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! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How My Savior Leads Me … and the winner is …

Today we have a winner who has already responded!

This evening our young grandson was visiting and asked to be the one to draw the name out of the basket, so at 5:00 PM EST that is what happened. The winner receives the copy of How My Savior Leads Me by Terri M. Stellrecht, generously donated by the author for one of my readers to win. Thank you, Terri.

So … congratulations to Rebecca Carney who replied: “Thank you so much!! I look forward to reading this book.”   I will put the book into the mail this week for you, Rebecca.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

More great Writer’s Helps!

Do you not only come up with great stories, but you also create whole new worlds? If you do, then you may need to put your world on a map.

Have you ever tried to follow a story and wished you could see what the author could see? I have, and a map would have been a great help to me so I could follow along with a visual. Well, if you have ever thought you would like to – or should – have a map for your story or fantasy world, then check out the links I have added to my Writer’s Helps page. One is for maps you can use for free, the other is free software to make your own. How cool is that! 🙂

While you’re there, be sure to check over the other links as I sometimes move things around and I don’t always announce when I add one link to a list.

Just a final reminder, at about 5:00 PM EST a name will be drawn for the book How My Savior Leads Me. Be sure to read my review before entering. Then watch your email as I will be sending notice to the winner.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Are you a spoiler?

Today the question on my mind is … are you a spoiler?

By that I mean, when you pick up a book to read it, do you go to the last page and read the ending of the story before reading the beginning and middle?

If so …

why do you do that?! Why do you spoil it for yourself?

Are you impatient? Can you not wait to know how it ends? Does it bug you too much to have to read through from the beginning?

Okay, I admit to having done that a few times. I have skipped ahead to know if it’s worth the build-up of anticipation and suspense, or if I will be disappointed. Or I’ve quickly flipped through if I simply couldn’t stand the too-many-words-in-between until I could find out what I was waiting to know. I have occasionally found a book that became too wordy or slow resulting in the story losing its magic for me,  making it very hard to wade through all the blah blah blah’s without skipping a few pages to move ahead.

On the most part, though, I make myself resist the urge to peek. The times I have read the last page out of turn were usually when I was almost there anyway.

Are you one of those people who just has to start at the end of almost anything you are reading? Do you read magazines or the newspaper or brochures from the back to the front, too?

Would or does reading the last page first spoil your appetite for the main part of the book? Do you ever not read the rest after doing that?

Speaking of appetite, do you eat dessert before the main course? Some people do, you know. I knew a family whose daughter always wanted to do that. It didn’t spoil her appetite for the rest of the meal so they let her.

Oh dear, that’s making me hungry. Back to the main point …

When I am looking for information on a book before I buy it, I don’t like reading spoilers. I like some info but not too much. But, it seems I am almost the opposite with movies. I like a certain amount of information, especially to know if it gets overly violent or vulgar or stupid. I consider those to be a waste of my time and I usually choose to not watch something that will really bother me. But, on the other hand, spoilers of movies that interest me tend to draw me in and I accept knowing more ahead than if it is a book. I’m not sure why that is, unless because when reading one’s own visuals are formulated and if it’s out of order that gets all messed up. (Does that make any sense?)

It’s funny how we form habits. I wonder why do we have to rush ahead, and why do we find it so hard to take things in order?

Maybe there is another very simple explanation for this, and not just impatience or having to know it all first. If so, please clue me in to what it is.

I know, I asked loads of questions this time, (which I hope you will think about and tell me what your habits are, because I find it very interesting) but they all boil down to the main one.

Are you a spoiler? Why or why not?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

 

Book Review: How My Savior Leads Me – by Terri M. Stellrecht

Book: How My Savior Leads Me
Author: Terri M. Stellrecht
Publisher: WestBow Press – a division of Thomas Nelson; another publisher for upcoming revised edition
Date: October 21, 2011
Genre: Inspirational non-fiction
Pages: 192
Price: $13.95, paperback; less on Kindle
My rating: hard story to read, yet a sincere sharing of pain and hope.
 
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

How My Savior Leads Me is the true story of a family’s loss, the sudden and unexpected death of one of its children in February 2011. The author writes from a place of pain, all the while trying to trust God in her grief.

Trent Stellrecht is a twelve-year-old boy who loves life as a young boy does, being  adventurous, fun-loving, and outgoing. We are not told what exactly happened that tragic day, except that he died in a skiing accident while on a day trip with the youth group.

Terri Stellrecht, Trent’s mother, tells about the shock, the grief, the steps the family went through in preparing to let him go. She tells about how the family ministered to the many who came to express their sympathy and own personal loss. She shares Scripture and asks the challenging question, “If it had been you, do you know where you would be now?”

But Terri is a woman who is still working through her own mourning, and has yet to find that place where life is still good. Having experienced loss in my own life, I know how hard it is to keep on when it seems the world should stop and take notice .. but it doesn’t. My other children needed me, perhaps even more, and I had to be there for them because life continued on. In How My Savior Leads Me, Terri Stellrecht shares while still in that place, so it is a read like no other you will come across.

While I do not agree with all of the author’s theology, the age-old question people come up against has been raised and she has found some answers that work for her. As I read this book, it seemed the writing and sharing of her son’s death is serving as a way to work through a mother’s grief, that the shock has not completely left, and there is much healing yet to come.

Terri Stellrecht uses her own photography throughout the book as she tells the story of Trent’s life. Also, if you are interested in listening to an interview with her please click on this link: radio interview  Once there click on blogtalkradio on the right of that page.

NOTE: For those of you who would like to read her book, How My Savior Leads Me, Terri Stellrecht has generously offered an extra copy for me to give away to one of my readers.  If you want a chance to win this copy, please leave a comment and answer one of the following tough questions: ‘In your life tragedies, to whom do you turn?’ OR ‘If you were to die tonight, do you know where you will be?’

A winner will be selected in a week, the evening of June 12.

You can find How My Savior Leads Me listed on my BUY THE BOOK! page.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

More Writers’ Helps

This is another quick post to let you know that if you visit my Writers’ Helps page you will find a few more links to check out. They are interesting and fun, I am sure you will agree.

I also made a change on my About Me page which is now About Me/Contact Page. After you scroll down past the me blurb you’ll find a contact form. This is just in case you want to contact me about writing or reviewing or something else valid – without knowing my email address – but you don’t want to leave a comment the usual way. This form puts your message through to me after checking it for spam. (Thanks WordPress!)

I’m glad you visit my blog, and I hope you enjoy what you find here.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