Girl, Get Your Money Straight!: A Sister's Guide to Healing Your Bank Account and Funding Your Dreams in 7 Simple Steps [Hardcover]

Glinda Bridgforth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 26, 2000

Do you find yourself struggling to pay your bills each month, even though you earn a salary that would make your parents proud? Is your tendency to spend impulsively whittling away at your long-term goals- like owning a home, going back to school, or planning a dream vacation with your family? If you're tired of feeling powerless over your finances and are ready to start funding your dreams, then come on, girl- it's time to get your money straight!

Author and financial expert Glinda Bridgforth knows that healthy money management is rarely just about dollars- it's about getting to the root of why we spend what we do and recognizing the emotional and cultural issues that play out in our unhealthy financial habits. A sought-after financial counselor for African American women nationwide, Bridgforth has first-hand knowledge of the unique factors that shape the way black women manage their money, and she has devoted her career to helping sisters take charge of their finances and grow their money tree. Girl, Get Your Money Straight! presents her seven step program for holistic financial healing-an upbeat, empowering roadmap that you can use to identify your heart’s desires, break away from negative spending patterns, conquer the checkbook blues, and create new wealth.

Beginning with simple, engaging exercises to help you initiate a "dialogue" with your money and offering an inspiring overview of African Americans' history of financial savvy and prosperity, Girl, Get Your Money Straight! outlines seven financial prescriptions that will guide you step-by-step to financial security. You will learn how to:
-Set goals that speak to your heart and provide you with lasting motivation
-Balance your checkbook and determine your net worth
-Develop a spending plan (not a budget!) that allows you to pay your bills and still have fun
-Track and analyze your spending to avoid slip-ups
-Pay off outstanding debts
-Save for a rainy day—and a bright future
-Find additional sources of encouragement and advice

Filled with Bridgforth's warm-hearted wisdom and advice, and complete with worksheets, exercises, affirmations, and inspiring stories of African American women who have found financial peace of mind, Girl, Get Your Money Straight! is a fresh, fun, and eminently practical guide to healing your bank account and building a life that you love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Using a variety of self-help techniques, journalist and "financial recovery specialist" Bridgforth has designed a "holistic" program for people who find personal finance stressful. While explicitly addressed to black women, this book would be useful to anyone comfortable with feel-good, recovery program lingo and practices, although those looking for detailed explanations of how stocks and mutual funds work should look elsewhere. Bridgforth advises meditating and repeating inspirational "affirmations" for those who find the idea of designing a spending plan daunting; lighting an aromatherapy candle on an "altar of abundance" may also help. Feeling good, she maintains, is essential to the success of any plan, while low self-esteem, which Bridgforth feels is a particular problem for black women, can result in ruinous, compensatory spending. She recommends careful recording of expenditures to help people get back in touch with the realities of their finances. Beyond debt management, Bridgforth urges readers to "fund" their dreams by constantly visualizing goals, wrapping up her program with a reminder to readers to tap into the spiritual energy of deity worship. While Bridgforth's basic position, that financial stress can be relieved with a better attitude and better record-keeping, may offend readers with a more political perspective on wealth and poverty in America, her consoling advice on how to stay calm and cope, which is attractively packaged for its target market, isn't likely to do much harm. (Jan. )
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

Do you find yourself struggling to pay your bills each month, even though you earn a salary that would make your parents proud? Is your tendency to spend impulsively whittling away at your long-term goals- like owning a home, going back to school, or planning a dream vacation with your family? If you're tired of feeling powerless over your finances and are ready to start funding your dreams, then come on, girl- it's time to get your money straight!

Author and financial expert Glinda Bridgforth knows that healthy money management is rarely just about dollars- it's about getting to the root of why we spend what we do and recognizing the emotional and cultural issues that play out in our unhealthy financial habits. A sought-after financial counselor for African American women nationwide, Bridgforth has first-hand knowledge of the unique factors that shape the way black women manage their money, and she has devoted her career to helping sisters take charge of their finances and grow their money tree. Girl, Get Your Money Straight! presents her seven step program for holistic financial healing-an upbeat, empowering roadmap that you can use to identify your heart?s desires, break away from negative spending patterns, conquer the checkbook blues, and create new wealth.

