There's no place like home!

Ready to say goodbye to your landlord? With help from Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home, you'll not only find the right house for you, you'll have fun doing it.

Learn how to:

• research the local market and listings


• choose a house, condo, co-op, or townhouse


• create a realistic budget


• qualify for a loan you can truly afford


• borrow a down payment from friends or family


• protect yourself with inspections and insurance, and


• negotiate and close the deal successfully.

You'll find insights from numerous real estate professionals--agents, attorneys, mortgage specialists, a home inspector, and more. It's like having a team of experts by your side! Plus, read real-life stories of over 20 first-time homebuyers.

Your complete guide to Social Security retirement and medical benefits

Determining whether to file early for retirement benefits or wait until age 70 can be complicated. Claiming retirement benefits early can lower your benefits, but it affects dependents and survivors benefits differently. Learn this and more with Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions--completely updated for 2025.

Social Security benefits. Figure out how to get retirement, disability, dependents, and survivors benefits, or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Decide whether it's best to claim benefits early, at full retirement age, or not until you turn 70--and how to time your claims so you and your spouse get the best benefits.

Medicare & Medicaid. Learn how to qualify for and enroll in both programs, including Medicare Part D drug coverage.

Medigap insurance & Medicare Advantage plans. Compare Medigap and Medicare Advantage plans, and choose what's best for you.

Government pensions & veterans benefits. Discover when and how to claim the benefits you have earned.

What's New in 2025?

• New cap on drug costs under Part D


• Elimination of Part D donut hole, and


• New Medicare costs and Social Security amounts for 2025.

Whether you're looking for yourself or helping a parent, you'll find valuable information here to help get the benefits you've earned.

The all-in-one legal and tax resource every independent contractor and freelancer needs

Whether you're starting a full-scale consulting business or booking jobs on the side, Working for Yourself provides all the legal and tax information you need in one place. This edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect changes to relevant laws, including updated information on Section 179 expensing and bonus depreciation, as well as a new section on tax credits for electric vehicles. Learn how to:

• decide the best form for your business (sole proprietor, LLC, or other)


• request payment in full and on time


• pay estimated taxes and avoid trouble with the IRS


• take advantage of all available tax deductions and credits, including the 20% pass-through tax deduction


• choose health, property, and other kinds of insurance


• keep accurate records in case you get audited, and


• write legally binding contracts and letter agreements.

If you're tired of doing endless web searches for the information you need to start and run your business, this easy-to-use and authoritative resource is for you.

Bad credit can get better

Bad credit can prevent you from getting a mortgage, car loan, credit card, apartment, or even a job. The sensible strategies in Credit Repair help you take control of your finances, clean up your credit reports and rebuild your credit. Learn how to:

• prioritize debts and create a budget


• reduce debts and cut expenses


• negotiate with creditors


• correct credit report errors and remove old information


• add positive information to your credit reports


• adopt strategies to rebuild your credit, and


• avoid identity theft and credit repair scams.

The 16th edition covers when a lender must explain credit decisions and the latest strategies for dealing with student loan debt. It also includes recent debt collection developments, such as limitations on how often a collector can call and restrictions on a collector's use of texts, emails, and social media.

Make the real estate market work for you!

Whether your local real estate market is strong or sluggish, you can take effective steps to reach the right buyers, pick the best offer, and ultimately get top dollar for your home. Selling Your House: Nolo's Essential Guide will take you through the process from start to finish. And, you'll learn how to do it all in the shortest possible time.

Real estate expert and best-selling author Ilona Bray gives you
the inside scoop on:

• setting a price that will attract buyers


• finding the right real estate agent


• safely opening your home to visitors


• determining which repairs and upgrades pay off


• making legally required disclosures to buyers


• evaluating purchase offers, and


• negotiating and closing escrow successfully.

Provides tips from industry pros--including real estate agents, attorneys, home stagers, and more--as well as stories from home sellers.

Protect your family with solid estate planning

Estate planning sounds difficult--but most people just need a few basic documents. Let Nolo's Guide to Estate Planning show you how to protect your loved ones from legal hassles and financial uncertainty after your death. Learn about:

• wills and living trusts


• avoiding probate


• bypass (AB) trusts


• leaving property to children and naming guardians


• estate, gift, and inheritance taxes


• strategies for business owners


• health care directives, and


• financial powers of attorney.

Nolo's Guide to Estate Planning replaces Nolo's long-standing bestseller Plan Your Estate and is completely updated and refreshed for today's reader.

Applies in all U.S. states except Louisiana.

Everything you need to get organized

Do your loved ones know where to find your life insurance policies, online banking passwords, real estate deeds, or even your will?

If you're like a lot of people, you keep important information--from the whereabouts of family heirlooms to online passwords to automatic bill-pay details--in your head or stashed in the odd desk drawer. Unfortunately, this disorganization will likely cause hassles for those who someday take care of you or your estate.

