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Your Money: The Missing Manual by J.D. Roth
Your Money: The Missing Manual
is by the author of the Get Rich Slowly blog and distills the essence of his blog into 320+ pages that give a crash course in money.
If you read Get Rich Slowly you've seen a lot of this before, but this time it's organized and easily searched, and he's got the space to go a bit more in-depth than he does in a blog post. He's got 13 chapters, each covering a different aspect of money management from credit to retirement to what, exactly is "enough" - his point is that you don't need to have $X amount of money, it's that you need to figure out what you want to do in your life and arrange your finances so that you can do it. If you are in debt, he explains options for getting out of debt and how to set up a plan. He doesn't like the word "budget," instead preferring "spending plan," because too often people fail at budgeting because they try to manage it too closely, discover it's a lot of work and potentially confusing, and stop without getting a handle on their spending. He also maintains that it's important to treat yourself - any plan based on depriving yourself of everything is bound to fail. Additionally, he gives a basic 101 in investing and retirement planning, and house and car buying.
Readers of J.D.'s blog already know his voice, and it comes through here: he doesn't come across as an expert sitting On High and pontificating to the masses, but as a regular guy. It also helps that he's been there: he had $35,000 in consumer debt by his 30s and managed to pay it off in 39 months once he got his act together and educated himself. And he admits the mistakes he's made, using them as examples of what not to do.
The book is full of useful information, with book recommendations and links to online sites where you can educate yourself further if you're so inclined. In fact it's so full of links that that's my only complaint*: his audience tends to be the net-savvy, with easy access to the intartubes (makes sense, as it started as a blog), but it almost feels a bit intimidating for anyone who picks it up who doesn't have net access or who is really unsure about this whole internet thing.
I've gotten myself out of a lot of debt (paid off my credit card and car) in the past couple of years using principles found in J.D's blog, and while I still have a lot in student loans, that's the only debt I have left, and I can actually begin to envision a time in which I have the ability to purchase a house. I'd say that I wish I'd had this book when I graduated college (and then when I graduated from grad school), but I'd probably not have been able to follow much of the advice: I wasn't able to get a handle on spending until I was diagnosed with and treated for ADHD, as my biggest problem is the impulse behavior and lack of ability to long-term plan that comes with the compromises in executive functioning that characterize ADHD. But perhaps I'd not have gotten myself into such high debt at the time ($14,000 on my credit card at my worst).
Who I'd give this book to: my local library, recent high school and college grads, anyone who struggles with money and is ready to change (because if they're not ready to change on their own, no amount of education is going to help).
* I take that back: I do have one other, minor, complaint: as many authors do, he casually says "Your public library should have this book or something similar" when mentioning books, without explaining what to do should the library not have anything useful (namely, interlibrary loan and requesting books be purchased). Libraries quite often will have an eclectic mix of books due to books being stolen, or lost, or worn out, and especially now when money is tight, not much ability to replace them or buy new.
I think too many people assume that library patrons know enough to ask librarians what to do when the library doesn't have a book, but speaking as a librarian: no, quite often, they don't. They'll look for a book, see it's not there, and give up. This is my plea to authors: please mention the existence of ILL and the ability to request books be purchased at least once when you tell someone to pick a book up at the library! If they know a book is wanted, they will make an extra effort to purchase it, but if they don't know it's needed, they won't.
is by the author of the Get Rich Slowly blog and distills the essence of his blog into 320+ pages that give a crash course in money.If you read Get Rich Slowly you've seen a lot of this before, but this time it's organized and easily searched, and he's got the space to go a bit more in-depth than he does in a blog post. He's got 13 chapters, each covering a different aspect of money management from credit to retirement to what, exactly is "enough" - his point is that you don't need to have $X amount of money, it's that you need to figure out what you want to do in your life and arrange your finances so that you can do it. If you are in debt, he explains options for getting out of debt and how to set up a plan. He doesn't like the word "budget," instead preferring "spending plan," because too often people fail at budgeting because they try to manage it too closely, discover it's a lot of work and potentially confusing, and stop without getting a handle on their spending. He also maintains that it's important to treat yourself - any plan based on depriving yourself of everything is bound to fail. Additionally, he gives a basic 101 in investing and retirement planning, and house and car buying.
Readers of J.D.'s blog already know his voice, and it comes through here: he doesn't come across as an expert sitting On High and pontificating to the masses, but as a regular guy. It also helps that he's been there: he had $35,000 in consumer debt by his 30s and managed to pay it off in 39 months once he got his act together and educated himself. And he admits the mistakes he's made, using them as examples of what not to do.
The book is full of useful information, with book recommendations and links to online sites where you can educate yourself further if you're so inclined. In fact it's so full of links that that's my only complaint*: his audience tends to be the net-savvy, with easy access to the intartubes (makes sense, as it started as a blog), but it almost feels a bit intimidating for anyone who picks it up who doesn't have net access or who is really unsure about this whole internet thing.
I've gotten myself out of a lot of debt (paid off my credit card and car) in the past couple of years using principles found in J.D's blog, and while I still have a lot in student loans, that's the only debt I have left, and I can actually begin to envision a time in which I have the ability to purchase a house. I'd say that I wish I'd had this book when I graduated college (and then when I graduated from grad school), but I'd probably not have been able to follow much of the advice: I wasn't able to get a handle on spending until I was diagnosed with and treated for ADHD, as my biggest problem is the impulse behavior and lack of ability to long-term plan that comes with the compromises in executive functioning that characterize ADHD. But perhaps I'd not have gotten myself into such high debt at the time ($14,000 on my credit card at my worst).
Who I'd give this book to: my local library, recent high school and college grads, anyone who struggles with money and is ready to change (because if they're not ready to change on their own, no amount of education is going to help).
* I take that back: I do have one other, minor, complaint: as many authors do, he casually says "Your public library should have this book or something similar" when mentioning books, without explaining what to do should the library not have anything useful (namely, interlibrary loan and requesting books be purchased). Libraries quite often will have an eclectic mix of books due to books being stolen, or lost, or worn out, and especially now when money is tight, not much ability to replace them or buy new.
I think too many people assume that library patrons know enough to ask librarians what to do when the library doesn't have a book, but speaking as a librarian: no, quite often, they don't. They'll look for a book, see it's not there, and give up. This is my plea to authors: please mention the existence of ILL and the ability to request books be purchased at least once when you tell someone to pick a book up at the library! If they know a book is wanted, they will make an extra effort to purchase it, but if they don't know it's needed, they won't.
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And I've got $10K in retirement (perhaps less at the moment...) from another job (well, state teacher retirement, since I worked for a state school) that I need to roll over into an IRA with my bank, because I bet I can do a lot more with it there than sitting where it is now.
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I also think that any plan based on depriving yourself of everything is bound to fail is of tremendous importance. Also, consider the scale: if you are thousands of dollars in debt, ten dollars a week won't make much difference to your debts, but they'll make a tremendous difference keeping your spirits up and making you feel more comfortable about a frugal lifestyle if you can occasionally splurge on yourself. Quite often, what matters is that you allow yourself a treat - not necessarily how expensive that treat was.
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And I hear ya about the not-enough-income: part of the reason I got myself into credit-card debt in the first place was working low-paying jobs. If I'd had the ability to strictly regulate my spending I probably could have gotten by just fine, but at the income level where buying a book is a luxury, lack of impulse control is deadly. Especially with a comic-book habit.