Book Review: Courage

June 12, 2012 by / 4 Comments

Recently, I got the book Courage, by Debbie Ford in the mail to review.  You can find the book on amazon in hardcover or on kindle if you’re interested.

The book courage is about overcoming those little fears and insecurities that everyone has in order to become a better, happier and more successful person (who doesnt want that).  Slowly and surely, debbie takes you through her process of doing that in the book, starting with how you’ll transform, the root of your fears and finally how to overcome them and make the most of your current situation.  Lets dig in.

The book starts out with trying to find the culprit of your fears – perhaps it was someone in junior high teasing you about having glasses or a big head or something.  For debbie, it was teasing by her older siblings and the other kids on her street.  Quickly, she found a  way to make herself feel better after having been teased: Coke (soda, not powder) and brownies.  After she ate a bit of brownie and had a coke, she was able to feel much better about herself.  She goes deeper into it and how she was teased while at school, and because of that, her whole attitude and outlook on life began to shift.  She stopped caring, and being playful, and became much more cynical.  She became someone who she wasn’t to hide the pain and fear.  (I dont know about any of you readers, but I didnt find junior high/middle school to be that terrible).  Not long after becoming someone else, she started getting into drugs.   The fears and covering up with substance abuse continued on and off for a few years, until she realized she had a problem and checked into rehab.  All of these things led her to discover what she calls “The voice of fear”  - which mostly boils down to that little voice inside you that’s uncertain, doubtful and harmful to meaningful change in life.

After that, she slowed down on the pills but mainly stayed the same until an incident in paris in which she needed to get home but wasnt sure how – she was depending on the person who brought her to paris and wasnt sure what to do.  Eventually she summons up the courage and leaves the hotel, waiting 24 hours for a flight out of town.  She realizes she has more confidence than she thought and starts to try and become a more confident person.  One of the first things that she suggests doing is taking help that is offered to you by friends, family and even strangers.  Life’s much easier when you get out of your own way and accept help from others (I can personally vouch for that).

Finally, she talks about how you need to surrender to your fears to finally get over them and realize how they’ve been holding you back.  Once you let all the mistakes from your past go and stop dwelling on them, you can move forward.  (This is very helpful when paying off debt, because if you make 1 stupid purchase, you have to just forget about it or you’ll beat yourself up and tell yourself you cant do it, which will become a self-fufilling prophecy).  Finally, she talks about the importance of having a vision – why are you here, and what do you want to do?  Once you figure out those things, you can figure out how you’re going to do it.

Readers: Do you typically read self help books?  Do you find them helpful?  These are a bit outside my norm, but they are good for a change every once in a while and typically have some good ideas in them

Filed Under: Health, Mental Health  / Tagged:

Book Review: Search Inside Yourself

May 15, 2012 by / 7 Comments

Occasionally, I review books that I think are relevant to the site.  While this one isnt specifically about creating a healthier environment or finances, I thought it was an interesting book about creating a great state of mental health.  Being mentally healthy will help you be happier and more productive, and who doesnt want that, right?

If you’re interested, you can buy the book on amazon in hardcover or for your kindle.

The book was based on a popular course at amazon designed make the lives (and work) of all googlers better by increasing the mindfulness and emotional intelligence of googlers by focusing on 3 steps.  The Three steps are:

  1. Attention Training
  2. Self Awareness and Self Mastery
  3. Creating Useful Mental Habits

The book relies heavily on scientifically proven concepts that will help you get ahead in your life and business – which im a big fan of.  Using scientific data will hook me no matter the process, because if science says it works, then it probably will work.

Much of this book is focusing on habits, which I know are huge parts of your life, as they essentially take over when you’re in a new situation.  Knowing your habits (self awareness) is key.  A great example from my life is that I occasionally dont know when to quit – H brought me 2 bags of candy for my birthday, which was really nice, but something I never would have done for myself, because I know what will happen.  I’d eat all the candy too quickly and get a stomachache.  Sure enough, I ate about a pound of candy in 2 or so days, and I didnt feel right for a day or so after that.  For me, a better treat would have been 1 pack of candy. That way, I could have eaten the whole thing and not felt like crap for 3 or so days.  This is a habit of mine that i’m fully aware of, so the place where I avoid it is at the store – I just dont buy candy at all, and when I do, I dont buy the giant bags of it.  Knowing habits like that (and avoiding them, if they are as bad as mine) is key to creating a happier life, as the book says.

