Pam Webb

Good advice is like an umbrella when it rains–some use it, others don’t.

Dave Ramsey’s ministry of financial advice is much like the umbrella analogy. Some people are in the middle of a financial drenching but they still won’t open the umbrella of good, solid financial advice. Ramsey does his best to provide umbrellas through his numerous books and radio show, and his Classic Edition of The Total Money Makeover provides solid, sound financial principles.

Even though this is basically a reissue of his 2003 version, it still packs lots of sense.

In his introduction he makes the statement,”I am positive that personal finance is 80 percent behavior and only 20 percent head knowledge.” That could explain a lot about the financial crisis in our country. Learning to spend money is much easier than learning to save it.
Quite a bit could be learned from just flipping through the inspirational stories. So many people have benefited from learning to hold off and hold on, to get a hold of their finances.

In a nutshell, Ramsey promotes these principles:

1. Create a small emergency fund of $1000
2. Pay off all debt
3. Establish a full emergency fund to cover several months of living
4. Invest for retirement
5. Create a college fund for the kids
6. Pay cash when possible
7. Have fun
8. Give unto others

What is really appealing about Ramsey’s principles is that he perpetuates the idea of having fun and giving to others–it’s not all about amassing money like a Scrooge. What is not appealing about the book is that it is not only repetitive, it is basically a repackage of every other book he has published. However, no matter how many times he says it, it is still great advice, and if a person is looking for a plan on how to get out of debt, or is wanting to learn how to start saving early to stay ahead later or needs some encouraging testimonies of how others beat their own debt troubles, then this is a book to have on hand.
Folksy, down-to-earth, sometimes corny in approach, Ramsey never fails to inspire the goal of saving for those rainy days.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255