Monday Book Review: How to Plan a Family Budget and Plan For the Future by Michael Allen 2011

So I just read through the short e-book How To Plan a Family Budget and I was able to glean some half-decent points from it, despite the missing letters, poor spelling, and odd grammar (it looks like he either didn't proof-read it, or his first language isn't English... and he didn't proof-read it.)

Anyway, here is some of what I learned:

1. Self-discipline is essential for budgeting and saving.
2. Emergency savings (of at least 3 months' worth of salary) is essential to saving money...or else you will end up in debt when you need to borrow for an emergency.
3. Look for a role model you can learn from [I thought this was a great tip --- I already do this by reading blogs...it's a huge help!]
4. Set a goal for saving money. What do you want to do: buy a house? Go on a huge vacation? Write your goal down and look at it daily.
5. Put any extra $ on your debt with the highest interest rates, because these ones are costing you the most money.
6. Have patience. It, like self-discipline, is essential to saving money. For example, instead of buying things on impulse, patiently shop around for the best deal.
7. Keep track of where every penny goes. [I have been doing this for a while, thanks to Gail Vaz-Oxlade. It really does help, as tedious as it might seem at first! Otherwise later on you have no idea where the cash or debit went... :(...]
8. Save at least 20% of your monthly earnings for your future retirement.

And two quotes I like:

"One of the best ways to budget is to start."

"Be contented with what you have and try to live within what you earn."

All in all, a helpful budgeting e-book that is free, and comes with a sample budget at the end. Very easy to read and very, very short. I was hoping for more help than just "be patient" and "have more self-discipline"...although perhaps he is right and I should just accept this!

I give this e-book a 7/10, partly because it was free. Otherwise I would have given it a 6. The writing is a bit sloppy and it is the shortest e-book I have ever read.

Well that's it for my Monday Book Review! Tune in tomorrow for Tightwad Tuesday Tips!