<man crush>

Unautomate Your Finances

Baker’s book really delves deep into the human spirit.  He approaches personal finance from the ground up.  His goal is very clear.  Break down your financial infrastructure that is filled with complexity, waste, confusion and ignorance and build it to a point where you can handle your finances in a method that works well for you.

If you are just getting started, if you are thinking about changing your financial infrastructure, if you feel you need to take a step back and really understand your money. This book has a ton of value.  What you receive for $17:

• A 84-page ebook (25,000-ish words). I broke it up into Theory (core principles), Science (exercise to design ideal life and isolate the “next step”), and Application (deeper topics like tracking, budgeting, paying off debt, credit cards, etc…)
  • A 27 minute interview with Leo Babauta (ZenHabits) as a bonus (Leo also wrote the foreword)
  • An audio interview with J.D. Roth of Getrichslowly.org as a bonus
  • 2-page printable PDF budgeting template (of the budget described in Section 3)
  • Minimalist excel template of same budget
  • Baker will be sending out extended bonuses every months or so.  Case studies, more interviews, additional chapters, etc…

What I Think of the Book

I know I will be recommending this book to several friends over the next year.  I thinks its an outstanding display of personal finance creativity and is another way to think about the issues that face us daily.  You can tell the entire book was written from his heart.

Further, the book has a ton of practical and actionable advice for people that have never considered these concepts before.    For the Untemplater type folks, that are looking for a way to get their money under control and to do it in a way that will become part of a lifestyle change, I absolutely think that this book is designed for you.  For the hardcore personal finance reader who already has perfected a system that works for them, you are likely going to enjoy reading Baker’s site (Man vs. Debt) more.

As a numbers guy (which he references in the book) a lot of Baker’s advice doesn’t really work well for me specifically.  But, I would prefer to live in a world filled with Baker’s as opposed to a world filled with me’s (there can only be one me… I will destroy any clones that cross my path!)

Where To Buy It

Surf on over and watch Baker’s introduction video at his launch site.  If this guy doesn’t inspire you then its hard to imagine how you get up every morning.

I wish him all the best of luck and I am really proud of all the work he has put in to make today come to fruition.

Quick Review

When does genius often occur? For a lot of us, it is when we are feeling pressure and our backs are against the wall. If you have bad credit, it’s possible you feel like you are always against a wall (even though it’s argued you should come to peace with this as You are not your credit score – sounds like something Tyler Durden would say). However, when times are tough is when people get the most creative.

There are a ton of strategies and practical tips that will help people live a normal life without feeling the effects of a crappy credit score. But, and this is where the genius of this book comes in, for those frugal folk that are looking for alternative methods to live, there are some gems in here for you that make this book worthwhile for you. From living in a yurt or a tiny home (this actually sounds awesome!) to renting a car instead of buying, you can find some interesting hacks to live without credit and to potentially save money. Heck, even if you are a blogger, you should give this book a glance as it will provide you with potential writing topics for at least a month.

For the target audience of the book, there is some really great value here.  Strategies and alternatives are discussed for banking, housing, driving, starting a business and even taking a vacation all without having to worry about your credit score tripping you up.  This book is not for those that are struggling with their next meal, but it is for people who find themselves doing okay in life, but just can’t seem to get out of the cycle of bad credit.  If you have admitted to yourself that your credit score is a problem, and you feel it draining on your life, this book can provide you some refreshing ways for you to not have to rely so heavily on credit to live your life.

I recommend the book for anyone that fits the description above.  Its well paced and quite witty.  For such a depressing topic (and yes, having a really bad credit score can be depressing), the book remained uplifting and positive.

How to Win a Copy for Yourself

Now, you have read the review, gone over to Amazon and thought about buying a copy.  Well over the next week, you will have the opportunity to win a free copy of the book by either leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, or tweeting the following: “RT @brianscheur I am not my credit score! http://wp.me/pDleL-eS“.  A winner will be selected at random on Friday, February 26th at noon EST.

Its as easy as that.  Best of luck to you all and if you pick up a copy, I am sure you will find something of value to add to your personal finance life.