Beginning with simple, engaging exercises to help you initiate a "dialogue" with your money and offering an inspiring overview of African Americans' history of financial savvy and prosperity, Girl, Get Your Money Straight! outlines seven financial prescriptions that will guide you step-by-step to financial security. You will learn how to:
-Set goals that speak to your heart and provide you with lasting motivation
-Balance your checkbook and determine your net worth
-Develop a spending plan (not a budget!) that allows you to pay your bills and still have fun
-Track and analyze your spending to avoid slip-ups
-Pay off outstanding debts
-Save for a rainy day?and a bright future
-Find additional sources of encouragement and advice

Filled with Bridgforth's warm-hearted wisdom and advice, and complete with worksheets, exercises, affirmations, and inspiring stories of African American women who have found financial peace of mind, Girl, Get Your Money Straight! is a fresh, fun, and eminently practical guide to healing your bank account and building a life that you love.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (December 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767904877
• ISBN-13: 978-0767904872
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #729,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decide to do it, then do it!, June 23, 2004

By 

S. Hudson "Avid Reader" (Tucker, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Girl, Get Your Money Straight: A Sister's Guide to Healing Your Bank Account and Funding Your Dreams in 7 Simple Steps (Paperback)

A holistic and straightforward approach to managing your money, Girl, Get Your Money Straight!, is written in plain English and simple enough for even beginners to comprehend. There are no complicated terms or intimidating jargon, which require a financial planner to interpret, thus easing the reader's way to fall in step towards change. Making amendments to your financial future starts with seven simple, precise steps, you can take now. As stressed in this book, there are no preliminary steps other than to determine in your mind that you want to make a change. Specifically written in a vernacular that would appeal to the African-American woman, Glinda Bridgforth gets down to the nitty gritty when talking about finances. Not a subject easily broached in the Black community it would seem, finance is something that we must get under control in order to prosper. From years of counseling people, Girl, Get You Money Straight contains many scenarios in which readers can relate. Though written several years ago, the information is still pertinent and viable. The scenarios examine the root cause of the behavior and works on changing the root to yield a more prosperous bloom. One example would be the misguided concept of "keeping up with the Jones'" and what a tremendous financial burden that creates on the family when appearances overshadow necessity.
Written several years ago, the information in this book is still pertinent and viable. If you have decided to change your financial life, this book is necessary to help you along your journey. With strength from above and a purposeful goal in mind, you can overcome the bonds of financial dependence and free yourself by starting now.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book on how to truly manage your money!, January 24, 2001

By 

Kanika Wade (Columbia, SC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girl, Get Your Money Straight!: A Sister's Guide to Healing Your Bank Account and Funding Your Dreams in 7 Simple Steps (Hardcover)

I have read many financial books on how to manage money but Ms. Bridgsforth does a superb job in 'Girl Get your money straight' on how to truly get your finances together. The steps that she provides in this book are clear, comprehensive, and concise and can easily be applied into your personal life with success over a period of time. These holistic ideas and concepts along with her own testimonial and those of several clients (who are mentioned in the text along with her) who have applied these elements and have been debt free are truly inspirational and this book has been so helpful in my quest to get my money straight. This is one book that I would recommend to all especially young and old sisters who are looking to get their money straight. Thank you Ms. Bridgsforth for bringing this book to the community.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Money Made Simple, January 24, 2003

By 

"sistersince77" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girl, Get Your Money Straight!: A Sister's Guide to Healing Your Bank Account and Funding Your Dreams in 7 Simple Steps (Hardcover)

i love the approach that bridgforth takes here. this is the best book about money that i've ever read. i've been attempting to "straighten" my money for a long time by buying books to educate myself. this is, however, the only book that does not lose me in the middle. it addresses issues that other 'money' books dont address like bad credit, not being able to get a bank account, and the like. all of these issues dont apply to all african american women, but i appreciated that she did take the time to take it into consideration. it shapes the reader's mind in such a way that she truly believes that getting her financial situation together is not impossible. i have recommended this book to all of my girlfriends. even if you have a hard time reading books that arent novels, i can assure that you will enjoy this book.