Another big theme is meditation, which I’ll admit i’ve never really tried – it seem kind of new-agey and a waste of time – I feel like i’ve got better things to do, but the book makes a pretty convincing case for meditation.  You slowly breathe, which turns into a distraction of some sort, regain your focus and breath again, repeating the cycle.  This can help you reduce stress and develop a better attitude – something I know that I could use from time to time.  While I cant say that I’ll surely meditate after reading this book, It’s something that I’d like to consider after finishing doing the work that H and I are doing on the new house (hopefully I’ll be able to put pictures up soon).

Finally, you want to create “desireable mental habits”  - in the words of buddha, what we think, we become.  So think more about what you want, and keep thinking about it.  Try not to get distracted by the day to day and focus on what’s really important.  That way, you should be able to do more soul searching.

Overall, this was a really interesting book and if youre interested at all in self improvement, I’d give it a look.

Filed Under: Mental Health  / Tagged:

Book Review: Shiny Objects

December 6, 2011 by / 18 Comments

A while back, I was asked to review a copy of the book Shiny Objects, by James Roberts  - I jumped at the chance because this is about happiness and overspending, and today is my day to host the book tour for the book.

Shiny Objects

In this chapter, the author talks about how many americans are where I was a few years ago – not much money, no savings, buying things and spending money all the time – usually on something that would “speak” for them – the latest tv, the biggest house, or the most luxurious car.  He also notes that most people spend in a way that their possessions are their highest priorities, but when asked, they say that their families rank much higher.

Chasing the American Dream

The author notes that the american dream has changed greatly since our country was founded (I happen to agree).  We no longer want the simple life and to give our children and grand children a better shot than we had at “making it” but we want things – bigger tvs, bigger cars. He notes that one of the reasons henry ford paid so well was because he was creating customers – better wages for his workers meant they could too buy a car.

The American Dream on Steroids

This chapter is about much of the consumerism that the 50s ushered in, and the people in the 60s that rejected it.  Once he sets the stage, he goes on the astronomically high interest rates of the 80s – 12% for savings accounts, and greater than 20% for home loans.  After this, the government stepped and made rates lower and homes easier to buy – it was both parties at different times that ended up contributing to the bubble that recently blew up.  The american dream was no longer leaving the country in a better place for your kids – it was now owning a home, and becoming a “homeowner”.

The Cat is out of the (shopping) bag

This chapter is all about happiness – after looking over multiple surveys, it seems that many people, regardless of economic standing, are about equally happy (the scale they used was out of 10 points, everyone from 125m+ net worth americans and an african tribe scored just below 6, coming it at 5.7 or 5.8).  It seems that money doesnt buy happiness – so what does?  Well, it seems like no one is exactly sure.  He points to the finns, that take a 5 week vacation or so every summer to a remote cabin and worry about nothing.  Nothing on the t0-do list, nothing on the calendar, just relaxing with as few amenities as possible.  While this isnt for everyone, it seems to make the finns happy.

The Treadmill of Consumption

This is exactly what you’d think – you see your neighbors brand new beamer, and (even though you dont know him/her as a person) you want to let him know you’ve got what he’s got, so you buy a better/newer/more expensive car.  Then your neighbor buys a boat to park in the yard, and both of you are off to the races to see who has the next biggest thing or the best toy.  Of course, none of this buying will make us any happier, and just lead us to buy more, like a drug addict trying to get the feeling from the original high and needing more and more.

The Cashless Society

There has been a huge increase in lifestyle over the past 30 or so years, and much of it has come on credit and credit alone.  Not just mortgages, but people are using cards to buy tvs, take vacations and go out to eat far more than they would have with cash.  Credit makes paying easy, but you typically buy more, and what’s worse, cant recall how much you spend.  Many households have credit cards with an average balance of 10,000 among the 60% of people who carry a balance.  Of course, the reality is probably larger than that because credit card debt is “bad” debt and people will lie and underreport it.  Many people are unable to treat credit spending just like cash spending.  (Personally, I have been using a card my whole life and feel like I’m pretty good at knowing what I spent and where – the last charge on my card was at walmart, for around 120 – most of it for dog food and things to make christmas presents).

