One Paycheck at a Time (Paperback)

In the beginning, you have to do a lot of work to get started. But if you hired a financial advisor, you would have to do the same work (or pay a lot of money to have the financial advisor do it for you). So the work is necessary. You set up a budget for each item you have to regularly spend money on, and then keep the remainder of each paycheck in cash to meet other routine expenses and to generate savings for rainy day items.

The system is one remarkably like the one that my parents used successfully for many years. For most of those years, they did not have a checking account. They would go to the supermarket to cash Dad's paycheck, buy some groceries, and keep the rest in cash which they allocated to different envelopes for different purposes. They kept track of what occasional expenses were likely to be (such as the annual car insurance premium) and saved the amounts needed in advance, one paycheck at a time. If you keep that concept in mind, you'll have the essence of this book.

The book assumes that you get paid twice a month (although you can calculate the amounts easily for a monthly paycheck), and takes you through 24 pay periods. In each pay period, there are extra little lessons on how to save or earn more.

Unlike most of these books where the author is a multimillionaire financial planner who has an accountant to do all of this nitty-gritty for them, Ms. Griffiths is a woman whose divorce left her at age 22 with $25,000 in credit card debt piled up by a gambling husband. It took her 15 years to eliminate that debt . . . and she has created this system to help you get faster results than she did. So she's been there . . . and done that. Despite that experience she doesn't personalize the story very much. This is a personal finance book rather than an autobiography.

If you are terrible with numbers, you will probably have to get someone to help you. Be sure to get a calculator to help you add up lots of numbers and later divide them.

After you've been using this system for 3 or 4 months, it shouldn't take long to apply it. One of the strengths of the approach is that it encourages you to see what you are spending. Seeing the details will probably help you identify lots of ways to save.

If you are looking for advanced tips on saving money, I didn't find any here that I didn't know about already (and I already use many of them). So I think the tips (beyond the system) will be new mostly to young people and to those who have not read other personal finance books . . . or simply haven't thought much about money management.

The book is thin and a quick read. If you actually apply it, you will be only reading a few pages during each pay period. So if you like to keep it simple . . . and want to system to provide some discipline, I think One Paycheck at a Time is a winner for you.

If you decide to read and use the book, I do recommend that you supplement it for investment advice as your debt drops and you have money to invest in areas other than company pension plans.

It teaches about getting & paying for insurance; education; banking; investments; smart shopping; maintaining your automobile; making more money, & much, much more.

Rebeccasreads recommends ONE PAYCHECK AT A TIME for anyone in debt, especially those new to the workforce or parents whose youngsters are heading into the workforce.

Get a copy & start learning how to handle your hard-earned money, & check out Rebecca's interview with this author.

"In spite of the cost of living, it's still popular." - Kathleen Norris

Kimberly Griffiths truly knows our pain. She's been there herself - riddled with overwhelming debt and struggling to scrape by, paycheck by paycheck. In this book she shares her hard-earned knowledge and her handy system of paying bills, including the reduction of credit card balances paycheck by paycheck instead of monthly, as most of us are used to doing. Her theory is this: By concentrating precious financial resources to pay off our "target" debt (while simultaneously budgeting for ongoing bills like utilities and rent) we will get out of debt that much faster and grow that much wiser about money use in general.

Griffiths' book is not only about "number-crunching" our way out of debt. It gives pointers on how to cut back on some of our more extravagant lifestyles choices, such as eating out frequently and buying overpriced clothing. Taking a simple measure like bringing a sack lunch to work three times a week or shopping sales can resolve many of our cash flow problems. Of course, with all this extra money in our pockets we'd be smart to continue paying down our target debts and start up a fund for a rainy day cost such as a major car repair bill. Better yet, once we have enough money saved up for contingencies we can start saving in good faith toward a once in a lifetime splurge such as a trip abroad. Who says money has to be saved for something dull?

Packed with numerous Internet resources and budgeting charts, One Paycheck at a Time is a slim volume fat with helpful information on how to pull yourself out of debt and, once there, continue to experience a debt-free existence.- C.APPEL * 12/03-2/04