Become Totally Debt-Free in Five Years or Less [Paperback]

Gwendolyn D. Gabriel (Author), Raphael Elizalde (Author), Chandra Sparks Taylor (Author), Diana Kennedy (Author), Raphael Elizalde (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2000

This self-help book about personal finance provides hundreds of motivational and inspirational messages and common-sense and creative money-management ideas and techniques to help readers get out of debt. The book has 30 chapters. Of the 30 chapters, the first four are filled with motivational messages, the next 26 are packed with money-saving ideas. At the beginning of each chapter is an eye-catching illustration and at the end of each chapter is an affirmation. There are also six worksheets and three self-evaluations throughout the book to further assist readers in becoming totally debt-free.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gwendolyn D. Gabriel is an attorney, a real-estate broker, and most importantly, a self-proclaimed cheapskate. She uses her experiences in all three of these areas, with her "cheapskate" title having the most impact, to provide readers common-sense and creative money-saving ideas and techniques she implemented to get out of debt in five years. In five short years, Gabriel went from being $125,000 in debt to becoming totally debt-free. Specifically, the author implemented the techniques described in her book to pay off all her debts, to include her mortgage, car and credit-card debts - and thereby became totally debt-free. Now, she is sharing her ideas with others via this book!

Product Details

• Paperback: 234 pages
• Publisher: Brown Bag Press; Ist edition (November 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970302207
• ISBN-13: 978-0970302205
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,531,093 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Start saving by not buying this book!, January 11, 2004

By 

"mollie449" (Missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Become Totally Debt-Free in Five Years or Less (Paperback)

I have read a lot of books about debt recovery, personal finances, budgeting, and saving, and this book has been by far the worst. To begin with, regardless of how the title sounds, the author doesn't actually give any tips for how to organize or budget in order to reduce the debt that you currently have. The book is basically a list of money saving tips, which would be fine if the tips were useful and applicable to ones daily life. Unfortunately those that Ms. Gabriel shares are neither.

Her tips range from ultra-restrictive suggestions such as never go into a mall or retail store again to tips that would only apply to specific and seldom occuring (at least I hope) situations such as decide not to get tattoos or don't throw lavish funerals for your loved ones to just down right impractical suggestions such as move in with family or friends for a year and rent out your house so that you can double what you are paying on your mortgage. If you are looking for a book of practical, manageable money saving tips that you can apply to your everyday life then this is definitely not that book.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save Your Money, August 17, 2004

By 

One Day at a Time in NJ (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Become Totally Debt-Free in Five Years or Less (Paperback)

Save your money and skip this book. As stated in other reviews, the title of the book is misleading. The author mentions here and there how she got out of debt but there was nothing for the reader to grasp onto and use as a course of action. The tid-bits of information she gives for saving money are obvious and boring if the reader has already been reading books on the "get out of debt" subject.

40 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For anyone seeking to emancipate themselves from debt, March 10, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Become Totally Debt-Free in Five Years or Less (Paperback)

Become Totally Debt-Free In Five Years Or Less: Pay Off Your Mortgage, Car, Credit Cards, And More! is a compendium of practical, effective, coherent, "user friendly" advice for anyone seeking to emancipate themselves from the burden of debt and former money-management mistakes. Gwendolyn Gabriel shows how to determine if you are a candidate for bankruptcy debt relief; how to end the credit-card cycle; turn your house into a money-maker; lower your utility bills; cut eating expenses in half; resolve financially incompatible marital woes, divorce inexpensively, save money during holidays, prepare your own will, save on planned vacations, and much, much more. If you want to be debt free and no longer bleeding your earnings through interest payments, late fees, and financial waste -- begin with a thoroughly reading of Gwendolyn Gabriel's Become Totally Debt-Free In Five Years Or Less.