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The Total Money Makeover, A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness (Hardcover)
by Dave Ramsey
| Category:
Personal finance, Investing, Wealth management, Self help |
| Market price: ¥ 288.00
MSL price:
¥ 268.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A witty, entertaining, and motivational wealth guide for the financially challenged. |
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Author: Dave Ramsey
Publisher: Thomas Nelson Books
Pub. in: September, 2003
ISBN: 0785263268
Pages: 224
Measurements: 9.4 x 7.9 x 0.9 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00073
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- Awards & Credential -
From one of America’s favorite finance coaches, this book is a runaway New York Times Bestseller, ranking #405 in books on Amazon.com as of December 19, 2006. |
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- MSL Picks -
Dave Ramsey recommends saving up for an Emergency Fund before you pay off all of your debt. The purpose of the Emergency Fund is to take a lot of the stress off you and your family by being prepared for the unexpected. Since paying off all of your debt can take years, if not a decade, it makes more sense to save up for the Emergency Fund first so that you will be prepared if someone becomes unexpectedly ill or there is a car accident or the corporation you work for fires your entire division. If you have prepared for such an event, then it won't destroy you and you won't end up defaulting on your mortgage or being forced into bankruptcy. Maybe Ralph needs to re-read the book.
While it is true that the essential ideas of the book should be common sense, he offers a lot of strategies for achieving those goals for people who are overwhelmed and feeling hopeless under their burden of debt. Many people do not know things like how to legally handle debt collection agencies or how to challenge items that you find on your credit report. This can be valuable information. Before reading this book I never looked at an amortization table before and realized how we could be living in a much larger house in 10 years by moving into a smaller house now - and that isn't commonly known! That alone will save us at least $100k in mortgage interest in the next 20 years - making the $20 for the book well worth it! (From quoting an American reader)
Target readers:
Managers, entrepreneurs, professionals, MBAs, and all the people who want to achieve personal finance fitness
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Dave Ramsey is a well known radio talk-show host and the bestselling author of Financial Peace.
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From Publisher
Respected financial expert Dave Ramsey offers a comprehensive plan for getting out of debt and achieving financial health. Against a playful backdrop of fitness terminology, Dave gives solid, hard-hitting advice needed to make your goals a reality. Filled with both the "hope" and the "how-to," The Total Money Makeover includes:
- Useful worksheets and forms
- Readable and informative charts and graphs
- The four factors that keep people from getting in shape financially
- Photos and amazing stories from people who have succeeded following The Total Money Makeover plan
The Total Money Makeover is a necessity for everyone in need of a financial makeover. Readers will learn to live by the The Total Money Makeover motto: "If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else."
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The Total Money Makeover Challenge
“As lost as a ball in tall weeds!” That is exactly how I felt. Although it is 15 years ago, I can still taste the emotion as if it were yesterday. Out of control, lost, no sense of power, I felt dread creep across the room like the afternoon shadows on a cold winter’s day. Sitting again at the kitchen table with too much month left at the end of money, I was not having fun. This “adult” stuff where a wife looks to you to provide and kids expect to be fed and kept warm was not exactly working. I didn’t feel like some powerful adult; instead, there was a little boy inside me who was very afraid – afraid of this month’s bills, afraid of this month’s mortgage, and absolutely terrified when I considered the future. How was I to send kids to colleges, retire, enjoy life, and not live at the edge of money worries?
The “Normal” American Family
It seemed every month that I sat at the same table with the same worries, fears, and problems. I had too much debt, too little savings, and no sense of control over my life. No matter how hard I worked, it seemed I couldn’t win. I was to forever to be slave to some banker, to the government, and to the “needs” of my family. When Sharon and I “talked” about money, we ended up in a fight, leaving her feeling afraid and me feeling inadequate. The next car purchase, the next house, the kids’ college - our entire future seemed out of reach.
