David,
First I must emphasize how much I love your books. My brother used to tell me not to buy financial books because how am I saivng money if I’m just spending it on a book – and I felt guilty every time I strayed from that thought. But something about your book the “Automatic Millionaire” convinced me to splurge! Ever since, I have noticed a complete change in the way I approach money. You see, I am a full time graduate student. As you can imagine my loan debt is a mortgage and my credit card bill were astronomical. I was overwhelmed and didn’t see how I could ever get out of debt. I’m now on internship and after reading the Automatic Millionaire and Smart Women Finish Rich, I decided to change my approach.
First, I took charge of my latte factor. I bought a coffee pod so that I could make my coffee in the morning instead of investing in Dunkin Donuts. Then I began paying for about 90% in cash. I also made a finance book to keep track of my bills and bank statements. I’ve never been able to balance my check book before I did this. It’s amazing how much it helped. And lastly, I’ve been using my stipend to pay down my credit cards. I’ve got almost half paid off. I won’t have them totally gone by the time I’m done my internship but the majority will be dead.
I can’t thank you enough for helping me the way your books have. I’m a simple minded individual who when it comes to money, needs things spelled out for her, which thankfully your books do. I haven’t been able to invest anything yet but by taking leftover change and any one dollar bill I get back in change from a paying for something, I was able to buy my first real piece of furniture – a couch. I was so proud of myself. I took the 24 hours to think over the big purchase like you recommended (no small feat for me). I feel as though I now have the tools to keep going forward adn to eventually start saving when I get a real job next year.
My only suggestion is that you write a book for us grad students teaching us how to get out of the black hole of loan debt (mine will be close to $200,000!)I would greatly appreciate that book.
Thanks again.
