I’m fascinated by those “earn $7,000 a month at home part time!” commercials that seem to constantly air during low-rated television programming. These commercials seem to contain a number of people who discovered a “path to wealth” from their living room and they discuss how easy it is – anyone can do it, after all.

I’m mostly fascinated because people are willing to believe that a high income is really that easy. By talking up the “part time” and “from home” aspects of the scheme, it’s actually targeting the people without much work initiative, convincing them that you can make money that easily. While the plan might have some potential for money making, I can certainly tell you that success won’t come from the plan, but from the work you put in to make it so.

Having said that, I will let you in on a little secret. You can become a millionaire in just five minutes a day – if you choose those five minutes well, do the right thing during those five minutes, and don’t undo that effort later. Don’t believe me? Here’s how.

Each day, spend five minutes not buying unnecessary stuff. Look through your cart before you check out and yank out the stuff you don’t really need. Stop before you buy an armful of clothes or a book or a video game or a DVD and put that unneeded stuff back. Walk out of the store without buying that expensive item. More importantly, don’t go back and undo that smart move.

Then, on days when you don’t go out, spend five minutes investing the money you’ve saved not buying unnecessary stuff. At first, just hold it in a savings account, then eventually move that cash into a low-cost index fund and set the dividends to reinvest.

That’s it. If you do even half the unnecessary spending of the average American, given enough time, you will become a millionaire. Just five minutes a day – that’s all.

Unfortunately, that’s not the easy plan to riches that is being sold on that television commercial.

Each year at Christmastime, I identify a particular charity that fills an important need in a community. I usually choose one that I have a personal connection to, having visited the facility and/or have had a close friend or family member working there, and the charity must be in line with my personal values of helping people who truly need help. If you wish to give a Christmas gift to charity this year, I truly hope you’ll consider this group.

L’arche Tahoma Hope is a small group of four homes in the Tacoma, Washington area. These homes open their doors to adults with mental development disorders, providing them a place to live in a communal environment with their peers and with a staff that lives on-site with them. A typical home consists of four to ten people – assistants plus “core members,” where core members refers to the developmentally challenged individuals living there.

I’ve personally visited one of these homes. The one I visited had six developmentally disabled individuals living there, along with five assistants. At any given time during waking hours, two to three of those assistants were always involved with working with the core members.

What did they do? The home had a very large garden, and the assistants and core members all worked together as a group in that garden, raising vegetables and flowers that they would either consume themselves or sell to the public as a fundraiser. The more technical tasks were performed by the assistants and they also provided a lot of emotional support and friendship to the core members, who were largely involved with picking the vegetables and weeding and such.

The group also made paper mache flower pots for the plants out of flour, colored water, and newspaper. These actually turned out quite well, and if it were not for the fact that I was thousands of miles from home, I would have purchased one for myself.

At meal times, all of the core members and all of the assistants that were present would eat together around a large table as a group, sharing food and talking about their day.

I will be the first to admit that I do not have the spiritual fortitude or patience to do this job. I simply could not live there with the patience required day in and day out, and I am deeply thankful that there are people out there who do have that kind of patience and caring for others.

The truth is that most people don’t have that level of patience and most families do not have the support structure that is needed to provide for individuals with mental development disorders. For the most part, these individuals come from loving families who simply recognize that they don’t have the patience or the ability to truly care for them.

These homes provide a quality of life for individuals with mental development disorders that they simply could not find anywhere else in the world. They’re in an environment with their peers, where they’re not seen as outcasts, and with individuals who care enough about their situation to wish to live there and help them in many one-on-one situations.

I know that if I had a child with similar disabilities, I would truly hope that in adulthood, they could find a situation like L’arche to live in, and I am truly thankful that such places do exist and that there are people out there with enough spiritual and mental strength to work and live there, making a better life for people who weren’t given the same tools and abilities we were given at birth.

If you’re thinking of making a charitable donation this year for Christmas, please consider donating to L’arche Tahoma Hope Community. Take some time to visit their website and find out more about the amazing and life-transforming work that goes on there.

