Neil Bryan’s Books

Fiction Novels, Poetry, and Other Stories

Money Action Plan Series (Personal Finance)

To Purchase any of these Books, click on this link: amazon.com/author/neilbryan

Non-Fiction Books

Money Action Plan (MAP) Series (Personal Finance Series)

Budgeting and Money Management – The Basics

Budgeting and Money Management
Take Control of Your Finances with Ease
Includes Downloadable Software!

Struggling with budgeting? Take charge of your money with the Money Action Plan (MAP), a simple, step-by-step system designed to help you manage your finances for life.

We don’t just give you financial information; we show you exactly what to do with it and how to make it work for you. With our easy-to-follow guide and included Microsoft Excel software, you’ll have everything you need to stay on top of your money.

What You’ll Learn & Achieve:

Set Up a Lifetime Financial System – A straightforward method that makes money management effortless.

Master Monthly Budgeting – Stay on track and reach your financial goals with confidence.

Maximize Your Income & Expenses – Make the most of every dollar you earn and spend.

Handle Budget Surpluses & Shortfalls – Whether you have extra cash or need to adjust, we’ve got you covered.

Keep the Momentum Going

With the Money Action Plan System, you’ll go beyond budgeting—learning how to increase your income, reduce expenses, and manage investments, retirement, and estate planning.

Stay Informed & Connected

� Access the MAP Website & Blog – Get up-to-date financial insights and tips.

� Join the MAP Community – Connect with others, ask questions, and discuss financial topics in our exclusive forum.

Start your journey to financial freedom today!

Keep More of What You Earn

Review and Maximize Your Income.
Review and Minimize Your Expenses.
Take control of your money with the Money Action Plan (MAP).

Keep More of What You Earn, Book 2 of the Money Action Plan series shows you, step by step, how to take a hard, practical look at where your money comes from, where it goes, and what to do about it.

This is not theory. It’s action.

You’ll learn how to review every source of income, including the deductions that quietly drain your paycheck, and how to make smart adjustments that can increase your take-home pay. Then you’ll walk through every category of expense, learning proven ways to reduce monthly costs without turning your life upside down.

No financial fog. No information overload.
Just clear guidance on what to do and how to do it.

In this book, you’ll learn how to:

Review your W-4 and potentially increase your take-home pay

Reduce unnecessary paycheck deductions

Pay off loans in the proper order for maximum financial benefit

Pay off your mortgage sooner and save thousands in interest

Minimize home phone, TV, and recurring household expenses

Continue with the Plan

This book is part of the larger Money Action Plan System, designed to help you move forward, step by step, into managing your investments, planning for retirement, and preparing your estate.

Stay Connected

Access up-to-date financial insights on the Money Action Plan website and blog

Join the MAP Forum to ask questions and discuss real-world financial topics with others following the system

If you like the sound of a clear, practical plan for your money—and your life—scroll up and grab your copy today.

Investing – The Basics

Investing doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to be organized.

In this third book of the Money Action Plan Series, you’ll learn how to invest with the same practical, step-by-step approach you used to manage your money in Book One and track your income and expenses in Book Two.

This book strips investing down to its essentials—what to do, why you’re doing it, and how to manage it over time—so anyone can build and maintain an investment plan with confidence. No jargon. No hype. Just a clear system you can use for life.

As with the earlier books in the series, the Money Action Plan software is available to support your progress—but it is never required to succeed. The method works whether you use software, spreadsheets, or pencil and paper.

What You Will Learn

This book walks you through investing from the ground up:

How to get started if you’ve never invested before
The major types of investments and how they fit into an overall plan
Practical guidelines for building a balanced investment portfolio
How to use an investment account to:
- Buy investments
- Sell investments
- Add money for investing
- Withdraw money when needed
What investment allocation is, why it matters, and common allocation methods
How and when to rebalance your investments on an annual basis
How investing fits into your overall Money Action Plan, alongside budgeting and cash flow management

You’ll also see how the Money Action Plan software—if you choose to use it—can help you organize, track, and manage your investments more easily over time.

