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Try it Before You Buy It

Try It Before You Buy It

Your kid begs you to buy them a book, movie, video game or magazine subscription? You cave. You spend $25 to $100. They read the first few pages, check out one issue, watch the first 20 minutes or beat the game in an hour and say they are done with it or don’t like it. You’re out a lot of money for maybe an hour’s worth of entertainment. The Kenton County Public Library has the solution. Try it before you buy it!

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Whether they are asking for Zelda, Just Dance 4 or Super Smash Bros for the Wii or Transformers, Zumba Fitness or Lego Harry Potter for the Xbox or Ratchet and Clank into the Nexus, Little Big Planet or Fast and Furious for Playstation, the Library has it, along with hundreds of other games, for you to borrow.

The Library also has movies like Percy Jackson, Despicable Me, Monsters Inc., The Lost Medallion and My Little Pony; a very minty Christmas, among thousands of others that might be on that Christmas list.outsiders

Of course the Library carries books like “The Hunger Games,” “Divergent,” “The Giver,” “The Outsiders” and “The Fault in Our Stars,” in addition to thousands of other popular and classic books for that hard to shop for teenager or adult.

We also carry hundreds of magazines. You can look at a few issues before deciding to buy a subscription. You can even skip the paid subscription all together and use Zinio through the Library website to have full magazines delivered to your email inbox.

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Visit www.kentonlibrary.org to put items on hold and make sure your special one wants the gift before spending money.

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Financial Responsibility with the Library

wall street journalWhile you get your body in shape for summer, get your finances feeling healthy, too! Visit the Kenton County Public Library for all sorts of resources to get financially fit. For new graduates, The Wall Street Journal Guide to Starting Your Financial Life by Karen Blumenthal provides clear, concise steps to set-up checking and savings accounts, manage your first car or college loan, establish an emergency fund, prudently pursue a good credit rating and launch a basic retirement plan. The book also makes an excellent graduation gift!  Newlyweds will find the Morningstar publication, Investing for the Long Run: Strategies and Solutions to Shape up Your Personal Finances available in both hard cover and as a PDF on the library’s web site, a great short guide to review together before launching into married life. Morningstar helps you think through the pros and cons of keeping accounts separate or combining them for joint ownership. The tome also provides fifty basic ways to save money and approach the many purchases needed to set-up a household wisely. Gift givers would also do well to check the library’s Consumer Reports online edition to uncover the best appliances to purchase for the future couple.

New households and young families are often overwhelmed by the onslaught of information thrown at them frodave ramseym life insurance agents, stock brokers, accountants, lawyers and financial planners. Who do you trust? A good first step is to educate yourself about the particular product or service you need to purchase. The library’s shelves and virtual e-book site are full of titles that can help you discern the best path to take. Some great volumes by popular financial gurus include The Road To Wealth: A Comprehensive Guide To Your Money by Suze  Orman,  The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey, Making the Most of Your Money Now by Jane Bryant Quinn and Money Rules: The Simple Path to Lifelong Security by Jean Chatsky. Read up on renting versus buying, leasing versus purchasing a car, saving money in your company’s 401-k plan or starting a Roth IRA or both, the best ways to save for college, buying whole or term life insurance, protecting yourself from identity theft and more. Feel a little less nervous and more in control of your own plans when you meet with a financial services professional.

Folks starting to take care of aging parents, paying for weddings or just getting closer to retirement have a myriad of money issues to plague a good night’s sleep. Specialized books on specific topics can help open your eyes to the many options available to you for help.  A Bittersweet Season: Caring for our Aging Parents and Ourselves by Jane Gross and Caring for Your Parents: The Complete Family Guide (AARP) by Hugh Delehanty & Elinor Ginzler are two  books that supply support and show ways to find the medical, community and government resources available for your parent’s individual situation. On a happier note, Bridal Bargains: Secrets to Throwing a Fantastic Wedding on a Realistic Budget  by Denise & Alan Fields, now in its 10th edition and The Knot’s Complete Guide to Weddings by Carley Roney will aid both frazzled brides and parents.  The Retirement Maze: What You Should Know Before & After Retirement by Rob Pascale gives the reader a blueprint to follow before taking the giant step of leaving the world of work behind permanently.

mcclendon_cover finalFor the serious investor with time to spare, the library and a cup of coffee can combine for a great morning of free research sources.  The library carries all the newspaper favorites including the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily , Barron’s and the Cincinnati Business Courier in cherished hard copy form. Trusted database resources like Valueline and Morningstar are available online for free . Copies are ten cents each if you like to print out investment reports on potential stocks. Demographics Now is the library’s main “go-to” resource for those doing feasibility studies for starting your own business during the retirement years.  The savvy saver can also read the latest editions of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, MONEY, Bloomberg’s Business Week, Forbes, Fortune and Fast Company. Past month editions can be checked out for 28 days. If you get tired of paying for research you can print, visit the library to access it for free.

 

 

 

The Kenton County Public Library helps you make the most of your money. Some additional financial resources available from the FTC include:

This post was written by Natalie Ruppert, adult librarian at the Covington Branch.