Excuse Busters For Not Having A Budget

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Watch Over Your Money With A Budget

Yesterday I wrote about 9 common excuses why you don’t have a budget. Today I’m going to bust those excuses and show you why you need a budget.

Excuse Busters For Not Having A Budget:

  • You Don’t Want To Be Told What To Do – Really?  You don’t want something to tell you how to spend your money.  Well how do you like the bills you pay every month?  Or looking at your bank account and being told you don’t have funds to cover an expense?  Truth is, when you have an effective budget you are in control of your money and you can see what you are doing.  The only one doing the telling is you with a budget.
  • You Feel Constrained - Yes, a budget tells you how much money you may have for different expenses.  And you may not be able to spend indiscriminately.  But the truth is a budget can be liberating!  You know exactly what you can afford and you know where your money is going.  When you know your expenses you can re-allocate your spending to fit your needs and wants.  Without a budget it’s more like a high wire without a net.
  • You Can’t Do What you Want – Not the case.  A budget will tell you what you can afford.  With a good budget you can change your spending to allocate more money for things that are important to you.  You cut out the frivolous spending for things with more purpose.
  • Can’t Give up Your Ego And Admit You Need to Control Your Spending – Get over yourself and take a good look at the bills you have and the stress you go through every month to pay them.  Look at how quickly your paycheck disappears and how your bank account dwindles.  You want the best stuff, I get it.  But you have to reign in your spending.  The lifestyle you are trying to live is an illusion and it’s much healthier for you to truly live your life instead.  Don’t worry so much about appearances because appearances lie.  Be!
  • Your Expenses Are Too Big To Get your Head Around – It can be a daunting task to start a budget if you haven’t done one before.  Start small.  Gather up your bills.  If you don’t have them then as they come in write down their totals in a spreadsheet (or a notebook).  After you have put together your expenses, compare that to your income (for most that’s you paycheck stubs over the month).  Once you can see you expenses and income you can start to go more into the details.  Start holding on to receipts as you spend and mark them down.  Track down the little expenses.  Take a look at those bills and see what they are made up of.  The point is, if you want to start a budget you can.  Don’t think you have to do it all at once.  For most a budget is  work in process.
  • You’re Afraid – Liberate yourself from this fear.  If you are afraid then you probably think your expenses/spending are out of control.  It may not be as bad as you think.  Even if it is, once you can put a definite figure on it you’ve taken a step to start attacking it.  It’s not going to get better until you decide to do something about it and a big first step is starting a budget!
  • It Takes Too Much Energy And Time – Maybe at first it takes some time.  But once you know your recurring bills it gets a lot quicker.  Get yourself organized and you’ll find it doesn’t take much time at all (personal finance software like Mint, Mvelopes, or Moneydance – review can help).  And you will also find that tracking things like your taxes expenses will be easier since you’ve been keeping track of spending all year.
  • It’s Depressing – It doesn’t make me happy all the time to see what money I have left for the month.  Or to see how much I pay out.  But a budget is empowering.  With you budget you are in control and you see exactly what you spend.  What makes me happy (not depressed) is knowing that I have a handle on my money.  It’s a powerful feeling in fact!
  • You Manage To Get By Without One – That’s great if you get all of your bills paid and still have money left over without a budget.  You might even have money going into savings and a retirement account.  Some people are naturally good at keeping track.  But if you put together a budget you may find lots of small “money leaks” that you weren’t aware of previously.  You may find that your savings and such will grow considerably when you see exactly what your spending is.  From personal experience, my wife and I were surprised to see how much we spent on the weekends on little things.  Had we known then what we know now we’d have much nicer savings!
  • Your Spouse Isn’t On the Same Page As You – You need to sit down and talk to your spouse and have a serious money talk.  A budget doesn’t mean you can’t use money any more it just means you know where that money is going and why.  A budget allows you to align your goals for your family.

Hey, you know what? A budget isn’t that tough!  Stop making excuses and get started on one.  You just might find things are easier once you see where your money is going.

Bonus: I just discovered these templates to help manage your finances in Google Docs!  They’re free and there’s a whole bunch of them!

No More Excuses!

See Part I: 9 Excuses Why You Haven’t Started A Budget
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9 Excuses Why You Haven’t Started A Budget Yet

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Budget Spreadsheet
I was thinking about why more people and families don’t have a budget.