I didn’t need a get-rich-quick guy to pump me up and tell me to be positive. I didn’t need a secret formula to riches. I wasn’t afraid of hard work or sacrifice. I didn’t want to “feel” my way into being “positive”. I was positive of only one thing: I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was sitting down to “do the bills” and having a heaviness come over me. The hopelessness was overwhelming. I feel like a gerbil in the wheel – run, run, run, no traction, no ground covered; maybe life is just a financial illusion. All the money came in, all the money went out, and only the name changed to protect the innocent. I owe, I owe, so off to work to go. You know the drills and all the clichés that go with the drill.
Oh,. some months everything seemed to work, and I thought maybe we were going to be okay. I could tell myself then, ”Oh, well, this is how everyone lives.” Those times offered enough wiggle room that I could continue to lie to myself that we were making headway, but deep down, I knew we weren’t.
I Did It My Way and My Way Wasn’t Working
ENOUGH, THIS STINKS! I finally decided that this nonplan wasn’t working. If you have ever had any of those feelings, you’re going to love this book, and, more important, you will love your Total Money Makeover.
Fifteen years ago, my wife, Sharon and I went broke. We lost everything due to my stupidity in handling money, or not handling it, as the case may be. Hitting bottom and hitting it hard was the worst thing that ever happened to me and the best thing that ever happened to me.
We started with nothing, but by the time I was twenty-six years old, we held real estate worth over $4 million. I was good at real estate, but I was better at borrowing money. Even though I had become a millionaire, I have built a house of cards. The short version of the story is that we went through financial hell and lost everything over a 3 year period of time. We were sued, foreclosed on and finally with a brand new baby and a toddler, we were bankrupt. Scared doesn’t begin to cover it, Crushed comes close, but we held on to each other and decided we needed a change.
So after losing everything, I went on a quest, quest to find out how money really works, how I could get control of it, and how I could have confidence in handling it. I read everything I could get my hands on. That quest led me to a really, really uncomfortable place – my mirror. I came to realize that my money problems, worries, and shortages largely began and ended with the person in my mirror. I realized also that if I could learn to manage the character I shaved with every morning, I could win at money. That quest, the one that ended with me staring at myself in the mirror, led me on a new journey over the last fifteen years: the journey of helping others, literally millions of others, take that same quest to the mirror. Live Events, Financial Peace University, The Dave Ramsey Show (talk radio), and The New York Times bestsellers Financial Peace and More Than Enough have enabled to tell millions of Americans what I have learned – the hard way – about money.
The Big Challenge: Find a Mirror
I have a challenge for you. Are you ready to take on the guy or gal in the mirror? If you are, you are ready to win. I rediscovered God’s and Grandma’s simple way of handling money. Wealth building isn’t a rocket science, which is a good thing for me (and probably you). Winning at money is 80% behavior and 20% head knowledge. What to do isn’t a problem, doing it is. Most of us know what to do, but we just don’t do it. If I can control the guy in the mirror, I can be skinny and rich. We will let other books work on the skinny, and I will help you with the rich part. No, there are no secrets, and yes, this will be very hard. Hey, if it is easy, every moron walking around would be easy.
So my Total Money Makeover begins with a challenge. The challenge is you. You are the problem with your money. The financial channel or some tape sets aren’t your answers, you are. You are the king of your future, and I have a plan. The Total Money Makeover plan isn’t a theory. It works every single time. It works because it is simple. It works because it gets to the heart of your money problems: you. It is based on a series of prices that must be paid to win. All winners pay a price to win. Some losers pay a price and never win, and that is because they didn’t have the benefit of a proven plan for financial fitness.
Ordinary People
Tens of thousands of ordinary people have used the system in this book to get out of debt, regain control, and build wealth. I’ve scattered their stories throughout the book, and I’ve included several more at the back of the book. If at any point during your makeover you are tempted to quit or you just need a little encouragement, read one of these stories. These people have sacrificed for a short period of time so they will never have to sacrifice again.
If you looking for a roadmap to get you home, you’ve found it. If you are looking for something easy or fast, you have the wrong book. If you are looking for a book to help you pass your CPA exam in the area of financial knowledge, you have the wrong book. If you are looking for a writer who has intricate academic theories (which don’t work in real world), you’ve got the wrong guy. I have many of the academic pedigrees, but I ended up broke. I have actually become a millionaire from nothing. The first time I was in my 20s, the money was in real estate, and I lost that due to my stupidity; the second time I was not yet forty, but I did the money thing right that time, and I’m debt-free.
