Reading, Writing & Pondering

  Do you want to get better at using your money? Or do you want to get out of debt? Certified Financial Coach Jessi Fearon's new book, Getting Good with Money, offers a lot of practical advice that is easy to understand and enjoyable to read. As Getting Good with Money begins, Fearon explains why she decided to get out of debt, make a budget and get better with her family's finances. Throughout the book, she merges the practical advice she offers with the personal stories she shares of how both her and her husband learned and grew through their financial steps and misteps. I appreciate how honest and down-to-earth she is in this book. I also liked that she is encouraging and inspiring and by the end of the book, it is easy to believe that you can also make positive changes in your financial life, no matter what your age.  Getting Good with Money would be especially helpful for a young person just starting out but I am a mid-life woman and I still learned several things through...

Do you need some motivation to manage your finances--and your life--better? Daily Readings from Beyond Blessed by Robert Morris is a 90-day devotional that is both inspiring and encouraging as you seek to manage your resources in the best way you can. Each devotional in Daily Readings from Beyond Blessed starts with a Bible verse and then a selected reading from the Beyond Blessed book followed by a prayer to pray. Each reading also closes with the same question, "What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?" I like that question as it makes me close my eyes, stop, think and pray about each reading. I liked Beyond Blessed a lot when I read it last fall. I especially like that this book breaks that information down and helps me think about each part of the book and how it applies to my life. Daily Readings from Beyond Blessed encourages me to look to God as the source of my finances and to utilized everything a bit better each day as I seek to live for Him. I want to get t...

Several years ago my husband and I went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. We worked on our budget and paid off a lot of debt and it felt good. Then we made several moves for my husband's job and things got a little crazy. We didn't take on more debt again, but we did slack off on budgeting with repairs on our new house and other needs that we had neglected during that time. Then this past year, we just realized we were just staying sloppy in our budgeting and giving. It is time to get back on track. Beyond Blessed by Robert Morris came to me at just the time I needed it. This past week, I have been reading this book with my husband and discussing how we can get ourselves back on track again. I feel hopeful already! Morris, who is the founding Senior Pastor of Gateway Church in Texas, originally wrote a book called The Blessed Life , which I read several years ago not long after it came out. I read it about the same time we started the Financial Peace Un...

A Couple With Common Cents is a small book that is part short story and part study guide. Ryan Eidson begins the book by telling the story of Jack and Tabitha and their financial struggles. Tabitha is frustrated with their family's finances and Jack is not really concerned. Over the course of the story things change and the couple learns to make some changes. Then the second half of the book takes the reader through questions and things to think about as the reader works on their own financial situation. I like the cover of this book. For a book that is published by a small subsidy publisher, I think it looks quite professional. My husband and I are graduates of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University so we have studied finances together already and have been working to make changes to improve our situation. Ramsey runs a well-polished machine and you can't beat those materials. I could see where using this book could be helpful in a group study setting for discuss...

It is no secret that money management can be a challenge for many couples. In Never Enough? , Ron Blue and his daughter, Karen Guess, share how even though money and life are "inextricably linked" creating some challenges, you can apply the wisdom in this book to keep your finances at your best with God. To start with, Blue/Guess offer 5 wise principles anyone can use to mange their finances in the best way. Then, using a pie diagram, they share how to basically divide your money into four categories: Live, the money I live on; Give, the money I give away; Owe, the money I pay for Debt and Taxes; and Grow, the money I save. The Never Enough? authors then break down these categories and further explain them to learn how to apply them to real life. Also, at the end of each chapter, there is a short re-cap so the reader can easily remember the most important principles. Never Enough? is down to earth in style and is written in such a way that it is easy to understand. The...

The Seven Money Types by Tommy Brown is a different kind of money book from the usual. If you have been feeling guilty about how you want to handle money and  that you don't seem to fit certain money management formulas in with your personality very well. . .then this could well be a book that is right up your alley. I like to read books about money management and learn how I can help our family better manage resources for God. The Seven Money Types offers a different look at how we handle money based on our God-given skills/strengths/weaknesses. Tommy Brown looks at seven money types based on seven Biblical people--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David. Each of these Biblical people feature certain positive and "shadow" characteristics that show their money handling personality. At the beginning of this book, the reader takes a test to see which type they best relate to--and there may be two types that they are closely related to. I found this...

Are you deep in credit card debt? Do you hide purchases from your spouse? Do you have more bills than income? If so, then you are probably a spender who needs some help to get back on track financially. Lauren Greutman shares her story of living life as a reckless spender and how she changed her habits and improved her family's life in The Recovering Spender . Greutman offers a lot of helpful advice on spending, financial inequality, learning to work together financially in marriage and how to budget, among other topics in this book. The first half of the book shares her personal story along with some great information on spending relating to class/status, family history and money personalities. The second half of this book offers a complete set of twelve steps for recovering spenders.Greutman shares how spenders can be addicted to spending like alcoholics are addicted to alcohol. I am not a big spender. I have never been in thousands of dollars of credit card debt. Actuall...

  https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/1611/26335/9h/dramsey.download.akamai.com/23572/daveramsey.com/media/common_images/plugs/xternal/smsk.lt.mhuyser I was thrilled when I was notified that I was on the Launch Team for the new book from Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze called Smart Money, Smart Kids. Their new book is out today, April 22. Visit the website to found out more:https://www.smartmoneysmartkids.com/?ictid=smsk.rc.hp My husband and I graduated from Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University about 4 years ago. We continue to apply the Ramsey Principles as we see to "change our family tree" and live debt free. We aren't where we want to be yet but we are continuing to move in the right direction.One of the ways I was excited about being on this launch team, is that I can have a resource to teach our 12-year old son how to be a better money manager than we were before he leaves home. Smart Money, Smart Kids offers a dialogue throughout the book with voices fro...