Bonus Software Access

With the purchase of this book, you’ll be able to download the upgraded Money Action Plan software, which includes the new Investments Section, designed to support the concepts taught in this book.

If Book One helped you take control of your money, and Book Two helped you understand where it’s going, this book shows you how to put it to work—calmly, deliberately, and on your own terms.

Retirement Planning – The Basics

REVISED AND UPDATED 2023 EDITION
This is book 4 of the Money Action Plan Series.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

What it means to get ready to retire and what retirement really means.

A quick method for determining whether you are ready for retirement, financially speaking.

Then we’ll go into detail in each of the areas presented.

You will learn:

How to determine how much income you will need during your retirement.

How to prepare an estimate of your retirement income that will show how much you can expect in income at the beginning of your retirement from various sources that you have at your disposal.

How to prepare an estimate of your retirement expenses that will show how much you expect to spend each month at the beginning of your retirement.

How to prepare an estimate of your investments that will produce income during your retirement.

How to put all this information together into a Retirement Planning Summary that will give you an idea how much you need to investment on a monthly basis to realize your retirement goal.

If the summary shows that you don’t have enough to retire and maintain your lifestyle, we will show you several possible approaches to get ready for retirement.

Finally, we’ll introduce the new Retirement Planning System which is standalone software specifically designed for this book. Although it was designed in Microsoft Excel, it has been tested in Google Sheets and LibreOffice.

Estate Planning – The Basics

Estate planning isn’t about paperwork. It’s about making things easier for the people you care about.

This book walks you through the estate-planning process in a clear, organized, and non-intimidating way—so your wishes are understood, your assets are handled properly, and your heirs are spared unnecessary stress, confusion, and expense.

Rather than overwhelming you with legal language, this guide focuses on preparation: what to think through, what decisions must be made, and how to arrive at an estate attorney’s office fully organized and ready.

What You Will Learn

This book will help you understand and prepare every major part of an effective estate plan, including:

What it really means to “get your estate ready” so it is easier—and less costly—for your heirs
The essential items every estate plan should include, explained clearly and in plain language
The key components of an estate plan you should consider for your own situation
The important decisions you’ll need to make before your plan can be finalized
The different methods for transferring assets to your heirs, including options that can begin before your death
Exactly what information and documents to bring to a qualified estate attorney, so your plan can be completed efficiently and with minimal back-and-forth

The goal is simple: do the thinking and organizing now, so your heirs don’t have to do it later.

Revised Second Edition — New Software Included

This revised second edition includes access to the Estate Planning System, a new downloadable software tool designed to help you organize your estate planning information in one place.

The software is compatible with:

Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice

You can use the software alongside the book—or ignore it entirely. The system works either way.

Estate planning, done right, is a final act of responsibility and care. This book helps you approach it calmly, thoroughly, and on your own terms—before it ever becomes urgent.

Life’s Money Moments

Life doesn’t announce when it’s about to make a financial demand. This book helps you be ready anyway.

Throughout your life, money decisions show up at moments of change—some planned, some unexpected. A new job. A move. Marriage. Divorce. A medical event. Retirement. The loss of a loved one. In those moments, clarity matters more than theory.

This book is designed to help you navigate real-world life events that involve financial decisions, using a simple but powerful tool: checklists.

Why Checklists Work

Checklists don’t make decisions for you. They make sure you don’t miss decisions.

Each checklist in this book is built to help you:

Identify what needs attention when a life event occurs
Gather the right information before emotions, time pressure, or stress take over
Stay focused on practical next steps instead of getting overwhelmed

These checklists are not meant to be rigid rules or one-size-fits-all solutions. Life is messier than that. Instead, they act as a framework—helping you get organized, ask the right questions, and move forward with confidence.

A Practical Companion for Life’s Money Moments

Rather than offering abstract financial theory, this book focuses on action. It’s meant to be referenced, revisited, and used whenever something changes in your life and money suddenly becomes part of the conversation.

