Saturday, February 27, 2010

Money Matters and Reading

Hey all. I have recently read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. I really enjoyed it, and found it to be relatively light and easy to read through. I am in agreement with him on most of his ideas. I would love to pay off all our debt. We are doing pretty well, I think. I would also love to follow all of his steps and be a millionaire... I just don't get how the people who have so much debt are able to pay it off so fast.
For instance, John has $153,000 debt. He makes $38,000 a year. He works soooo hard and is able pay off all his debt in just a year and a half. HOW DID HE DO THAT!?!?!?
I just started to read the Millionaire Next Door. I am not too far in it. Not enjoying it much and not sure how far I will get in it.
Another book I just read is called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It is just a novel that was cute and fun to read. Enjoyed it.
Have any of you read any of these books? What do you think of them? What have you been reading? Do you like to read or not? Maybe you just don't have time to read. Maybe if you neglected your home and children, like some people do, you would find more time to read. Just an idea.

6 comments:

Mike said...

Adrianne and I have both read the Total Money Makeover as well as the Millionaire Next Door. Adrianne made me read the MND while we were dating because I said I wanted to help my kids with college—which the book recommends against to some extent. I think that book and a few others I read around the same time convinced me that I could become wealthy.

I just finished reading Glen Beck's Arguing with Idiots and am almost done with his Common Sense. They were both good-- AWIs is a lot more fun than CS. I've read a couple of fantasy novels--Pawn of Prophecy and ... something about a queen. They're part of a series. I've really enjoyed them. They're geared towards young adults, and so are clean and easy to read.

I recently finished History of Joseph Smith by His Mother. I enjoyed it and learned a lot of things I didn't know. I'm also almost down with a critical history of Joseph Smith entitled, Know Man Knows My History. It's not pleasant and I don't recommend reading it unless you feel obligated to do so. Along with that I have been reading responses to many of the criticisms the author makes. These are found at fairlds.org.

I just ordered the seven (eight?) volume History of the Church as well as the smaller Comprehensive History of the Church. We'll see if I can get through those. I tried to read the first once before, but it wasn't engaging so I quite.

I've also done a bit of reading for all my school work. I've read about the history of the soviet nuclear weapons program, a '93 Office of Technology Assessment report on proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and a book on the physics of nuclear weapons. I’ve also done a bit of reading on various tools used to characterize materials—I was going to list them, but they won’t mean anything to most of you, except the MRI. I now know the principles upon which they work.

I just ordered another book for a class next term on the use of nuclear power in spacecraft. And I have a bunch of stuff I need to read on paints for my thesis work.

Uh…I guess I’ve been reading a lot lately. I’d recommend everything I’ve read except, the one biography.

Mike and Adrianne said...

I've just finished three different books on Mt. Everest. They were all very interesting. I also finished a book called My Sisters Keeper or something like that. There is a movie about it now. It was a very interesting read but I thought the swear words were not needed and there was one story line that I also didn't think was needed. I hated the ending. I felt like she was just trying to come up with the most outrageous ending she could. I felt like it ruined the books. I've read some books about diabetes and books about publishing Children's books. I'm currently reading Desperaux to Will. I know I've read others but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

Pitcher Family said...

Wow, Mike! YOu are doing alot of reading! My Sister's Keeper is on my list to read soon, too.
I just finished a book that I really liked, couldn't put it down. It is called Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. I think everyone would enjoy it. I will be starting the next one in the series soon.
I am not sure I will become wealthy by reading books on money, but it can't hurt... unless I spend all my time reading.

Jess and Jason said...

I haven't been reading too much, except bits and pieces of my Chemistry book.

I would like to read Total Money Makeover, but maybe not until after my vacation! Otherwise I may not be able to enjoy it!!

Mike and Adrianne said...

Let me know what you think of My Sisters Keeper. My mom just finished Hunger Games and loved it. Oh, I also forgot to say that I read a book called Fairest. It was a fun little book--an interesting take on the Sleeping Beauty story.

Unknown said...

I have actually cut back quite a bit on reading recently, but have stated to listen to books. I'm listening to a book called The Academs Furys, or some such by Jim Butcher. I listend to the first book and enjoy both. They are fantasy books, and something I really like about the genre is that curse words are usually unique to the world they're in. This book uses crows to curse, and my favorite series uses flames and ashes to cures. It seems silly at first, but it's nicer than having real curse words and gives mean characters a way to realistically express themselves in that environment.
I've read the YA series mikes talking about, called the Belgariad by David Eddings. It's a very good series. I would recomend it, along with the series I'm listening to, called the Codex Alera.
Mom keeps telling me that she wants to give me TMM, and when she does I'll read it and tell you what I think.
Laura is about to start reading my favorite series translated into spanish.
I think I'm done with this comment now.