So, I was perusing through James’ Retirement Savvy blog a couple of weeks ago, and found out that he had just published a book called Cream City Hustle
Book Review: Cream City Hustle
Category: Frugal Finance Management
A custom debt-reduction budget that fits your own family’s size, needs, etc., is crucial to debt reduction success.
Book Review: Train Your Way to Financial Fitness
It’s not been that long since Shannon from Financially Blonde came onto the personal finance blogging scene, but I knew right when I first visited her site that this gal knew her stuff. Now, to go along with her great blog, she’s published a book. Train Your Way to Financial Fitness is a new release by Shannon McLay, and I’m so honored that she’s asked me to review it and give my thoughts.
To be honest: I’ve kind of had my fill of personal finance books. I’ve read just about all of them, and there seems to be a huge problem with many of them: they don’t discuss all financial types and they don’t give specific enough advice to help all financial types. Train Your Way to Financial Fitness has solved both of those problems.
Since I count Shannon as a friend, I wanted to be objective when reviewing this book, so I decided to read it from the viewpoint that I was a “regular” customer, reading the book to fit our particular situation and seeing how it helped me.
When I first started reading, I found the book had an amazing combination of refreshingly honest and yet still positive and upbeat. Shannon holds nothing back as she discusses the different types of financial fitness: she’s clear, precise and blatantly honest. Shannon creates an atmosphere in the book of what she calls a “judgment-free zone”. The book was written in a way where I felt I could be honest as I took the financial fitness quiz and not have to worry about being shamed or judged for poor financial choices. It was awesome to be able to take the quiz freely, openly and honestly, knowing that, whatever the results, Shannon was here to help me overcome any financial obstacles. I cannot tell you how freeing that was! It allowed me to be truly honest with myself while taking the quiz.
After tallying up the score of the quiz, Shannon has outlined in the book very clearly what needs to be done in order to get a person financially fit. It has real and doable action steps that will get you from either too skinny or too fat to financially healthy. The book goes on in great detail about what obstacles may be in your way, shares real-life stories about anonymous clients Shannon has worked with that might have similar elements to your life, and gives solid advice about how to overcome the financial obstacles one might be facing.
But perhaps what I loved most about the book was the positive attitude Shannon had throughout. Don’t get me wrong: there’s no rose-colored glasses going on here: instead, Shannon makes it clear that everybody can indeed find there way to financial fitness, no matter how out of shape their finances are, and she gives reasonable and doable tips and road maps for getting there.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve come across a personal finance book that I felt would benefit everyone, but Train Your Way to Financial Fitness fits the bill. If you have money, want money or need money, this book is for you.
Love, Money and Two Articles You Won’t Want to Miss
I wasn’t planning on writing a post today, but I found a couple of articles online that I wanted to share with ya’ll. Read more
When It’s Pointless to Give Others Money Advice
We who are in the personal finance blogging world, whether as writers or as readers, know how heartbreaking it is to see family and friends struggling continually in financial distress. We’re eager to share all that we’ve learned and experienced about how to work toward debt free and financial independence, and see our loved ones get out of their financial hellholes. But when should we share our money advice with loved ones, and when should we keep our mouths shut? Read more
How to Save Money by Planning Ahead
As we consistently work to learn more about saving and managing money, we’ve learned to think in a new way about how to save money by planning ahead. Saving money by planning ahead isn’t just about putting aside a little cash each month for Christmas or car insurance. You really can save a ton of money by thinking differently about how you plan ahead. Read more
Personal Finance Tips – You’re Not Done Learning Yet
I was just thinking to myself the other day that, after a year and a half of learning personal finance tips to help us pay off our debt, that I knew all that I needed to know. I was getting bored, honestly. This point in our journey to debt free is a bit difficult, because we’re kind of sailing now, only at a super slow pace. We’ve learned how to budget, how to spend-track, and how to say “no” to the Joneses. We’ve learned lots about side hustling and earning extra income. Now we’re just kind of trudging through the mud to the finish line. We started our journey with a 65% debt-to-income ratio, so it’s a bit slow-going, but we’re moving forward. We’re spending our money on what’s truly important to us, and we’ve let the other spending go by the wayside. Read more
Great Fathers Day Gift Ideas
With Fathers Day right around the corner, I figured I’d throw out some great Fathers Day gift ideas to readers today. Does anyone else think dads can be really hard to buy for? It’s nice to buy something new and different for dad, but what? Another tie? As I pondered our Father’s Day gathering (we kids and our families always join dad at a local park for BBQ and games), I came up with some ideas both on the frugal side, and the not-so-frugal side. Read more
Cutco Cutlery: A Review
*This post contains affiliate links.
I never thought I’d do a cutlery review on this site, mostly because we’re not buying much these days, but I just had to share with you our experience with Cutco Cutlery. Most everyone who’s ever known a college kid has heard of Cutco. College kids often work as Cutco Cutlery Sales Associates to groom their people and sales skills and to make a little cash while in college. When my niece called Rick and I, asking for us to listen to her Cutco demonstration, we said yes, albeit hesitantly. We weren’t accustomed to spending $63 for a single knife, and money, until recently, has always been a struggle for us due to poor money management. Read more
2014 Goals Update
Hey, friends!! Being we’re heading into the fifth month of the year already, I thought we should do an update on our 2014 goals and how we’re doing with them. This is mostly to gain accountability for us, and to encourage others working toward their own goals. If you read our original 2014 goals post, you might remember that we had both financial goals and homesteading goals. Here, I’ll go about listing them, and updating everyone on how we’re progressing with them so far. Read more
Our “A-ha” Money Moment
Once again, in honor of Financial Literacy Month, we’ve teamed up with our good friend Shannon from over at The Heavy Purse, and a long list of others who are committed to promoting financial literacy to all of the world. You can see last year’s post here. Our topic for this year, Our A-ha Money Moment, begins in November of 2012. Here’s the background: Read more