It’s really the thing to do to keep track of your expenses and income and make sure you don’t go over with your spending.  I thought about all the different excuses I’ve heard and seen from people.

So why haven’t you started a budget? Here are some common reasons:

You Don’t Want To Be Told What To Do

A budget can tell you how much you actually have to spend and what you can afford every month.  You don’t want to be told where your money has to go and you don’t want to hear that you can’t spend when you want.

A Budget Constrains You

You feel choked by the limitations of a budget.  Can’t spend what I want on clothes.  {Cough, cough.}  Can’t go out for coffee drinks every day.  {Choke.}  The mere thought of a budget starts to make you feel walled in.

You Can’t Do What You Want

What fun is it to know you can’t afford to go out to eat four times a week?  Who wants that.  You want to be able to spend freely and do what you feel at the moment.  That’s what freedom is, isn’t it?

Can’t Give Up Your Ego And Admit You Need To Control Your Spending

You refuse to believe that you have a spending problem.  You’re living an illusion.  Even though it causes stress you always find a way out of your financial messes without learning the lessons.  When there’s a will there’s a way and you can spend what you want.  Everything’s ok.

Your Expenses Are Too Big To Get Your Head Around

You want to have a budget but you don’t know where to start.  You’ve tried to get a few bills together but the task seems too big so you end up giving up.  You’re not organized enough to get everything together.  You may not even know all of the bills you pay every month.  It’s too much.

You’re Afraid

You don’t even want to see what your finances are!  To actually put a number to your expenses would give you a heart attack (not literally but close enough).  You know it’s bad but you really can’t stand to see the actual figures.

It Takes Too Much Energy And Time

You don’t have the time to put all of your receipts and bills together.  You work a 9 to 5 five that’s rarely just that and when you come home the last thing you want to do is more work.

It’s Depressing

It just doesn’t make you feel good to see your finances in a budget.  You would rather not put yourself into a funk so you ignore the idea of a budget.

You Manage To Get By Without One

Your bills get paid.  Money goes into savings.  You invest.  What do you need a budget for? (I’ll answer that one in another post).

That’s nine excuses a person might not have a budget.  Does one of these resemble you?  Can you think of others?

See Part II: Excuse Busters For Not Having A Budget!

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Why Economic Stimulus Handouts Are Bad – It Kills Innovation

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Technology

The economic stimulus has been a hot topic in the news in recent months.  Banks and investment firms are getting bailed out.  Auto makers are getting bailed out.  Even the adult entertainment industry is asking for money.  But there’s a big problem with handing out money to try to help the economy – It Kills Innovation!

Here’s my take on why handing out stimulus money hurts innovation:

  • Companies ask for money rather than innovate – This is a bit of social Darwinism here.  Companies that can’t hack it should fail.  A company has to keep growing or it gets eaten up by competitors.  Look at Apple for instance – Imagine they only stuck to computers?  Without the iPod, iTunes, or the iPhone the company would be severely hurting.  But they moved beyond just making computers and now their computers are gaining a stronger market hold.  They innovated!  When a company gets a hand out it makes them lazy.
  • People follow the lead of companies – When companies get handouts individuals expect the same.  I’ve heard it many times already that the government should give people money because the economy is bad.  But that doesn’t really help.  Just like a company people have to grow and innovate.  They need to create new income streams, become better at their jobs, and increase their knowledge.  When they don’t others come up and pass them by.  Or new technology comes along to make their jobs obsolete.  Or they get their jobs outsourced.
  • It shifts blame – When a company sees that money is being handed out they have the temptation to blame the economy for their troubles in order to get a handout.  This shifts the blame to the “economy” rather than their own business model.  When blame is shifted a company is basically saying outside forces are causing their issues.  Instead a company needs to look at what they can do to improve their process and products to grow stronger and avoid economic problems.
  • Some companies would be bad anyway – If a company isn’t already looking to be ahead of the curve and succeeding in some way then what would throwing more money at them accomplish?  For example:  The auto makers have been in trouble for some time.  Rather than find a way to be ahead of the curve they have continued their old models with not much success.  When you think of a “green” car what do you think of?  Hummer?  No, you think of the Toyota Prius.  Toyota continues to innovate and re-define themselves and that’s why for the first time they are the largest auto maker in the world, taking over GM.  Throwing money at a bad company doesn’t help it; it just extends it’s expiration date and wastes money.

