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I am currently reading Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach. It is a very good book, but it is mostly about getting your finances in order (so far, I am only half way done). I would recommend this book to everyone, even if you are not married or have a significant other. While this book is very informative, I believe I have read enough of these kinds of books for a while. I need to find some more advanced books. I also need to find books that are more about investing than just overall personal finance.

Here is a list of books that I found for investing:

• The Only Investment Guide You Will Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
• The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing
• The Random Walk Guide to Investing by Burton G. Malkiel

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Any comments about these books are welcome - good, bad, or indifferent. Also, I welcome any other book suggestions.

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A book I recently read was Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach. This book was a personal finance book that was more on the beginner level. Like all the other books I read, this book was for people just starting to get their finances in order. While this book seemed to be geared towards couples, I am sure single people could get some use out of it.

This book did have some good information, like my post on Researching Investments Online. Other than a few good websites with good information on investing and finance, this book did not have too much other useful information that I did not get in the other books I read. One of only things I pulled from this book was where he says you should think about your values before you think about money. Make sure your money is working towards your values in all the areas of finance like retirement and dreams. If one of your values is family, then make sure when you retire you will be close enough to your kids to spend time with them.

There were nine chapters/steps to this book:

1. Learn the Facts and Myths About Couples and Money
2. Determine the True Purpose of Money in Your Life
3. Plan Together…Win Together
4. The Couples’ Latte Factor
5. Build Your Retirement Basket
6. Build Your Security Basket
7. Build Your Dream Basket
8. Learn to Avoid the Ten Biggest Financial Mistakes Couples Make
9. Increase Your Income by 10 Percent in Nine Weeks

While the last two chapters look very enticing, these are the chapters of the book that I skipped through. His ten biggest mistakes couples make are things HE does not like to do. One example is getting a 30 year mortgage. He then goes on to say 30 year mortgages are ok if you pay them off before the 30 years. Another example is not signing a pre-nup. While this may be good advice for rich older men marrying younger woman, I can guarantee a pre-nup for my poor wife and I would have made no sense. His ideas on big mistakes did not have any relevance to the audience of his book.

The last chapter I thought would have great tips on how to increase your wealth. It was about how to get a raise at work. He starts off saying that everyone is under paid and everyone deserves a raise. While he may think this is true, and you make think the same thing, in reality, only about 20% of people are underpaid. The rest of the people just think they are underpaid. I did not read this chapter as I just got a raise, but after I read that all people deserve a raise, I just closed the book.

Overall, I would say read this book, but try not to buy it. It was a good book with decent information, but you can just write down the information (or visit this blog) and keep it. It is an entry-level finance book with no real advanced information. It had some good places to start researching on investments, but other than that the decent information was few and far between.

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Today I finished All Your Worth - The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi. The reason I finished it so fast was because I really did not read it all. A lot of it did not pertain to me and my financial situation. It also was not a very good book. The authors have one theme, and they stick with this theme throughout the whole book. The book is meant for anyone without a financial plan or a financial plan that is not working. The book gives little investing advice. They mainly focus on how to get your income on track so you can start in on their plan.

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I just got done “reading” two finances books that I think everything should steer clear of. Whatever you do, please do not buy these books as you will be wasting your money, like I did. If you want to go to the library and rent them, feel free, but let me tell you now that you will be disappointed.

The two books are Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill and The Science of Getting Rich by Wattles Wallace. As you can see, I normally put affiliate links to Amazon for all the books I write about. For these books however, I do not want anyone to buy them, so I am not putting any links. While these books have great reviews at Amazon, 5 and 4 stars respectively, they are not as good as everyone thinks. I was shocked when I read them, and they were so bad.

These books are more about the mental part of trying to be rich and not tips on how to become rich. The main point of the Science of Getting Rich is that if you think about something you want, visualize it, and believe it is there, then it will be there. Yeah, I think about a TV I want, picture it there, and want it so bad that I go out and buy it. That doesn’t make me richer, it makes me poorer!

The Science of Getting Rich also claims that God wants you to have a ton of money and spend it. Any Christian knows that this is wrong, and that God wants you to get rid of all material possessions. He says take extra money you have and give it to the Church and the poor, not spend it on frivolous items. I really do not understand why this book would try to make you think God wants you to be rich, but I guess if it sells books, that is what they were after.

Bottom line: Stay away from books that deal with thinking about being rich. You will thank me later when you don’t waste your time and money on them.alibi the divx download

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I just got done reading a book by Jane Bryant Quinn. Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People was a simple book about how to start your money budgeting and getting your money on track. It was a very easy read, and I really liked it. It got straight to the point and had a lot of great information.

This book is not a get rich quick book. It is a book that teaches a smart and easy way to start managing your finances. She uses a very simple approach that she says can’t fail. She calls it “Automatic Budgeting”. It basically just means you set all your bills and investments up so that they take care of themselves. If you want to save 10% of your income in a Traditional IRA, then have a payroll deduction that places that 10% in the IRA. She says start taking this money out and act like you do not have it. You keep all your living money in your checking account. You then move all the money you want to save and/or invest into other accounts. If you want to pay off your debt, set up automatic payments.

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I picked up this book at the library when I went this week. This was my first visit to the library in my area, and I was a little disappointed with their book selection (The main library is closed down and that library has a far better selection). Since it was my first time, I was only allowed to pick up one book, so I wanted to make it a good one. The only book in the finance section that I saw that I had seen online was Freakonomics. My Money Blog did a review of this book, and that is why when I saw it I had to pick it up (something was triggered in my head that said I had saw it on a finance blog).

But ALERT, this is not a Finance book.

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