One of my goals I set for myself on my twenty-fourth birthday was reading a book a week. I am a little behind, moving twice and finishing school put a damper on my plan. To help motivate myself to finish books on time every week my new plan is to share my latest read with you on my blog. I will read anything and everything and I would love your suggestions, feel free to email them to me at kate@mountainfm.net.
Book 6: ‘Debt-Free Forever: Take Control of Your Money and Your Life' by Gail Vaz-Oxlade
Gail Vaz-Oxlade is the hard-nosed penny-pinching Canadian
finance guru that hosts some of the hottest Canadian finance television reality
shows. She caught my eye with her shows this spring and her insightful
appearances on CBC news advising average Canadians on their finances.
I am not in crazy debt, I am actually in a pretty good place
for being a twenty-something new grad working in my first professional job; but
I chose this book because I want to be pro-active about my finances and not end
up in the situation many Canadians find themselves in with dangerous credit
cards.
I really do not think that they spend enough talking about
personal finances and credit in school. I think you should have to take a
course on using credit before receiving things like credit cards, you have to
take driving tests and lessons; why a not financial test to prove you know how
to use credit responsibly.
I chose ‘Debt-Free Forever’ because I wanted to learn the
basics on personal finance. I wanted to be able to craft a responsible budget,
begin an emergency fund, start a big expense savings account and start thinking
about the future by saving for retirement (etc.). I ended up getting so much
more out of this book than what I originally intended, I will be keeping it
around for reference for the rest of my life.
If you are like me and pretty green to the world of
finances, this book is for you; it is a pretty easy read but Gail still gets
the important details across and manages to take a hard line on important
issues. She does not allow excuses or whining, with all her experience it is
like she can sense the moments where you want to fight her advise; at these
points in the book she kindly reminds you to think of the goal and work hard
towards it.
I think this is the perfect book for anyone, if I had a
child I would give it to them around their final year of high school. Easy
steps to get them started (without knowing it) are getting them to set
milestones and goals. If you start your kids with in this process it will not
be alien to them when they need to them. Even the smallest steps, like saving
for the newest want will put them (or you) in the right direction to getting to
the goal.
The biggest thing, once you have gotten past spending every
dollar you earn each paycheck is to follow Gail’s mantra, “plan like a
pessimist, so you can live like an optimist.”
I like to revert to the wise words of Kanye on this front, “Whether you broke or rich you gotta get this. Havin money's not everything not havin it
is.”
A seriously good read. It is not
an adventure that whisks you away to another time or place; it is not a lusty
romance or a page-turner thriller that will stimulate your fantasies. ‘Debt-Free
Forever: Take Control of Your Money and Your Life' is a book that will allow to
have the freedom to have adventures of your own, a financially responsible
relationship and a live in the moment life rather than a life filled with
regretful spending and the stress of bills piling up.
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