• Introduction
• Unit 1: Basic Building Blocks of Successful Financial Management
• Unit 2: Investing Basics
• Unit 3: Finding Money to Invest
• Unit 4: Ownership Investments
• Unit 5: Fixed-Income Investing
• Unit 6: Mutual Fund Investing
• Unit 7: Tax-Deferred Investments
• Unit 8: Investing Small Dollar Amounts
• Unit 9: Getting Help: Investing Resources
• Unit 10: Selecting Financial Professionals
• Unit 11: Investment Fraud

• Study Guide
• Action Steps
• Monthly Investment Messages
• Glossary

Unit 3

Finding Money to Invest Review Questions

1. This chapter provides a wide array of concrete ideas on reducing spending and increasing savings. What are the intangible attributes, or human resources, needed to complement these strategies?
2. An established, sound savings program is a prerequisite for an investment plan. What are the characteristics of a sound savings program?
3. Explain the difference between needs and wants. How do they motivate savings?
4. Name four major goals, or objectives, that should guide your development of a financial plan to provide for immediate and long-term security.
5. List 10 effective strategies to increase savings.
6. Summarize the six steps to breaking money habits. Knowing the steps is important, but putting them into practice takes motivation and commitment. As you list the steps, consider one or more habits that you and members of your household might be able to break, or modify. How you would use the savings?
7. Compare and contrast a comparison shopper and an overspender.
8. Assets owed to you or your relatives might be available to you by searching primary sources. List the common lost assets and the primary source that might be able to help you locate and claim the assets.
9. What consumer caveats should you consider before hiring an asset finder?
10. List and explain three strategies for stretching your money.

Just Do It!! Acting on What You Learned

Because Internet sites change frequently, the uniform resource locator (URL) for the specific tool or page is not given below. Instead, the URL for the site, and instructions for navigating within the site are provided. It is our hope that this method will encourage you to explore and learn from the site, and more importantly, avoid the message: “Error: Site Not Found.”

Disclaimer: References to commercial sites are not an endorsement of the company or the financial products or services offered. These sites are included only because of their educational value; sites provided by competing companies may offer similar benefit. We encourage you to explore other sites of your choice.

1. Are you a victim of affluenza? Take the quiz at www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza to diagnose your condition. And, if you haven’t heard the term, it refers to the “illness” of terminally struggling to “keep up with the Jones.” The website and the documentary are thought provoking for anyone who wants to adjust their spending.

2. To learn more about energy saving ideas, both for the homeowner and the renter, visit the website of the U.S. Department of Energy at www.energy.gov/house or conduct a home energy audit by contacting your local utility company for details.

3. Whereas frugality is often associated with being a “tightwad,” this philosophy can go beyond simple cost-cutting ideas to a whole new approach to spending and meeting household needs. Granted, “useful ideas for dryer lint” is not for everyone. But check out these Internet sites for some new, and old, pundits for spending less and enjoying life more:

• www.stretcher.com
• http://frugalliving.miningco.com

4. Ever dream of being a millionaire? Wonder what it would be like to be one of the “rich and famous”? To learn more, read the first chapter (including a summary of characteristics common to millionaires) of the Millionaire Next Door, The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph. D. and William D. Danko, Ph. D. (1997).

5. In the book Debt Free by 30: Practical Advice for Young, Broke, and Upwardly Mobile by Jason Anthony and Karl Cluck (2001), one of the authors admits the impact of the revelation that coffee was costing approximately $1,200 given his current annual spending habits. The authors mix a healthy dose of standard financial advice with an interesting writing style, a dose of humor, and an understanding of the “get it all” mentality. You might find a copy useful as you consider ways to find money to invest, and evaluate your own spending habits.

6. Review Table 4. 21 Ways to Keep More Cash. How many of these strategies are you currently using? Which ones could benefit your household financial situation? Consider how many more practices you could implement and make a commitment to start on one of them this week.

7. Have you considered refinancing or prepaying your mortgage? Even a small amount (e.g., $15 a month) can result in significant interest savings and a reduced mortgage term. Visit the www.kiplinger.com Internet site to locate a number of useful calculators related to mortgages and home purchasing. From the main page, go to Tools and scroll down to the section called Home.

8. Meeting your insurance needs for life, health, disability, auto, and home can be expensive. But, the costs of losses when you are underinsured or have no insurance can be financially devastating. To learn more about insurance, your needs, and ideas for keeping the costs down visit the website for the Insurance Information Institute at www.iii.org.