Get It Together provides an easy, straightforward method to help you and others keep track of:

• secured places and passwords


• employment records


• insurance policies


• real estate records


• tax records


• retirement accounts


• estate planning documents


• funeral arrangements


• letters to loved ones

Jumpstart your fundraising efforts!

Whether your nonprofit has just gotten tax-exempt status or has been operating for years, the question you're facing is, How do we make our voices heard and bring in the needed support?

Here, you'll find plain-English answers. Featuring advice and stories from over 50 experienced fundraisers, foundation staffers, journalists and more, this book explains how to:

• make a fundraising plan


• work with individual donors


• keep givers giving


• plan special events


• solicit grants from foundations and corporations


• use traditional and social media to engage supporters


• start a side business to raise funds


• and much more.

Effective Fundraising for Nonprofits also provides creative grassroots strategies and dozens of real-life success stories. Best of all, it cuts out the jargon and consultant speak that's all too common in nonprofit books.

The 8th edition is completely updated to reflect recent fundraising trends, such as a rise in the proportion of gifts coming from wealthy donors owing to tax changes. It also suggests ways to shift from a desperation mindset to one of tapping into abundance.

A road map for complex divorce

Divorce can be devastating at any time, but the emotional and financial challenges are even greater for those who divorce later in life, with complicated issues of blended families, health care concerns, and retirement planning.

Attorney Janice Green gives you the benefit of her decades of experience as a divorce lawyer who specialized in counseling and fighting for clients over 50. She addresses:

• divorce options (including mediation and collaborative divorce)


• how to receive the best guidance from lawyers and professional advisers


• dividing marital property legally and fairly


• retirement plan rules


• alimony, and


• keeping good health care.

The book also includes divorce survival stories that illustrate your options and provide encouragement. They got through it, and with the help of Divorce After 50, you can, too.

Divorce guidance you can count on

Divorce is never easy, but with the information in Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce, you can make the process as simple, inexpensive, and conflict-free as possible.

With compassion and expertise, family law attorney Emily Doskow explains how to make divorce less painful by helping you:

• understand the divorce process


• minimize day-to-day conflict with your spouse


• work with lawyers or mediators without breaking the bank


• avoid costly, exhausting court battles, and


• stay calm and make good decisions.

You'll learn about your legal rights and options for resolving tough divorce-related issues, including:

• child support and custody


• alimony


• property division, and


• drafting a marital settlement agreement.

With Legal Forms for Starting & Running a Small Business, you can handle a wide range of business forms and agreements on your own.

Here you'll find the forms you need to start and grow your business. Each document comes with thorough, plain-English, line-by-line instructions to help you:

• buy and sell goods


• complete forms and agreements to start your business


• create website policies and agreements


• lease commercial space


• hire employees and consultants


• buy real estate


• create noncompete agreements


• borrow or lend money

The 13th edition has been thoroughly reviewed and updated by Nolo's experts and provides the most up-to-date legal information for small businesses.

The Editors of Nolo include over 20 editors and a team of researchers. Most of Nolo's editors left careers as practicing lawyers in favor of furthering the company's mission: Getting legal information into the hands of people who need it.

Create a business tax strategy that will save you time, effort, and money

Getting your tax matters on track will free up your time to do what really counts: run a profitable business. Tax Savvy for Small Business shows you how to:

• maximize business deductions


• write off long-term assets quickly


• take home office deductions


• use your business to save for retirement


• save taxes in your family business


• track and report employment taxes


• offer fringe benefits and retirement plans to your employees


• keep solid business records, and


• handle an IRS audit.

This completely updated edition covers changes in tax rates, deductions, and credits. The 23rd edition also identifies important small business tax benefits that are scheduled to expire after 2025. Tax Savvy for Small Business is the up-to-date resource you need to maximize your deductions and boost your business's bottom line.

To keep up with the law and make money as a residential landlord, you need a guide you can trust: Every Landlord's Legal Guide.

From move-in to move-out, here's help with legal, financial, and day-to-day issues. You'll avoid hassles and headaches--not to mention legal fees and lawsuits. Use this top-selling book to:

• screen and choose tenants


• prepare leases and rental agreements


• avoid discrimination, invasion of privacy, personal injury,
  and other lawsuits


• hire a property manager


• keep up with repairs and maintenance


• make security deposit deductions


• respond to broken leases


• learn how to terminate a tenancy for nonpayment
  of rent or other lease violations


• restrict tenants from renting their place on Airbnb, and


• deal with bed bugs, mold, and lead hazards.

The 17th edition is completely updated to provide your state's current laws on security deposits, rent, entry, termination, late rent notices, and more. It also provides tips and guidance to help landlords navigate new state and local laws on screening tenants.

