3 of the best personal finance books that changed my outlook about money saving
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Personal finance has never been my strong suit.
I’ve always tried and had various extents of success after a budget audit and reform. It took a few personal finance books, finance apps and many other aids for me to get really focused on how to make a budget.
Every time I slipped up, I would get so frustrated about falling off the wagon. My debt was, and still is sometimes, overwhelming to say the least. These personal finance books have helped me find inspiration about money saving and to clear away any uncertain cobwebs that were hiding in the back of my mind about my ability to save money and debt pay off.
These personal finance books have taken me through the process of understanding, motivation and having a game-plan in place concerning my debt and finances. If you or your business are wondering how to approach debt payoff or budgeting, follow these three personal finance books in order. Know your debt, be inspired to get rid of it, and see the potential ways you can diminish it once and for all.
This personal finance book is self-proclaimed bathroom reading. It’s great reading when you want to know enough about something but don’t have a lot of time.
I would recommend this personal finance book to professionals who are just starting out. Broke Millennial allows you to understand everything you might have to consider for your personal finances. It ranges from applying for loans, credit building, how to budget, and much more.
Erin Lowry doesn’t flamboyantly flaunt the language surrounding personal finances. Since she started her personal finance blog, she uses short and to the point jargon in her writing to get the point across. You’re bound to find some great anecdotes and scenarios that you should be able to relate to pretty easily.
This is also one of the best personal finance books to recommend to recent graduates, both of the high school and college variety. You’re never too young to really learn about or discuss your personal finances with a mentor or guardian. A lot of people aren’t able to talk about personal finances and Lowry addresses this issue as well as telling you how to handle the money yourself.
I had (and still am!) figuring out what to do about my debt payoff strategy. It can be very overwhelming when you’re just starting off. Broke Millennial gives you digestible bits of information that you can choose from at your own pace.
Don’t understand how your student loan repayment plan works? Find more information in Chapter 9.
Getting married but haven’t broken the news to your partner that your drowning in debt? That’ll be in Chapter 12.
Don’t know where you are in your personal finances? Find out how you stack up in Chapter 3 with an easy quiz.
This book has something for everyone, no matter where you on your financial journey.
If you are fan of Broke Millennial, try out Erin Lowry’s other works:
Read more of Erin Lowry’s blog at: https://brokemillennial.com/.
This personal finance book gave me a good kick in the pants when it came to starting my own business. I finally realized my own aspirations were larger than my 9-to-5. I knew I wanted, even needed, more money but didn’t know how to go about it. I was scared and uncertain about how to go about starting a business or starting to freelance. And I was mainly scared due to being a failure.
Jen Sincero helped me understand my own feelings about money saving and how my ability to change those feelings could affect my earning potential.
Money tends to be a complicated topic in any relationship. But in Sincero’s work, I learned to tackle money as the relationship. If money is avoiding you, you need to sit down and determine why.
One of the best pieces of advice I found in You are a Badass at Making Money was writing a letter to money. Write about your feelings as if money were a person. Don’t leave anything out. My guess is you’ll have about a page worth of feelings that you can delve into further. And my recommendation: Write your letter, do not type it. Writing helps you slow your thoughts and consider your word choices more effectively.
You are a Badass at Making Money also gives you many ways to keep motivated and plenty of exercises to complete. You’re bound to feel more accomplished and motivated to find your money where you need it.
Sincero also makes this read very easy and relatable. Supplied with stories from her own relationship with money, as well as some of her friends and colleagues, she doesn’t limit what you can do or accomplish with your money, only that you can reach it.
The one tricky subject that Sincero briefly addresses in You are a Badass at Making Money is debt and debt payoff. For Sincero, she decided to go into debt to find more money. She explains and shows many examples that did not delve into that path, but many of her personal finance solutions revolved around how she went into debt to potentially make more money than what she was making.
She does acknowledge this avenue is not right for everyone but some of her alternative examples in this personal finance book that she provides are also fairly risky. Putting money into something is always risky and, she even acknowledges, that her examples are not extensive in how you come up with that money.
If you are a fan of You are a Badass at Making Money, try out Jen Sincero’s other works:
I like to spend money. I try to make the most of the money I have but it can sometimes come up short. I picked up The Spender’s Guide to Debt-Free Living when I first wanted to start my debt payoff plan. My relationship with money has fluctuated over time in regards to spending, but Anna Newell Jones gets very personal about her own journey.
Newell Jones, like Lowry, is a personal finance blogger. Her book goes into more detail about doing a spending-fast with your finances for debt payoff and money saving.
Compared to my other authors, Newell Jones focuses solely on how to budget and your debt payoff. Using examples from her and her husband’s debt, debt payoff and spending habits, she shows by example how the spending fast works. She doesn’t necessarily cut out all of her spending, but rather modifies it and directs it in a funnel rather than as an explosion.
The Spender’s Guide to Debt-Free Living focuses on how to budget. Like I mention in 5 of the best personal finance apps on my iPhone, I might have been fixing my debt problem, but I wasn’t fixing my spending problem. This book helps address many problems that stem from that.
The book starts you out by having you total up all your debt. Every last dollar. It can be a scary amount. An overwhelming one. But then it starts cutting that debt up into easy-to-eat pieces.
The debt payoff will still be just as large, but you are bound to process it on your own terms how to break it down. You’ll be able to see where you focus your money. You’ll be able to see what you need to limit your spending on without denying yourself luxuries in life. You might not be able to splurge on those luxuries as much, but you will still be able to enjoy them.
The Spender’s Guide to Debt-Free Living does talk about both the Spending Fast, the relationships with others during the Fast, and how you can potentially earn money during the fast. This personal finance book focuses on finding frugal/free alternative activites for you to do compared to spending money.
Newell Jones does talk about the business of saving money however. One of the most prominent examples in this personal finance book is how she went about buying business cards. Instead of using the same business cards, Newell Jones continuously made new and different business cards. This is a simple branding fix that could potentially help your own business. Keeping a consistent image for your brand allows you the chance to spend less money when you are promoting your services or products to your customers.
Read more of Anna Newell Jones’ blog at: https://andthenwesaved.com/blog/.
Each personal finance book can be read as its own entity but they can also be read as a progression. Learn what debt is and how to have healthy relationship with money. Then, learn to embrace it and find ways to make it a constant in your life. Lastly, read about how to diminish or how to start your debt payoff strategy.
Everyone is one their own journey regarding their personal finances. Learn how to make yours work for you.
Do you have any personal finance books that you’d recommend to others? Let me know in the comments below!