Furthermore, I will match all donations by my readers, dollar for dollar, up to $1,000 between now and December 25, 2007. All you have to do is donate to L’arche Tahoma Hope Community via JustGive.org and then forward the receipt of your donation to me – you can delete any personal information from this receipt if you wish. So, if you donate $20 to L’arche Tahoma Hope this year, I’ll match it and that gift becomes $40, and so on.

If you’d like, you can read about my 2006 charity drive for the Child Abuse Prevention Center of Dallas County, Texas.

Once every couple months, I go through a period for about a week or so where I really wonder why I’m keeping my financial house in such tight order. I look around at what my friends and family are doing and I see them enjoying a lot of things with their money – and a big part of me wants to do that, too. I’d love to be able to go out and just go on a whirlwind shopping spree and not really worry about the consequences, and knowing that I have enough money in the bank now to make such a thing easily possible sometimes pushes me very hard to go down that route.

This past weekend was one of those times. I saw an old friend of mine buying an XBox 360 and about seven games for it, then shortly after that, one of my wife’s old friends showed off her engagement ring that was piled with diamonds (including one very large one). With the XBox, I felt longing – with the diamond ring, I felt guilt because I wanted to give something so nice to my wife (when we were engaged, we were both dirt poor, so her engagement ring was very simple).

What did I do to get back on the right track? Here are six little things that I did to leave me feeling much better by Monday.

I looked at a motivational aid. I keep a picture in my wallet of a house that my wife and I once saw. It was out in the country, well off the road with a long driveway. It had woods directly behind it, a large garden off to the side, and an enormous lawn with children playing whiffle ball in it. The house was large but not enormous and had an apple tree and a cherry tree within fifteen steps of the front door. In other words, it was almost everything we ever wanted. That picture inspires me – if I keep my eye on the ball, someday we can have that.

I talked to my wife. We had a conversation about things and just by bouncing ideas and thought off of each other, we both wound up feeling much better about things than before. She is my primary source of levity in life.

I held my children. What would an XBox 360 or a big diamond ring do to help the lives of these children? It might make a superficial joy in my life and in my wife’s life, but in their lives? Nothing at all.

I reviewed my account statements. I also spent some time online checking my account balances, just so I could see that I am making progress towards my goals, but I’m still a long way from the success that I want. For me, one of the best motivators is seeing that I am advancing towards a goal, but that I have a long way to go to get there.

I let the Thanksgiving holiday and family interactions cheer me up. Just interacting with people in a fun way does quite a bit in restoring a sense of balance in one’s life. It’s much easier to feel like everything makes sense and that I don’t need a lot of consumer junk when I’m out in the driveway at my parents’ house shooting baskets with my nephews.

I made some really wholesome “soul food” with my own hands. I actually learned how to make a complex Norwegian food from scratch from my in-laws. The process of watching this food being made from basic ingredients, smelling it as it cooked, and watching people enjoy it made me reflect quite a bit on what I really value in life – and it’s not material things.

I find that whenever I’m in a mood where I want to give up and go on a rampant spending spree, if I touch upon these things I will almost always put that mood aside and still feel quite good about myself.

Each Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal productivity or personal development book.

Many of you might be quite surprised that I would review a book by Stephen King under the guise of a personal productivity/personal development book, but if you’ve ever read On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, it makes a lot of sense.

On Writing is Stephen King’s attempt at writing a book about, well, how to write. Along the way, though, he touches on a lot of different interesting areas that are well worth looking at from a productivity standpoint – after all, this guy can crank out two or three bestselling novels a year, so he must know something about productivity. Even better: King knows how to write for the entertainment factor, so this book is substantially more entertaining than other books on how to write productively.

Is there enough under the hood to make this book worth reading for a person looking to improve their writing or communication skills, or is this one for pure entertainment only? Let’s dig in.

Digging Into On Writing

C.V.
The first portion of On Writing is mostly an autobiography of King and his development as a writer. It’s a collection of well-written, short anecdotes from his life, focusing on particular points where his writing skills grew or life dealt him a hand that led him in the direction of writing. While this section is perhaps the most entertaining for a general audience, it is the least useful for someone looking for advice on writing; thankfully, the rest of the book has a lot more meat on the bones.