Money’s Hidden Costs

In the 60s, 80% of the peoples goals used to be something like “Develop a meaningful philosophy of life”, but that has gradually shifted from then to now, with approximately 75% of people answering the question about life goals in 2010 with “Be very well off financially” – these two answers have basically switched places, and it has been at great cost.  We are spending money we dont really have to buy things that will make other people think that we are happy, but wont actually make us happy ourselves.  Basically, we are compulsively buying things that were directly taking away from our goals.  Intrinsic goals such as self acceptance and community involvement make us happy, but we spend on extrinsic goals – that benz we bought to make the neighbor jealous.

 Collateral Damage

This chapter is about how overspending on wants is damaging relationships.  The typical lottery winner is no happier after winning, and is usually more dissatisfied with life after they’ve won the lottery than they were beforehand.  Of course, people spending habits often lead to problems, and that’s where relationships get taken advantage of.  Someone loans a spendthrift money, and they never pay it back, ruining relationships in their wake.  This can also lead to marital problems – with a high number of divorces coming from “financial problems” – most likely living beyond one’s means.

The author goes over a few more chapters here about how materialism wont solve any of our problems, and it will in fact create new ones – Because  I talk about that frequently on the site and in previous parts of this review, I’ll leave them out.  Noteable mentions: things become obsolete much quicker than they used to, things are made not to do everything advertised – so you’ll need to pay for a part or program to upgrade them and partaking in the “prosperity gospel” – giving a significant portion of your income to church, while the church smacks of materialism.

3 Ingredients of Self Control

The three ingredients for self control are self monitoring, capacity to change and clear standards.  Having all of these are important – the first for figuring out exactly what you’re doing.  This was a great help to me during my financial turn around, as I thought I was spending too much money in one area – only to find out that I was hardly spending any there and spending gobs of money in some other area.  After I figured that out, I was able to set a standard “budget” for that amount, and start to inch closer to my goal.  Once I made a few adjustments, I saw in myself the capacity to change, which helped push me over the edge.

The Carrot and the Stick

This one is about setting goals for yourself, both for positive behavior and for abstaining for negative behavior.  To make this totally effective, the goal has to be something you want, and you’ve got to enact real behavior change to get there.  Saying “im not going to smoke a cigarette for 4 hours” and giving yourself a week vacation to hawaii for it is not a good goal – you’re not giving up enough for the reward.  You’ve got to determine what you want to change, what you get if you’ll do, and when and how to give yourself that reward.

Your Money or Your Life

Just like the popular book (here) this settles on what kind of person you want to be and what kind of life you want to live.  Do you want to be happy and help others, or are you more interested in figuring out your own goals and getting them done?  Studies say people who are “outwardly focused’ and help others are typically far happier.

My Thoughts

Has materialism ruined the country?  I really cant answer that, but I can say that a lot of things I see are pointing me in one direction.  I feel like a lot of people buy a whole bunch of things just to prove themselves – even though they cant afford it.  Just because you dont have a whole slew of gifts for your child for christmas doesnt mean they will have a crappy holiday, odds are, they wont even know.  I think this is an interesting and thought provoking book, and could be worth a read.  One note of caution though – if you’ve been in the PF blogosphere for a long time, much of this isnt news to you.

Filed Under: Finance  / Tagged:

Willpower Book Review

September 7, 2011 by / 7 Comments

A few weeks ago, I was asked to review a book about willpower.  Being very interested in the subject, I accepted.  I was provided a copy of the book by the publisher, but the opinions are my own.  

The book is called “Willpower: Rediscovering the greatest human strength” and you can find it on amazon here

Is Willpower more than a metaphor?

In this chapter, the authors start by talking about a woman who decided to be a human statue in harvard yard.  As you can guess, as she stood still, many people messed with her, but she said after a few years, she only broke character a couple times.  Despite making ~$50/hour (!!!) she was only able to do this for about 90 minutes a time, about 2 times per day.  Many researchers have determined that people have a limited amount of willpower that comes from one pool.  Once you start to deplete whats in that pool, you cave easier to bad choices (like eating cookies when you’re on a diet).  The best advice to here is to work on one thing at a time.

