The Total Money Makeover

In February, we visited my husband’s cousin and her family in Springfield, who are going through a Financial Peace University course at their church. My husband picked up their book and read a few pages. Who knew that this simple act would forever change the way we think about money.
Let me introduce Dave Ramsey. He’s a personal finance radio talk show host who has written several books, including Financial Peace and The Total Money Makeover. He abhors debt in all forms and has created a process with components he calls Baby Steps, to eliminate debt from one’s life and build wealth. As soon as we got home from Springfield, my husband and I started reading The Total Money Makeover. This particular book discusses many money myths before tackling the Baby Steps and above all, encourages readers to “live like no one else so you can live like no one else”—live cheaply now so you can enjoy your wealth later.

My husband and I feel like we were already conservative with our money, but we felt like we were never getting ahead—with money going towards student loans (our only debt now that the last car is paid off), retirement, and college funds, in addition to our regular bills and expenses, we never had any money left over to pay extra on our debts. Ramsey’s method involves focusing on paying down debts completely before funding retirement and college. Ramsey also demands that people create and stick to a budget, something we thought we were doing but not really (we always knew all the bills that had to be paid, but we didn’t track our grocery or household item purchases). So now we have a budget, we both know how much we can spend on certain categories in a month, and we are throwing all possible monies at our student loans, which we plan to have paid off in 2010.

I can’t really explain how much my thought processes towards money changed in the course of reading The Total Money Makeover. Things I had accepted before as fact (like we will always have debt) were blown out of the water. Planning and talking about money is no longer a chore that I shove off onto my husband; we are now both actively involved in the process and know exactly where our money is going. With Ramsey’s plan, I don’t feel like I now have to make more money, because I am making my current income work for my family. It has been an amazingly liberating, mind-changing experience, to say the least.

For a detailed review of The Total Money Makeover, click here. Ramsey's writing style really draws in the reader and makes covering the material enjoyable. If nothing else, you can start the book and give the process a chance. You might be surprised at how much your life can change when we aren't worried about money.

The Last Lecture

Taking a break from fiction, I read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Everyone in the world has heard about this book, and about the author's passing earlier this year. My sweet friend Paula gave this to me for my birthday, so I started it, wanting to figure out what everyone was raving about.

This book chronicles Dr. Pausch's last lecture, achieving your childhood dreams, which he gave after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. All in all, the entire book is the stories and thoughts and ideas that he wanted to pass onto his three young children, so they would have some wisdom from him as they grow and so they could come to know their father, even though they were too young to remember much of him.

The last section of the book is specific letters to each child, and I cried all the way through them. The idea of not being around for your kids as they grow up and to see what kind of people they turn into is simply heartbreaking. This is, of course, the nonfiction counterpart to The Things I Want My Daughters to Know. Both books make me want to write down all my stories and all my advice (limited right now, since I'm still learning myself), just in case I'm not there to pass it on in person to my girls.

K

Petite Anglaise

After seeing my Cville friends in July, I started Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson, which I was given as a ARC by Lissa. I was excited to switch to nonfiction for a change of pace.

This book chronicles an English woman who grows up longing for all things French. She arranges to study abroad in France during college, and eventually moves there permanently. She soon establishes a life in France, landing a job and an apartment, and starting a relationship with a Frenchman. They move in together, and several years later have a child. Their life centers on the day-to-day: who has to take their daughter Tadpole to the babysitter, who has to work late, what they should eat for dinner. The author notices that she and her boyfriend are drifting apart but doesn't know what to do about it. One day, on a whim, she starts a blog, calling herself Petite Anglaise, a nickname given to her by a former boyfriend's father. She starts writing about her adventures as a Englishwoman living in France, and attracts many followers. As her relationship with Mr. Frog (her boyfriend) goes further south, she meets one of her readers face-to-face and begins a relationship. This new man is another English person living in France. Predictably, this rebound relationship doesn't work out, and she is left with the remains of her life, Mr. Frog having moved into an apartment across the street.

