Dave Ramsey Review: The Total Money Makeover

it's been a while since I've posted a new blog. it's been even longer since I've reviewed a book which the last and really only one was 1 Minute to Rental Property Riches by our very own MikeOH.

This go round will be a very different book that I'll be reviewing. I'm not sure I will make it into three different blog posts like I did that one but none the less I will give you my unbiased opinion of the book. Just remember this though, most books I will ultimately recommend simply because I've already had some review of the book before I even purchased it. For instance, it could be a referral from a friend or colleague or a suggestion from Amazon.com based on my previous purchase and I will have read the other reviews before my purchase. 

In addition to that, I truly believe your library needs to be overloaded with books. Ranging in different topics from personal development to financial literacy and investing strategies as well as financial planning. 

Let's start with this book called The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness

It is written by Dave Ramsey. I won't go into telling you about him, you can simply go to daveramsey.com and learn about him. 

Initially getting this book in the mail I instantly judge a book by it's cover. I liked the cover, flipped through some of the pages to see what I was getting myself into. It's what I expected to see so no surprise there. 

Some cool things I saw were random tidbits Dave calls 'Dave Rants....' and others like 'Shocking Stats' and 'Myth vs. Truth'. To me, it was nice to see things broken up a little making the pages seeming more interesting and I was sure it was going to be easy to focus and it was going to retain my concetration. 

I'm just starting chapter 8 out of 13 and I noticed some cool forms in the back of the book. He's made mention of these a few times as to what they are. Myself, I never skip ahead of the chapter that I'm on so I'll have to wait to read the rest of the book before I get there. 

What I must tell you is that this is NOT a Real Estate Investing strategy. This book will NOT tell you how to buy homes with NO MONEY DOWN (Look to the left of this blog for that). This book's focus is geared toward the average American who earns a W2 and how to become debt free. There are parts of it while I'm reading that bore me and I don't really agree with and I quickly figured out it is because I am not capable of thinking like a W2 wage earner but I have realized that the underlining lesson being taught still does apply to me. 

Before I go any further, I would like to point out one thing I've learned to NOT like while reading this book. He places a lot and I mean A LOT of testimonials throughout the book. While I enjoyed reading the first few, I am now not even glancing at them but sticking to the content of the book. I know there are a lot of good reason for the testimonials but I bought the book for a reason and that's NOT to read how others succeeded but rather how will I suceeed at becoming debt free and manage MY money better. 

After getting through a lot of the set up in the book which I actually found very interesting where he discusses things like Payday loan places and Leasing a vehicle. How these things are bad and why. I can certainly tell you that I have learned some valuable points of view that I now agree with that I can assure you that I will 'SAVE' 1000x's the cost of book by realizing he is right and I wasn't thinking straight all this time. For that alone I highly recommend the book. 

Dave Ramsey focuses on baby steps and the importance of executing small victories to build up to larger victories. He doesn't tell you pay down or pay off your largest debt first(like your home). He introduced the 'snowball effect' to me and i can honestly say that I have already put it on paper to follow his method. 

I won't tell you what it is, you'll have to click the link to the amazon.com page above to find out yourself. At first, I was thinking it didn't make sense so I re-read that part again and then it hit me. It's so simple and you'll probably read it and say to yourself, "Well, ya I knew that" but you're also probably like me and you're NOT doing the 'Snowball' on your debts so you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy. 

I haven't finished the book yet and I certainly don't know what is ahead of me but I can't wait to get there. I feel like I'm already on a path he describes and it feels great! 

I challenge you to join me in creating your own crusade against debt. Regardless of your income now, debt level or excuses not to start murdering your debt. Step out of your comfort zone with me and I'll see you at the top.