Jeff’s Note: I find this to be fairly accurate.  I was doing well with my financial goals 2 years ago, but was basically ignoring everything else.  Once I tried to start working out more, the control I had over my finances slipped a bit – I dont mind all that much because I still make good decisions most of the time, but I dont every time.

Where does the power in willpower come from?

Researchers have figured out that you can regain some of your willpower if you have a bit of sugar.  Citing multiple studies where participants are giving sugary drinks or nothing at all, those who got the sugar preformed better on the next task and had more willpower available to them.  Glucose seemingly increased reserves of willpower.  Unfortunately though, that’s not a sustainable strategy for people in the long term.  Instead, they suggest you should eat (something) if it has been a long time since you last ate – and not to make any important decisions or get into arguments right before you eat.  Making sure to eat low glycemic foods (those that take the body a while to break down and provide lasting energy) will also help restore willpower.  These foods include peanuts, cashews, meats, blueberries, apples, cheese and fish – the slower breakdown process will provide lasting energy, restoring your decision making capacity.  Also – Sleep helps.

A brief history of the to-do list

Like everyone, I’ve got a lot of projects in the air and quite a few things on my to-do list at once.  Studies have shown that if you’ve got a lot of tasks on the to-do list, you probably wont finish any of them, mainly because of the way you write them on the list.  Something like “contact deb” could mean an email or a phone call, and you’ll put it off until you decide which you’d rather.  Putting “email deb” on there will make it much easier.  The best part is, you dont even need to do the task in question – getting it written down will clear it from your mind and allow you to move on.  Once it’s down, you’ll stop questioning if you’re going to remember it in time to get it done or not.

Decision Fatigue

This chapter was all about how making decisions became more tiresome over time, and therefore people only focused on one aspect of the decision, and was seen through the lens of Elliot Sptizer, former governor of New York and talk show host.  After making difficult decisions all day about various aspects of New York state, he decides it’s a good idea to wire transfer money to an escort.  Clearly, his decision powers had been diminished all day, and he had none left.  For those of you who are not governors, watch out for this in your daily life in things like clothing shopping, decorating and registering for a wedding or a baby shower.  After making all the decisions on things you do/do not want, your power will be depleted and you’ll have seriously lost out on your ability to compromise, and you begin to pit one quality above all others (lowest price), perhaps giving up a significant amount of quality for very little money.

Where have all the dollars gone?

This chapter focuses on behavior, using a personal favorite tool of mine (mint.com).   Once you begin monitoring your behavior in any arena, it makes it easy for you to see where your time/money/calories are going.  For example, you could figure out how you’ve been spending far too much on ice cream cones every month, and decide that you should cut that back.  Once you see the results of the monitoring, you’re more likely to begin a change in behavior and to start thinking about the future instead of the present (1 month’s worth of less ice cream means having that vacation 3 months sooner).  One point that I thought it was important to note was that it does make a difference about how you keep track.  For instance, say you’ve set a year-long goal for yourself to lose 100 pounds.  At the end of june, you’ve lost 50 pounds, putting you at the halfway mark in the year and your weight loss goal.  Is it better to focus on how much you’ve lost (and how far you’ve come) or to focus on how much you’ve got left to do?  Research suggest that if you focus on how much you’ve lost, you’ll enjoy it more and feel successful, but if you examine how much you’ve got left to do, you’ll be more excited to take on the rest of your goal and move to challenging, new goals.

Jeffs Note: That last bit seems right in relation to my debt paying-off journey.  After I had reduced my debt by about 22k, I started to say “wow, that’s quite a bit gone, great work” I didn’t make as much progress as I focused on my success, and actually regressed a little.  After another spark though, I’m back into looking at how much I’ve got left to do.

 Can willpower be strengthened?

In a word, yes.  Typically if you’re building up one portion of your life (say managing money) researchers found that you’d be better equipped to handle other things, like study more instead of going to the movies.  In one trial, they told subjects to try and focus on standing up straight for 2 weeks, and measured willpower and stamina when the period was over.  While their willpower didnt increase much (if any at all) subjects were able to do much better on the second time around – they didnt deplete their willpower as quickly as they had the first time.  This seems to happen everywhere, like when you feel like you’re really on top of your money and start eating healthier.

