Archive for the ‘Personal Finance Books’ category

Emotional Currency by Kate Levinson Ph.D.

May 11th, 2011

Being clueless about money is no longer affordable, says Kate Levinson.

Emotional Currency by Kate Levinson, Ph.D.

Emotional Currency by Kate Levinson, Ph.D.

In her new book, Emotional Currency: A Woman’s Guide to Building a Healthy Relationship with Money, Levinson, a psychotherapist, describes our “inner money life” as the complex set of thoughts, beliefs and feelings we have about our finances.

These thoughts, beliefs and feelings influence nearly every decision we make. (Guys, keep reading: Emotional currency is not only for women. We all have an inner money life worth exploring.)

I say every decision because most of the choices we make have a financial component: what we eat, what we wear, where we live, where we work, how much we work and how we recreate. Any time we buy something or don’t our inner money life is at work.

Levinson provides an eye-opening exercise she calls “My Feelings About Money.” It takes just 10 minutes and may shine some light on your views and attitudes. Give it a try.——>click here to read the full article.

Meet the author: Kate Levinson, in Durango, CO at Maria’s Bookshop

Kate Levinson, Ph.D. psychotherapist and author, will present her book Emotional Currency: A Woman’s Guide to Building a Healthy Relationship with Money from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Monday at Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave.

Debt it can be avoided

January 17th, 2011
Toyota Cavalier
Image by Hugo90 via Flickr

Is debt really ‘Tricky”?

A recent blog post I was reading at SmartMoney.com called auto debt “tricky”.

Saying that financial planners agree that you shouldn’t borrow money to buy things that go down in value, BUT…it just can’t be avoided.  After all who can afford to pay cash for a new car?

Yes new cars are expensive.  And you don’t need a new car.  A good used car will do just fine and they don’t depreciate like new cars.

Here is my advice as a personal finance coach: Pay cash for your car.  Even if it means driving a POS for awhile. My wife and I bought a Toyota Camry with about 100,000 miles on it for $6,000.

Better yet, if available, use a car sharing service like Zipcar so that you don’t have to pay for car insurance and maintenance. When you need to go on a long road trip rent a car. Put the miles on the rental car.

Some day when you are financially independent you can buy the new car of your dreams.  Till them, be like the Millionaire Next Door and drive a used car.

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