Is Wall Street hazardous to your wealth?

On which track? Toward your goals, of course — so after you've finished this list, start another one headed “Goals.” We all have goals, but they generally live only in the backs of our minds. That makes it all too easy to get sidetracked into stuff we hadn't intended. To make things happen, you need to put your goals front and center. Frame the question this way: What are you working for? If all your money goes out the door for groceries, credit cards, entertainment, and the electric bill, you're always working for someone else. To work for yourself as well, you should deliberately set some of your income aside for the specific things you want.

So list your personal goals, along with a time frame for achieving each one (don't break your head on the time frames; terms like “soon,” “in a few years,” and “way out there” will do). The goals labeled “soon” might include a new car, a vacation, a first house, clean credit cards (no consumer debt — what a concept!). “In a few years” might be college tuition or starting your own business. Retirement might be “way out there.” It depends on your age and life events. You're going to find this list a huge help when you reach Chapter 7 and think about how to arrange your savings and investments. For each time frame, there's a perfect place for your money to be.

Pulling together your key financial records and making these two lists shouldn't take more than three or four hours (two, when you know where your records are). Then you can go to the movies. If you already have a good filing system, add a file labeled “Goals and Decisions” or some such thing, where you'll put your notes, or keep them in your computer (with a good backup!). If your records are in a jumble, keep the pile you made today in a single place. You can work on your filing system later, as you start to consider what to do.

To make the smart changes you're looking for, you first need to learn the rules of the financial road. It won't take long. The rules are the same for men and women, singles and marrieds, the young and the old. Simple solutions work especially well for spouses and permanent partners who haven't thought about coordinating their finances (or haven't been able to agree). Clarity helps create trust, in yourself and each other. That leads you to a better place.

I'm not promising that you'll end your working life as a millionaire (although that could easily happen, with steady savings and smart investing). I'm not promising that you'll be able to retire at 55 (also possible, but do you really want to?). What I can promise is an end to that nagging worry that you've overlooked something, chosen badly, or made a big mistake. You won't be investing blind or overpaying for bad advice. There are plenty of “wrongs” in personal finance, but not on this short list. Using it, you'll be okay — in fact, better than okay. You'll retire with good money and, in the meantime, feel secure with the choices you've made.

Temptation always rears its head. We can't help but dream that, somehow, some financial pied piper can pipe $100 bills into our bank accounts. Somewhere, we think, there exists a genius who'll whisper the secret of tripling our investments in a year. This broker, that newsletter or message board, a “miracle money manager” who supposedly made your cousin a fortune — one of these gurus (you imagine) will put you on easy street. Don't believe it. That's Wall Street legend, urban myth. A few people win the financial lottery, but that's usually luck, not foresight or skill. You can't predict that any particular mutual fund or investment adviser will make it happen. In real life, no one but you can buy your ticket to success.

So it's time to act. Every chapter in this book gives you things to do and ways to do them, to build your financial security. You'll also free yourself from the common fears that come with money decisions. Will you make a big mistake? No. Will you understand what I'm talking about? Yes. Will you lose your money? No. Will you come to see that you're a fabulous manager? Maybe not, but it doesn't matter. This plan manages itself. To beat your normal, human inertia — the urge to leave everything as it is — leave this book on your desk or hall table, so it will give you a kick.

Maybe you won't make these changes because you think I'm nuts. I am, in a way, in my drive for the simple financial life. But I'm here at my keyboard, yelling in print, because I know this system works. I have covered personal finance for, um, many, many years. I've watched fads come and go. I've seen trusting investors lose their money in bubbles while others made money the old-fashioned way. I've talked to the best people in the financial planning and investment worlds, and usually found that they manage their own money simply, too. I've tracked these rules of personal finance over decades, which is what gives me such confidence in them. One last thing I can promise: You'll find nothing in this book that I don't do myself.

These are my first rules:

Only a few things work, and they work really well.

If you set up a system that runs automatically, you can't fail.

Success comes from starting right, then keeping your itchy fingers off.

Excerpted from “Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People” by Jane Bryant Quinn. Copyright © 2006, Jane Bryant Quinn. All rights reserved. Published by Simon & Schuster, Inc. No part of this excerpt can be used without permission of the publisher.

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