The Total Money Makeover
I borrowed The Total Money Makeover after seeing it was highly recommended on a website I like, and I don’t even have the stomach to finish it. I think it’s like reading The Shack; everyone said I would love it, yet the first few pages were so full of obnoxious drivel that I couldn’t help but put it down. Forever.
Look, if you want to put a book out there, it has to be a book. You cannot repeat the same thing over and over for sixty pages and expect it to be called a book, though I suppose this book has sold enough copies to make plenty of people say it passes as one. And using an editor is always a good idea, too.
It’s not even as if the makeover isn’t helpful at all; there are plenty of good tips inside masquerading as holier than thou, male, white privilege. If you’re a single mom, you’re pretty much SOL; don’t bother with these tips.
There’s also lots of fat hate and religious doctrine going on, so if you’re not into either of those things, you probably won’t enjoy the book, either. Seriously—the author bashes being fat (and even uses it, among other poor metaphors, to describe being in debt or managing money poorly—when I thought everyone wanted a fat wallet!) and uses proverbs (interpreted in his own way, of course) in every few pages. I kept feeling like I was reading the same two pages over and over again.
Most of the tips, by the way—from not using credit to keeping a written budget for every dollar you spend—are pretty simple and self-explanatory. The entire helpful contents of the book could be printed on a single list of bullet points, but I suppose that wouldn’t pass for a book, either.