The best part of this book was the author's musings about how blogging affects the blogger. Was she creating situations just so she would have something titillating to post on her blog, or was she simply reporting what happened to her? Also, halfway through her relationship with James, the Englishman, she realizes that being with another English person goes against her reasons for moving to France in the first place. Being with James keeps her English, instead of allowing her to completely immerse herself in french culture. I think this was an amazingly keen observation.

At the end of the book, I'm mostly left feeling sad for Tadpole, a little girl who now has to shuttle back and forth between two parents who really love her. I felt bad that life as she knew it had to change so drastically, and seemingly for a poor reason (especially considering Petite's new relationship fizzled).

K

Working Families

A few days ago (it feels like weeks ago with the midweek holiday) I finished reading Working Families. I really enjoyed it. It took me at least two weeks go get through it since it is nonfiction and I find nonfiction reading to be slower for me. This is the kind of book I want to read a million times because one read-through is not enough to absorb all the information. This is the kind of book I want to have on my home shelves so I can refer to it again and again through the years. If only this book was fiction and took place in England, it would be my dream novel.

The author Joy Jordan-Lake, talks about how important it is for each spouse to find their calling in life, the thing that lights them up from the inside which also happens to glorify God. She also stresses seasons (similar to my thinking of "phases" regarding Addie's behavior) and how you and your spouse have to adjust what works for your family in different seasons. I love how the author unabashedly talks about how much she loves her profession and her various jobs and how important they are to her, and even though she has kids, she doesn't want to give them up. Finally! So she and her husband have found creative ways of balancing their three-career marriage--her job, his job and parenting three kids. It's an awesome book that comes with discussion questions--this would be the perfect book for a small home group--I wish there were enough young couples in our church who had/wanted kids so we could do this there.

K

i've been reading alot...

but you've never know since I haven't been keeping up with my documentation here.

I finished Momzillas which was one of the funniest mom lit books I've read so far. It had very strong plotline similarities to Class Mothers, but I guess that is okay. I'm glad I am not part of the crowd that cares about getting into the "best" pre-preschool--I don't even know which one that would be here in STL.

After Momzillas, I moved on to The Marriage Diaries by Rebecca Campbell. It was British, there was a kid, but I didn't really like it. I really didn't like the middle of the book and almost gave up on it. The basic premise is that a stay-at-home dad begins to document his time at home with his son, and his working wife stumbles across his journal entries to find that he spends time with a mom from playgroup. So almost in an act of pre-revenge, she has an affair with a married friend, while the husband comes close, but never ends up cheating. So the wife cheated on her husband because she thought her husband was cheating, when he wasn't really. And then to top it off, the book ended with her quitting her job to stay home with her kids (one on the way whose paternity wasn't really addressed). I'm still looking for the book where she quits her job then goes back to work full-time! Does such a book exist?

I have been taking a break from the fictional world to read some non-fiction. I was a Really Good Mom before I had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood by Amy Nobile and Trisha Ashworth really helped me address certain expectations I had for myself regarding my roles as wife and mother and employee and helped me address the guilt I have for still working after having a baby. I have had it done for a few days now but I'm waiting to return it until I can methodically work through the super easy exercises they have. The last chapter is about living in the moment and it was a great reminder that these days are fleeting. I would have appreciated it even more if it had been written from a Christian perspective. Maybe someone should write that book... I feel like this book gave me permission to not always have my house clean and to let the laundry go for another day if it means spending quality time with the baby. I know it seems silly, but I do need to hear that.

Now I'm reading Working families: navigating the demands and delights of marriage, parenting, and career by Joy Jordan-Lake. This is a Christian living book about how to be a spouse, parent and employee and find and follow your life's "calling", whatever that may be, whether it is the same as your job or not. I hope that she talks more about the balancing and juggling act of handling all these responsibilities.

On the horizon I have the Last Summer of You and Me by Ann Brashares who wrote the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series for YAs and Austenland, which looks like every Austenite's dream.

K