personal finance books

The Road Out of Debt: Bankruptcy and Other Solutions to Your Financial Problems by Joan N. Feeney and Theodore W. Connolly

You've read stories of people becoming debt-free. In personal-finance blogs, the stories are always ones of debt problems overcome through hard work and frugality. Sadly, in the real world, that doesn't always work. For reasons like illness, divorce, job loss, economic downturn, business failure, natural disaster, war — some debts entered into in good faith simply cannot be paid back. (See also: CitiMortgage Told Me to Default on My Loan)

Feeney and Connolly's new book is about how to find the dividing line between these cases, and what to do once you know which side you’re on.

Money-Management Skills

The authors provide a good short course in money management much like you’d find in any personal finance book or blog — how to budget, how to cut expenses, and how to take control of your finances. Then the book starts talking about debt — mainly about the many, many ways to use debt unwisely. In particular, they’ve got a great chapter on the sort of debt that people with financial troubles turn to in a usually futile effort to stave off financial catastrophe for one more month — payday loans, car title loans, pawn shops, loan sharks, etc.

Even before that, they provide some basic advice on negotiating with your creditors. Especially in the world of finance as it is today, there are plenty of people who could actually fulfill their obligations — except that the creditors have written rules that let them lard up a debtor’s obligations with late fees and penalty interest rates. A knowledgeable debtor with good negotiating skills can often cut through those problems and get their obligations settled reasonably cheaply.

One bit in that section that I particularly like is on the psychology of debt collectors: Some will browbeat you, some will humiliate you, some will pretend to be your friend — but however they act, they’re all just trying to get as much money from you as possible. They don’t care what other debts you have or whether you can support your family. If you don’t understand this — if you allow yourself to imagine that the ones who act like friends are actually friendly — you’re going to be less successful in your negotiations. (I talk about the same psychological issues in my post Don’t Treat Businesses Like People.)

The authors provide some useful advice on seeking help (credit counselors and the like) if your financial problems are beyond what you can manage with those basic skills — and about avoiding the scams that often masquerade as help for people with debt troubles.

Sometimes, even with help, debt problems cannot be overcome. Specifically, if you can’t cover your minimum expenses plus interest on your debts and have money left over to pay down the principle on your debts, then you're over the line. Once you're in that situation, your financial situation can only get worse — your debt burden will rise every month, even if you don't borrow any more money.

When to Consider Bankruptcy

If you could support yourself — pay for your family’s shelter, food, and clothing — except that other obligations drain away more than all the rest of your money, then it’s time to consider bankruptcy.

Even if it’s time to consider bankruptcy, it may not be the best choice. Some obligations (child support, student loans) cannot be wiped out in bankruptcy. Alternatively, if you can’t even afford the necessities, then your household is not a viable economic unit and bankruptcy won’t help.

The core of the book is the information you need to figure whether bankruptcy is worth considering — and the information to consider it and make an informed decision.

This post is from staff writer April Dykman.

Last year I wrote about the stereotypes perpetuated by many personal finance books written for women, especially that women like to “shop till they drop.”

As I mentioned in the article, a Consumer Expenditure Survey showed that women and men spend the same amount of money, just on different items. Women spend more on clothing and men spend more on restaurants, gadgets, and transportation. Also, a Stanford University study found that incidents of compulsive shopping were almost the same among men and women (6% for women, 5.5% for men).

But where women are actually falling behind is retirement. Women earn less over their lifetimes and live longer, so I wondered why some of these personal finance books for women were focusing on a stereotype that women have a problem with overspending instead of on serious, documented issues like retirement readiness?

This isn’t to say that there aren’t any good money books for women out there. I fully admit that I haven’t explored genre myself because the cutesy titles and pink cover art on some of the books was enough to put me off of it entirely. But after writing that GRS post, a couple of female authors contacted me to ask if I would be interested in reading their personal finance books. I figured, why not? I’m complaining about the genre, so let’s explore it and see what’s out there.

The Savvy Life Philosophy

The first book to arrive in my mailbox was Living the Savvy Life: The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Smart Spending and Rich Living by Melissa Tosetti and Kevin Gibbons, who also run The Savvy Life online magazine.

