Book Reviews Archives

Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old? The Path of Purposeful Aging

The following is reprinted from Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old?: The Path of Purposeful Aging with permission of Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Copyright © 2021 by Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro. This is a book by two old friends who have known each other for more than half of their lives. It is a book about a subject of which no one can claim absolute expertise, but which each of us learns a little bit more about every day. It is a book whose purpose is purpose. It is a book about how to grow old, with the emphasis on “grow.” Our focus is on not just getter older, but on how to grow as … Read more

Book Review – Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance by Tim Maurer

by Hank Coleman

Personal finance shouldn’t be hard. We tend to make it harder than it needs to be. We get scared to make a decision for fear that we will do something wrong and make irrevocable errors.

In “Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance” by Tim Maurer, the author breaks personal finance down into its simplest form. Tim Maurer walks the reader through his or her personal finance choices. The book makes people look at the “why” of their personal finances and money decisions.

Why do we make the financial choices that we make? What motivates us to spend or save money? These questions and much more are discussed in detail in the book.

Tim Maurer makes a statement in the beginning on the book that is very poignant. He says, “Personal finance is more personal than finance.” And, a truer statement has never been said. It is personal, and that’s what “Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance” is all about.

What choices are you making and why? What choices should you make about your finances and why? Tim Maurer breaks it down in clear, easy to read and practical advice.

Simple Money: A No-Nonsense Guide to Personal Finance Price: $10.87 Full Disclosure: We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. Last Updated: 10/24/2018

Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance

Many personal finance books try to teach you about money. Other books look to help you find your purpose and how money fits into that goal. It’s rare that a book tackles both and tackles them well. Dave Ramsey’s “The Total Money Makeover” is one. And, Tim Maurer’s book, Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance is another.

I can see many similarities between the two books and their philosophies. So, if you like Dave Ramsey, I think that you will really enjoy “Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance”.

The Five Parts of “Simple Money”

“Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance” is broken down into five sections that make this book a great tool for people looking to take control over their finances.

Part 1 – Planning for Life

Part 2 – Planning for Today

Part 3 – Planning for the Inevitable

Part 4 – Planning for the Unexpected

Part 5 – Planning for Action

Part 1 – Planning for Life

Not only is Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance easy to read, but it also has great graphs, charts, and illustrations to make the point hit home with the reader.

Part one is a great opening to the book that sets the stage. It walks the readers through goal setting and how to accomplish some of the many financial tasks that you will find throughout the book. Like Dave Ramsey’s book, you’ll also find chapters in this section that talk about your values and your life’s calling and how they intertwine into your finances.

Part 2 – Planning for Today

Part two talks about where you currently stand. It discusses your current financial situation and asks you to take a good, hard look at your finances. You have to know where you are starting from in order to improve.

How much debt to you have? What are the different types of debt that you have? How much are you investing? Do you have your financial priorities straight?

These are all things that you will find in this section. It sets that stage and gets the ball rolling for the rest of the book and the tools and techniques that you will need to implement.

Book Review: The Psychology Of Wealth By Dr. Charles Richards

by Hank Coleman

Dr. Charles Richards, Ph.D. has written, The Psychology of Wealth, about how we think and feel about our money and how we interact with it. Why can you find a wealthy couple that has a net worth of over $1 million who still live paycheck to paycheck with no savings? Why are there middle class Americans earning $30,000 who have a fully funded emergency fund, taking family vacations, saving for an early retirement, and living their lives carefree of money worries? What is the difference between these types of people and how they handle their money? Why do we all think and feel differently about our money and how we interact with it? Dr. Charles Richards, Ph.D. has tried to … Read more

Rigged Money by Lee Munson – Book Review

by Hank Coleman

I was recently given the opportunity to review the book “Rigged Money: Beating Wall Street At Its Own Game” by Lee Munson. As you can probably tell by the book’s title, Lee Munson makes his case that the stock market is a rigged game set up for institutional investors and the fat cats on Wall Street. Lee Munson asserts that Wall Street is rigged to ensure that individual investors on Main Street are kept in the dark to continue to feed the system. Rigged Money includes a great combination of anecdotes and raw financial data to back up Lee Munson’s claims. Rigged Money by Lee Munson Rigged Money is a book that tries to convince you that almost everything that … Read more

Book Review – The Wealth Cure by Hill Harper

by Hank Coleman

Recently, I was given a copy of the book, The Wealth Cure: Putting Money In Its Place, by Hill Harper to read. You probably recognize Hill Harper and his picture on the cover of the book. He is one of the lead actors on the television show, CSI: NY.

Initially, when I saw the book, I was very curious to find out what Mr. Harper had to say about finances, but I quickly found out that he is quite an accomplished man off the silver screen too.

Not only has Hill Harper written three other New York Times bestsellers, he is also a graduate of Brown University where he earned his undergraduate degree, but he also holds a Masters Degree from the Kennedy School of Government and his law degree from Harvard Law School.

So, you may be asking, with all of those accolades, why Harper would write a book about personal finance. It is rather quite fundamental. He was curious about the subject, and as many people know, one of the best ways to learn is to teach. And, that is where The Wealth Cure by Hill Harper started to take its shape. What is unique about this book is the twists and turns that it took Hill Harper right before he started and during the writing of The Wealth Cure.

Hill Harper was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. It was during this time in his life that he started reexamining his own life. And, of course, finances and how we all interact with our money was at the top of the list to be examined.

The Sections Of The Wealth Cure By Hill Harper

The Wealth Cure is cleverly broken down into five main sections that mirror up nicely towards how someone not only fights a potentially deadly disease but also how you can tackle many of life’s problems…money problems included.

Part One – The Diagnosis

The Wealth Cure starts out with Harper Hill’s story. Not only does it chronicle how he found out he had thyroid cancer, but it also shows why he started thinking about writing a book about people’s finances in the first place. He was disillusioned by how he has seen money being spent and the negative affect it can have one people.