Yes, the economy is bad.  Yes, it hurts everyone.  But the economy is supposed to move in cycles of growth and contraction.  This is natural.  It’s like nature’s way of getting rid of the dead weight so hungrier companies have a shot.  But when we start handing money out it kills innovation and in turn ruins the whole idea of capitalism.

I hope Obama’s new plan will not keep the fat, fat.  Hopefully it’s used to encourage innovation.  Time will tell.

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Are Your New Year’s Resolutions SMART?

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Measurable Goal

Kudos to you if you are still keeping up with your New Year’s resolutions! But most people who make New Year’s resolutions aren’t keeping them by month’s end.

Why? They weren’t SMART!

What are SMART goals?

S – Specific

M - Measurable

A - Attainable

R – Realistic

T – Time-Bound

Specific - Your goals should be as detailed and specific as possible.  It’s not enough to say you have a goal of saving lots of money.  You need to give it a figure like “I will save $3000 this year.”  Without specifics you are just floating out there.  If you only say your goal is to save then did you achieve your goal by putting fifty cents in a jar?  Didn’t accomplish much with that.

Measurable - To continue with the savings example, how will you get that $3000?  In one lump sum?  Or perhaps in measurable terms like “I will save $250 a month.  This will be $125 from each of my pay periods in the monthly.”  Being able to measure your progress will help you move along in your goal.

Attainable - Can you achieve this goal?  Will you be able to break it up into smaller achievements that will add up to the goal?  In our example we save $125 per paycheck in order to attain the big goal of $ 3000 in savings for the year.

Realistic - Do you believe your goal can be reached?  For our example you have to be able to save $250 a month.  If you currently only save about $50 a month then you either have to figure out a way to squeeze out more savings or you might need to make your goal more realistic.  When a goal is unrealistic you’ll become frustrated before long and give up the goal.

Time-Bound – Give yourself a pre-determined time frame for your goal.  Back to out example – It’s great to want to save $3000 but it’s very different to do that in year and to do it in ten years.

The SMART system is a great guideline for you to set goals with.  Ask yourself if your New Year’s resolutions are SMART.  If they are you have a much better chance of accomplishing them!

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Ask And Save On Your Cable Bill

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Cable

My wife was getting sick of the cable bill.

It’s gone up recently to the point where we had to question whether it was worth keeping or not.

I mean, remember when TV was free? 

Now to get reception you have to pay (at least until the digital boxes take effect in February).

So my wife said it was time to get rid of cable!

Whoa!  I gotta admit, I’m an addict.  I’ve been glued to the TV since I was a wee little pea.  I know that’s not the best thing but I wasn’t ready to go cold turkey just yet.  But I also understand that we’re spending way too much money for the privilege of watching a ton of commercials on shows we mostly don’t care too much about.

I told my wife to let me take a shot at calling the cable company to see what they can do for us.

So I grabbed our latest bill, a pen, and some paper and gave them a call.

I got a friendly woman who asked how she can help me.  I asked her what can be done to lower the bill as the rates have gotten real high and we were ready to drop cable if the rates continued as they were.

Immediately she said they had a 12 month promotion that would save us $25!

Oh yeah!

I checked with the Mrs to see if this was acceptable (we’re cool like that in that we clear money issues with each other).  I got the yes nod and told the woman we’d take it.

Just like that we saved roughly $25 a month on our cable!

I took the person’s name and company number in case any issues arise on the next bill.  I also wrote the details down so I can refer to then when the next bill comes in.

Lesson – If you want something to change you have to ask!  It won’t happen on it’s own.

Some things to keep in mind if you’re calling to change your cable bill:

  • Calmly but firmly state that you want to find out how your bill can be lowered.
  • Always remain friendly when speaking to the customer representative.  If the person you get can’t help you ask to speak to their superior or someone that can.
  • Be nice!  Customer service probably gets hundreds of calls in a day, many of which are not too friendly.  Being nice can go a long way in getting what you need.
  • If needed, state that you are prepared to drop their service or go to another service provider.  Have an example of a competitors lower prices if possible.  Many companies have a customer retention department who are equipped for these kind of calls.  Remember, only go the drop route if you are really prepared to drop their service.
  • You might not get the answer you want the first time through.  Nicely hang up and call back in a few minutes to see if you get another rep.
  • Ask about combination packages.  You might get a lower cable rate if you combine cable service with internet and/or telephone service.
  • Get the rep’s name and customer number or ID.  They should have some sort of ID to trace the call back to them.  Write down the details and repeat them back to make sure you understand correctly.  Watch for deals that require a contracted time.  That might not be an ideal situation for you.

