The purpose of this book is to help you organize your financial and legal affairs, so that your loved ones and others will be able to step in and help with minimal difficulty if you are not able to manage things yourself. It will also be helpful to anyone who wants to get on track by reviewing where they stand and bringing together key information on the financial and legal aspects of their lives into one centralized place. 
 The book includes a complete set of organization forms that provide an easy-to-use blueprint for doing this. The more organized you are, the easier it will be for others to help out during an emergency, an illness, or after your death. You will also achieve satisfaction and peace of mind from finally getting around to doing something that many of us put off until it is too late. 
 Planning and organizing will also help ensure that your wishes are followed. The plain fact is that we never know when decisions may have to be made on our behalf or about our estate. The question is who will make them and what guidance they will have. This book is designed to help you provide that guidance. 
 The author, Marla Brill, is an AIER Research Associate and the author of How Give Wisely (AIER) and Windfall: Managing Unexpected Money So It Doesn t Manage You (Alpha Books), and a co-author of How to Plan for Your Retirement Years (AIER). An experienced financial journalist, she also has written numerous articles for AIER and other organizations. 
 Sara F. Cooper, an AIER Research Fellow, provided primary research support for the preparation of this book, and Jonathan Sylbert designed the layout.

If Something Should Happen: How to Organize Your Financial and Legal Affairs

Business & Money

Marla Brill

Personal Finance

American Institute for Economic Research (AIER)

Few of us fully appreciate what the costs of owning and operating a car amount to over the course of a lifetime. The estimated average cost of owning and operating a standard-size automobile over the expected driving lifetime now is over $320,000 - more than a quarter of a million dollars! All told, you probably will spend more of your disposable income on automobiles than on virtually anything else, except food and shelter. 
 Of course, car prices will only increase and you and your family's drivers need to know about the long-term costs of owning and operating different types of cars. The 2008 updated edition of our popular book contains much valuable information for anyone who owns a car or has plans to buy a new or used car. It tells you: 
 * How to keep your automobile expenses in perspective. * When to by new and when to buy used. * How to determine dealer costs. * How to use the N.A.D.A. Official Used Car Guide * How to understand and compare leasing deals. * Whether to buy for cash, to borrow, or to lease. * How to buy cars that retain the most resale value. * It also includes value rankings of 2003-2007 used cars, light pickups, sport utility vehicles, and vans. Whether you are buying new or used, you should consider the investment value of your automobile. 
 What your Car Really Costs also is useful for younger drivers who may be looking for their first car. The actual costs of owning and operating an automobile are far more than simply making the monthly payment. You can help protect your family's financial future by introducing your young drivers to the fundamental financial demands of car ownership.

What Your Car Really Costs: How to Keep a Financially Safe Driving Record

AIER Research Staff

Whether you are just getting started or starting late, developing a life strategy is an essential tool for people of any age. It s about setting and reaching personal goals. However, listing specific objectives (owning a house, retiring young, putting children through college) is only a first step. 
 How will you go about accomplishing these goals? Do they take into account mounting bills and the problems encountered trying to pay them on time? What will happen if your credit score dips and the availability of loans quickly shrinks? Start Here: Getting Your Financial Life on Track is the guide to fulfilling your dreams. It s a study of tactics: concrete plans and procedures for getting what you want, specifically in the realm of money. To simplify what can quickly become an unwieldy and complicated subject, the book is organized around 10 tough money tasks. Some of the topics include: 
 How to Pay Your Bills on Time
 Your Credit Score And What to Do about It
 Couples and Money: Outsmarting Conflict
 Is It Time to Buy a House? 
 The book delivers the detail that you need to make the right decisions. Paying your bills on time is not just about allocating your income. More basically it s about knowing when bills are due. The trick is to organize bills and payments in a way that works. Then the benefits will follow: control, comfort, and a good credit rating. 
 Start Here guides you through many different stages of your financial life. The information is clear and concise, never too complex and never too simple. For example, when you decide to move in with your significant other, Start Here has many useful guidelines to protect the financial interests of you and your loved one. This practical advice covers everything from pre-nuptial agreements (both formal and informal) to creating and financing a house account. 
 Unlike other similarly focused titles, Start Here is produced by an organization that has no agenda to push, no outside products to advertise, and no commercial services to highlight. This book is written by R.D. Norton, a former professor of economics at University of Texas at Dallas, Mount Holyoke College, and Bryant College. Dr. Norton is keenly aware of the challenges facing those starting their financial lives and provides readers with the tools they need to reach their life goals.

Start Here: Getting Your Financial Life on Track

R.D. Norton

PH.D.

The estimated average cost of owning a standard-sized automobile over your expected driving lifetime is now $320,000! Operating a vehicle will be your second largest expense after housing, year in and year out. 
 But there is more to this than meets the eye. Consider how the cost of seemingly minor vehicle luxuries may later manifest as lost educational opportunities, inadequate housing, insufficient health care or reduced retirement income. 
 Car Bargains, based on the popular AIER title What Your Car Really Costs, is useful for anyone in search of a better deal. As Jerry Flint, Forbes automotive columnist, says: 
 Buying a car is our second biggest purchase next to our house. We need all the help we can get. This book will give you that help. 
 Whether you are buying your first car or seek a new reliable vehicle, Car Bargains is packed with useful information and tables that can help you get more bang for your buck. Learn how to manage your automobile expenses, decide to buy new or used, compare rebates and interest rates and much more. Syndicated personal finance columnist David Uffington adds: 
 If you're about to shop for a car or wonder what your current one actually costs you, this book is a great tool in your informational arsenal.

Car Bargains: Best Used Auto Values

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, under the Fifth Amendment s takings clause, a municipality may seize land from one private owner and transfer it to another solely to promote economic development. The 5-4 decision in the famed Kelo v. New London ruling set off a firestorm of criticism. 
 Prior to Kelo, just eight states had laws limiting or prohibiting the use of eminent domain for economic development. Today, 43 states have such laws. 
 New York State isn t one of them. So the fight over what properly constitutes public use was recently rejoined in a state court case, Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corporation. In it, residents and business owners in a Brooklyn neighborhood are challenging the state s use of eminent domain to acquire private property so that it can be turned over to a commercial developer who wants to build a new basketball arena for the NBA s New Jersey Nets. 
 These ongoing controversies might give the impression that the passion Americans have for private property rights is unique to our country and our culture. That would be wrong. 
 As Walker F. Todd explains in Progress and Property Rights: From the Greeks to Magna Carta to the Constitution, the U.S. concept of property rights can be traced back to biblical times. It was developed further by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and first incorporated in the English Declaration of Rights in 1689. The process has been evolutionary and as Kelo and Goldstein indicate, the evolution continues. 
 The purpose of Todd s book is to inform the public of the traditions that underlay the development of modern American property rights. At a time when the issue generates as much heat as light, such a reflective step back can be useful for all of us.

Progress and Property Rights: From the Greeks to Magna Carta to the Constitution

Walker F. Todd

Business