You’ll find guidance that:

Helps you orient yourself when something important happens
Points you in the right direction when professional advice may be needed
Reduces costly oversights and forgotten details
Gives you a sense of control when circumstances feel uncertain

Think of this book as a calm, practical companion—one you reach for not because everything is going wrong, but because you want to handle things right.

Money decisions are rarely about money alone. They’re about timing, responsibility, and the people affected by your choices.

This book helps you slow down, get organized, and move forward—one checklist at a time.

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Business Bookshelf Series

Profit-izing Your Business

Is your business actually profitable—or just busy?

Many business owners work hard, make sales, and pay the bills… yet still aren’t sure whether their business is truly profitable. Revenue looks good. Cash is moving. But profit? That’s often a guess.

This book is designed to remove the guesswork.

Profit-izing Your Business shows you what profit really is, how to measure it accurately, how to protect it, and—most importantly—how to increase it in a deliberate, sustainable way.

What This Book Helps You Do

Profits don’t improve by accident. It improves when you understand the systems behind it.
In this book, you’ll learn how to:
Clearly define and measure profit in your business
Identify where profit is being created—and where it is quietly leaking away
Make informed operational changes that directly affect the bottom line
Monitor profit on an ongoing basis instead of discovering problems too late
Rather than focusing on abstract financial theory, this book connects profit to everyday business operations.

Key Areas That Directly Affect Profit

You’ll explore how profit is influenced by the systems you deal with every day, including:
Accounts Receivable — getting paid fully and on time
Accounts Payable — managing obligations without damaging cash flow
Purchasing — controlling costs without hurting quality or operations
Payroll — balancing labor costs with productivity and growth
And many other operational areas that quietly shape profitability
Each topic is approached from a practical, managerial point of view, with an emphasis on control, visibility, and consistency.

A Daily and Monthly Action Plan

Profit is not something you check once a year.
This book provides a Daily and Monthly Action Plan to help you:
Regularly evaluate the health of your business
Catch small issues before they become expensive problems
Stay focused on the activities that truly affect profitability
Keep your business aligned with long-term financial goals

These action plans are designed to be realistic for real business owners—not accounting professionals—and can be applied to businesses of many sizes.

Profit-izing Your Business is for owners who want clarity instead of complexity, control instead of surprises, and steady improvement instead of financial firefighting.

Because profit isn’t just the result of doing more business—it’s the result of doing business better.

Rental Property Records Book – 2 sizes

Use this record book to keep track of up to 12 rental properties for an annual period.

There are several forms included in this book for each rental property you define.

Summary for Tax Preparation
Property Details Form
Individual Tenant Records
Tenant Details
Tenant Payment Record
Maintenance Record by Property / Tenant
Income / Expense / Profit Summary by Property

Journal Meeting Notes

ORGANIZE FOR SUCCESS – YOUR ULTIMATE JOURNAL FOR PRODUCTIVITY!

Unlock your full potential with this premium 8.5” x 11” journal, designed to keep you organized and on top of your game.

Featuring over 150 pages of dedicated note space, this journal is your go-to tool for capturing ideas, tracking progress, and staying focused on what matters most.

Perfect for:

✅ Meeting Notes – Keep every discussion documented

✅ Class Notes – Stay ahead in your studies

✅ Big Ideas & Brainstorms – Capture inspiration as it strikes

✅ Project & Information Tracking – Keep everything in one place

✅ Action Items & Assignments – Never miss a deadline

✅ Meeting Dates & Appointments – Stay on schedule

Available in a sleek, professional design, this journal is built to complement your busy lifestyle.

Want to take your planning to the next level?

Coursework Notes Journal

A simple, practical journal designed for one course, one academic year, and real classroom use.

This 8½ × 11-inch class journal is created specifically for taking notes during class sessions and keeping all course-relatedinformation in one place. .

The journal provides enough space for approximately 50 class sessions, making it ideal for a single course over a semester or full academic year.

What This Journal Is For

This journal is primarily intended for:

Taking class notes during lectures
Tracking paper due dates and test dates
Recording instructor contact information
Keeping email addresses and phone numbers for instructors, study groups, and classmates

The focus is on temporary, course-specific information, the kind you need easy access to during the year, but don’t necessarily need to keep long-term. Everything stays in one place, ready when you need it.