I often hear about broke finance professors who bemoan that I am way too simple, or as an e-mailer told me on The Dave Ramsey Show one day, “You’re a one-trick pony.” To those of you who say you have great but unexecuted plans, I say, “Prove it. I have.” I like the way I built wealth better than the way you haven’t. You will meet people, educated and uneducated, throughout this book who have won, or begun to win, with money for the first time in their lives. The Total Money Makeover works!
The Total Money Makeover Motto
This plan works, but it will cost you. It will teach you to say new words, like “no.” In short, your Total Money Makeover will be a personal money makeover where you learn this motto: “IF YOU WILL LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE, LATER YOU CAN LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE.” This is the motto of your Total Money Makeover. It’s my way of reminding you that if you make the sacrifices now that most people aren’t willing to make, later on you will live as those folks who will never be able to live. You will notice this motto through the book, even across the bottom of the pages. I’m sorry there isn’t an easier path to feature in the motto, but the good thing about this one is it works. You can repeat this motto to yourself as you pass up a purchase in order to hit your goals. When you work late and are tired, you can say the motto to yourself. Of course, this isn’t a magic formula; I’m not into that. But it does remind you that you will win, and the payoff will be worth the cost. (From Chapter One)
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| View all 17 comments |
Billy F. Gibbons (ZZTOP), USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
Been there and back. Here is some trusty and valued input to get your mind and your money on the good foot. Dave Ramsey tells it like it is. (Billy F. Gibbons of ZZTOP) |
Mary Whaley, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
"Winning at money is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent head knowledge." So states Ramsey, author and radio show host, offering a comprehensive plan to get out of debt and achieve financial fitness. Our current financial position represents the sum total of the decisions we've made to this point, he tells us, and we must take personal responsibility for our financial problems. His seven-step plan includes paying off all debts except the home mortgage at an accelerated speed, creating a financial safety net that covers three to six months' expenses, investing 15 percent of income in a retirement fund, and saving for children's college expenses. He effectively shows how regular people can rid themselves of debt and grow their wealth using current income. While many of Ramsey's concepts are not new, his simple approach and client testimonials will resonate with a broad range of library patrons. This is important information in a society buried in debt, with unprecedented numbers of people facing bankruptcy. |
A reader, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
The Total Money Makeover is written in the same entertaining and witty style Dave Ramsey uses on his talk show. I equate this book to a sensible diet and exercise book. We all know the principles, but sometimes need a reminder and some motivation. This book does just that. It reminds us of the principles our grandparents used when managing their money, "If I don't have the cash, I'll pass."
I, like many Americans, was living paycheck to paycheck with car payments and credit card debt. After reading The Total Money Makeover one month ago, I am on my way to getting out from under this heavy blanket of debt. Did I already know credit card debt was bad? Yes, but it wasn't until reading the words of wisdom and testimonials in this book did I begin to do something about it. I've performed my "Plastectomy" (cut up credit card plastic) and have a solid game plan for financial freedom.
I recommend this book to anyone who lives paycheck to paycheck or "Has too much month left at the end of the money."
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K. Stenger, USA
<2006-12-21 00:00>
Here's the reason I bought this book: I sat in the bookstore for about an hour skimming through several personal finance books looking for one that would answer my question: "I have debt and I have very little savings; when do I start saving to buy a house?"
This book was the only book to answer this. (The answer is after you've paid off all of your debt and saved up 3-6 mos. emergency cash, essentially baby step 3b.) All the other books had plenty of advice about credit scores and rapid debt repayment and Roth IRAs and private mortgage insurance blah blah blah but none of them had any advice for someone who didn't already have a mortgage.
I think the first half of the book where Ramsey discusses debt myths was relatively enlightening. Common sense is not as common as you think, and there were several "myths" that I was brainwashed to believe at a young age.
Ramsey's target audience is not people who read finance books. It's people who only read their bank statements once a month and really need a "Makeover." I think this should be the first personal finance book anyone reads.
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