With much of this issue focusing on financial planning, we thought we’d offer a few book suggestions to help you get your finances in order.

Start Late, Finish Rich: A No-Fail Plan for Achieving Financial Freedom at Any Age
By David Bach

This book gives advice on how to save money, how to invest, how to get a raise, and even how to start your own business. The book is targeted for people who are middle aged or older, hence the title. The book inspires and advises people to become secure with their selves and their money situation.

One satisfied reader said, “David Bach is a ‘dream creator’ who will help you dream big, and give you the tools to help make it happen.”

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The Intelligent Investor: The Classic Text on Value Investing
By Benjamin Graham

This book is simple and straight to the point. It’s a well-written book by an intelligent author whose natural abilities are in the financial area, but he speaks in terms that any average Joe can understand. One satisfied customer said, “If you want to be in the stock market, and you haven’t read Benjamin Graham, it’s like being in a gunfight in the old west, and not having a gun.”

Graham’s book deals with issues such as director independence, broker conflicts, frequent trading and the lack of performance it creates, management teams out of control, and dealing in a self-serving manner. It seems that you can’t go wrong reading this book if you need financial guidance.

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Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth
By T. Harv Eker

In this book the author states: “Give me five minutes, and I can predict your financial future for the rest of your life!”

Eker does this by identifying the reader’s “money and success pattern.” According to him, everybody has personal money patterns branded in their minds, and it is this pattern that will determine their financial lives.

According to this book, a person can know everything about marketing, sales, negotiations, stocks, real estate, and the world of finance, but if their money pattern is not set for a high level of success, they will never have a lot of money. This book helps people to change their money “blueprint” to create success.

One satisfied customer of this book said, “This is a great book because with each assertion T. Harv Eker gives excellent real life scenarios, as well as experiences that he has lived through.”

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Personal Finance for Dummies, 5th Edition
By Eric Tyson

If you know nothing about funds, stocks, bonds, insurance, budgeting, saving, taxes or any other basic issues of personal finance, then this book is the one for you. If you’re struggling to get ahead financially because you simply can’t figure out what to do with your money, Tyson talks to you personally.

There are no “get rick quick” schemes in this book, but a solid framework for anyone who needs to get a hold of their financial situation. One satisfied customer said, “Although this book would serve as a valuable reference to anyone interested in their own financial future, it would especially be useful to a young person just starting out or to any person who feels overwhelmed by their own financial situation.”

The book is useful not only as a one time read, but it also good to use as a financial reference.

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Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny
By Suze Orman

Suze Orman knows what she’s talking about when it comes to this subject. Obviously she is a successful woman, and she’s even more successful because she knows what to do with her money. The book is filled with current information about law and changes that will happen in the future up to the year 2010. It is also full with action steps that anyone can do to help you make and save money.

One reader of the book said, “I went on to become a financial advisor for others because of the knowledge and experience I gained from Orman’s book.”

This book is not just full of ideas to get you started on the right path, it gives a month by month description of things for women to do to put themselves in a good financial position.

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Meghan George is a Media Studies student at Radford University who now is armed with knowledge to understand her financial future. Her first step is to quit being an unpaid intern for the Voice.