Living Rich for Less: Create the Lifestyle You Want by Giving, Saving, and Spending Smart [Hardcover]

Ellie Kay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 16, 2008

You really can be rich in every way, every day.

So you want to own the home you love, make memories on wonderful vacations with family or friends, finance college educations, and help others too?

You can–starting here and now.

With lively humor, proven know-how, and practical principles for financial health, Living Rich for Less helps you stretch your dollars to realize the lifestyle of your dreams. Ellie Kay’s entertaining and enlightening examples show you simple steps to save, spend, and give smart, and her three main principles are undergirded by dozens of effective rules and hundreds of Cha-Ching Factor™ tips that keep or put money in your pocket.

Ellie knows what it’s like to be financially-strapped or struggling, wanting to be the Joneses but feeling as poor in spirit as in pocketbook. She went, within two and a half years, from being a new wife and mom with $40,000 in consumer debt and seven children (and college educations) to support, to being completely debt-free and within fifteen years able to pay cash for eleven different cars, give away three of those cars, buy two five-bedroom houses (moving from one to the other) and nicely furnish each, take wonderful vacations, dress her family in fine fashion; and support more than thirty non-profit organizations in more than a dozen different countries, giving away more than $100,000.

Isn’t that the kind of transformation to a rich life that you want?

Living Rich for Less helps anyone get there in our taxed-out, maxed-out times. Because financial security doesn’t mean just genuine prosperity, but being able to live luxuriously, give generously, and care for yourself as well as the others around you.

Why keep up with the Joneses when you can be them?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Suze Orman, you’ve got a powerhouse who just moved in next door! Ellie Kay is a financial expert whose time has come. Her advice is for Mr. and Mrs. America and not just Wall Street. If you live on Main Street, you need to meet your new neighbor, Ellie Kay, who’s spiked the Koolaid with the wakeup juice that mainstream America needs in order to survive today’s money woes and tomorrow's future challenges. I love this book more than a bowl of fat grams.”
– Dr. Kevin Leman, best-selling author of Have a New Kid by Friday

"Ellie Kay makes complicated financial concepts understandable. Heeding her advice will give you an extraordinary quality of life as you learn the secrets of living and giving in a way that multiples your resources.”
–Carol Kent, best-selling author A New Kind of Normal and president of Speak Up Speaker Services


“We feel richer already! Ellie Kay gives a billfold full of ideas to help place more money back into your pockets! With three kids in college, and retirement on the horizon, Ellie’s wisdom is a wealth of encouragement, comfort, and practical proven helps.”
–Pam and Bill Farrel, international speakers, best-selling authors of Men are like Waffles, Women are like Spaghetti, and Ten Best Decisions a Couple Can Make


“Ellie work, helping us be better stewards, is one of the great services to families across our nation.”
–Dennis Rainey, executive director and radio host of Family Life

“Ellie is amazing! I don’t think she ever sleeps! She provides great information and is always a fun guest on the show.”
–Bill Griffith, host of CNBC’s Power Lunch

“Ellie is the gateway to mainstream America.”
–Marc Myers, money columnist, Reader’s Digest

“A splendid example of the far-reaching and positive impact that an individual with vision and faith can make in our world. Thank God to people like her who are a tremendous inspiration!”
–Dr. Robert H. Schuller, The Crystal Cathedral and television host of Hour of Power

“Ellie provides an amazing abundance of helpful and insightful information.”
–Dr. Norm Wright, best-selling author and licensed marriage, child and family therapist

“She makes things simple so even I can understand it.”
–Dr. Kevin Leman, best-selling author of Making Your Children Mind Without Losing Yours and Have a New Kid By Friday

“The debt mentality in our society is rampant, and people are desperate. Ellie hits the nail on the head by defining those struggles and offering practical solutions in a remarkably clear way.”
–Howard Dayton, CEO, Crown Financial Ministries

“A gifted communicator…interesting, educational, and very helpful. I recommend her work wholeheartedly to any family in America.”
–Ron Blue, president CFP Network