Toolbox
Here, King gets down to business, offering up tons of specific points on the actual written word, tips that are quite useful. I’ve extracted a good handful of them here – at least the ones that really rang true for me.

Don’t worry about perfect grammar or a great vocabulary. The goal should always to make the sentence as readable as you can for your audience, so if you’re writing for a general audience, don’t use complicated words or complex sentences. After all, Steinbeck and Hemingway rarely used multisyllable words.

Read Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style and follow that advice thoroughly. King is an enormous fan of this book, which is basically a short pamphlet (less than 100 pages) on how to write effectively and succinctly.

Use the first word choice that comes to mind. King basically argues against using a thesaurus, arguing that instead most people tend to make the right word choice first. In general, try to use simple, flavorful words instead of dry and complicated ones, something that works well no matter what topic you write about.

On Writing
From there, King moves on to discuss the process of writing – in fact, he goes so far as to say that if you don’t read a lot and write a lot, you shouldn’t be pursuing a writing career. Here are some of the more specific suggestions.

Read several hours a day – and read good stuff. He offers a lot of suggestions, but mostly he recommends really well written short stuff or novel/book-length materials. For my reading diet, I read The Atlantic and The New Yorker and I try to read a few books a week.

Write a certain amount every day. King suggests 2,000 words – at least, that’s what he does. Set whatever number you decide on as your goal. Some days it can be very hard – other days, very easy.

Find yourself a place to write. Then, use that place exclusively for your writing. That way, that place becomes associated with your writing mindset.

Turn off the television. I’ve discussed turning off the television in the past, but King reinforces that recommendation, stating quite adamantly that television takes away from time that a writer ought to be reading and writing.

Be honest. If it doesn’t feel true in your heart, don’t write it. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s factually true (fiction, for example), but it does mean that it seems reasonable. Imagine the characters alive, then ask yourself truthfully whether they’re acting realistically.

When you write something, put it away for a while before editing it. Unfortunately, I often don’t do this with entries for The Simple Dollar (in my mind, The Simple Dollar is more appropriate for urgent and fresh idea-oriented pieces, not polished and finished ones), but it is a very good idea for finished pieces. Write them, then put them in a box for a long while before getting them out to edit. That way, the freshness of your mindset from writing it wears away and it reveals the actual flaws in the writing.

There’s a lot more meat in this section. In fact, I re-read this section and the previous one about once a year to inspire myself.

On Living
The final section returns to the autobiographical nature of the opening section, discussing the 1999 incident in which King was struck by a van while walking along the road near his home. This accident nearly killed him, and he discusses with great candor the accident itself and the painful recovery. While it’s fascinating material, it almost feels as though the first and fourth sections are one book while the second and third ones are another book – and the two “books” have been smashed together into one.

Buy or Don’t Buy?

Anyone who writes on any sort of deadline should read this book. This includes anyone who writes a blog, writes professionally in the workplace, or is in the business of writing book-length works. On Writing goes beyond being just a book about how to put words on paper and almost becomes a personal productivity and inspirational guide to those of us who write.

On the other hand, if your livelihood does not involve writing for deadlines, you can probably skip this one, though it will make for some entertaining reading. For me, the first portion (“C.V.”) was perhaps as good as any King novel and I gulped it down in one sitting. However, it was the second (“Toolbox”) and third (“On Writing”) that really influenced how I thought of myself as a writer.

Regular readers of this website have seen that the idea of lists in various forms comes up over and over again. I make “lists” of the stuff I need to do, lists for the grocery store, lists of home and auto maintenance tasks, and so on. I haven’t even mentioned many of the things that I use lists for, either.

So why do I use lists so much? They provide a lot of benefits in my life.

First, they save me time. Rather than standing around and wondering what I need to do next, I just grab the list and do the next item on it. I don’t worry about whether or not I need to clean the windows or change the furnace filter, I just check the list. That way, I can save my actual thinking for other things.

Second, they save me money. Making shopping lists keeps me on focus in the store and minimizes the unnecessary purchases that I might make. If I trust in that list and know that it tells me everything I need, it becomes much easier to buy only the stuff on the list and keep everything else out of the shopping cart.