Do you have any other tips?  Let me know what’s worked for you!

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Obama 2009 Economic Stimulus Plan – It’s Gonna Be Big!

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Economic Stimulus!

The economic stimulus plan that President-Elect Obama is working is estimated to be between $675 and $775 Billion.  The stimulus plan will be geared towards job growth and infrastructure.  Some have argued that work should be done to increase short-term spending but Obama’s economic stimulus plan looks to have long-term effects.  This sounds reasonable as short-term spending would only be a small band-aid at best.  We have to move away from this idea that we can spend our way out of trouble!

The administration will look to give money to projects that have a plan to move us away from being energy dependent on other countries as well as projects to help build up schools.  If done correctly this could be similar to what was achieved under FDR where many buildings and schools were built during the depression that are in use today.

Getting an economic stimulus package will be the top priority for Obama and his team once they are in office.

But is it enough?

Economics Nobel-Laureate Paul Krugman wonders if we don’t need closer to $1 Trillion.  He says:

“I understand that there’s difficulty in actually spending that much money, and I–they’re also afraid of the–of the T word. They’re afraid of a trillion dollar for the two-year number. But you know, the back of my envelope says it takes roughly 200 billion a year to cut the unemployment rate by 1 percent from what it would otherwise be. In the absence of this program, we could very easily be looking at a 10 percent unemployment rate. So you do the math and you say, you know, even these enormous numbers we’re hearing about are probably enough to mitigate but by no means to reverse the slump we’re heading into. So this is–you know, I–they’re thinking about it straight.”

Wow. That is a lot of money.  According to Obama, any taxes involved would amount to tax cuts for the middle class with many former tax cuts for wealthier folk repealed.

Clearly we are in the middle of a huge economic situation.  Attempts to fix the problem up to now seem to have done little stem the bleeding.  But if the money is used well to grow new industry, create long-term jobs, and develop much needed infrastructure then perhaps this can can work.

How do you feel about Obama’s new economic stimulus plan?  Is it much needed or a waste of resources?

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Frugal Alternative to Microsoft Office

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ffbguestcomment

So I got a new computer recently. The last one went back to the turn of the century and the screen finally died (the battery had already gone).  Anyway for all of the great programs on my new computer I didn’t have a good spreadsheet or writing program.  Of course the industry standard is Microsoft Office.  Office 2008 for the Mac on Amazon is going for a little over $100.  Pretty good but still expensive after already buying a computer!  I found out I could get a pretty good discount through work but a discount still means I’m paying for it.  That’s when I remembered an article 9 Tips to Save Money on your Next Computer which mentioned OpenOffice.org!

I was a little skeptical of OpenOffice.org at first. I mean, it’s touted as a free alternative to MS Office.  Could it really be as good if it’s free? I’ve used another alternative, Google Docs, a bunch of times.  Google Docs is also free and is nice in that you can access your docs on any computer where you can get Google.  It’s got good programs but falls behind in what MS Office offers.

OpenOffice.org , on the other hand functions almost exactly like MS Office!! So here’s our story: Last week my daughter had a science project due.  In true fashion we all waited to just about the last minute.  I hadn’t bought MS Office and didn’t use OpenOffice.org yet.  We needed to print out her project, titles, and a graph of her research.  Uh-oh!  So I went to the OpenOffice site and downloaded thier suite which includes Writer (Word), Calc (Excell), Impress, Draw, and Base.  I gotta tell you. I was surprised to see that it looked and operated just like MS Office would!  I am sold!  On top of the great programs you can also download templates and extensions to help you further.

Here’s the welcome page when you first open it:

openofficeorg-welcome-page

Here’s what a spreadsheet looks like:

openofficecalc-spreadsheet

Looks an awful lot like Excel, no?

Here’s what Writer looks like:

openofficewriter

Very similar to Word!

And here’s the templates and extensions screen:

openoffice-templates-docs

There are a ton of great templates to chose from!

I mean, whats more frugal than free?!?  And with the functionality of MS Office products it’s really a no-brainer!  Although I haven’t gotten to use it too much yet I’m really liking it so far!

If you are looking for a spreadsheet, document, or presentation program I really think you should give OpenOffice.org a shot before you go out and buy anything!

