Personal Finance

The Total Money Makeover

Financial freedom is something all of us want to achieve. But how can we experience it if we do not know how to handle our money? There are several financial planning strategies out there but not all of them are effective. As a matter of fact, most so-called financial strategies are just mere list of the things we already know but cannot take into action.

What we need, in order to gain financial success, is something that will motivate us do better; something that we will follow. There are several books about generating personal financial freedom, but only a number of them give an effective outcome. One of the most influential financial books is Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness.

About The Author

Dave Ramsey is a financial author, TV personality and radio host. He is the voice behind the syndicated radio program The Dave Ramsey Show, which is heard on more than 450 radio stations all over the US and Canada. He also had a TV show of the same title which aired on ET and Fox Business Network.

Ramsey has written a number of financial books including Financial Peace Revisited, More than Enough: The Ten Keys to Changing Your Financial Destiny and The Financial Peace Planner: A step-by step guide to restoring your family’s financial health. Furthermore, Ramsey is also the author of kids’ books The Junior Discovers Series.

Dave Ramsey is also associated with several businesses including The Lampo Group, Inc., which helps people who are struggling with their financial issues. Ramsey takes pride that this business has successfully run for years completely debt-free. He also runs the Financial Peace University, a service selling a 13-week financial training video series for adults. This video was later succeeded with a financial training program especially engineered for teenagers.

About The Book

The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness is a 288-page book concentrating in managing personal finance. The book tackles Ramsey’s basic plan to gain financial success. If you look inside the book, you’ll find real life situations inside its pages. The stories are titled in such a manner that will hit you right in where it should be. With titles such as ‘I Did It My Way, And My Way Wasn’t Working’, you would think it was made for you.

In The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness, Ramsey talks about the ‘Gazelle Intensity’. He advises the readers to just live a financial life the way a gazelle saves itself from a predator: To outmaneuver the enemy and run for your life.

The best thing about this book is that it speaks the truth. The truth is that it takes hard work to be free of debt. Unlike other books that cheat you into imagining that you are going to get rich in a matter of minutes, The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness true strength is that it is a frank and uncomplicated motivational tool.

Review

Dave Ramsey has experienced bankruptcy himself so he is REALLY familiar with financial struggles and knows what he is talking about. Ramsey came to the conclusion that the key to a successful financial plan is to be honest with yourself.

In The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness, Dave Ramsey talks about his simple and straightforward principles: Pay cash, pay off your debts, and create an emergency fund. The book provides idiot-proof answers to what we thought were difficult questions about money.

Unlike his book Financial Peace, Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover is a how-to-do type of book. The book will walk you through the seven ‘baby steps’ to financial approach and will show you exactly what’s to be done.

Ramsey’s short but factual advices like: “A new $28,000 car will lose about $17,000 of value in the first four years you own it. To get the same result, you could toss a $100 bill out the window once a week during your commute.” and “If your mortgage payment is $900 and the interest portion is $830, you will pay that year around $10,000 in interest. What a great tax deduction! Right? Otherwise, you’d pay $3,000 in taxes on that $10,000. But who in their right mind would choose to trade $10,000 for $3,000?”, will surely wake you up and convince you that it is about time you do something with your financial matters.

This is not a ‘get rich quick’ book from an inexperienced guy claiming he is gonna help you with your current financial struggles. This is a practical and highly-motivational book that will guide you through the steps in building true wealth. It has loads of true stories from people who have succeeded in following Ramsey’s financial plan.

The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness does well in presenting inspirational stories of people who WERE once financially struggling. This must-read book and it is available on Amazon.com for only $14.99 and it is eligible for free shipping.

Tags: money makeover