Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

The Wealth Cure

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The Wealth Cure

By: Hill Harper

When you first see the image of who Hill Harper is (He’s an actor on CSI:N.Y.), you assume that this is just another book by a celebrity to boost his status and pad his wallet.  What you get when you read this book, however, is another thing entirely.  Not only is this not a book that Harper had someone write for him and then published using his name, it’s a thought provoking book that happens to be about wealth.  If you’ve read many books on money and wealth, you know that a majority of them are dry, boring books to read.  Harper manages to take what is a very important message about the role that wealth plays in our lives and melds it into a very engrossing story about life, success, and the real worth of wealth in our lives.

He starts the story with a short few paragraphs setting up the story for the rest of the book.  Recently diagnosed with cancer, he decided to take a train from Los Angeles to Chicago.  The rest of the story is about the revelations he came to while riding the train.  It’s a wonderful book that really cuts to the core of what wealth really is, and how, so often, we pervert it into something entirely different.

This is a book about life, and how the way we treat our wealth, build our wealth, and live our lives really can make a difference, not only in our life, but in the life of others.  I would highly recommend reading it, especially if you find yourself struggling with the role that money plays in your life.

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for free as a review copy.

My eBook/eReader Conversion

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After Andrea’s wonderful post on Go Green Method to Save Money: eBooks, and the ensuing conversation that started in the comments, I though it might be nice to share my story in regards to ebooks and ereaders.

Where it begins.

I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember.  Some of my earliest memories of reading are of reading the Chronicles of Narnia series and the Hardy Boys series.    All through my school years, I read voraciously.  I made my way from shorter books up through goliath undertakings like just about anything by James Michener.  Sadly, when I moved to college, I drifted away from reading.  Most of my reading time was taken up by schoolwork and socialization.  Later, while taking a break from college to pursue more nefarious things, I had a job which usually entailed a whole lot of doing nothing.  To pass the time, I began reading again.  The spark was back.  Heck, I even read the 5th Harry Potter book in a day.

I eventually got a real job, finished my degree, and then got married and started having children.  And, as I was pretty busy doing those things, my reading habits slipped off again.  It wasn’t until we cancelled cable shortly after our first born came along that I got back into it.  And, even then, it was not nearly with the same pace as I had before.  Throughout all of this, I’ve carted around my books.  Each time I wanted to read something new, I bought it rather than borrow it.  Why?  Call it OCD collecting.  I’ve always fantasized about having this huge library in my house with wall-to-wall books. In short, I had an infatuation with books.

59/365: Lectura

But, here’s the thing.  Of all the hundreds of books I had (have), I’ve only reread less than 10 of them.  So, I came to the realization that I was carting around all these books that I would never (probably) read again.  Moreover, they were slowly taking over every bookshelf in the house, and even some of the floor space.  When I came to this realization, I went through them all, and posed a large majority of them on PaperBackSwap.  But, all that did, really, was to swap the clutter of books I had read with a clutter of books I hadn’t read.  I’ve currently got well over 50 books on my “to read” shelf.  For reference sake, I only read about 35-40 books a year.  So, I’ve got close to a year and a half worth of books sitting, waiting to be read.

Through all of this, my desire to have less clutter in my space has led me to try to remove as much of it as possible.  I had downloaded the kindle reader app for my blackberry phone, but I found it absolutely terrible to try and read anything on the little, itty-bitty screen.  At that point, I decided that ereading just wasn’t for me.  At the time, I would rather have the physical book in my hands than try and read on a little screen.  Then, I upgraded my phone.

I traded in my blackberry for a new android based phone.  It’s got a screen that’s roughly twice the size as the old blackberry had.  A couple of books that I wanted to read were available only as ebooks.  So, I gave the cell phone reading another try.  On the larger screen, not only was it bearable, but I found that I liked it.  And, now, several ebooks later, I’m a convert.  An ereader has rocketed to the top of my wish list, although I haven’t decided whether it will be a kindle or a nook, or something else entirely.
photo credit: anieto2k

Street Smarts

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Street Smarts: Beyond the Diploma
By: Jim Randel

Often, when we’ve “grown up” and graduated college, we all move on to our new lives as adults with the expectation that our schooling has given us everything we’ll need to be prepared for the wide world ahead of us.  And, just as often, we are disappointed.  While school has the advantage of preparing us for the work part of the world; we can all read, write, and do most arithmetic; we are usually very unprepared for the subtle nuances that take place that will give us a step up on the ladder of success.

Jim Randel, if you’re unfamiliar with him, is the author of the Skinny On series.  I’ve reviewed a few of those here before, which, I would guess, is why his company sent me a copy of this book.  (That’s my disclosure, folks.  I was sent a free copy of the book.)  What he’s done with both the Skinny On series and this new book, Street Smarts, is to take some very complex issues, and simplify them enough that you can get the basics without having to knock your head against the wall trying to understand them.  Street Smarts holds 125 lessons on how to better succeed in the real world.  Each lesson is short, to the point, and valuable.  There’s very little chaff to sort through, and it’s an easy and fast read with some rereading value.

One thing you won’t find inside it’s pages is explicit detail.  There is not, for instance, 20 pages on the mathematics behind the rule of 72.  There also is not 100 pages or more on the workings of a mortgage loan.  Each is it’s own lesson, and is two pages.  You’re not going to learn everything there is to know about any of the topics by reading this book.  What you will get is the highlights that will allow you to safely navigate the topic without causing yourself too much trouble.

The book is also paired with a website where they’ve been putting up regular fresh content.  It’s already got quite the archives of good tips and information.  You can visit it at TheStreetSmartBook.com.

This book would make a great gift for a newly graduated senior, of high school or college.