Third, they help me organize my thoughts and ideas and plans. I constantly make lists to organize all of the thoughts floating around in my head, transforming them from idle thoughts into organized structures that I can move forward on. Rather than just thinking idly about something I’d like to do, I lay out the details in the form of a list, put them in a reasonable order, and then look at what I can do to get the first item done, much like my 101 goals in 1001 days list. I do the same thing when making a decision – I list the pros and cons and use them to help me make up my mind, as I did a while back when thinking about becoming a stay at home dad.

Needless to say, I’m addicted to lists, but it wasn’t always that way. It took a lot of effort to effectively integrate lists into my life. Here’s how I did it.

First, I made the tools for making a list incredibly handy in my life. Not only did I start carrying a notebook and pen in my pocket everywhere, I started keeping a notepad and pen on the fridge to write down a grocery list, a giant whiteboard to jot down household tasks, and so on.

Next, I started putting effort into piecing out complex plans on paper. Rather than just sitting around mulling things over, I just started jotting down each thought as it floated into my head. I usually don’t use any sort of order at first – I just let the ideas flow, then spend time organizing them later. This works incredibly well for me. Lately, I’ve been using Microsoft OneNote (when at my own computer) and Google Notebook (when on the road) for this task, as it’s easy to write down little pieces of information and then easily move them around, edit them, and organize them how I want.

Then, I started creating lists of things to do routinely. For example, I have a list of tasks I want to accomplish each day, from brushing my teeth and shaving to reading three books to my son. I found that Sciral Consistency works very well for this. Sciral Consistency lets you make very easy checklists of tasks you want to complete every day or every few days, like watering the plants every three to five days, etc.

At this point, I naturally began to deeply trust my lists, and I began to practice what amounted to Getting Things Done.

Just try it! Try keeping a list in your pocket and use it to write down anything that you’ll need to remember later, and then look it over daily. Also, try getting a notepad with a magnetic backing and put it on your fridge – and tie a pen to it so you can write things down without hesitation. Those two things will start you down the path of using lists in your life – and you’ll come to find that they’re incredibly efficient time and money savers.

Quite often, I admire my cousin and his wife for some of the frugal things they choose to do in their lives. They buy late model used cars and drive them until they need replaced, eat out only on extremely rare occasions, and know cold which generic products are basically the same as the name brands. They’ve replaced almost all their light bulbs with CFLs and have actually disconnected their cable because they don’t use it much.

That’s why I was shocked recently to find out that they’re actually in a frightening debt situation. Why? They take that money that they save from frugal choices (and more) and then spend it on incredibly expensive toys. They have several ATVs, a huge array of hunting equipment, a taste for nice clothes, and their children have virtually everything they ask for.

The end result? Frugality isn’t helping them with their financial situation. They’re already doing it in some avenues of their life, but in other ones, the spending is so overblown that it undoes the buckling down. Often, the argument offered by people in this situation – including my cousin – is that the nice stuff they have is what they work so hard for, but if you ask them what happens if they were to lose their job, a deep look of fear pops up in their eye.

What can you do if you’re in this situation, where your basic needs are actually well below what you’re making, but you find yourself spending everything you bring in – and more? Here are some suggestions for putting yourself in a safer financial situation.

First, don’t give up your expensive hobbies. This might seem like shocking advice, but I’ve found that if you give up something you’re really passionate about, it works about as well as an “all-salad” diet – you do it great for a while, then relapse with crazy splurging.

Look at my cousin’s situation. He spends almost all of his free time with his family doing outdoor activities: riding around on their ATVs, hunting, fishing, and so on. It makes natural sense that he wants to spend his entertainment money on these things – and he should. Life is boring if you don’t have an outlet for your passions.

For me, my hobbies are reading and writing and some video game playing (and a little bit of music). My biggest expense is games for my Wii and DS and occasionally a computer upgrade. While I’m tempted to buy every interesting Wii or DS game I see, I’m pretty careful to not do this.

Instead of spending extra money on hobbies and entertainment, though, set up an automatic savings plan that takes some of the money out of your reach. That way, there’s no money sitting there to tempt you to spend. Take, say, $100 a month out of your checking and into your savings, and don’t touch it until you desperately need it.