Journal Contents

Inside the journal, you’ll find dedicated sections for:

Class / Work Schedule
Class Syllabus Summary
Summary of Papers Due
Summary of Test Dates
Email and Phone List for:
Instructor
Study groups
Others related to the course
Class Notes Pages (approximately 150 pages), including:
Class notes
Continuation pages
Sketches, drawings, and ideas

For Complete Academic Tracking

This journal is designed for one course. Get one for each course to have all your course information and notes in one place.
Simple. Focused. Functional.
A place for everything you need during the course—without carrying it longer than you have to.

My Everyday Planning Book

Learn the Basics of Planning

Use this book to plan anything you want or need to accomplish. The basics of planning are explained and forms are provided for you to use in your daily planning.
This book will help anyone keep track of everything they need or want to accomplish each day without the need for a computer or a smart phone.
There are three different planning documents for your use in this book.

Things I Need To-Do List – this is a catch-all list for anything that you will need To-Do sometime. This is so you don’t forget whatever it is you thought of. Just jot it down on this list and forget about it until you are ready to make further plans.
Planning Worksheet – this is the main document that you use to define the details for an item that you listed on the Things I Need To-Do List.
Weekly To-Do Summary – this is used to plan your week’s activities by selecting items from the other lists that you plan To-Do this week.

The worksheets contained in this book are ones that I have been using my entire life and especially since I retired. When I was working, I had access to all kinds of different project planning and tracking systems but I realized that most people only need the basics to plan and track the events and projects in their lives.

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Author NOW! Series

Write NOW!

Learn How to:

ORGANIZE for all your Writing Projects

WRITE your Manuscript as Quickly as Possible

FORMAT your Manuscript for Publication

Become a Published Author

Publish NOW!

DO YOU WANT TO PUBLISH YOUR OWN BOOK?

GET YOUR BOOK, eBook, Paperback and Hardcover book Published on Kindle Direct Publishing.

Includes a brief introduction to Kindle Create for creating your publishing ready file.

Complete STEP-BY-STEP Instructions and Screenshots

You’ve Published, NOW What?

Once you’ve written and published your book, there is still a lot to do to make it a success. Self-publishing on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing is only the first step.

This book explores five important next steps and offers instructions and screen shots.

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Fiction and Semi-fiction Books

Tides of Emotion

Emotions shape our lives, painting vivid landscapes across the canvas of our existence.

Some emotions arrive as quiet whispers. Others announce themselves like thunder.

This collection of poems explores the full terrain of human feeling—the moments that shape us in ways both subtle and seismic. Love in its many forms. Joy that catches us by surprise. Grief that lingers longer than expected. Hope that returns, even when we thought it had packed its bags for good.

Each poem is a reflection on the fleeting yet profound experiences that define who we are and how we connect—to ourselves, to one another, and to the world around us. These verses seek to capture the instant when a feeling crystallizes: a glance held too long, a memory resurfacing without warning, a quiet realization that changes everything.

Rather than offering answers, these poems offer recognition. They invite you to pause, to sit with emotion rather than rush past it, and to see your own experiences mirrored in the lines. Some poems may feel intimate and tender; others may stir restlessness, longing, or resolve. All are rooted in the shared language of being human.

This book is meant to be read slowly, returned to often, and opened at random—an honest companion for moments of reflection, transition, and emotional reckoning. Wherever you are on your journey, these poems walk beside you through the heart’s ever-changing tides.

Fumbling Through Life

Ever found yourself in a situation so ridiculous you couldn’t help but laugh, or so profound it changed the way you saw the world?

Fumbling Through Life is a collection of personal stories that capture the unpredictable, sometimes absurd, and often thought-provoking journey of life.

From the chaos of Army KP duty to the unexpected trials of growing up without realizing you were poor, each chapter delivers a mix of humor, reflection, and hard-earned wisdom. Some stories will have you chuckling at life’s quirks, others may hit you right in the heart, but all of them share one thing in common, there’s a lesson hidden in the experience.

