It seems the older I become, the greater my interest in money management—particularly my own money. Before I turned fifty-years old, I was content to live from one paycheck to the next. With a house and its mortgage and upkeep, car payments, food and clothing and other family expenses, and college tuition savings, there just wasn’t much money left to manage.

At about fifty, it finally occurred to me that in twelve to fifteen years I would be retired and living on what I had put aside. I started having restless nights. I couldn’t get an Aesop’s fable out of my mind. I played it over and over again as I tossed and turned in bed. You know the fable, it’s about the industrious ant who saved for the winter and the frolicking grasshopper who had a great time all summer and fall but who starved in the winter. I think my mind’s image of the fable was the one produced by Walt Disney.

Back then—when I began to worry about my retirement dilemma-- the publishing industry had begun studying the demographics and had started recruiting authors to write on the topics of personal finance and retirement planning.. In the past 15 years since, there has been a plethora of money-management, making-your-fortune-in-real-estate, etc. types of books published for all of us nervous-about-retirement baby-boomers.

Suze Orman is currently a big name in the self-help money-management books. Her latest ones include “The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom” and “Financial Guidebook, Put the 9 Steps to Work”. Jeff D. Opdyke is the editor of “The Wall Street Journal, A Complete Personal Finance Guidebook”. If you’re a Jane Bryant Quinn fan, you will want to read, “Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People”

If you’re exploring real estate, you will choose Wade Cook’s book, “Real Estate Money Machine, A Real Estate Cash Flow System That Really Works!” Or, better yet, Dave Bach promises “The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner, a Powerful Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate”.

For those who look to the stock market for gain, there’s “The Little Book That Beats the Market” by Joel Greenblatt, and James Cramer’s “Real Money, Sane Investing in an Insane World” and “Stock Market Money Machine” by Wade Cook.

Any of the above books can be reserved for later pick up by calling the library at 564 7116, ext. 2. We will hold up to three books for one week.

Memorials recently received by the Library Foundation include those in honor of Frances (Fan) Henderson from Mr. and Mrrs. Vernon Beckmann, Vivian Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Jay Henderson, Mr. and Mrs. William Ferguson, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Kumpf, Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Henderson, Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Pinneo and Lois Loomis. Memorials received in honor of Ellene Saunders are from Mr. and Mrs. Robert Mead, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Trautwein, and Lois Loomis. The memory of Lois Wiser was honored with a memorial donation from Mr. and Mrs. Arden Saalfeld.