You’ll find that your spending adapts to this new available amount. Maybe you’ll move from two new outfits a month to three every two months, or maybe you’ll hold off a few months on your next ATV upgrade. You still get to enjoy your hobbies and have those things that really drive you, but you also get to start putting away money for the future.

What I’ve found for me is that buying one video game, making a very earnest effort to master that game, and then move on to another one is a great way to keep my video game hobby alive with a lot of enjoyment but without much spending. Similarly, I hit the library and PaperBackSwap when I have a desire to read a new book (right now, for instance, I’m reading through most of John Steinbeck’s novels, all of which I could get through PBS or the library).

Over time, slowly increase the amount you’re withdrawing into savings. This works very well in conjunction with discovering new avenues of frugality or increases in salary, or if your interests begin to change.

You may also want to start making extra payments on outstanding debts. Now that our emergency fund is built up well, we have started making extra payments on our student loan debts, and it feels very good to watch them melting away. Once that’s done, we’re going to tackle our home loan with extra payments. This is a good move to make once you have plenty of money socked away to cover any emergency.

Soon, you’ll find yourself in a safer financial situation, and that’s exactly where you want to be.

One thing that I feel I did very right earlier in my life was building a strong, communication-based relationship with my wife in the years before our marriage. We talked about everything, building up to a point where no topic was off limits between us and we could expect a truly honest answer from each other, and from that communication came a strong foundation of love and trust. It was perhaps the best thing either one of us have ever done, because it became the foundation of an incredibly strong marriage.

One of the most difficult topics to discuss was money issues, largely because of the taboo nature of it. In fact, it took us years to break down that final wall, even though we had found a very strong and deep comfort level when it came to other topics, and we both found that when we finally started communicating about money, it was incredibly valuable.

What did I learn from this experience? Without a doubt, it is far better to talk about money sooner rather than later when your relationship gets deeply serious. Here are some guidelines – and some specific topics to discuss – for when the time comes to talk about such things. You’ll be glad you did.

Before You Get Started…

First of all, realize that total honesty is the only answer here if you expect to have a long, lasting, and loving relationship. Once you finally get up the courage to address these issues, don’t hold anything back. If you find yourself biting your lip or tucking away a little piece of information or two, you’re creating a relationship of mistrust. I’m not talking about things like not telling your partner about their Christmas gift, either – it’s rather obvious where the line is in this case.

Expect some disagreement as well. You’re likely going to have very different feelings on how money should be handled in your relationship. If you find yourself being truly honest and meshing well, consider yourself lucky. Very lucky.

Don’t expect to answer these questions immediately, either. Often, fundamental financial decisions aren’t made in an afternoon. If something seems like it’s building to a serious disagreement and you’re not making any progress, let a few weeks pass before talking about it again. During that time, try hard to see the situation through your partner’s eyes and understand why they want things to be that way.

For some couples, these topics might be very easy and you might find that you’re both in very strong agreement. For others, each question might be grounds for conflict. Likely, you’ll find yourself somewhere in the middle, and that’s perfectly normal and healthy.

Twelve Things To Talk About

Where do you see us being in five years? Ten years? Twenty five years? Try to flesh out as much as you can here, but realize that the future isn’t set in stone. The reason for discussing this is so that you have some idea what the dreams and the goals look like for each other.

What does our complete financial state look like? Lay everything out. Every debt. Every drop of income. Everything. Don’t hide that $4,000 credit card statement, as you’re just building a foundation on top of a lie.

Should we share our money or maintain separate accounts? Who should be the primary caretaker of the accounts? Many people will argue that any married couple should combine all accounts – my wife and I did not come to that conclusion. Talk it out and figure out what’s right for you.

When do we intend to make major shared purchases, like a house? How much do we intend to spend on such a purchase (roughly)? This is one area where people often just assume that their partner sees things the same way that they do. It’s not true. My wife and I, for example, had very different views on when a house purchase was appropriate, and my wife was ready to buy three years before I was even willing to consider it.

Are children a possibility? Although this is a very deep emotional decision, it’s also a financial one as well. Make sure you’re on the same page when it comes to children, because while having a child is a deeply fulfilling endeavor, it’s also a very expensive one, often more expensive than people without children even realize. It also means some significant lifestyle changes, too.

