A Woman's Guide to Family Finances [Paperback]

Ellie Kay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2004

Financial planning and budgeting basics mixed with Ellie Kay's entertaining style make A Woman's Guide to Family Finances practical as well as entertaining. Readers learn how to control their spending and save money as well as plan for the future, including their kids' education and other family needs. Topics include saving money on a mortgage, getting out of debt, and saving on essentials in order to give to those in need. An easy-to-use book that families will rely on for encouragement as well as advice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kay, a military wife and mother of seven, knows how to stretch a dollar. In this chatty book for women, she highlights seven essentials to any family's financial plan: an emergency fund, life insurance, a will, a retirement account, a good credit rating, a college fund (if there are children) and-unusually-an Internet connection. (This, she says, gives families access to the very best mortgage and insurance rates, among other things.) After presenting various personality types (e.g., "Tightwad Tilly" and "Secure Samantha") and discussing some of the emotional baggage of money, Kay provides nuts-and-bolts information to help readers get out of debt, tithe 10 percent to charity and achieve their financial goals. She has a conversational style and shares many personal stories, such as the time she was a winning contestant on "The Price is Right." The book's breathless tone, marked by an overabundance of exclamation points and italicized sentences, can be wearing at times, but interspersed with the chin-wags are concrete tips on avoiding identity theft, buying a home, selling unused items, surviving a layoff and other topics.
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Review

"Real advice for real people. Four and a half stars." -- About.com Woman's Writers Guide

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 199 pages
• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764226959
• ISBN-13: 978-0764226953
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,803,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No-nonsense and Straight-shooting, May 14, 2005

By 

Lynne Chapman "lynnechapman.com" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Woman's Guide to Family Finances (Paperback)

This book gives practical advice to any woman interested in getting control of family finances, whether she is married, single with kids or on her own.
It also includes help for financial recovery for the deeply in debt and for the suddenly unemployed.
Divided into two sections, Ellie Kay jumps into the hard truth with "Where Did All The Dough Go?"

Ms Kay's description of the America's normal family:
1. Married with two children
2. Modest home with a 30 year mortgage
3. $40,000 annual income
4. Savings account with less than $500 in it
5. $8,000 in credit card debt
6. Two car payments
7. No household budget
8. No long-term retirement account
9. They want their children to go to college


Where they hope to be One Fine Day
1, Paid off mortgage
2. Paid off credit cards
3. Nice savings account
4. IRAs
5. Kids sent to college
6. Retirement

And where they will actually be if they continue their financial habits shows a vast divide that hits all too close to home for many of us.

Ellie Kay asks, "What are you willing to do today in order to make your family's financial dreams cone true in the future?"

She goes on to show the different personalities and emotions that drive financial decisions. Chances are you will find yourself in one or more of these personalities as I did.
But, take heart, she gives practical ways to break free from the destructive spending cycles that accompany each of these personalities.

After facing the hard truth of who we are and how we spend, we get to take action in Section 2 "Money Management For Everyone"
In this section there are action steps such as Ten Tips to Save Ten Bucks in Ten Minutes (or less) and establishing a household budget, based on The Fifty Thousand Dollar Pyramid
This section is packed with useful information about everything from choosing a mortgage to garage sales and Ebay.

The last chapter brings home the spiritual reason for being financially secure. - So that we can give generously, in very practical ways, to those in need.
I enjoyed Ms Kay's entertaining sense of humor, which got me through even the painful areas of `self-recognition' and 'plastic (credit card) surgery'.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a keeper for the bookshelf!, September 6, 2004

By 

Christian Bookshelf "Christian Bookworm Reviews" (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Woman's Guide to Family Finances (Paperback)

Do you dream of the day when . . .

. . . Your credit cards are paid off?

. . . You have a savings account and an IRA?

. . . You can take a once-in-a-lifetime family vacation?

Then A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO FAMILY FINANCES is the book for you. Written in an entertaining, easy-to-read style, Ellie Kay will teach the reader how she took her family from over forty-thousand dollars in credit card debt, to being completely debt-free in two and a half years.

Ms. Kay shows in easy to understand chapters how to budget, how to save on essentials, how to go on a debt diet, and how to weather financial set-backs, including losing your job and looking for a new place of employment.

I don't usually like to read how-to books, but this book reads like a good novel. I had to keep reading. I learned some really valuable tips and relearned others that I'd forgotten and am looking forward to putting my new budget into operation.

A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO FAMILY FINANCES is a book to read through once, but then come back to time and again as you are ready to make more financial changes. She advices you start small and build your way up so you don't go into shock and stop trying to save money. Whether you are a born spender or saver, A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO FAMILY FINANCES is a book for a keeper shelf to be read and studied over and over. I'd recommend having your teenagers read it too, especially if they are soon to be on their own.

=== reviewed by Laura V. Hilton for Christian Bookshelf

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable (and fun!) resource for women AND men!, March 25, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: A Woman's Guide to Family Finances (Paperback)

Ellie Kay, once known as 'the coupon queen' is now called "America's Family Financial Expert" and this book helps show why. She shares practical strategies for making and sticking to a budget, going on a "debt diet", weathering financial setbacks (including touching and contrasting stories of people who suddenly found themselves unemployed, and how they handled it) how to save on essentials, and how to always share with those less fortunate, all in her fun, entertaining signature style.

I learn something new every time I read one of Ellie's books. This time I learned the Four Axioms to keep us from frugal burnout: 1. Shop LESS and you will save more, 2. Watch LESS television and save more, 3. THROW away mail order catalogs and save more (this one really hit home!) and 4. Bypass reading the ads in magazines and newspapers and save more.

Thanks, Ellie, for another excellent book that even the math-and-financially impaired of us can understand!