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When you take a good, hard look at who (or what) is controlling your biggest investments, you may just find it's not you. In some cases, it may be that no one is getting the job done and, in other instances, you may find that outside forces are in control: your employer or the government. Who is contributing and managing your retirement account? Who is handling your mortgage? Veteran financial journalists Ali Velshi and Christine Romans tackle every money issue today, from homes and debt to education and employment, and along the way they place the ownership back in our own hands, empowering the reader with prescriptive, how-to information to come up on top. In the education chapter, the authors argue that the appropriate amount of student debt to amass should be equivalent to what you would earn in the first year working in your chosen field. If it's above that projected earning level, you should seriously re-consider either going to school or your selected career path. In the housing chapters, the authors make the case that now is the time to buy (and no one is telling you this!) because of record low mortgage rates and stellar home prices.
About the author
Ali Velshi is CNN's chief business correspondent and host of
Your $$$$$, CNN's weekend business roundtable program, as well as a regular contributor and anchor for
Issue #1, the network's in-depth coverage initiative on the single issue that matters most to CNN's audience. Velshi also hosts
The Ali Velshi Show, a weekly call-in radio program on both CNN Radio and CNN.com Live, and fields viewer calls three times a week for the Help Line segment for Headline Prime on Headline News. Online users can also listen to Velshi's podcast, The Ali V Podcast, available at www.CNN.com/podcasting and on iTunes.
Based in New York, Velshi has covered the U.S. government's bailout plan, the financial collapses of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and Lehman Brothers, and Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, reporting on the impact of the storms on oil refineries. He covered the Enron story at every step since it hit the national spotlight in 2001, including the guilty verdicts of Enron Corp.'s founder Kenneth Lay and former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling on conspiracy and fraud charges. He reported live from Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., as the company announced the layoff of 30,000 workers. He was reporting live from an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico amid evacuation calls for Hurricane Katrina.