Have you used it?  What do you think?

A Mother’s Struggle Between Work And Kids

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Embrace

The following was written by Mrs FFB.  As you may remember, before the school year started we made the decision that my wife wouldn’t return to work (in education) and instead stay home to raise the kids.  Below is her rationale.  Enjoy!

I remember when I was in college and I had this end term goal of having a career, making my own money, buying my own things and being a “professional” woman.  The thing is, ever since I was a little girl, I also always had a dream of being a mom. I never knew or could ever even imagine how these two, opposing aspirations would collide with each other in my future life.

When I was in college I had this assistant teacher position in a nursery/daycare. I remember working the “extended” day which ran until 6pm and feeling so awful for these young children who were still in the daycare center.  I was so judgmental of these mothers: “This is wrong!”, “How could they leave their babies here until 6pm!” “A young child should be in their home during this time of the day!” I was real heated about this topic. ….Little did I know at the young age of 19 years old, that this would be my life one day.

So I graduated college and nabbed myself a teaching position for September. I was so excited about this upcoming career and making “good” money (up until that point, I had made minimum wage working the daycare).  It turns out that I was pregnant and expecting in January but I didn’t care and wasn’t going to let the pregnancy get in the way of working. I didn’t tell the principal during my interview that I was pregnant and just showed up the day after labor day all prego.  Luckily, I wasn’t really showing, but by October there was a buzz going around the school and I finally told the principal but assured him that I would return to work in 6 weeks.

I had no idea what I was in for. When my daughter was born, I fell in love times 1000 and I couldn’t bare the idea of leaving my little baby.  So I took off the rest of the school year and returned to work that following September.

That September became the beginning of a long, hard phase in my life: working mom (and for a few years -single, working mom).  My daughter was 8 months old and I had a stay at home friend of mine babysit my daughter.  The problem with this friend was that she lived really far and out of the way.  So I had this awful drive to her home each morning.  Not to mention that I barely had any sleep.  I remember nights when my daughter would just wake up and stay up- we’d watch Elmopalooza! in the dark wee hours of the morning.  Then I was expected to be a completely functional teacher for a very challenging class.

When my daughter turned two I enrolled her in daycare. So this was my life for a number of years: late to work every morning, trying to get a difficult toddler ready to leave the house, driving haphazardly to the daycare, rushing her into the daycare and then running out to my car and racing to get to the school.  On top of all this stress, I was going to graduate school and because I was a poor single mom, I worked afterschool too.  There were some nights when we didn’t get home until 10 pm.  Then we’d have to get up early and do it all over again.

It was very hard and depressing, so not what I thought motherhood would be like.  So when I was engaged to be married (with the wonderful FFB, edit) and knew that I wanted to have more children, I vowed and proclaimed that I would stay home at least 2 years with my child due to the trauma I experienced with being a working mom with my daughter.

Four months after we were married, I was pregnant.  It was one of the happiest, most pleasant phases of my life.  I actually was ok with going to work at this point.  My daughter was a bit older, in first grade now and I new that I was taking a long leave of absence.  I literally worked up until the day I delivered the baby.

Somewhere during the childcare leave, I started to feel pressured to return to work in September and against my original plans to stay home for at least 2 years, I decided to go back to work… again.  It was the year of hell.  My son was 8 months old and I put him in daycare.  I remember bringing him to the “wobbler” room and thinking about how surreal it all was.  8 babies sitting in little high chairs and wondering about how well a daycare worker, who is paid minimum wage, was going to care for my son.  I felt so bad and guilty.  Not even 2 weeks into daycare, my son got sick.  Then he was sick every single week with some kind of cold virus.  Either he was just getting a cold or getting over a cold.  I was constantly at the pediatrician’s and at one point he was even on a nebulizer for respiratory distress.  It was so horrible to know that I needed to stay home with my sick son but also face the repercussions of being absent from the job.  I felt that my son was more important so I would always stay home with him when he was sick but i still found the whole scenario agonizing and extremely distressing.  I hated having to call into to work, over and over again as it turns out – 17 times! After a while, i just accepted the fact that maybe I would get fired or get written up or something.  I didn’t even care at that point.

I was so spent. I too become sick often and was severely sleep deprived. I sucked at the job cause I was so distraught over my decision to return to work, taking care of a sick baby and lack of sleep.  It was just terrible. One morning I was so tired and in such a rush that I crashed our car in the garage!  I knew that things were really bad at this point.

