A Woman's Guide to Family Finances

Kay, a military wife and mother of seven, knows how to stretch a dollar. In this chatty book for women, she highlights seven essentials to any family's financial plan: an emergency fund, life insurance, a will, a retirement account, a good credit rating, a college fund (if there are children) and--unusually--an Internet connection. (This, she says, gives families access to the very best mortgage and insurance rates, among other things.) After presenting various personality types (e.g., ""Tightwad Tilly"" and ""Secure Samantha"") and discussing some of the emotional baggage of money, Kay provides nuts-and-bolts information to help readers get out of debt, tithe 10 percent to charity and achieve their financial goals. She has a conversational style and shares many personal stories, such as the time she was a winning contestant on ""The Price is Right."" The book's breathless tone, marked by an overabundance of exclamation points and italicized sentences, can be wearing at times, but interspersed with the chin-wags are concrete tips on avoiding identity theft, buying a home, selling unused items, surviving a layoff and other topics.