Outsmarting yourself in the heart of darkness

This chapter talks about Henry Stanley (“Dr. Livingstone, I presume”) and how he was able to keep going exploring africa during multiple journeys.  In between trips in london, he met a woman and they got engaged, planning a wedding for when he returned from africa.  He kept a picture of her and looked at it frequently when he felt like he could no longer go on – having something to focus on and work for ended up turning him into the only one  of the 30+ people in his party that survived – quite interesting.

Did a higher power help Eric Clapton and Mary Karr?

This chapter talks about higher powers.  While the researchers didnt really believe in them, they equated a higher power to a group. “You are the average of your 5 best friends” and all of that.  The people you surround yourself with will help you form and break habits, and can become your version of a higher power.  The group can help you monitor behavior and talk about goals

Jeffs Note: This applies doubly to finances.  If you’re around a high spending group of people, you’ll soon start to follow in their footsteps.  If you keep your circle of friends as low spenders and talk about savings goals, you’re more likely to save more and reach goals faster.

Raising Strong Children: Self Esteem vs Self-Control

In this chapter, they talk about the self esteem movement and how it has been relatively destructive for children.  Children get praised for anything, so they are not willing to do extra work or take care of what they have because they didnt have to work for it.  Self control can turn children into well mannered kids, and an important part of that is consistency in parenting.  Set a goal, offer a reward, and tell the kid to work and you’ll have it made.

The Perfect Storm of Dieting

It seems that dieting has a catch 22 when it comes to willpower.  When you need willpower to continue on your diet, you need food to replenish your willpower.  They also found that those that completely swore off something (candy, for instance) ended up eating more than those that were just putting off the candy eating until a later date.

Should you read this?

I thought this was an interesting book that was filled with good stories on willpower and how its used to complete daily tasks and the role it has in life.  If you’re interested in willpower or getting more, this could be a good read.

Filed Under: Mental Health  / Tagged:

We Have Met The Enemy Review

January 17, 2011 by / 6 Comments

A while ago, I was given a copy of Daniel Akst’s We Have Met The Enemy. After reading the description of the book, I was pretty excited to dig into it because it’s all about one of my favorite topics: Self Control.

Akst goes through what he calls first order desires (food, shelter, etc) and second order desires (cinnamon rolls, gigantic homes) and the like.  Through many different examples, he talks about how our second order desires often lead us down the wrong path.

These second order desires make us make terrible choices (like the choice to have dinner out with your friends, when you know you dont have the money), and we have become our own worst enemy.  We’ve stopped looking out for our future selves, and started to “live in the moment”.  This could be anything from constantly over eating or over spending, to procrastination when writing (guilty) or when doing some other task that one doesn’t want to do.  In my life, this happens far too frequently.  The internet is always there, and it’s a nice hole to throw an hour into, never to be seen again.

After recounting multiple studies about how self control doesn’t really exist (biology plays a large part in our mundane actions), Akst suggests a few things that may be able to help us get some control over our actions.  The first one is to put up passive barriers.  For instance if you’re working on writing a blog post, focus only on that.  Take the shortcut to your internet browser out of a quick launch bar or other easily accessable place, and make it so that you’ll actually have to get over a barrier (or 2 or 3) to open your browser and start jerking around on the net.  Making it that much more difficult to procrastinate will help you get down to business sooner.

He also feels that many of todays “diseases” are just a lack of self control.  Alcoholism, drug addiction (although he leaves out one particular type of drug, for unknown reasons) and over spending are not diseases.  They result from a simple inability to tell yourself no.  To illustrate his point, he offers the power of an incentive.  Say that your significant other was addicted to smoking and had tried to quit many times, unsuccessful every time.  He then offers the following solution: (do not do this at home, if you do, I assume zero liability) hold a gun to someone’s head and then suggest they stop smoking.  What you’re doing is moving the result from a very nebulous “you’re going to die of some disease caused by smoking in the future” to the very near term “you’re going to die from a gun shot in the head, because you wont quit smoking”.  The methods may be different, but the result will be the same: the person will ultimately die of smoking.

I thought that this book was a very interesting read, mainly because it’s non-fiction and cites multiple studies and talks about something I’m very interested in (self control).  However, the author did seem a bit disjointed at times, jumping from one study to another unrelated study, with little connections in between.

