Live Debt Free

Pay off debt. Save. Give. Live your mission.

The Best Financial Books of 2021

by //

There are thousands of books out there about how to become better with finances, how to invest, and how to be okay with talking about money.

Listed below are books that will teach you how to go from living tightly with money to retiring debt and being worry-free. There are many books out there for those wanting to learn about finances!

Retire Before Mom and Dad: The Simple Numbers Behind a Lifetime of Financial Freedom by Rob Berger

Retire Before Mom and Dad is a book that teaches you how to improve your financial future by using psychology, finance, and self-help concepts. This is a great book for those that are just beginning to get into the world of personal finance or those that want to learn more!

Rob Berger is a litigation attorney and the founder of popular personal finance and investing website.

Rob’s goal is to help people achieve financial freedom by helping them live a life free of financial stress and worry by teaching them about wealth and living financially free. 

In Retire Before Mom and Dad, Rob writes about the difference between a Roth 401K and a Traditional 401K, the ins and outs of investing, how to retire debt-free, and how to successfully and carefully analyze long-term decisions.

His simple approach and clear writing will teach you how to become financially wise and efficient, as well as how to invest and self-help. This is a great book for those just getting started in the financial world, or those wanting to learn more!

When She Makes More by Farnoosh Torabi

In When She Makes More, Farnoosh Torabi teaches the reader how to deal with income imbalances in relationships, and how to help women manage these circumstances that can have negative impacts. 

Today, there are more women than ever working as the household’s top earners. However, they face higher risks of burning out, depressions, infidelity, and even divorce. Farnoosh uses her real-life experiences to connect the reader on a personal level.

Sold as a physical book or an audiobook, Farnoosh Torabi outlines rules to help her readers learn how to address financial imbalances that can affect relationships negatively and how to become okay with talking about these problems.

In When She Makes More, readers will learn how to deal with changes in dating and marriage in society, how to know when to let your significant other lead, and how to allow your significant other to become a stay-at-home parent without making their life too easy. 

Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together by Erin Lowry

Written for Millennials, Broke Millennial gives great insights on how to save money, handle student loan debt, negotiate a pay raise, and how to ‘adult’.

Erin gives humor and empathy a fun twist in Broke Millennials!

No one likes to think about money, especially when money is tight. In Broke Millennial, the reader will learn how to be okay with talking out loud about money and how to deal with it.

Described as refreshing and conversational, Erin relates to her audience in a way that will guide them to a path of financial wellness! 

Written for Millennials, Erin doesn’t use boring language to talk about investing and credit card debt, but rather uses analogies to relate those topics to Tinder, dating, and marriage.

Erin even talks about how to manage student loans and what to do when your dining out with friends and can’t afford to split the bill.

Written by a millennial for a millennial, this is a must-read!

How I Invest My Money by Joshua Brown and Brian Portnoy

In How I Invest My Money, you will learn about 25 experts and how they invest, spend, save, and give their own money.

Joshua Brown and Brian Portnoy will teach you there is no right or wrong way to use your money!

Joshua and Brian talked to 25 different financial experts, including financial advisors, portfolio managers, and venture capitalists, and have turned their stories into essays about their lives, families, struggles, and aspirations.

https://www.harriman-house.com/Howinvestmoney

How I Invest My Money describes how there is no right or wrong way to handle your money, but rather use these stories to teach the reader how to figure out what works best for them. 

You will read about different perspectives on bonds, stocks, funds, charity, and other means of achieving the life you have always dreamed of. How I Invest My Money will also teach your how to create and keep a healthy relationship with money and your values. 

Spend Well, Live Rich by Michelle Singletary

In Spend Well, Live Rich, Michelle Singletary teaches the reader how to support a family while living on a budget.

Michelle also teaches the reader that it’s okay to not feel bad about not spending. 

Michelle Singletary was raised by Big Mama, her grandmother who made $13,000 a year. Big Mama was the one who taught Michelle the “7 Money Mantras for a Richer Life.”

These mantras include “If it’s on your a$$, it’s not an asset,” “Sweat the small stuff,” Keep it simple,” and “Priorities lead to prosperity.” 

How to Analyze Your Financial Upbringing
Check out our article on analyzing your own financial upbringing.

In Spend Will, Live Rich, Michelle teaches the reader how to teach children the value of money, how to become comfortable talking about money in relationships, how to save money as a household, and how to look for and get the best loans for your situation. 

Summary

There are many resources to help you become comfortable with finances.

By becoming comfortable with your finances, you can have conversations about money in your relationships, learn how to save money as a household, and become okay with saying no. Start your journey to financial freedom today!

PF Bloggers Weight Loss Challenge Week 8 Results

by //

Where Do We Stand?

We just entered into our FINAL WEEK of the weight loss challenge & so many people have done an INCREDIBLE job!

As a group of 30 people, we have lost a total of 130 pounds over the course of 8 short weeks!