Living the Savvy Life focuses on finding balance, not becoming a tightwad or cheapskate. The philosophy isn’t anything new for most long time GRS readers: “Save money on the things that aren’t as important to you so you can afford to spend money on the things that are important to you.” The writers break this down into the following six manageable savvy habits:

1. Pay yourself first. Save 20% of your income (15% for retirement and 5% for emergency savings) and enjoy the rest.




2. Track your spending. The authors use an Excel spreadsheet, but later go into detail about other ways to track spending.




3. Pay all of your bills on payday. This ensures you’ll have the money to pay your bills, eliminates late fees, and creates a routine that gives you more control over your finances. They even recommend filling up your car with gas and purchasing your groceries as close to payday as possible.




4. Set financial goals. What big-ticket items are in your future? Research the actual cost, create a visual reminder, and open a savings account dedicated to your goal. Set a realistic date for achieving it.




5. Know when to invest and when to bargain shop. Before you buy something, consider what you need it for and how long it will last.




6. Spend money on the things you truly want. Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between what you want and what advertisements tell you you should want. As you approach the checkout counter, no matter what type of store you’re in, take a look at the items in your hand or in your cart and ask yourself if they are things you intended to purchase before you came in the store and whether you really want them.

The next chapter, titled “You Can Afford It”, was one of my favorite parts of the book. Tosetti and Gibbons write:

“Stop saying you ‘can’t afford it.’ The fact is that you can. If you made more money, you could. If you didn’t have a car payment, you could. If your mortgage was lower, you could. There may be caveats, but you can afford anything! Being able to afford what you want is about choices. Whether that choice involves doing something to make more money or lowering your cost of living, you chose to work in a career earning your current salary. You chose to buy the car you drive. You chose to live in your current home. The point is that you are in charge of your money. Money in and money out—you make the decisions.“

The authors go on to give several case studies of people who improved their salary, increased their income in other ways, focused their spending, and changed their attitudes about money.

In the next several chapters they break down spending categories—home, entertainment, wardrobe, beauty, food—to help you decide how important they are in your life (if at all) and offer money-saving ideas. The last eight chapters are dedicated to more personal finance information, such as organizing your finances, ways to pay down debt, an explanation of compound interest, how to use credit responsibly, and other financial rules of thumb. There also is an exercise to help you determine your ultimate goals in life, create a plan to reach them, as well as tips to stay motivated during your journey.

Recommended, with reservations

All in all, I like this book. It presents personal finance in terms of lifestyle decisions, which makes it easier to understand and more practical. Several of the examples from the authors’ own lives sounded familiar to my own financial journey. For example, they write that their trip to Disney World was a powerful lesson on how they could focus their spending to do the things that were really important to them. For me, my trip to Italy was what made me think hard about how I was spending my money—I’d been bitten by the travel bug.

This book is perfect for the woman who is just starting to show an interest in her finances, but might be nervous that being financially savvy means being a miser. Even those who have read a personal finance book or two are likely to pick up new ideas. For example, one of my favorite tips was to create a dedicated area in your home for managing your money and to make the space as inviting as possible. It’s the difference between two scenarios:

1. Getting frustrated as you try to hunt down bills, receipts, checks, postage, and envelopes to hurriedly transfer money or get checks in the mail at a crowded kitchen table, or


2. Sitting down at a desk with all of those things in their place, a framed photo of your last skiing trip (because you’re saving up for the next one), and a cup of tea.

Too often, my money management “space” is more like the former than the latter.

My one gripe with The Savvy Life is that I wish the authors had placed more emphasis on retirement issues unique to women. While they do cover retirement, I would have liked for them to drive home the importance of it even more. When I learned about the obstacles that women face when it comes to retirement savings, it was eye-opening—almost scary. I think it’s easy for that message to get lost among the examples of more exciting goals, such as houses, cars, travel, etc. Retirement sounds downright boring in comparison.

Nevertheless, The Savvy Life packs in the essential information along with smart tips, and I liked the friendly and conversational tone. I wish I could have read it years ago—like maybe the day I graduated from high school.

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