I also have a copy of this book to give away.  If you’re interested, here’s how you can win:

  1. Subscribe by RSS (leave comment saying you did)
  2. Subscribe by Email (leave comment saying you did)
  3. Tweet this post ” @sustainlifeblog is giving away a book.  If you can read, come check it out the giveaway!”  Or something like that – but if you dont put in @sustainlifeblog, I wont find it.

That’s All.  Good luck.

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Book Review: Generation Earn

November 12, 2010 by / 2 Comments

A while back, I was sent a copy of Generation Earn to read and review.  If you have not heard, Generation Earn is by Kimberly Palmer.  Ms Palmer is an editor and writer for US News & World Report, as well as the author of the blog Alpha Consumer.  This book is directed right at the young professionals cohort (of which I am a member).  Alright, lets get to the book.

Generation EarnGeneration Earn is broken up into three parts, each dealing with stages of personal finance (and life in general) for todays young professional.  The book opens talking about how to build your life, then moves on to creating a home and concludes with change the world.

Build Your Life

This book did an excellent job of talking about one of the issues I struggled with in college (which thankfully were culled before I got my hands on real money), and that is tracking your spending.  I never used to think it was a big deal, but now I know that it’s one of the only things that matters in personal finance, and that’s because it gives you a picture of your finances at the molecular level.  If you track your spending, you’ll know pretty quickly if you’re spending more than you earn or if you’ll have enough to  cover expenses.  This debate is framed quite well right at the beginning of the book, when it asks the question “disney world or lattes?”  The debate is now famous in the PF world, but she doesn’t come right out and say knock off the daily latte/bagel+lox purchase.  What she does is ask you to consider wether the cost is actually worth it to you.  Using an example of a guy who buys some coffee grounds and a bag of bagels at the store every sunday, points out that the same luxuries can be had and a far lower cost.  Are the lattes important to you?  That’s not something I can tell you, but if they are and you can afford them, then go for it as the book says.  She moves on to the consumerism culture with much the same approach, but includes useable tips to help you save money on the things that you decide you actually need to purchase (or want and can afford).  Ask for discounts, research similar products in the market, and purchase the one that you decide feel provides you with the most value.  Don’t feel like you need a new ipod when your gen 3 ipod still works?  Put the money towards something you will enjoy more.

Creating a Home

This was an important chapter for me, as I feel like I’ve got some solid goals (and review them occasionally), and am currently just planning and waiting for when I can move on to the next step of creating a home.  I’ve already got one started, but this really gets into (what I consider) the nitty gritty of finances when you get to an age of older than me.  There were hints in this section about why it’s ok to move back home after you’re finished with school, and even how nice it is to move home after your married.  One couple in the book lived with their parents to save money for a home purchase, and enjoyed it so much, saved a lot of money and invited their parents to be the tenants in the home they had bought after moving out.  This chapter also talks about how to work finances with a parter, and gives many examples of couples and how their financial systems work.  It’s important to know that you should figure out what will work best in your situation, and how you can play off the strengths of you and your partner.  Next up is family planning and Ms Palmer had a unique perspective on this issue as well, as she was finishing up this book while waiting for her first child to be born.  One of the most important things that she stresses multiple times in this chapter (which I don’t mind, I feel like some people don’t get it) is that you are not going to retire like your parents are going to (or are planning to).  The current entitlement system is costly and more likely than not it will not be there for us in the same form (if it is there at all).  Due to this, you need to begin to take care of your future self now. Throughout this section she litters the text with ways that can help you save money on home furnishing and having a child.  Most of her tips boil down to one question:  Do you/your child really, really need this item?  If you’re curious as to how to answer that, think of all the things that kids have today that you didn’t have when you were a baby (a diaper genie being one).  Feel free to not count how awesome the playground equipment is now vs how it was 20-30 years ago, too.  We all feel you.

Changing the World

Personally, I have a difficult time with this statement and anyone who tells it to me.  It’s often very general and obviously difficult to accomplish.  Along with those two things, I feel like it’s something that we as humans all feel.  I haven’t ever talked to someone who said that they had an opportunity to change the world and turned it down because they didn’t feel like it was a worthy endeavor.  I almost skipped this section, but read it anyway (part of the reason was because it was not that long).   However, I felt this was a very strong section in the book.  She points out one thing that many have been pointed out that people of our generation have a large problem with: charities spend a very, very large amount of resources trying to secure more resources.  This results in higher than necessary overhead, and doesnt solve the problem, but only does enough good to get funded to try a new approach.  Charities should be able to work effectively enough that they should either dissolve or focus efforts on another problem.  She gave many tips here about working for or creating your own non profit and how to be effective in what you decide to do.  If you’re interested in charities and their work, this chapter provides a solid starting ground.

