The Smart Cookies' Guide to Making More Dough: How Five Young Women Got Smart, Formed a Money Group, and Took Control of Their Finances [Hardcover]

The Smart Cookies (Author), Jennifer Barrett (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 30, 2008

Let The Smart Cookies show you how to eliminate debt, spend smarter, save better, and achieve financial freedom—without sacrificing your social life or your sanity!

They were five dynamic young women: smart, successful—and secretly drowning in debt. Inspired by an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show on personal finance, Andrea, Angela, Katie, Robyn, and Sandra formed a money club, together developing strategies for turning their finances around. Just one year later they had dramatically improved their financial situations—and had made major developments in their careers, relationships, and life goals to boot. Their proven recipe for success has since been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, MSNBC, and in the New York Daily News.

How did they do it? These five women—with varied careers in marketing, public relations, social work, and TV production—joined forces to create a fun, simple, effective strategy for achieving financial success, forming a money club and supporting each other every step of the way. Now, in this extraordinary hands-on guide, the women, who soon dubbed themselves The Smart Cookies, share the secrets of their success.

Weaving anecdotes from their own lives with practical, how-to advice, The Smart Cookies offer strategies that cut across the financial spectrum, whether you’re deeply in debt or just want to manage your money better. Tackling the unique financial challenges facing women today, they offer easy-to-follow advice on everything from creating a spending plan to boosting your income to starting your own money club.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In 2006, a group of 20-something women saw an episode of Oprah that featured financial experts offering advice on paying down debt. Though all five were outwardly confident in their careers and goals, they were secretly drowning financially; between them, they had a combined $35,000 in credit card debt and barely any savings. Inspired by what they'd seen, they started a money group and took responsibility for educating themselves about spending (and saving) habits, goals and investments. Within a year they made great strides: they'd added thousands to retirement accounts, paid off more than $15,000 in credit card debt, saved more than $15,000 and had all bought or were well on their way to buying homes. The enterprising authors address the nitty-gritty of goal-setting, negotiations for raises, debt management and mortgages, and their plainspoken, encouraging style and helpful breakdown of information make this the perfect gift for recent grads—or anyone who needs convincing that financial health is attainable. (Oct.)
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Review

"Anyone who's afraid to take hold of her financial life should grab this inspiring book with both hands. These five women, who started as a 'collective financial mess,' turned their situations around in less than a year. They can show you how to do the same."—Liz Pulliam Weston, MSN Money columnist and author of Deal With Your Debt and Easy Money

"Smart Cookies is a great motivator for anyone looking to sharpen their financial skills and shine a bright light on their financial life. Witty and insightful, this book shows people how they can band together and achieve their financial wishes by getting those dirty little money secrets out in the open and working in concert with one another. It's a great read."—Howard S. Dvorkin, founder of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services, Inc., author of Credit Hell: How to Dig Out of Debt

“A perfect gift for recent grads—or anyone who needs convincing that financial health is attainable.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385342446
• ISBN-13: 978-0385342445
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 0.8 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,490,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 58 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Are you kidding me? February 20, 2009

By Libraries Rule!

Format:Hardcover

I can't believe this book. How are these women able to write this book with a straight face? This isn't a book for the average woman, it's for rich girls with no sense. They share personal stories about how to cut back; and I laughed at every one of them. One of them owed 12 pairs of $300 jeans. Are you kidding me? I own two pairs of jeans, and the most I have ever paid for jeans was $35, and that felt like a splurge. They suggest taking your lunch to work instead of eating out, reducing your number of lattes, and only buying a few designer pieces of clothing. What a joke! In the real world, all the women I know bring a lunch to work. I don't know anyone with a designer anything. One of the women in the book was proud that she and her spouse figured out how to live on just one of their salaries and save the rest...they were making a combined $150,000. Their one salary was still way above what my husband and I make combined. So if you are trying to figure out how to save up for a trip to a spa (3 nights for two people: $6000. This is an actual example from the book; I'm not making this up.), then this might be the book for you. If you are already juggling a mortgage, keeping a 14 year old car running with frequent trips to the mechanic, student loans, and any type of medical bill, this in NOT the book for you. If you are an airhead who already makes well above the median income of the average US citizen but still manages to spend it all in one month ($500 dresses for dates! Crazy!) then this book might help you out.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is a joke-don't waste your money May 15, 2011

By Jennifer Sims

Format:Hardcover

I have read a lot of different books on personal finance. This book was by far the absolute worst. I am just going to take one quote straight from the book and that should sum it up:

"The Smart Cookies have allowed ourselves $100 a week in fun money..."

If you are looking at purchasing this book, I imagine you don't have an extra $400 each month for "fun money". The whole book basically describes their lavish lifestyles and how they got into debt purchasing designer jeans, expensive dinners, etc. There are no practical, proven ways to get out of debt beyond not buying a latte every day and buying designer clothing on eBay.

Save your money and buy a book from Dave Ramsey or David Bach instead. They both offer effective methods for getting out of debt and growing wealth. And here is a parting thought: If these "Smart Cookies" are so smart, why aren't they investing their $5200 a year of fun money in mutual funds instead of blowing it?

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Glad I bought! June 24, 2009

By Jaimo

Format:Hardcover

As a college student, I wanted to become more smart about saving money, credit cards, investing, etc, but there are very few resources that are aimed at helping young women do so. And I believe that you should have knowledge of money matters when you are young, before you even have a chance to get into debt. So I bought it and I'm glad I did. I have to disagree with the reviewer below. This book taught me about credit cards, a little bit about investing, shopping smarter, and other little tricks to save money. To me, it IS realistic to go out for lunch a lot during the work week, many people do, even if it is going out for a $3 sub sandwich. While it may not be realistic to buy 12 pairs of $300 jeans, we all have something that we impulsively buy and we all shop for emotional reasons at some time or another. This book addresses that. The girls examples were just examples, but you can relate to them in some way and apply their strategies to your own life regardless of your income. And if you go to there website and sign up for their newsletter, you can get money saving advice sent to your email during the week. I love that! Thanks to this book, I now realize that being financially savvy and secure is achievable. These girls came from a lot of debt and dug their way out. This book is their story about how they did it. I learned a lot from them. If you have debt or just want to become more knowledgable about money matters, this is a great book. This would be a great resource for a young woman headed to college.