Ted Hunter understands both financial success and failure. He started to pay his own way at the age of nine and never looked back. From washing dishes while in college to becoming a pioneer in the design and implementation of computer-based business systems, he kept learning about how to handle money effectively. Thirty years ago, he cofounded a real estate brokerage company that grew to a staff of more than one hundred agents. He became a multi-millionaire and then went bankrupt in the real estate crash of the late 1980s. From this experience he came to understand the cycles of both the real estate market, and financial markets in general.Ted then entered the stockbrokerage industry as the advisor to thirty affluent clients and applied his hard-won insight to the stock market. He made his clients lots of money and rebuilt his own finances. Then in early 2000, before the market began to dive, he advised his clients to get out of the stock market and sold his investment business and most of his stocks.Since his pivotal insight into the nature of the markets, Ted has successfully read the real estate and stock markets to his benefit, even through the most recent financial crisis. His real world experiences and success over 60 years have given him insight into the myths, and, in some cases, the outright lies told to Americans seeking financial advice, and the conviction that they can and must manage their money themselves. He wrote the book Money Smart to share his knowledge and help people take control of their money and create financial freedom. Money Smart is the winner of the 2011 Eric Hoffer Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing.A native of the New York City area, he now lives in Davis, California, with his wife, Suchit, and their daughter, Kat. He is also the proud father of three adult sons: John, Dave, and Dan.