The Money Diet: 8reaping the Rewards of Financial Fitness

Financial planner Applegate, a correspondent on the Today show, demonstrates her financial know-how and draws a clever analogy here: budget dollars saved are like diet calories cut. Noting that many Americans have no budget but know how to diet, she offers advice for achieving financial fitness. One lively chapter on credit-card debt, of which some $300 million, we learn, was outstanding in the U.S. last year on more than a billion cards, suggests Americans' spending habits in an era when people are discovering that their standard of living will probably never reach that of their parents. In addition to hard-headed money-managing techniques, practical tips abound. One Applegate client froze her credit cards in a container of water, knowing she couldn't rapidly thaw them with the microwave without destroying the cards' magnetic strips. It's all here, including home and car buying and selling, life insurance, health care. (Jan.)