Amazon.com may be the best thing that ever happened to those of us who don’t want to be seen perusing the self-help section of the local bookstore. If you’re in need of a money makeover, these bestsellers can point you in the right direction.

1. The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton. This no-nonsense guide shows that even blue-collar workers can fill their piggybanks to bursting — all it takes to start is saving 10 percent of your income for the long term.
2. Smart Women Finish Rich by David Bach. Here’s one for the ladies: Women are statistically more likely to let the men in their lives handle the money, but this unintimidating book shows that financial savvy can be empowering.
3. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko. The secret to getting rich is not frittering your money away on the trappings of wealth, write Stanley and Danko, who extensively surveyed people with more than $1 million in the bank.
4. Your Money and Your Man by Michelle Singletary. This book is a must-read for any couple combining their finances. Singletary spells out the three C’s — communication, compromise, and common goals — that will help you avoid endlessly fighting over money.
5. Pay Yourself First by Jesse B. Brown. Written for an African-American audience, this book explains how to get and stay out of debt, start investing, and avoid financial pitfalls (especially if you make less than $30,000 per year).

In this economy, it’s easier to cut expenses than to increase your income. Need an instant budget makeover? These five tips will put money in your pocket nearly immediately. Check it out:

1. Look for little ways to save on discretionary purchases. It adds up over time, so stock snacks or soda in your desk rather than hitting up the vending machines.
2. Slash your monthly bills. Many service providers are willing to offer discounts to keep you as a customer. It never hurts to ask, so call your cable provider or gym membership administrator to see if you qualify for any deals. And while I’m sure you’ve heard it a thousand times from a certain animated gecko, 15 minutes could save you a lot of money on your insurance — car or otherwise.
3. Are you still buying books and paying to rent DVDs? Beyond hard covers and paperbacks, most libraries now have extensive DVD collections. Brush up on previous years’ Oscar winners for free so you can recognize the clips from those montages on Sunday night.
4. Know when price increases go into effect. For example, gas is typically more expensive on Saturdays — when everyone needs to fill up to run errands — than on Tuesdays. Save some of your money by knowing when to find the best deals. Gasbuddy.com can help you find the lowest price in your area, too.
5. Make your money work for you. Shop around for the best interest rates on savings and money-market accounts at Bankrate.com.

As Suzi posted earlier, “Here Comes the Bride” is often followed by “Here Come the Bills.” There’s no doubt that marriage and money are inextricably linked, so this week, we offer a few financial paths to wedded bliss.

1. Talk early and often about money. Talking about spending habits and priorities before you walk down the aisle is important, especially if you are financial opposites.
2. Prepare for a tax bite that first year of marriage. If you’ve never heard of the “marriage penalty,” make sure you read this article on how your tax bill may go up right after you say your “I Do’s.”
3. Plan monthly check-ins to make sure you’re on track. Lest you end up like financial columnist Edmund Andrews and his wife, who racked up $50,000 in debt in two years of marriage.
4. Your debt becomes your spouse’s debt — and vice versa. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your spouse’s financial peccadillos are his or hers alone. If your spouse’s debt goes into collections, you could be the one holding the bag — even if you aren’t a joint cardholder.
5. Divorce is even less fun in a recession. Not everyone gets a happily ever after, but the National Marriage Project reports that more unhappy couples are putting off divorce until after the recession ends.

We’re now less than two months away from April 15th, the day the tax man gets his due. You may not even be thinking about your 1040 yet, but there are some very compelling benefits to filing early. Make your money work for you!

1. Luck favors the prepared. By not waiting until the last minute, you can spend a little extra time finding all the tax credits you’re eligible for. For example, you wouldn’t want to miss out on the Making Work Pay tax credit, which gives single filers an extra $400 and married couples filing jointly $800 (assuming they meet the income requirements).
2. Get your refund faster. This is the obvious one. If you’ve paid too much in taxes in 2009, get the IRS to cut you a check now before the agency is inundated in April and it may be weeks until you see your money.
3. Pay off bills sooner. It’s tempting to use that refund for something flashy and exciting — because hey, found money, right? — but if you put it toward high-interest credit-card balances or student loans, you’ll save yourself some money and get that much closer to living debt-free.
4. Avoid late fees. If you have the time now, it’s better to file your tax return early than risk filing late, especially if you owe (since you’ll have to pay interest on top of penalties).
5. Bring home a bigger paycheck. Now is a good time to review your withholdings. If you’re getting a whopper of a refund back for 2009, consider increasing your federal withholdings — you’ll get a smaller refund next year in return for a bigger paycheck now. After all, why knowingly give the government an interest-free loan?

