Private equity is everywhere: emergency rooms, nursing homes, veterinarians, your favorite retailers, and maybe some day your retirement plan. Yet, according to our guest Brendan Ballou, author of Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America, few understand what these firms are or how they work.

• Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America
• Learned by Being Burned (teachers share how they were burned by sales agents and "trusted" advisors and how they got wise to the 403(b) plan)
• Meridian Wealth Management
• 403bwise.org