So I persevered and made it until the end of the school year and had this long summer vacation to look forward to.  I pulled my son out of daycare and enjoyed every second with my children but then we got to the end of August and the anxiety of returning back to work started to over take me.

After a friend of mine made an enlightening comment to me about why wouldn’t I just return to work when my son was older (since my leave permits that), then why wouldn’t I just do that?  So I started to really sit on this idea.  Why was I so afraid to follow my dream of being a  stay at home mom?  There is my whole life to work but only like 4-5 years of a child’s life when they really, really need their mothers.  So why was i doing this to us?  Maybe I wouldn’t have any more kids and I would’ve missed my only chance to do the “right” thing (for us).  I missed out on all those years with my daughter and was doing the same damn thing, 7 years later to my son.  Now when my daughter was little, I was a single mom and didn’t have a choice.  But now I had a husband and our financial situation was solid, so why not just try it?  “I could always go back to work the following year,” I pleaded with my husband.

I have to tell you, I am so happy now.  I can wake up in the morning.  I don’t curse the sun for rising like I used to. I no longer have grim thoughts of despair about the day ahead of me, ” how am I going to make it through the day,” “why can’t it be Saturday,” “I am sooo tired, I can’t do this,” or my favorite -  “what if I just quit and not even call or show up?!?”  Now I wake up get my daughter ready for school and I don’t have to drag my 23 month old son out in the wee hours of the morning.  He gets to bumble around HIS home, eating breakfast at his leisure.  We got to the park, we do errands, we make meals, visit other stay at home moms… Life is truly wonderful now!  I am so happy and so is my son and daughter!  I realize now that when they would give me a hard time in the morning, they were just reacting to being rushed and all the stress I would put on them.  Now things are so pleasant.

We had to make a lot of changes to accommodate to one income and we certainly aren’t living the lifestyle I imagined we would’ve been at this point in my life, but we are happy now!

photo credit: maessive

Personal Finance Books For The Holidays

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Rich Dad Poor Dad

More old books...

The economy isn’t so hot these days is it? But at the same time you’re looking for some great gifts.  Why not give a gift that could help someone achieve their financial freedom?  There are plenty of great books out there you can give.

Here are some great personal finance books that would make great gifts:

The Intelligent Investor – Great book on investing from a respected master in the field (he was Buffett’s teacher).  I have to re-read this one myself as there’s too much to learn in one read!

The Intelligent Investor

Your Money or Your Life – YMYL takes a full life approach to your finances and shows you what your true hourly wage is.  This is really a fantastic read!

Your Money Or Your Life

The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing – This book provides you with sounds investing advice.  Invest in mutual funds with low or no fees is the running theme here.  Fun read too.

Boglehead's Guide to Investing

The Millionaire Next Door – You may be surprised about the lifestyle of the average millionaire!  Very enlightening book.

The Millionaire Next Door

Accounting For Dummies -I’m actually reading this now.   I want a better understanding of financials which will help me at work and with my own finances.

Accounting for Dummies

Rich Dad, Poor Dad – People seem to love this book or hate it.  When I look back on it I don’t see many concrete ways to fix my personal finances but it did open my eyes to taking control of my finances and thinking of ways to eliminate my debt.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Not so personal finance but great reads:

Liar’s Poker – Not personal finance but a great look into Wall Street greed in the 80′s which is still very similar today.

Liar's Poker

Moneyball -Baseball fan?  Check!  A book about thinking outside of the given norm to look for value in order to get ahead?  Check!  Same author as Liar’s Poker and also a fun read!

Moneyball

The World Is Flat 3.0 – We are in a world economy now.  This book show you the extent to which this is true and how technology and made it possible not only for anyone to start a business but for businesses to operate the world over.

The World is Flat

The Tipping Point – What makes a product or idea go viral?

Tipping Point

Naked Economics – A look at economics in a language we all can understand.

Naked Economics

How to Win Friends & Influence People – People skills. You need them. Read this book then read it again!

How to Win Friends and Influence People

The 4-Hour Workweek – I can’t say everything in this book works but it is eye-opening to how a business can be run.

4 Hour Workweek

By no means is this a definitive list.  But I can tell you that I’ve personally read each of these books and they are all worth the read!

What do you think?  Know any other books?  I’ll add them to the list!

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photo credit: guldfisken