The Total Money Makeover

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“If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” –Dave Ramsey

Take the steps to become financially free and start building wealth today, and tomorrow you will be able to live the life you want to live. In other words, practice delayed gratification. This is the basic premise of Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan For Financial Fitness.

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Instant Gratification
In today’s modern world, technology has made many things in life nearly instantaneous. Instant food, instant entertainment, instant information, instant energy, instant health and physical fitness… all contribute to building a strong addiction to instant gratification. The problem with this is that not everything can, or even should, be achieved in this manner. Weight loss, for instance, is a promise many companies use to prey on the uninformed. Slogans like, “Lose 10 pounds in 10 days” or “Get ripped in 90 days” are certainly catchy, however their methods are often unsustainable and unhealthy. In much the same way, impulse buying of unnecessary material possessions, combined with the use of credit, gives consumers a “quick fix” of that good feeling you get after you buy something new.

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Make A Plan
Before driving across the country, it would be wise to plan the best route using a map or GPS. This way there is constant feedback of the progress being made and reassurance that the car is heading in the right direction. If you are looking to get out of debt and become financially free, you need to make a plan of how to go about doing that. Plan out the monthly incomes and expenses ahead of time. Decide what you will spend money on and how much it will cost. Keep track of everything so that there are no “surprises”. Look at what percentage of the net income is going to various expenditures and decide if anything should be adjusted.

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Become “Gazelle Intense”
In order to survive the day, a gazelle must outrun the fastest lion. If it ever trips or stumbles it will be killed.  If it ever decides to “take a day off” it will be killed. Every single day of its life, the gazelle must remain focused on survival. Ramsey suggests that before you can be financially free, you must become gazelle intense, putting all your time, energy, and focus into it until you have succeeded. Doing anything halfway will only end in the same results you have been getting all along. Commit to improving your financial situation and stick to your plan to make it happen.

Check out Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover to learn the specific steps needed to get out of debt and become financially free. I recommend this book to anyone interested in getting help with their finances or just looking to learn more about creating a budget, planning for retirement, and/or managing personal finances.

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The Art of the Start

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Guy Kawasaki's The Art of the Start is a must-read if you are an entrepreneur.  This no-nonsense guide for start-ups covers all of the essentials without overloading you with information or filling its pages with repetitive statements.  It is an easy to read, easy to follow text that is bursting with resources and ideas to help you take the necessary steps to get your business idea up and running.  From pitching the ideas in your head to meeting with investors and raising capital to branding, this book hits on all of the major points with realistic and sound suggestions on taking action and getting results.Kawasaki lays out this book by more or less the different components of starting a business.  While it appears to be mapped out somewhat linearly, you could certainly focus on the chapter that you feel most applies to you without being lost due to having not read the earlier chapters.  As stated above, there are resources for additional reading at the end of every chapter as well as reader-submitted FAQ's, which, for the most part, are fairly helpful.

It is not a thick text by any means--217 pages not including the index--and to be honest I finished it in just over three hours.  I'm not a fast reader by any sense of the phrase but the concepts are very easy to digest and flow smoothly.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in business or entrepreneurship, anyone thinking of starting a business, or anybody already in the process of starting and/or running a business.  Even if your business is already established, this book will be very useful if you ever need to pitch to investors, raise capital, or make any other moves again in pursuit of expanding your current business.

Your body.  Your training.

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