If you own a smartphone, you’re familiar with the phrase “there’s an app for that.” Whether you have an iPhone, BlackBerry, or ‘Droid, you will want to make space for one of these useful money-minded apps to keep you on budget while on the go.

1. Mint.com Personal Finance for the Apple iPhone or iPod Touch. While not available for other phones yet, this highly-rated app offers the same range of functions that the popular money-management website does. And it’s free through the iTunes Store.
2. USAA Mobile for the iPhone and Google Android. One of the coolest features of this free app is how it lets you take photos of checks and deposit them electronically into your account.
3. Ascendo Money Personal Finance Manager for the BlackBerry. At $29.99, this is the most expensive of the bunch but it comes with software for your desktop PC that will help you make the most of its functions, including budget analysis, graphs, and bill reminders.
4. BillTracker for the iPhone. This interactive database app will remind you when your bills are due and the amount you have to pay. At only 99¢, it’s cheap for peace of mind.
5. Google Finance for the Android. Exclusive to the ‘Droid, this free app gives you real-time stock quotes, finance news, and syncing with any financial data you’ve input to Google Finance (such as your investments).

In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, it seems more important than ever to prepare yourself and your family for the possibility of an unforeseen natural disaster like a hurricane, blizzard, wildfire, or tornado. The American Red Cross offers its advice for the basics of preparedness, but what else do you need to be ready for anything? Read on for our take:

1. Update your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. If you haven’t done so lately, take a minute to review your policy to make sure any new major purchases — like jewelry or a plasma TV — are covered under your existing policy. And remember that in some areas, flood, wildfire, or earthquake coverage can be extra.
2. Make an inventory of your assets. This is as important for natural disasters as it would be in the case of theft. Take photos of your most valuable possessions and keep records of serial numbers and appraisals in your safe deposit box.
3. Send copies of important documents to someone you trust. Preferably you’ll pick a friend or relative who lives in another state that wouldn’t be affected by the same natural disaster. Include copies of your bank account numbers, birth and marriage certificates, Social Security card, and a CD with a back-up of your most essential computer files.
4. Keep some cash on hand. If you already have an emergency kit (like the kind California recommends in case of earthquakes), make sure it contains enough cash to buy supplies in the event that ATMs are out due to a power outage — $500 should do the trick.
5. Set up an automatic payment plan for your regular bills. When disaster strikes, the last thing you want to worry about is when your bills are due and whether you’ll incur late fees for missing the due date. Set up BillPay for your mortgage, car loans, and other major bills and link it to a bank account that has enough to cover them for a couple of months (that’s what your emergency fund is there for, after all).

This week, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote about what the country really needs instead of yet another economic stimulus package:

What the country needs most now is not more government stimulus, but more stimulation. We need to get millions of American kids, not just the geniuses, excited about innovation and entrepreneurship again. We need to make 2010 what Obama should have made 2009: the year of innovation, the year of making our pie bigger, the year of “Start-Up America.”

On that note, and in the spirit of getting the year started on the right foot, here are five ways to teach the next generation about the American Dream.

1. You’re never too young to learn. TIME magazine recently profiled Chicago’s Ariel Community Academy and its K-8 investing program. Each incoming kindergarten class is given dominion over an investment portfolio worth $20,000; by seventh grade, the young investors are allowed to pick what and when to buy and sell. Any profits at eighth grade graduation go toward a college scholarship fund that benefits the graduating class.
2. Even lemonade stands are teaching tools. Watch our video for just a few of the lessons this classic summertime activity provides young kids.
3. Encourage teens to start their own companies. The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s flagship program is a contest at middle and high schools nationwide (mostly in low-income communities) that helps 24,000 participating students start their own businesses.
4. Avoid the “Freshmen Financial Fifteen.” College students are particularly at risk for not budgeting properly, signing up for expensive cell-phone plans, and abusing their credit cards. If they are aware of the responsible use of each, they are primed for a financially secure adulthood.
5. Finally, take the Econ4U Entrepreneurship Quiz. Even adults may be surprised at what they don’t know about starting a business.

Have you broken your New Year’s financial resolutions yet? If so, today’s edition will help you get back on track by pointing out the most common banking mistakes people make — and how to avoid these money pitfalls.