Overall

I thought this was a great book.  Right out of the chute, she throws one of the seemingly hidden ‘key themes’ of personal finance: spend on what you truly desire (as long as you can afford it) and cut corners (so to speak) on the things that don’t.  If you really enjoy the lattes, then buy them and don’t worry about wether or not some self proclaimed expert says you should cut them from the budget.  There’s plenty of tips and tricks in this book that will help a young professional with very little financial knowledge figure out what they want from their life and how they can use their income as a tool to get it, and not as something to be worried about when unexpected things happen.

I would recommend this book as a gift for those who are nearing graduation (or if you’ve already graduated and didnt get it) go buy yourself a copy.  You’ll be glad you did.

Filed Under: Uncategorized  / Tagged: ,

Book Review + Giveaway!

July 16, 2010 by / 8 Comments

Great news readers! It’s time for my first giveaway!  I’ll be giving away a copy of the new book

Spent: Memoirs of a Shopping Addict by Avis Cardella.  To enter the contest, you’ll need to subscribe to my blog by RSS (it’s easy – just click the little guy under the twitter image on the right) and come leave a comment that you subscribed.

Now, on to the book review.

I had heard a lot about this book through the newspapers and such and I’ll have to admit, I was intrigued.  I probably fall decidedly outside their targeted demographic (not being female), but I found the book good enough to keep me reading the whole thing.

She starts out the book giving a bit of history as to how far she’s come, then goes into the story telling of her life.  She lived at home with a fashionable mother whose style she seemed to admire.  Early on in the book,  you can see signs of a problem bubbling up.  She talks fondly of memories she had when she was little over a pair of shoes that she was given (or bought, I don’t recall).  I don’t take issue with people liking their clothing, but throughout the book, she has an astounding ability to recall what she wore at specific times or functions over 30 years ago, and how good she felt about herself when she was wearing it.

At the beginning of her clothes buying sprees, she held two jobs and paid for all of her clothing with cash.  Soon, the credit card trap was baited, and she swallowed it hook, line and sinker.  She goes on multiple shopping sprees, buying clothing at times that costs more than I spend in a month.  (As an aside, I’ve never really been keen on the whole “the people in the city don’t live like us here in the smaller towns debate”.  I find it useless and shallow.  That being said, I occasionally felt pangs of those feelings while reading this book.) She finds herself in credit card debt, receiving collection calls and unable to even open the bills.  She meets a very successful guy, and soon is living with him in the Hamptons and heading off to Germany to see his parents.  Although she is embarrassed about her debt situation, she tells the man and he helps her set up a plan so that she can pay it back and be free of it.  The nice thing about this time in her life (for her) is that she can still have the clothes, but someone else pays for them.  Eventually she realizes that something is wrong in her life and relationship, and ends the relationship.

This cycle of credit card debt and another guy continues, although at this point she’s beginning to feel like something in her life needs to change.  After the next guy, she leaves everything that she knows and moves to Paris indefinitely.  I feel like if you’re in as deep as she was, you need a complete break from everything you know to hit the reset button and start moving yourself in the direction that you want to go.  If you don’t know anyone around you, there will be little to distract you from what you want/need to do.    This was kind of a reset for her, and although she was still deep in debt and getting calls constantly, she had started to get her situation under control.  I don’t want to give away the ending, so I’ll stop the review here.

One thing that I thought that was important to discuss was who was really at fault for this?  She rightly notes that no one forced her to sign up for the credit cards, no one forced her into Bergdorf Goodman to buy expensive clothing.  On the other (and far more worrisome) hand, frivolous spending and consumer debt are everywhere, and you have to be rather proactive to avoid falling into the trappings of it.

So, to reiterate: I’ll be giving away 1 copy of this book to anyone who subscribes by RSS and leaves a comment that they have done so.

Filed Under: Finance  / Tagged: , ,
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