The Year of Less by Cait Flanders - Book Report #306

How I stopped shopping, gave away

 my belongings, and discovered life is worth more

 than anything you can buy in a store.

It's a common problem in our cozy First World:  we have too much.

Too much stuff, too much clutter, too many calories and, too many demands on our time.

There are loads of self-help books out there help us to simplify our lives.

This one was a little different.  I was expecting the nuts and bolts of simplifying, hoping to find a few tips and inspiration.  What I got was the struggle the author went through to achieve her goals, not how she did them.  It showed the strategies she employed to keep herself on track and it explored how she motivated herself to continue even when events in her personal life could easily have derailed her.

This was very helpful.  To be shown how the conversations you have with others, how challenges in life, be it professional or personal, have the ability to make your well laid out plans more difficult, was refreshing and familiar.  I did like how she tracked her progress on a calendar, it's something I use everyday; seeing the successful days pile up as I cross them off in bold, black Sharpie is satisfying.

I like to think of the book as a personal growth memoir rather than a self-help book.  Cait Flanders offered plenty of inspiration but she also gave lots of room to make her experience something I could modify and make my own.

It was a warm and charming book.  I was rooting for her the whole time.

Cait Flanders' Website - https://caitflanders.com/

Cait Flanders

The Latte Factor by David Bach and John David Mann - Book Report #276

I am Canadian so I recognized this book for what it is - an American version of The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton who wrote his book in 1989.

It is a narrative about a 27 year old woman working in a high-pressure job at a travel magazine in New York.  She is loaded with debt and is living paycheque to paycheque.  Her boss sends her to speak to Henry the owner of a coffee shop for advice.

Even though I am 54 I still found the message compelling.  Although I won’t have the benefit of decades to grow my money I can still create a much-needed financial cushion from the lessons within the book.

I enjoyed the structure of the book, it felt much more natural than The 5AM Club.  Best of all, the book is less than 150 pages, making for an easy read.

I will say here that I loved the length of the book, it had the effect of distilling the message and focusing the advice.  I like how a limited space removes the need to “fill” the book.


Recommended.

David Bach's website - https://davidbach.com/

David Bach

Do You Really Need It? By Pierre-Yves McSween - Book Report #268

The book consists of a list of 41 basic questions anybody, at any time in life, should be asking themselves.

Do you really need a new car, a specific brand, a budget or even ownership?

There is quite a bit of humour spread throughout which helps to explain and shine a light on the pressures we all face to conform with society and how that affects us financially.

I found myself putting the book down often to think about my own choices.  This book is quite illuminating.

It is often helpful to step back and see what we do automatically in our daily lives and to question it.

Recommended.

Pierre-Yves McSween

Brokenomics by Dina Gachman - Book Report #236

A light and fluffy self-help, personal finance book.

There was lots of humor but very little in the way of nuts-and-bolts money management strategies.

One of my favourites was the advice to think of your shittly little apartment as a vila and you'll feel better, thinking it's a quaint little place in an exotic location.

I laughed with the author, it's good advice - to make the best of things and not to focus on things you don't have.  So much of our problems stem from what our culture depicts as a success or "the way to live."  There is no right or wrong way.

The title of the book sums up the focus - how to live a happy life on what you can afford.  Don't go into debt, if you can help it.  Chasing The American dream is a fiction.

It was a good book to read, but I wouldn't keep it on my bookshelf.