“Provides the world’s most practical information on family finances. She gives real answers for real people dealing with real finances in a real world.”
–Phil Waldrep, author of Parenting Prodigals

About the Author

Ellie Kay is the best-selling author of Half-Priced Living and eleven other titles, including A Tip A Day with Ellie Kay and The Debt Diet, with more than 350,000 books sold. She’s a regular television guest on CNBC’s Power Lunch, Fox News, and CNN; and has been the featured family finance expert in numerous magazines and newspapers, including Family Circle, Women’s World, and USA Today. Her financial help columns appear in a dozen periodicals and online, including CBN.com. A popular speaker, she’s Wal-mart’s official financial help expert, and has served as a consumer educator and official spokesperson for Proctor & Gamble, VisaProvidian, MasterCard, and more. Ellie and her husband, Bob, are the parents of seven children and live in Palmdale, California.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press (December 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307446018
• ISBN-13: 978-0307446015
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.8 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #913,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth a read, March 13, 2009

By 

Pandy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living Rich for Less: Create the Lifestyle You Want by Giving, Saving, and Spending Smart (Hardcover)

Since the recession is hitting most of us, I went to the library looking for books that would help and offer some sound advice. I loved the title of this book so I picked it up along with a few others.

This was by far the least helpful. The author provides almost no tips on how to spend smart. She tells us to save 10% of our income, donate 10%, and spend 80%. I already donate to charity, I already save, I wanted advice on how best to save and how best to spend the remainder of my income. This book offered no advice for that.

I admire the fact that Kay dug herself out of $40,000 in debt, but while reading the book you discover part of the reason why is that she was a winning contestant on the Price is Right and took home thousands!

Books like Frugal Living for Dummies are much more helpful.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of Time, March 13, 2009

By 

Suttercane - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living Rich for Less: Create the Lifestyle You Want by Giving, Saving, and Spending Smart (Hardcover)

This book gives almost no information on how to live rich for less. In fact, it reads like an infomercial complete with customer testimonials. The book is filled with cute little stories that offer no practical advice.

The entire book can be summed up with Kay's 10/10/80 principle - donate 10% of your money, save 10%, spend the other 80% wisely. That's it. Her advice for spending the other 80% wisely is essentially use the Internet to find good deals, use coupons, buy on sale, and negotiate. There are many other books that cover these same topics but in much greater detail.

I was also turned off by Kay's product placement. She has been a paid spokesperson for Proctor & Gamble and others and it shows. She tells consumers to buy Dawn dish soap because it is ultra concentrated so it lasts longer, but most stores have generic versions of ultra concentrated soap that works just as well and lasts just as long (and is much cheaper). She also pitches another PG product, Bounty paper towels, and I've used other less expensive brands that were just as good. But Kay never recommends buying the generics of these products. I do not think a paid spokesperson should offer supposed unbiased advice.

If the book offered other great tips or advice I could have overlooked the product pitches, but unfortunately it didn't.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You can do better with your money., May 6, 2009

By 

datSplat "datSplat.com" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living Rich for Less: Create the Lifestyle You Want by Giving, Saving, and Spending Smart (Hardcover)

There are books out there that offer much more savvy advice about spending, saving, and investing. Without the whole picture, you really are selling yourself short. The investing section of this book truly lacks in substance (aptly called "Investing for Idiots") and the advice offered throughout the book in general is way too elementary and superficial. For the most part, one gets the feeling that the author is much more interested in trying to trademark ideas or come up with "clever" catchphrases than to educate the reader (some ideas she is trying to assert ownership to have been around forever...for example, the 10/10/80 concept which is most often attributed to John D. Rockefeller, Sr.). There are some things in this book that may be helpful to those just starting out in the grown-up world or those never having confronted budgeting or saving before, but please pick up others to supplement. (And, please, save your money and get it from the library.) Suze Orman's books tend to be more encompassing and provide more concrete information and processes to sink your teeth into. You'll likely have to read many authors though and take from each one's thoughts and teachings to put together your own plan and method that works for you.