Book Review: Easy Money by Liz Pulliam Weston
Posted by admin in Book Reviews
There's a good chance you're familiar with Liz Pulliam Weston. She has a syndicated personal finance column that appears in my local newspaper and perhaps yours as well, and she is a popular columnist at MSN Money. As if that's not enough, she writes books. I've just finished her latest, Easy Money, and here's the scoop on it.
Subtitled "How to Simplify Your Finances and Get What You Want Out of Life," Easy Money is relatively short (roughly 200 pages) yet hits all the major topics you need to think about in your financial life. Among the topics covered are: basic tools to get your finances organized, budgeting, credit cards, saving for retirement, saving for college, buying homes and cars, insurance, shopping and travel deals, dealing sensibly with customer service issues, and more. She also caps off the book by looking at important but less tangible issues, such as how attitudes about money can make you sink or swim, and how to set your compass so you're not just making money but working toward the life you want.
Many personal Finance Books get bogged down in telling you too much in too many words-Weston's strength in Easy Money is telling you what you need to know and doing so efficiently. There's a lot packed into a fairly lean package, so it's a quick but informative read.
Among the many tips and resources Weston offers, here are some I found most useful and/or interesting:
* When creating a budget, Weston makes the point to be extremely realistic, taking into account where you are today and what you really spend, not creating a budget around some idealized version of yourself that always spends wisely or will soon be making more money.
* The concept of a "Buy Nothing" month, in which you do your best to use what you have in your home to keep yourself fed and entertained for a whole month. This can save you some money while also being a fun challenge, and maybe open your eyes to how much unnecessary spending you do without realizing it.
* The sections on insurance are very good, with good tips on what types of insurance you need and how much. Example: If your annual premium for comprehensive and collision coverage on your car is more than 10% of its current value, drop the coverage.
* While we're all familiar with the fees around trying to re-book airline flights, Weston says there's usually no fee for re-booking hotels or car rentals if you find that prices have gone down since your original booking. It would never have occurred to me to do this (and I'm probably too lazy to start), but Weston says she's had significant savings doing so in the past.
* The section on how to successfully deal with customer service people is excellent.
I only had a few quibbles with the book:
* Weston is very big on getting yourself automated and electronized, meaning she wants you receiving and paying bills electronically online, and/or automating payments. I think this is fine for the well-organized person, but I question whether it's really the way to go for people that aren't always on top of their finances. It seems easier to miss payments when you're not getting any sort of paper reminder, and automated payments sometimes cause you to keep paying for services you don't really want anymore, where a paper bill might trigger you to get on the horn and cancel a service. Also, if you're not disciplined and backing up your electronic files, you could lose past financial records. I suppose this is personal preference, but it makes me a little nervous.
* I think the section on credit card arbitrage should have been left out. People have enough problems with credit cards as it is without bringing up a tactic that can be very dangerous and lead to only marginal gains. (If you don't know what credit card arbitrage means, I'm not telling you.)
* She did not list the other site I run as a recommended resource. Maybe her editors mistakenly cut it out? 
All in all, Easy Money is informative while being easy to read, exactly what you're looking for in the not-always-exciting world of personal finance.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.