1. Not checking your statements. It’s easy enough for a glitch to cause an automatic debit — like a gym membership or gas bill — to post twice. If you no longer receive paper statements, do yourself a favor and check your account balances and transaction history online at least once a month.
2. Failing to balance your checkbook. In the age of online banking, balancing a checkbook may seem like something you do with a chisel and stone tablet. But if you don’t know how much money you have in your checking account, you’re far more likely to get dinged by ever-increasing overdraft fees.
3. Using automatic bill payment carelessly. Spinning off from the previous point, don’t sign up for BillPay or similar programs if you don’t know how to balance your checkbook. And on top of that it’s a good idea to keep a significant cushion — say, $200 — to protect you from mindlessly overdrawing on essential bills (and potentially wrecking your credit).
4. Relying on out-of-network ATMs. When in need of cash and miles from your preferred bank, you may think “eh, it’s only three bucks” to withdraw money from an out-of-network ATM. But do that once a week and it’s sucking $156 from your bank account per year. No longer chump change, is it?
5. Forgetting to account for cash purchases. Even if you are a champ about using Quicken or Mint.com to track your spending, keeping a tab on cash purchases still requires your attention because there’s no electronic record of it. Either keep your receipts and record your cash spending manually or keep a close eye on whatever you withdraw from the ATM.

I was recently reviewing the Survey of Consumer Finances, published earlier this year using data from 2007. I thought it was interesting that only 46.2 percent of American households reported having credit-card debt, since the common perception is that almost everyone is living well beyond their means. But what the survey results really reveal is that more than half of the country either doesn’t carry a credit card or pays off their balances every month.

Want to join that club? Here’s what you have to do:

1. “Snowball” your debt. Transfer balances from high-interest cards to a low-interest card and then focus your efforts on paying it off. This will save you the headache of tracking multiple balances at once.
2. Double your minimum payment. If your card has an 18 percent interest rate and you pay the minimum $100 per month, it will take more than 10 years to pay off a balance of $3,000, racking up more than $2,000 in interest in the meantime. Double your payment and you’ll be debt-free in half the time while paying only $754 in interest, according to this calculator.
3. Repay debt with money from savings. Don’t touch your retirement accounts — the stiff penalties make it not worth it — but it’s a good idea to cash out your short-term savings to reduce your debt burden. You may want to keep some cash liquid for emergencies, but it’s highly unlikely you’re earning more in interest than you’re paying to the credit-card bank every month. Using savings to pay down debt is like getting an instant return on your money of 12 or 18 percent (or whatever your APR is).
4. Don’t take out a secured loan. The difference between a secured loan and an unsecured loan is whether you have to put up collateral to sign for it. Credit cards are unsecured debt, so taking out a secured loan — like against your home equity or car — is just about the riskiest thing you can do. If you fail to pay your credit cards, your credit score will tank, but if you fail to pay a secured debt, you’ll lose your house or mode of transportation. Don’t chance it.
5. Stop using your credit cards. It may seem obvious but many people fall into the trap of continuing to use their plastic while trying to pay down their balances. Think of it as financially treading water: It’s impossible to get ahead this way.

If you’re a small-business owner, you’ll want to pay close attention to today’s column. You may just qualify for one of the following deductions, which could save you major money on your taxes come April 15. Listen up:

1. Buy a heavy truck or SUV. If you haul around a lot of stuff in your line of work, new and pre-owned “heavy” SUVs that are used primarily for business qualify for a depreciation write-off of $25,000 under Section 179 (also known as the Hummer Tax Loophole). SUVs with a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) above 6,000 pounds qualify for the full deduction, but the purchase of a lighter SUV, passenger vehicle, or light truck could also net you a smaller write-off.
2. Buy new office equipment (from cows to computers). Section 179 has other juicy benefits for business owners. You can write off up to $250,000 in new property, ranging from computers and software to ostriches and helicopters if that’s what your business entails, and if any of the above have been installed or put to use before December 31.
3. Have your office assets depreciated in value? Because of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, you can also claim an additional 50 percent first-year depreciation bonus on qualifying new equipment and software you bought this year. But note: If you’re also claiming the Section 179 write-off, the bonus only applies on the cost remaining after that deduction.
4. Maximize your health claims before year end. If you are self-employed and pay for your own health insurance, you can itemize your premiums and other medical expenses only if they are in excess of 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. But that goes by year, so if you’re close to that threshold but haven’t met it yet, see your doctor now before the cycle starts over on January 1 and you lose that deduction.
5. Evaluate this year’s tax rates and next year’s predictions. If you have freelance income or if your business expenses go on your personal tax return, consider that this year’s personal tax rates are expected to be roughly the same next year. But if you expect to make more money in 2010 and you think taxes will rise, it may make more sense to postpone your deductible expenses until the new year.

All it takes to save major money on your taxes is a little foresight and the ability to spend now before you lose out on these sweet deductions.