Whether it’s navigating a pandemic-induced toilet paper crisis, learning the value of resilience through childhood struggles, or contemplating what really matters when facing life’s inevitable end, this book offers an honest, entertaining, and deeply relatable look at the moments that shape us.

So, sit back, enjoy the ride, and maybe even take a lesson or two with you, because life is nothing if not a series of stories waiting to be told.

The Watcher’s Portal

A fall into the river. A crack in time. A secret that changes everything.

Elian Walsh thought it was just a misstep, a slippery rock, a fall into the cold, wild Housatonic River. But when he resurfaces (or did he?), reality seems… fractured. Time warps. Strange figures appear. And waiting for him on the edge of this shifting dimension is Fred, a mysterious man who seems to know more than he lets on.

As Elian struggles to navigate this surreal world, where memories flicker like film reels and the past seems alive, he reconnects with Mira, a sharp-witted girl he had a crush on in high school. Together, they follow a trail of cryptic symbols, old journals, and echoes from a history that feels far too personal.

What they uncover leads them deep into a mystery rooted in family, forgotten places, and a dimension that may hold the key to everything Elian thought he lost.

The Watcher’s Portal weaves the haunting landscapes of Housatonic, MA, with the half-remembered moments of childhood. It’s a lyrical and eerie journey through shifting realities, ancestral echoes, and the strange pull of a destiny whispered from the shadows.

A gripping blend of supernatural suspense and emotional discovery, this is a coming-of-age adventure that explores how the past shapes us, and how falling can sometimes be the only way forward.

Sometimes the past isn’t gone. It’s WAITING and WATCHING.

Starting From Here

Can you find a new beginning when your past refuses to let go?

In the small town of Sprucewood, Massachusetts, two lives weighed down by loss and hardship unexpectedly cross paths. Ben Wilkinson, a widower searching for purpose, and Diana Bishop, a woman determined to rebuild after heartbreak, discover that even in the most ordinary places, hope has a way of returning.

What begins as a simple act of kindness slowly grows into something deeper, challenging them to face grief, trust, and the sharp eyes of a community that never stops watching. Along the way, both must decide whether the risk of opening their hearts is worth the promise of healing.

Starting From Here is an uplifting novel about resilience, love found when least expected, and the courage to believe in second chances. It reminds us that sometimes the bravest thing we can do is begin again.

Incident at The Brit

Retirement was supposed to be safe. Instead, it’s on the kill list.

Neil “Ning” Ingham traded the chaos of the Secret Service for the quiet comfort of running The Brit, the warm, wood-paneled restaurant he manages with his wife, Brenda. The only thing he expected to serve was dinner—until an old friend collapsed halfway through his dinner roll.

Leon Forrest isn’t the first retired agent to be suspiciously attacked. Across the country, the deaths look like accidents. Ning knows better. Someone is working through a hit list, and his name might be next.

With Brenda digging into the shadows and Ning dusting off the skills he swore he’d never need again, they’ll have to move fast to uncover the assassin’s plot and avoid becoming their next victim. With help from an FBI task force and an unpublished book from another retired agent, they press on to find an unbelievable coup conspiracy. But in this deadly game, old loyalties can be weapons, and every toast might be your last.

Packed with sharp suspense, sly humor, and a dash of danger, Incident at The Brit serves murder on fine china, and leaves you hungry for more.

Systems Analysis From the Inside

What if the most entertaining, and surprisingly accurate, lesson in systems analysis came from inside your own stomach?

In Systems Analysis From the Inside: A Comedic Case Study in Internal Workflow Management, Neil Bryan turns the world of systems thinking on its head by taking readers deep inside a fictional internal operations center known as Stomach Central, a bustling command hub where medications, nutrients, alarms, bottlenecks, communication breakdowns, and crisis events behave exactly like the components of a real-world organizational system.

