Control Your Cash: Making Money Make Sense [Paperback]

Greg McFarlane (Author), Betty Kincaid (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2010

"A 14% credit card rate! What a deal!" "Where it says 'adjustable' here on my mortgage - that means 'fixed', right?" "Work until I retire, then collect Social Security. That's my wealth plan." If you've ever wondered how your money works, where it goes or how it grows, stop wondering. "Control Your Cash: Making Money Make Sense" deconstructs personal finance so that everyone but the hopelessly inept can understand it. Inside the book, you'll learn: • how to get your bank accounts, credit cards and other financial instruments to work for you, and not the other way around • the right way to buy a car (i.e. with the salesman cursing your name as you drive away) • where and how to invest, and what all those symbols, charts and graphs mean • how to turn expenses into income, and stop living paycheck-to-paycheck • whom the tax system is stacked against (hint: it's most of us) and how to use that to your advantage • the very key to wealth itself. In fact, the authors thought it was so important they put it on the cover so you can read it even if you're too cheap to buy the book: Buy assets, sell liabilities. Finally, a book that explains personal finance not only in layman's terms, but in detail. If you can read, and have any capacity for self-discipline, invest a few bucks in "Control Your Cash" now and reap big financial rewards for the rest of your life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Mill City Press, Inc. (June 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1936107880
• ISBN-13: 978-1936107889
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,081,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Control Your Cash...And Have Fun Doing It., June 8, 2010

By 

Alphonse J. Valenti "Alf Valenti" (Albany, New York) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Control Your Cash: Making Money Make Sense (Kindle Edition)

I bought the Kindle version of Control Your Cash and strange as it sounds, haven't been able to put it down. Really unusal for me because I often find this type of book to be full of cliches and about as colorful as an funeral. The writing is crisp, funny, and really informative. Concepts are introduced and explained, and the authors don't make any assumptions about their readers. They don't see them as dumb, or brilliant. They have targeted this book really well - toward people who want to learn and will take enough time to read a book like this. It's not easy to make this subject matter fun without belittling it, but they have somehow managed to do it. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Readable, funny, and useful, August 2, 2010

By 

Matthew Amster-Burton "mamster" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Control Your Cash: Making Money Make Sense (Paperback)

Control Your Cash is an anomaly among personal finance books: it's genuinely funny and well-written but full of solid information. I didn't agree with everything in the book (the section on homebuying made me want to debate the author), but it's all well-argued and never talks down to the reader. Another good book in the same vein is I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pros and Cons, June 22, 2010

By 

Derek Clark - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Control Your Cash: Making Money Make Sense (Paperback)

Control Your Cash: Making Money Make Sense by Greg McFarlane and Betty Kincaid was an interesting read. Basically it is a personal finance book that covers all of the basic topics: cars, credit cards, houses, investing, budgeting, taxes, etc.

Cons

I'll get right to it, I liked about 90% of it and there were lots of good points. Much of it was review for me, but there are lots of things that could help people who are new to learning personal finance. Unfortunately, there are 2 things that really stood out to me that I did not agree with. The first was talking about which credit card you should get. While the information presented was fine, I think the best credit card is the one that is cut into tiny pieces and cancelled. While some people are disciplined enough to make good use out of credit cards, far too many people aren't.

The second part that I disagreed with had to do with cars. While it suggests that you shouldn't over spend on cars, i.e. get the Honda instead of the Acura, or Toyota instead of the Lexus, it turns around and suggests buying a new car for the peace of mind. Buying a new car is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in my mind. They lose such a huge amount of value that it is more than worth the risk of breaking down to buy used. New cars lose 70% of their value in the first 4 years. Go ahead and get a 2-4 year old car and let somebody else take that hit.

Pros

Now for the good, and there was plenty of it. The main idea focused throughout the book was getting rid of liabilities and gaining assets. That is a good principle to follow, and it something everyone needs to work on. Also, there are quite a few chapters that do a good job explaining some of the basics of personal finance. There is a very in depth chapter giving the basics of investing. It was probably my favorite chapter. For someone who has no idea how investing works, this would be a good primer.

There is another good chapter on budgeting, as well as an interesting chapter covering taxes. Taxes are a huge part of personal finance, and understanding how they work is key to success. It is very interesting how taxes work on similar things depending on if it is a person or a business doing it. Different types of businesses also change the tax situation considerably.

The last chapter takes a good look at entrepreneurship. I found this chapter particularly interesting as I would like to start my own business someday. I'm not sure what it will be, but right now I think helping people get to financial independence is something I want to try. I'm not sure what the exact vehicle to do that will be, but I think I'm going to keep growing the readership of this blog. Hopefully the things I write can help some people.

Overall, if you can overlook the new cars and credit cards, Control Your Cash was really a pretty good personal finance book. It was an easy read, and the main point it emphasized of selling liabilities and buying assets is a good one.