Kate's Reading Challenge Book 7: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street' by Jordan Belfort

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 7: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street' by Jordan Belfort

When I started reading ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ I could not put it down. Jordan Belfort’s tales from his life of wealth and abundance are almost unimaginable for average people. I really enjoyed most of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’; it did seem to drag on though. Typically books I read for my weekly reviews are under 500 pages on my iPad and this bad boy was over 800 pages. Despite being long the story continues to move and sometimes has to jump in time to keep everything moving. My only real beef is that the story could have been condensed more; some of the technical information could have been left out. I feel like I learned a lot about trading, Swiss Banking and the SEC but would rather have spent time hearing more about Jordan Belfort’s sexy escapades. I enjoy hearing the perspective of both Jordan Belfort ‘the Wolf’ and Jordan Belfort the loving father, sometimes it seems like his only redeeming quality is how much he loves his children (and how generous he was with the money to the people in his life).

Overall, I would recommend waiting for the movie if this book interests you. I am really excited to go see the film adaptation (I made a point to finish the book before seeing the movie). If you enjoy the film consider investing in reading the book, I am sure it goes into much more detail than the movie will. 

Here is the film adaptations official trailer.

Kate's Reading Challenge Book 6: ‘Debt-Free Forever: Take Control of Your Money and Your Life' by Gail Vaz-Oxlade

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. 

Kate Bruce, Lunchhour Refundable Queen

I am new to BC; I have lived here for about a month and a half now and some things are pretty different than my east coast home. In Nova Scotia my family is all about recycling, especially when it comes to refundables. Living with my boyfriend’s parents in Alberta it was pretty simple, everything went curbside and was sorted there. We never took the time to take them back ourselves. This kind of bothered me, every time I saw the wine bottles and drink cans go into the blue bin I thought of the small increment of change we could be saving for something… anything.

Now that we (my boyfriend and I) are out on our own, spreading our wings in the Kootenays I have once again become an avid recycling Queen. Why? Well, because every penny saved adds up (just ask Gail Vaz-Oxlade, her book coming up in Week 6 of my reading challenge is pushing me to be as financially responsible as possible). Also, the staff at Castlegar’s Return-It depot are avid Mountain FM listeners and I love going out and seeing the people who make it possible for me to pay my bills doing what I love.

I visited the Return-It depot on Columbia Ave. today on my lunch hour, right after my show at around 2:15pm. In heals and a dress, I was totally ignorant to the fact that here in BC you sort your own refundables. I stood looking at the sign for the longest time, dodging wasps and figuring it out for myself. I will admit, it would have been a pretty funny YouTube video; I looked totally clueless. After a while I figured it out, my sorting started to speed up and I moved the trays over to the counting counter (not sure how to describe that any better).

The best part came next, after the lovely lady working at the Depot counted my five trays of refundables she handed me a crisp $5.00 bill and two quarters. Not bad for something that takes just a minute of my time daily and a few minutes on my lunch break once a month. Straight into my Disney World fund it goes! Working my first real-world job I live on a pretty tight budget so I am constantly trying to find ways to get more out of my money.

I know you are thinking, lamest blog post ever Kate, everyone knows about returning bottles for cash. I know you know that I know that. Some people totally take this for granted, not only did I make a little bonus cash I helped out the environment. I learned a quick, easy and a little dirty lesson in plastics and materials and got to see support the people who make it possible to work at a job I love. Plus, plus, (a little dirty minus), plus and plus.

Seriously, if you don’t want your refundables you know where to find me between 10am-2pm everyday… but you would have to be pretty lazy to give that easy money!