Amazon.com Review
Sometimes our parents plant weird ideas in our heads, such as "You shouldn't be selfish," when the subject of buying something nice arises. As an adult, that often translates into "I don't deserve to have money." Or maybe we feel so good about the money we make that we can't resist spending it on whatever catches our eye: a new pair of shoes, a titanium mountain bike, a leather love seat to go with the leather sofa we couldn't afford last month.
Financial planner Brooke Stephens has heard every excuse for not making, saving, and investing money; she also knows that no matter what attitude a person starts with, he or she can change it. So Wealth Happens starts with baby steps--tiny exercises to change your mind about money, and to increase your knowledge about what it can do. Then she shows the basics of investing, building wealth, protecting what you've built, and, finally, retiring on that wealth.
Sprinkled among the chunks of concrete advice are quotes and proverbs ("Save money and money will save you"), inspirational anecdotes (John D. Rockefeller built an incredible fortune while tithing 10 percent to his church), and real-life scenarios showing how a decent income can get gobbled up with foolish purchases and the resultant credit-card interest. Wealth Happens is about as beginner-friendly as personal-finance guides can possibly be. Because of that, it probably won't be very useful to the person who's already paying off credit-card balances each month and saving for retirement. But for the person who wonders how people who own homes got them, or how anyone can actually afford to retire at 65, this is the book to buy. --Lou Schuler
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Stephens is the author of
Talking Dollars and Making Sense: A Wealth-Building Guide for African-Americans, in which she made the distinction between income and wealth and focused on reasons the savings rate among African Americans is so much lower than among other groups. One of the barriers to saving, she suggested, is a psychological one: for so long African Americans lacked discretionary funds to save or invest. One way to break through that barrier, she recommended, was simply to start saving $1 each day. Now she expands on that advice, targeting anyone who has had trouble getting started saving or investing. Still relying on a one-day-at-a-time approach, Stephens offers this yearlong motivational day planner filled with inspirational inducements and practical tips. For each day, she suggests a specific, concrete action to move one forward toward the goal of building wealth. Her year is divided into five segments devoted, in turn, to wealth consciousness and its foundation, creation, protection, and preservation.
David Rouse
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
