to create a workable budget that gives you money and a life -The smartest (and fastest) way out of debt -How to set priorities to guide your financial decisions -The savviest ways to finance big purchases like a home or an education -Tactics for eliminating stress when saving for retirement -And much more... Hip, funny, and immediately useful, The Motley Fool Personal Finance Workbook is an indispensable hands-on guide for anyone looking to make the most of his or her money. David Gardner learned from his father how to invest, and with his brother, Tom, started The Motley Fool in 1993 with a mission to educate, amuse, and enrich. Today, the Fool works to empower individual investors, reaching millions every month through its website, premium services, podcasts, radio show, newspaper column, and more. With Tom they have coauthored several books, including You Have More Than You Think , Rule Breakers, Rule Makers, and The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens . Tom Gardner learned from his father how to invest, and with his brother, David, started The Motley Fool in 1993 with a mission to educate, amuse, and enrich. Today, the Fool works to empower individual investors, reaching millions every month through its website, premium services, podcasts, radio show, newspaper column, and more. With David they have coauthored several books, including You Have More Than You Think , Rule Breakers, Rule Makers, and The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens . Chapter 1: Your Money and Your Life SIXTY-SECOND GUIDE TO YOUR MONEY AND YOUR LIFE Let's kick things off with a one-minute preview of Chapter 1. We have to admit that this first chapter may seem frivolous. But play along with us for a few pages before we get down to business. We need you to figure out who you are before you can really excel at this workbook. Remember, the next sixty seconds is just an overview of the different projects we'll work on together in the chapter. So here's where we're headed. 0:60 Take time out for self-reflection. In general, would you call yourself a saver? A spender? A procrastinator? A realist? An avoider? An Abstract Expressionist? Reflect on the past and how you handled financial matters (and how they were handled -- or mishandled -- by the role models in your life). 0:51 Define in concrete terms how your spending matches up with your priorities. When you make a big purchase, are you able to enjoy the item, or do you feel guilty? Do you spend money on smaller, less meaningful things because you feel you'll never be able to afford the ones you really want? 0:44 Go on a spending spree...in your imagination, that is. Put that credit card down. Instead, commit to paper your list of goals -- at least, those that will require capital. Don't dwell too much on the details; just write down a mega-master list of things you want to achieve (such as home ownership, a debt-free existence, a trip to China). 0:23 Pick the really important ones. Scour your mega-master list of goals and pick out the top five that best match up with your priorities. Select only the ones that really count. That's what we'll be working toward in this book. 0:16 Make them real. Put together a plan to figure what it'll take to achieve those five goals -- what each will cost, when you want them to be completed, and so on. Break each one up into monthly or weekly savings goals and commit them all to paper. 0:03 Celebrate you! Now bask in the glow of self-knowledge and self-actualization. You've completed the chapter, voilà. • • • There's the synopsis. Now let's get started. KNOW THYSELF Who are you? And what does that say about the way you use money? Think about it: Are you the sort who tirelessly searches out the four cents that won't let you balance your checkbook? Or do you believe, against all evidence, that there's money in your account just because there are still