Book Review: Dollars & Uncommon Sense: Basic training for your money – by Steve Repak, CFP

Book: Dollars & Uncommon Sense: Basic training for your money

Author: Steve Repak, CFP

Publisher: RFS Publishing

Date: January 2, 2012

Genre: Non-Fiction; Personal Finance

Pages: 166; paperback

Price: $14.95

My Rating: Excellent for anyone wanting to get out of debt and have enough to live on now and in retirement.

 

I received this book from Library Thing in exchange for an honest review.

I am so glad I was given the opportunity to read this book! With clarity and ordinary language, Steve Repak shares from experience how to get out of debt, how to save money and still have enough to live on, and how to prepare for a financially secure retirement – starting now.

In Dollars and Uncommon Sense you will find sound information and advice. The author, who is now a successful financial adviser, came out of the army with over $32,000 in credit card debt. He struggled to break free of that and eventually figured out how to efficiently pay it all off and still get ahead. In his well-written book – which is as easy to read as it would be to sit down and talk with him – he tells it how it is while helping the reader set up a plan for wise financial transformation. At the end of each chapter is a summary of the main points.

Part 1: Basic Training

Chapter 1 – Change the Way You Think

Chapter 2 – Build Your Foundations

Part 2: Spending

Chapter 3 – Principle: If You Spend Less, You Will Have More

Chapter 4 – Priorities: Give, Pay Yourself, Pay Everybody Else

Chapter 5 – Plan: A Plan for Your Paycheck

Part 3: Debt

Chapter 6 – Principle: Debt Puts Your Financial Health at Risk

Chapter 7 – Priorities: Quit Charging and Start Saving

Chapter 8 – Plan: Uncommon Sense Steps for Getting out of Debt

Part 4: Saving and Investing

Chapter 9 – Principle: It Doesn’t Take a Million to Make a Million

Chapter 10 – Priorities: “Life Happens,” Then “I Quit!”

Chapter 11 – Plan: Invest in Your Future

At the end, Steve Repak has a section called Useful Websites, a Glossary of the words perhaps hard to understand, and Worksheets that can also be downloaded from his own website. He seems to have made every attempt in this book to help the reader understand how debt can be handled, and how to live with adequate funds while also saving for  enough to live on comfortably in retirement.

It is never too late to apply his methods. For anyone too young to even be considering retirement, this is the very time to begin the plan! You won’t regret it.

Dollars & Uncommon Sense: Basic Training for Your Money is not a book to read, say “that was helpful,” and lay aside. This is a book with a step-by-step strategy to live free of the burden of debt and the worry of ‘will I have enough to live on?’ I urge you to “take the steps necessary to change your financial future.”

You can find Dollars & Uncommon Sense: Basic Training for Your Money listed on my BUY THE BOOK! page.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