All tagged book summary
“Negotiation is not an act of battle, but a process of discovery.”
This month’s book is all about negotiations. It’s called “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if your life depended on it” by Chris Voss. Chris Voss is a former FBI kidnapping negotiator. He shares nine key strategies hat he and his colleagues learned and use to help people in very risky situations. Here are the chapters in the book which correspond to the nine tested strategies.
This month’s book is The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe by Josh Mitchell. It was written by a reporter from the Wall Street Journal who has years of experience writing about the economy and higher education.
The book covers the history of student loans and the creation of the college industrial complex. I didn’t know much about how the idea of student loans came about so the book was an insightful look at the players that eventually created a big business that impacted most of our lives.
“...the currency of the South was the slave”
This month’s book is “The Color of Money - Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap” by Mehrsa Baradaran. It covers the history of Black banking and the role of racism in the economic independence of the Black community.
Today, on every socioeconomic level, Blacks have significantly less wealth than whites. The book explains how the racial wealth gap was created that continues to affect millions of families in the United States. There were also many laws and policies like the GI Bill, the Homestead Act and the FHA that denied the Black community the opportunity to advance and economically prosper.
Put a value on what you do and do not let anyone to undervalue you."
The last book of the year in the Book of the Month Series is Suze Orman’s Women and Money: Be Strong, Be Smart, Be Secure. I’m a fan of Suze Orman. It was her book Young, Fabulous and Broke that actually started my FI journey many years before FI was even a term for the mainstream.
The first version of this book was published back in 2007. I remember reading it, but at that point in time, I was in a completely different mindset and I glossed over most of the topics. Fast forward to 2019 and I now see many of the topics having some relevance in my life.
This month’s book is The Dumb Things Smart People Do With Their Money by Jill Schlesinger. Each chapter of the book is a topic on the dumb things smart people do with their topic. I appreciate the book for the straightforward way the author described the Dumb Things. The topics are all worth reviewing and revisiting. It’s especially important if you are busy building wealth or hitting that FI number that there’s other things we all need to look at to protect our wealth and the security of our loved ones.
"No man should escape our universities without knowing how little he knows."
This month’s book is all about college since October is FAFSA month. This book, It’s the Student, Not the College, by Kristin M. White, an educational consultant is a well-thought out book on the realities of college, of the college admission process, the future of college and what students should do in order to fully become successful in college and all future endeavors. I’ll break down a few of the sections to give you a sense of what’s in it, but for $10, this book will probably be the best investment you will make for yourself and your child.
This post is part of the #MommyMoney Series. A series that explores money, motherhood and financial independence. The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are (Still) Going Broke is written by Elizabeth Warren with her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi. This month’s book is not your typical personal finance book. It doesn’t espouse the same list of recommendations on how to save, what accounts to open, etc. Instead, it is a well researched book about the American family, its American dream and challenges of being middle class in the current financial and government system.
Women are very clear about what we want from our money. We want to satisfy our needs for safety and security.
This month’s book is Women with Money: The Judgement Free Guide to Creating the Joyful, Less Stressed, Purposeful (and Yes, Rich) Life You Deserve by Jean Chatzky.
You, right now, have a choice: you can let money control and define your life or you can control it. - Erin Lowry, Broke Millennial
This month’s book is Broke Millennial by Erin Lowry. You can read more about Erin on her blog, brokemillenial.com.
The title of the book can peg it as a book specifically for Millennials, but I disagree and encourage you to pick it up if you are looking to up your financial knowledge no matter what age you are. It’s not a book on investing or retirement, which I think makes it better. It’s a comprehensive on the basics of money mindset, credit, student loans and debt. The content in this book provides a good foundation for better money management and eventual wealth creation.
Social Security was never intended to be a retirement program. It was merely insurance against living too long.
This month’s book review and notes are from The Power of Zero - How to Get To the 0% Tax Bracket and Transform Your Retirement. Learn more about David McKnight over davidmcknight.com and listen to his podcast via YouTube. Fitting since we are just about to close out tax season. Perhaps, the lessons in this book will change the way you manage your money to be more tax efficient now and always.
When the opportunity to sign-up to preview Grant Sabatier’s new book Financial Freedom: A Proven Path to All the Money You Will Ever Need came up, I jumped at the chance and am so glad I did. It is jam packed with actionable insights. More importantly, it gives you a blueprint of how to achieve Financial Independence early on. There’s also an important question that Grant addresses “Why do you want to retire early?” Retirement while your fully financial independent is all about options and its all about choices.
“They sit mesmerized before advertising campaigns telling them to buy trifles they don’t need using debt they can’t repay.”
In “Financially Stupid People are Everywhere: Don’t Be One of Them,” Jason Kelly opens your eyes to the debt driven world we live in and what you’re up against in society. He posits the only way to truly safeguard your own well being is to look after yourself. Provide security and ensure your freedom by following the 4 financial rules that will keep you from being financially stupid.
"Waste lies in not in the number of possessions, but in the failure to enjoy them."
I had the chance to pick up Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. They are thought to be the ones that coined the term "FIRE" A writer from a FI group in NYC brought the book and passed it around. It didn't click to me that this was the book. I had it on my reading list and bumped it up so that I could review it earlier. I'm so surprised I hadn't come across it earlier in all of my reading, but here we are and it seems like everything about the FI concept is falling into place for me.
