Overcoming Underearning(TM): Overcome Your Money Fears and Earn What You Deserve [Hardcover]

Barbara Stanny (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 27, 2005

When it comes to money, are you controlled by fear? Do you live in financial chaos?Do you underestimate your worth? Are you ready to go to the next level, but can't seem to get there? If the answer is yes to these questions, you may be an underearner.

Underearners are self-saboteurs who never live up to their earnings potential, says Barbara Stanny, a financial educator, motivational speaker, former journalist, and career counselor. Underearners tend to live paycheck to paycheck. They rarely balance their checkbooks and are often in debt. Ironically, many work incredibly hard. Yet they are ashamed to admit that money matters to them. They all have a high tolerance for low pay.

The good news is that underearning is often self-imposed. By focusing on overcoming underearning, you will not only earn what you deserve, but you can live up to your full potential. With techniques and exercises that have helped thousands of people who have participated in her Overcoming Underearning™ workshops, Stanny teaches you five essential steps to financial independence. Once you understand these steps, you will be confident asking for a raise, increasing your prices, or getting a better job. "Now I'm making more than my friends, all because I had the guts to dream and ask for more," says one Stanny fan.

First, Tell the Truth: be honest about your financial situation and figure out your attitudes toward money. Second, Make a Decision: decide that you want to make more money. Third, Stretch: take action, face your fears, and be willing to be uncomfortable. Fourth, Create Community by finding supporters and asking for help. Fifth, Respect and Appreciate Money: learn to save and invest.

Overcoming Underearning is filled with inspiring, real-life stories of underearners who turned their lives around. Stanny brings a message of empowerment and hope to all those who chronically undervalue themselves. "I'm making more, working less, feeling healthier, have more energy, and I'm so much happier," concludes another Stanny believer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Stanny let the men in her life-first, her father, Richard Block of H&R Block, and then her husband-manage her money, but a divorce and a financial crisis served as a wake-up call. Since then, the author of Secrets of Six-Figure Women and Prince Charming Isn't Coming has taken her message on the road to show underearners how to achieve a greener financial future, and here lays out her five-step plan for those with money worries who want to earn, as the subtitle suggests, what they deserve. Step one, Stanny says, is "You've got to be willing to be uncomfortable." She defines many of the barriers and negative mindsets that plague underearners and uses exercises throughout the book to help readers with their "Inner Work," or their attitudes about money and self worth. It may take some very intensely willful delusion for readers who barely scrape by to envision themselves slathered in dough (and cynics may balk at the inspirational quotes from, say, Oprah and Groucho Marx), which is why Stanny employs a mind-spirit-pocketbook approach-learn to embrace money, be strong about what you want, earn more because you're worth more-that aims to change readers' thinking about money and improve financial habits (bottom line: save more). The advice here is common sense, but Stanny's upbeat empowerment will hit home with readers feeling the paycheck blues.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Barbara Stanny, the leading authority on women and money, is a popular motivational speaker, financial educator, former journalist, and career counselor. She is the author of Prince Charming Isn't Coming: How Women Get Smart About Money and Secrets of Six-Figure Women. She lives in Washington state.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060818611
• ISBN-13: 978-0060818616
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #483,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OK, Now I Get It!, January 19, 2006

By 

Allison Baker (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Overcoming Underearning(TM): Overcome Your Money Fears and Earn What You Deserve (Hardcover)

Okay, I'll admit it, I've always been an underearner--until now that is. I didn't even know I was, actually, until I read this book. I mean, I've done ok, kept the wolf from the door, but just never really hit my potential. Who knew I could blame my parents for something else? (Only sort of kidding...this book shows you how to figure out what messages from your family you took to heart about money.) No surprise, mine weren't great with it either, and I especially adopted my mother's shopping-is-good-therapy model. So I have lots of cool stuff, but don't own a house to put it in. But now I get it, and I've already done most of the exercises in this book, which really helped me to see that I have to push myself to do some things I've been avoiding...which are, of course, the things I most need to do!!! I'm buying another copy for my sister. She needs it even more! If you want to find out why you can't earn more money or hang onto what you do earn, this is the book for you! Highly recommended.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Overpromising underacheiving, March 9, 2006

By 

Christine Kennedy (Sarasota, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Overcoming Underearning(TM): Overcome Your Money Fears and Earn What You Deserve (Hardcover)

I think that the author had some very interesting comments about our attitudes regarding money. Some of the workbook exercises were particularly illuminating and for those alone I might recommend the book. I really like some of her observations about charity, greed, and how we were raised to feel about money. However, I thought her "success" stories were a little over-promised. Nearly all the women had not only extraordinary increases in income but also lost weight. Now come on... I found it interesting that most of the "success" stories were women who had jobs with some kind of entrepreneurial aspect - realtors, lawn care services; or the unemployed. The former are people who already have unlimited earning potential built into their career choice, but were perhaps defeating themselves with unhealthy attitudes toward money. The latter had nowhere to go but up. I felt there really wasn't enough advice or information for people in more corporate environments where miraculous 150% increases in income are not in a practical reality.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars work less, earn more, January 30, 2006

By 

Kate Greenberg (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Overcoming Underearning(TM): Overcome Your Money Fears and Earn What You Deserve (Hardcover)

I read Stanny's last book, Secrets of Six-Figure Women, and it inspired me to make some serious changes in how I view my own earning capabilities. I'm self-employed, and I couldn't see a away to earn more without working too many hours. But her new book is the missing puzzle piece for me. Her formula is deceptively simple-until you actually live it-and then it can be challenging to follow through on. The biggest hurdle for me is speaking up for what I really want, since I've always been way too shy for my own good. But a couple of the exercises in the book have helped me to look at this lifelong problem differently, and take some baby steps to correct it. And I have to report that it is a rush to finally be more authentic in my business dealings. And while I'm sure there are men who will be helped by this book, I think women, need it most. Especially if, like me, you are on the far side of 40. But the good news is, it's never too late to value yourself and your services more! My only criticism, is I wish there were even more exercises to do, as I like learning that way.