Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Teach Your Child About Finances With This Book

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As a mom and personal finance blogger, I get the opportunity to review many books.  One that I just reviewed that I can’t recommend highly enough is Sunny Lee’s book, Is Your Child a Money Master or a Money Monster?

Money Master or Money Monster?

Sunny Lee is a financial advisor, and she has taken the time to teach her twin sons about money.  In fact, her strategy has worked so well that she’s sharing all her techniques in this book.

Lee has a variety of strategies for teaching kids about money in a fun, incentive-filled way.

Offer rewards.  Lee’s strategy of offering her children rewards helps shape their behavior in a positive direction.  For instance, when her sons were in 1st grade, Lee developed the Morning Stuff Allowance Project.  Each morning, her kids had to get up when their alarms went off, tidy their rooms, get dressed, pack their backpacks, and make and eat their own breakfast and get to school on time.  If they did this every day, they earned $3 a week.

While the kids were motivated by the money, they were also unknowingly developing skills that would help them through the rest of their lives.  Even better, Lee didn’t have to fight with her boys in the morning to get up and get their chores done.  Everyone in her household could enjoy a more peaceful morning.

Play games.  As the boys got older, part of Lee’s strategy to teach them about money was to give them a safe place to experiment.  She did this by finding a variety of free, money based games online.  Her boys experimented online with running a coffee shop.  They had to decide when to discount their coffee based on the season, how much inventory to buy, etc.

Try out your skills in the real world.  Finally, Lee let her sons experiment and try their money skills in the real world.  An important component of this was to let them fail in small ways.  One son spent a large sum of money on a hat, which he loved, but then he didn’t have money available for a while after that.  Her other son learned from his brother and bought a hat at a discounted market so he wouldn’t use all of his money on one item.

Lee’s book contains seven strategies to teach your kids about money (and as a byproduct, teach them personal responsibility).  One thing I loved about the book and her strategy is that she keeps adding layers to her plan.  For instance, after her kids mastered the Morning Stuff Allowance Project, that remained in place, but Lee added on the Special Incentive Project.  If her boys chose to, they could earn additional money throughout the week by completing a book report, doing an art project, etc.  Again, she helped her children grow academically and artistically through an incentive.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to not only give their children a strong financial footing, but also a strong work ethic.

Have you read this book?  What is your favorite book to teach kids about money?

The Recovering Spender – Book Review

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As personal finance bloggers, Lauren Greutman and I travel in a few similar circles on Facebook. So, when she announced on one of the groups that I am a part of that she was releasing The Recovering Spender, and that she was looking for some bloggers to read and review the book, I jumped at the opportunity. I don’t do a whole lot of book reviews on here.  I should probably do more, but especially lately, most of my reading time is taken up by textbooks. I do a few reviews here and there of fiction books, but I tend to keep those isolated to my author/book blog, Novelnaut.

Shortly before the official launch date of the book, Lauren and her team sent me an advanced copy of the book in one of the best book review packages I’ve ever seen.  Lauren really knows how to make a person feel special! But, you likely aren’t reading this to find out about the confetti and handwritten thank you note she sent with the book. So, let’s get to the review.

What is the Recovering Spender about?

The Recovering Spender Cover
Must Read for Spenders

As you can imagine, I’ve read a few books on the subject of personal finance. One of the first, and most influential in my personal finance journey was Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. Reading that book change a lot of the ideas I had about money, and how it should be handled. The Recovering Spender has the capability to be that book for a lot of people.

Every one of us knows a spender. They’re the people in our lives that are always spending their money. And spending money they don’t have. Maybe it’s your spouse (it was for Lauren’s husband), or maybe it’s a close friend. You know at least one. You do.

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In The Recovering Spender, Lauren shares her own story of coming to the realization that she was a spender. She writes candidly about the deep hole of debt that she created through her spending habits, and how crushing it was. She then talks about the decision to come clean, and the grace that her husband had in not only handling the situation, but joining with her in trying to find ways to pay the debt off. If you’ve ever struggled with your personal finances, even if you’re not a spender, you’re going to see some parallels in Lauren’s story.

Becoming a Recovering Spender

Instead of crumbling under the debt, Lauren and her husband decided to beat it. And beat it they did. Through a whole lot of trial and error, and some pretty creative saving, they eventually reached a debt free life! Like some of the other addiction programs, the Recovering Spender program has 12 steps that you can follow to overcome your spending habits, save money, and pay off your debt.

She’s really condensed all her own work down into a set of tools (worksheets and other resources) and advice that should give the spender in your life (even if it’s you!) a real sense of hope that it can be done, and a push to start doing it.

The Recovering Spender, by Lauren Greutman, has earned itself a spot on my book recommendation list right next to Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. If you struggle with spending, debt, and personal finance, you owe it to yourself to find a copy of The Recovering Spender and read it.

Confessions of a Professional Blogger – Book Review

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Confessions of a Professional Blogger

By: Miranda Marquit

Confessions of a Professional BloggerDisclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Miranda.  My policy on books I receive free copies of is that I don’t review them unless I like them.

How many of us, myself included, don’t jump at the chance to get a little insight into how someone who does something that we want to do for a living, for a living?  I know that when Miranda asked me back at the end of 2013 if I would read her book that I immediately said yes.  It’s been a little while since she first sent over a copy, but that’s totally on me.  I read a lot of books, and somehow hers got lost in the shuffle and ended up at the bottom of the to-read pile.  I wish it hadn’t, but it did.

On to the book.  It’s a short read at just over 100 pages, but it’s chock full of excellent information on becoming a professional blogger.  Miranda leads the reader through the steps of starting out and gaining fans for your blog, or for gaining customers for your freelance writing.  Throughout the book, Miranda focuses quite a bit on the details on how she manages her freelance clients, the way she’s created the “package” of services that she provides, and how she structures it all to the benefit of all involved.

If you’re looking to test the freelance writer waters, Confessions is a quick read that’s loaded up with information on where to start, what you need to do, and how to keep it rolling.  You’ll find the book to read like a lot of Miranda’s articles, smooth and concise.  And who better to learn from than someone who used her freelance writing to become the primary breadwinner for her household?

You can pick up a copy of Confessions of a Professional Blogger at her site, MirandaMarquit.com.