Become Totally Debt-Free in Five Years or Less (Paperback)

~ (Author), Raphael Elizalde (Author), Chandra Sparks Taylor (Editor), Diana Kennedy (Editor), Raphael Elizalde (Illustrator) "Why do we make the financial we do?..." (more)
Key Phrases: blind appraisal, escrow shortages, monthly mortgage note, Assessing Your Financial Compatibility, Bookkeeping Service, Personal Tax (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This self-help book about personal finance provides hundreds of motivational and inspirational messages and common-sense and creative money-management ideas and techniques to help readers get out of debt. The book has 30 chapters. Of the 30 chapters, the first four are filled with motivational messages, the next 26 are packed with money-saving ideas. At the beginning of each chapter is an eye-catching illustration and at the end of each chapter is an affirmation. There are also six worksheets and three self-evaluations throughout the book to further assist readers in becoming totally debt-free.

About the Author

Gwendolyn D. Gabriel is an attorney, a real-estate broker, and most importantly, a self-proclaimed cheapskate. She uses her experiences in all three of these areas, with her "cheapskate" title having the most impact, to provide readers common-sense and creative money-saving ideas and techniques she implemented to get out of debt in five years. In five short years, Gabriel went from being $125,000 in debt to becoming totally debt-free. Specifically, the author implemented the techniques described in her book to pay off all her debts, to include her mortgage, car and credit-card debts - and thereby became totally debt-free. Now, she is sharing her ideas with others via this book!

Product Details

• Paperback: 234 pages
• Publisher: Brown Bag Press; Ist edition (November 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970302207
• ISBN-13: 978-0970302205
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #889,667 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Start saving by not buying this book!, January 11, 2004

By	"mollie449" (Missouri) - See all my reviews

I have read a lot of books about debt recovery, personal finances, budgeting, and saving, and this book has been by far the worst. To begin with, regardless of how the title sounds, the author doesn't actually give any tips for how to organize or budget in order to reduce the debt that you currently have. The book is basically a list of money saving tips, which would be fine if the tips were useful and applicable to ones daily life. Unfortunately those that Ms. Gabriel shares are neither.

Her tips range from ultra-restrictive suggestions such as never go into a mall or retail store again to tips that would only apply to specific and seldom occuring (at least I hope) situations such as decide not to get tattoos or don't throw lavish funerals for your loved ones to just down right impractical suggestions such as move in with family or friends for a year and rent out your house so that you can double what you are paying on your mortgage. If you are looking for a book of practical, manageable money saving tips that you can apply to your everyday life then this is definitely not that book.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save Your Money, August 17, 2004

By	One Day at a Time in NJ (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

Save your money and skip this book. As stated in other reviews, the title of the book is misleading. The author mentions here and there how she got out of debt but there was nothing for the reader to grasp onto and use as a course of action. The tid-bits of information she gives for saving money are obvious and boring if the reader has already been reading books on the "get out of debt" subject.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful "Debt-Free" Book, November 25, 2000

By A Customer

I have read this book from cover to cover and I believe this is the most wonderful financial book that I have ever read. One of the greatest things about this book is that it is organized in such a manner that I can reference back to any money-saving idea I need to know about at the moment, without re-reading the whole book. I also love this book because the author appears to be a regular person who was in debt and wrote about how she got out--now she's helping others by the use of her book. I would love to meet this author because she seems down-to-earth and has already helped me reconsider the way I look at money. As a result, I have already cut up two of my six credit cards, made many other money-saving improvements and I am on my way to becoming debt-free. Gosh, I love this book.