Many of Mary's points are tried and true principles such as saving, avoiding revolving credit, establishing emergency funds, etc. However, she tweaks a lot of these messages to fit the main budget concerns of the average family. I really liked the plan she lays out for paying off credit card debt as it ties in with the way I have always thought would be best for paying off bills.
However, I will say that my only problem with this book was a somewhat big one to my way of thinking. Mary Hunt repeatedly mentions "entitlement" and people feeling like they are entitled to things and charging up cards then wanting to lay their responsibility off on parents and family members by "borrowing from the bank of Mom and Dad." Then, a few pages later when she is espousing the joys of saving in addition to paying your bills every month (spending less than your earn), she recommends taking extreme austerity measures including moving in with a family member (which may or may not save you money - i.e. if I live in a cheap apartment and then move back in with mom and dad on the high end side of town and pay them rent/share expenses I may not get off any cheaper and sacrifice a lot of independence).
I also felt like the overuse of the buzz word de jour "entitlement" may have been more than a little bit purposeful...which I didn't care for.
Overall though I would recommend this book for those looking for basic financial advice. However, be forewarned that some of the elements like the personalized pay chart that the author mentions in the book are subscription services on her website.
7 Money Rules for Life is available as of January 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
Disclosure: I received a review copy of this volume from the publisher.
0 comments:
Post a Comment