Attorneys Ann O'Connell, a Nolo editor and real estate broker, and Janet Portman, Nolo's Executive Editor, specialize in landlord-tenant law. Together, they are also co-authors of Leases and Rental Agreements and Every Tenant's Legal Guide.

Pay less to the IRS

For any home business, claiming all the tax deductions you are entitled to is essential to your business's financial success. Don't miss out on the many valuable deductions you can claim.

Here, you'll find out how to deduct:

• start-up costs


• home office expenses


• vehicles, meals, and travel expenses


• medical expenses, and


• retirement expenses.

Easy to read and full of real-life examples, this book can help you take advantage of all the valuable deductions you are entitled to. You'll also learn how to keep accurate, thorough records in case the IRS comes calling.

If you want to know more about living trusts, this book is here to help. Make Your Living Trust gives you straightforward and easy-to-understand information about how living trusts:

• compare to wills


• pass property to beneficiaries without probate


• provide for minor children, and


• help protect against unexpected incapacity.

You might have heard about living trusts and have a general sense that you should make one. But if you're like most people, you're not exactly sure why or how to do it. If this sounds like you, Make Your Living Trust provides the information and support you need to make informed estate planning decisions.

For many people, living trusts are a useful tool to keep their property out of probate. This makes a lot of sense because probate often makes the process of wrapping up an estate more complicated and expensive than it needs to be. And there are other reasons to make a living trust--a living trust allows you to authorize someone to take care of your property in case of incapacity, and (unlike wills) living trusts keep your personal business private.

That said, not everyone needs a living trust. Many people need only a will and a durable power of attorney. Others might use those in conjunction with pay-on-death accounts or transfer-on-death deeds. Compared to other estate planning tools, living trusts can be more expensive to create and more complicated to live with. So, you don't want to go through the trouble and expense of making one if you don't need to.

Make Your Living Trust helps you think through these and many other trust-related issues. For example, it helps you weigh the pros and cons of making a living trust yourself versus having an attorney draw one up. It also covers questions that might come up as you make a living trust (with or without a lawyer), like:

• What types of property work well in a living trust?


• Can you and your spouse make a living trust together?


• What is the role of a successor trustee?


• Who decides when minor children receive their inheritance?


• How do you transfer property into your living trust?


• What makes a living trust legal?


• Where should you store your living trust?


• Do you have to register your trust or share it with your family?


• What other estate planning documents might you need?

Make Your Living Trust can help with all of this and more. It will be your steady companion as you learn about wills and trusts and start to craft your estate plan.

Reduce your taxes

Deduct It! shows you how to maximize your business deductions--quickly, easily, and legally. Whether your business is just starting or well established, this book is indispensable to your financial success. It covers deductions for:

• start-up and operating expenses


• travel and meals


• home offices


• medical expenses


• equipment and inventory


• and more.

Learn the rules for deducting net operating losses, state income taxes with a pass-through entity, and business bad debts. This book also has updated information on Section 179 expensing and bonus depreciation, as well as everything you need to know about the 20% pass-through deduction. Easy to read and full of real-world examples, Deduct It! will pay for itself many times over--especially if the IRS comes calling.

This edition has an updated section on tax credits and deductions for electric vehicles as well as guidance on filing a beneficial ownership information report with the federal government.

• locate statutes, regulations, and case law


• ensure your research is current, and


• organize results into a legal memorandum for school, work, or court.

• legal encyclopedias, periodicals, and treatises


• annotated and unannotated codes and statutes


• published state and federal court cases


• case digests and Shepard's Citations, and


• online search engines, free legal websites, and blogs.

After an injury: Settle your claim the right way

When you've been hurt in an accident, dealing with insurance companies and their lawyers can feel daunting. But with the right guide, you can handle a claim yourself--and save thousands of dollars.

How to Win Your Personal Injury Claim leads you through the insurance claim process, step by step. After almost any kind of accident, from a car crash to a slip and fall, you'll learn how to:

• figure out how much your injury claim is worth


• gather the right evidence


• prepare an effective demand letter


• respond to common insurance company tactics


• negotiate a fair settlement, and


• file a small claims lawsuit.

This completely updated edition of How to Win Your Personal Injury Claim includes the latest state-by-state lawsuit filing deadlines and small claims court limits.

The step-by-step guide to serving as an executor

If you need to wrap up the affairs of a loved one, you might feel overwhelmed--especially when you're grieving. But you can do it, and this book will show you how.

The Executor's Guide will lead you through the unfamiliar territory of legal procedures and terminology. You'll learn what to do right away and what can wait. Find help on:

• preparing for the job of executor
• claiming life insurance, Social Security, and other benefits
• making sense of a will (and what to do if there is no will)
• determining whether probate is necessary
• filing taxes
• navigating probate court proceedings
• dealing with family members, and
• working with lawyers, appraisers, accountants, and other experts.

The 10th edition contains updated tables outlining key points of each state's laws.

Applies in all states except Louisiana.