Some people/teams faded away into the evening sunset but the majority of teams & team members are still going strong… great job everyone!  You are all very encouraging and very inspirational.

To change it up a little bit… I’m going to ask that each member of the weight loss challenge leave a comment detailing their biggest key to success.

I will start the forum off by giving my two largest keys to success here:

  1. I stopped gorging myself at meals & switched to smaller more frequent meals.
  2. I switched to eating predominately local, organic, healthy foods as much as possible.  In an effort to not waste money or make to extreme of a change, me & my wife committed to finishing up our “bad” groceries then buying increasingly more healthy from that point forward.  What kicked it into high gear for my wife was watching the movie Food, Inc.  It is a MUST watch.

Week 8 Results:

Winners – BETA TEAM!

As a team we have lost a total of 31.5 total pounds in 8 weeks!

Congrats to everyone and especially to the Beta Team.  Keep on truckin…

The Standings heading into the final week:

Heading into the 9th and FINAL WEEK we are neck & neck in a dead heat between Team Beta & Team Zeta grid locked at 31.5 pounds each!

  1. Beta Team – Total weight lost = 31.5
  2. Zeta Team – Total weight lost = 31.5
  3. Gamma Team – Total weight lost = 28
  4. Alpha Team – Total weight lost = 19.5
  5. Delta Team – Total weight lost = 11
  6. Epsilon Team – Total weight lost = 8.5

This is the kind of stuff that separates the boys from the men not to mention the girls from the women! Who wants the title?  Which team is hungry?

WE SHALL SEE!  We will find out next week when the numbers are tallied and the final results posted for all to see!

GO TEAM BETA – work it like a strizzo!

Debt Reduction with The Debt Snowflake Method

by //

This is a guest post by Jessica Ward — a freelance writer based in Seattle. She writes on family, business and money. She’s also a personal finance blogger at pennywisefamily.blogspot.com

What’s bigger than pocket change, but smaller than a debt snowball payment?

A “snowflake.” Confused?  Don’t be… “snowflakes” have helped me to pay off more than $14,000 of debt since the beginning of the year – no joke.

When was the last time you made a debt payment on something you didn’t get a bill for? Have you EVER made a payment without a bill?  Logistically, if you’re an old school paper-check-writer like me, it can be a little tricky  (Yep, believe it or not… I still write paper checks to pay my bills)!

Here I’ll show you how I handle multiple payments in one month, and how I make my “snowflake money.”

Paying the bills.

It’s likely that Sallie Mae, and Visa aren’t willing to accommodate your debt-free aspirations to the extent that they would mail you three to five bills per month to pay from.  Their loss…

Here’s how I do it—I fax myself a copy of the bill. I stick the invoice/statement into my fax machine and hit “copy” (alternately you could scan and email it to yourself).  Then I keep a copy of the bill around for next time I have a little spare change.  I’ll have to use my own envelope… but I’ll manage (Frugal confession—sometimes I grab an envelope out of a political solicitation and use that instead).

For those debts that don’t have a nice little invoice to pay from (like the big IOU to mom), I make a sheet of mailing labels. On the back, I keep the dates I’ve paid and the balance owed, and on the front is the address labels to the person I’m sending it to.  If you’ve got an account someplace that doesn’t bill, you can also put your account number there, below the address.

How big is a snowflake?

They’re tiny, silly.  That’s why they’re snow-flakes, and not snow-men. Every little bit truly does help.  Because all the regular paychecks in my household are deposited automatically, any extra check — or snowflake — that needs to go to the bank gets a deposit slip written, and a check for the same amount written back out to the next debt on the list.  And I mail it right away, regardless of the size.

Even the time I got a refund back from Visa for overpaying my credit card by $7.  I sent the $7 right to MasterCard the same day I got the check. I empty the ashtrays in my car and my husbands and dump it into a bucket where he keeps pocket change.  Then we roll up the coins, and write a deposit slip and a check.  Ditto for babysitting money, bonuses, mowing the neighbor’s lawn, and the manufacturer’s rebate from the new computer purchase. “Snowflake” it all.  And don’t get smart and think you’ll remember all those little transactions and make one big snowball payment. My money says you won’t.  Just do it, while it’s fresh on your mind.

Sometime you’ve got to make it snow

You’ve heard of rainmakers.  Sometimes you’ve gotta’ be a snow-maker.  Solicit a babysitting or dog walking job via Care.com, sell stuff on Ebay or Craigs’ list or pick up a little freelance work via HireMyMom.com or FreelanceJobs.com. Answer questions for kgbkgb.com. Take online surveys, whatever tickles your fancy.  Roll up those coins from the sofa cushion. Whatever you’re able to do, do it.  Every little bit helps, and best of all when it’s these little tiny increments — you don’t miss it.  It’s not like making a $1,500 avalanche payment on your student loan.

Good luck in your quest for debt-freedom! Looking forward to meeting up with you again on the other side.