Presented as a humorous narrative but grounded in serious analytical principles, this book offers a fresh and unforgettable way to understand how systems actually work, how they stabilize, how they fail, how they negotiate, and how they adapt under pressure.

A Complete Systems-Analysis Model Told Through a Comedic Allegory

Inside Stomach Central, readers meet specialized “subsystems” such as Pressura (regulation), Crohnan (stabilization), Gerdex (pH moderation), BoneBold (structural reinforcement), and Cholestoro (resource cleanup).
Though humorous, these characters represent real system functions found in organizations, engineered processes, and complex biological environments.

Smart, funny, and surprisingly profound, Systems Analysis From the Inside shows that the best way to understand a complex system is to step inside it, sometimes literally.

The Late Adam James

What do you do when the morning paper declares you dead—and the government agrees?

Author Adam James opens his Morning Chronicle to find his own obituary: a flattering portrait, invented circus skills, and a tidy farewell between two dates. Before the coffee cools, bureaucracy makes it official. Social Security freezes his benefits. The bank folds his accounts into an “estate.” The DMV computer flags him as a nonperson. Even the pharmacy informs him that his blood-pressure pills are “ineligible for the afterlife.” Only the cat remains unconvinced.

Enter Mary, wife, realist, and newly appointed Director of Resurrection—armed with blue pens, an accordion file, and a patience that could outlast hold music. Together, Adam and Mary plunge into the paper afterlife: a courthouse that invents the category “provisionally extant,” a grocery store that refuses to sell to “the deceased,” a will reading he’s not allowed to attend, and an almost-funeral where the semicolon bouquet steals the show. Just when things can’t get stranger, a second obituary appears, for a baseball legend named James Adam, and the mix-up multiplies.

Part farce, part love story, The Late Adam James skewers red tape while celebrating the stubborn pleasures of ordinary marriage: shared jokes, strategic snacks, and the sacred art of keeping receipts. It’s a comedy about identity in a world where forms get the last word, and a reminder that the people who stand next to you at the counter and say “He’s with me” are the true miracle workers.

The Late Adam James is for anyone who has ever fought a form, loved a person who makes the fight worth it, or wondered what their obituary would get wrong. Open the book, take a number, and step to the window. Mary is already there, tapping the glass and smiling.

When The Kettle Sings

What if the people who raised you spent their entire lives protecting you from the truth of who they really were?

Leon and Olive Wilkens have been married for over sixty years, decades shaped by quiet endurance, small joys, and the unspoken ache of poverty that never quite loosened its grip. Now approaching ninety, worn down by illness and years of hard work, they cling fiercely to their independence and to the silence they believe kept their children safe. Their five adult children know only the outlines of their parents’ struggles, never the depth, never the cost. That was by design.

But everything begins to unravel the day a mysterious woman appears on their doorstep with a broken-down car and a cryptic message: “Your suffering will end not by death, but by belief.”

Soon after, a loose floorboard reveals a hidden stash of letters Leon and Olive wrote decades earlier, raw, vulnerable confessions of hardship meant for their children someday, but never delivered. Then anonymous postcards arrive, urging each child to come home “while the blessing unfolds.” Concerned and confused, the children return to the family home, only to uncover far more than they expected.

As the truth rises, layer by painful layer, old habits of silence clash with long-suppressed emotions. Pride turns to tension. Misunderstandings flare into confrontations. And yet beneath it all, something fragile but powerful takes root: connection.

A collapsing health crisis forces Leon and Olive to face a choice they’ve avoided for years, cling to independence built on suffering or allow their children into the truth of their lives. When the stranger finally reveals her identity, Leon must confront a revelation that shatters everything he believed about strength: real courage isn’t hiding pain, it’s letting yourself be loved in the midst of it.

When the Kettle Sings is a deeply moving novel about aging, pride, sacrifice, and the complicated tenderness of family. It explores the secrets parents keep, the burdens they carry in silence, and the late-life reckonings that can transform relationships forever. With quiet power and emotional resonance, this story reminds us that it is never too late to speak honestly, to open long-shut doors, and to rediscover the people who have loved us all along.