What's Your Net Worth? : Click Your Way to Wealth - The Wfn.com Guide to Financial Independence

Convinced that most women desperately need to make smarter financial choices, Openshaw, founder and CEO of the Women's Financial Network, offers a comprehensive guide to online resources that help women take charge of their finances. She offers advice on key topics such as getting a loan, buying a car, choosing a broker and planning for retirement. The book's breezy, pleasant manner, sidebars packed with resources and sound advice will benefit newcomers to financial issues, but more sophisticated readers will find the material and many of the Web sites familiar.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Openshaw, founder of Women's Financial Network (WFN), sets out to help women climb a "wealth ladder," providing them with information, inspiration, and a catalog of Web sites to serve as online tools. The "wealth ladder" is a wealth-building process that begins with a personal financial analysis and then considers how to live within your means, freeing yourself from debt, buying a home, learning about investments, investing to build net worth, protecting assets, organizing finances, tax evaluation, increasing earning power, and preserving assets and philanthropy. The author concludes by stating that women are getting richer faster than men, and the need for financial understanding and control are imperative. The growing affluence of women has made them an important target market for financial-services companies, and although others may suggest different approaches, including other Web sites for information on financial management and prosperity, Openshaw covers critical elements of personal financial planning. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Openshaw, who founded the Women's Financial Network (WFN), makes a case for using the Internet to manage all personal finance information. Working chapter by chapter, she outlines a 12-step ladder to wealth, whether you are beginning from nothing or nurturing whatever you or your family already possesses. Her major themes include hard work and save, save, save; her three-part game plan involves "Earn It, Save It, and Grow It." Openshaw describes how to trim expenses to increase savings, use online budgeting tools to get a handle on spending, and devise an online strategy to spend less on needed purchases. Like David Bach's Smart Couples Finish Rich: 9 Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner (LJ 12/00), this work shows readers how to manage money to their advantage. Libraries don't necessarily need both books, but together they give a more complete picture of personal finance. Susan Awe, Univ. of New Mexico Lib., Albuquerque
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.