Christine Benz is director of personal finance for Morningstar and senior columnist for Morningstar.com. She is author of 30-Minute Money Solutions: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Your Finances (Wiley, 2010). Ms. Benz is also co-author of Morningstar® Guide to Mutual Funds: 5-Star Strategies for Success, a national bestseller published in 2003, and author of the book's second edition, which was published in 2005. Before assuming her current role in 2008, she also served as Morningstar's director of mutual fund analysis. Ms. Benz has served as editor of several of Morningstar's publications over the years, including PracticalFinance, Morningstar® Mutual Funds™, and Morningstar® FundInvestor. She has worked as an analyst and editor at Morningstar since 1993. Ms. Benz holds a Bachelor's degree in political science and Russian/East European studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.