Degunking Your Personal Finances: Free yourself of financial burdens starting TODAY! [Paperback]

Shannon Plate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2005

Most books about personal finance promise to make you rich overnight, or they make you feel bad about your past financial choices. They don't help you prioritize what you should do today, what you can do next week, and how you can establish an ongoing action plan to manage your finances. How can you save for the future when you are broke today? How can you avoid juggling credit card payments and other bills? What if a medical emergency occurred? Will you ever be able to afford a vacation to Hawaii?

The good news it that whether you sink or swim is up to you and Degunking Your Personal Finances can really help! And even if you have had problems with debt in the past, you can change your financial future for the better. Degunking Your Personal Finances will give you the help you need immediately to put your financial picture into perspective. The book explains in plain language what you really need to know about your finances and how to manage them--with a minimum of pain and suffering!

Degunking Your Personal Finances gives you a 12-step, easy-to-follow, financial management plan that everyone can follow! Even if you think you'll never straighten out your finances, this book will show you how to take one step at a time to degunk your financial situation. Degunking Your Personal Finances will put you in control by helping you to get out of debt or prevent you from getting into trouble in the first place. It uncovers the mysteries of setting up a useable budget that's based in reality (not fantasy), making the right financial decisions every day, setting up college saving accounts, what types of loans work for you and against you, and how to enjoy a great standard of living without having mountains of bills.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A great book for anyone who's mystified by money and wants to take control. -- Liz Pulliam Weston, MSN Money Personal Finance Columnist and Bestselling Author of

A treasure chest of sound advice and specific action steps that lead to financial freedom. -- Dick Towner, Executive Director, Good $ense Movement, Willow Creek Community Church, Chicago IL

From the Publisher

Do you worry about having enough money to pay your bills, cover unexpected expenses, provide for the future, or even take a vacation? Do you know how much you spend and where the money goes? Do you have a new car, designer clothes, and a nice apartment, but you think buying real estate is just a pipe dream? Are you uncomfortable with your level of credit card debt? Have you ever listened to the financial management gurus and wanted to get your finances in order – but don’t know where to start? You don’t have to win the lottery to improve your financial status. Degunking™ Your Personal Finances will give you a simple, proven, 12-step plan to help you get out and stay out of debt. This unique book will help you create a workable and enjoyable lifestyle, and get you to organize your finances, save money, and really put your money to work for you.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Paraglyph Press; 1 edition (April 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933097027
• ISBN-13: 978-1933097022
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #440,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From a CPA's Perspective...., May 7, 2005

By 

A. T. Lawdahl (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Degunking Your Personal Finances: Free yourself of financial burdens starting TODAY! (Paperback)

I am a CPA and this is a book I would like to give to several of my clients and many of my client's children!! It's easy to read and has a common sense approach to handling the financial aspects that everyone encounters in their life. Fiscal responsibility is one of those things that many people have discussed and try to master, but very few are successful at. Degunking your Personal Finances is an easy and informative book to read, and will help you to become more organized and fiscally responsible. The firsthand "war" stories and tips help someone reading this to understand and relate to what the author is writing. This book is most beneficial if read from beginning to end, but is also very useful if you have limited time and you read the chapters out of order. I even found some tips that I will use to start finding some hidden money as the book points out. This one is a winner!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Degunking Your Personal Finances, May 4, 2005

By 

Helen Thompson (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Degunking Your Personal Finances: Free yourself of financial burdens starting TODAY! (Paperback)

Buy This Book for Chapter 6 Alone!

A friend gave me this book recently because I've been having some serious difficulties with my personal finances. After a divorce and a move, I'm now a single mom raising a teenage son. My finances are really a mess. I've had to run up my credit cards in the last year as a result of a messy separation and loss of my husband's income, and setting up a household has been really expensive (especially now that we rely on only my income). The author's voice is reassuring and practical - I can see why she's a successful counselor! She's gotten me to take a long hard look at my finances, and I'm on my path to getting out of this financial mess I've found myself in. Chapter 6 is a godsend, "Degunking Your Consumer Debt." This chapter alone is worth the price of the book. The author emphasizes that you'll never degunking your personal finances until you commit to stop adding to your debt. Making that commitment has saved my finances. The rest of the chapter shows how to avoid new types of debt, chart out your debt, set up a way to start paying back debt, and deal with creditors.

Chapter 3 is great too - it shows how to organize your financial life so you know where your money is going. I've always hated creating a budget, which is why I've never had one before. Shannon shows how easy it is to set up a budget and check in on it every other week (which coincides with my pay periods). It's much easier than I thought. And even though my mountain of debt looks really high right now, I'm already feeling better about myself because at least I'm back on a path to financial stability again.

I've also shared this book with my son - who will be heading off to college next year. Having watched me wrestle with my money problems, I know he doesn't want to get into the same mess. This book is a great resource to teach you how to manage your money so that you don't get yourself in over your head. I think it's especially good for women who manage their household's finances, or for teenagers who need to learn about how to manage money.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book on finances!, May 28, 2005

By 

Kathy Broz (Dundee, Il) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Degunking Your Personal Finances: Free yourself of financial burdens starting TODAY! (Paperback)

Finances sometimes being a difficult and stressful topic, I was extremely relieved at the ease of navigating and digesting the information in this well done book. The way the author uses humor and examples from her own experiences in her writing made me feel like I was sitting down having a conversation with a close friend. This book is the best I've seen on this topic!