Are we both committed to our career path? Sometimes, the support of a spouse provides a strong situation for one member of a marriage to make a career leap they would not have otherwise considered. This is a great discussion point.

Are we both saving for retirement? When’s the retirement target? This was one financial issue that my wife and I talked about quite a bit before we were married, especially since we both were already putting away a substantial amount into 401(k)/403(b)s. Just make sure that you’re both aware of what the other is doing and that you realize that without putting money away for that inevitable day, you likely will never retire.

Do we want an urban, suburban, or rural life? You might think the answer is self-evident, but it’s often not. Take Kathy’s story from a while back – she and her spouse at first thought urban living was self-evident, but after getting married, they began to talk about things and realized that perhaps it wasn’t the obvious answer that they thought it was and then began plotting a move to a much more rural setting. If they had talked things out first, they might have moved rural right off the bat, saving themselves substantial time, money, and happiness.

What’s our financial risk tolerance? Can we tolerate short term losses to aim for long term gains? For some, losing some money in the short run is completely fine if it means some years of 20% returns down the road. For others, watching the balance of their investments drop like a rock over years is just too painful. Figure out where you’re both at on this, so that if you make investments from your shared money, you don’t wind up with your money in something far too risky for the other person’s tastes – which can result in a very bitter conflict.

What’s the balance between work and leisure? Some couples might consist of two people that are very career-oriented. Other couples might consist of people who could care less about a career, or perhaps some mix of the two. The only problem comes about when one person’s expectations completely miss the behavior of the partner.

Is a prenupital agreement appropriate? Is one of you bringing far more into the marriage than the other, or expecting to earn far more than the other during the marriage? You may want to discuss a prenupital agreement, but there needs to be an air of honesty here – if you feel one is useful, don’t hold back in saying so.

Are there any known burdens that will likely crop up in the future? For example, does one of you have an ailing parent that may need special care? What about dependent pre-existing children? Do one of you have a major illness that may start showing symptoms? While these are not usually make or break issues, they often provide the basis for some deeply insightful conversations.

Two Books Worth Reading

I strongly encourage any couple that is considering spending their lives together to take the time and each read Your Money or Your Life (the book club of YMOYL might be very useful) and Smart Couples Finish Rich, but do it together. I recommend that each of you read a chapter, then discuss it together.

One technique my wife and I found useful was reading a chapter of such a book aloud on long car trips, with the passenger reading and then both partners discussing the topics. We would just stop and start talking whenever an important point came up, and we wound up discovering a lot about each other.

No matter what you do, though, don’t put off these conversations. They can be the key to establishing a strong foundation for your relationship and building a much stronger understanding of each other. In fact, if you’ve never opened such a door with your partner, today is the best day to do it, because tomorrow it’s very easy to find a reason to put this off.

Each Friday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book.

A while back, I read and gave a rather positive review to Michael Masterson’s Automatic Wealth For Grads. I found it to be a very good personal finance and life skills book for people who are within three years or so of college graduation, but the value of the advice decreases greatly if you fall outside of that time frame.

What I didn’t know at the time is that Automatic Wealth For Grads is actually a spin-off of an earlier, more general personal finance book, Automatic Wealth, so when I came across the original book, I knew immediately that I wanted to read it and give it a thorough review.

I found it to have the same engaging mix of personal finance and life skills advice as Automatic Wealth For Grads, quite readable and interesting. But is the advice compelling and unique enough to make Automatic Wealth a read for everyone? Let’s dig in and find out.

Digging Deep Into Automatic Wealth

Automatic Wealth is broken down into “six steps for financial independence,” as stated on the cover.

Step 1: Recognizing Reality
Masterson says right off that many people delude themselves into thinking that their financial picture is actually more rosy than it actually is, and the result of that is that people often don’t see the financial danger they’re in, nor do they adequately plan for the future.

Several solutions for pulling off the rose-colored glasses are offered here. First of all, one should calculate their net worth, as the raw numbers provide the most accurate picture of where you’re really at, not where you trick yourself into believing you’re at. Next, spend some time figuring out your “number”, or the exact amount you will need to retire. Given both of these values, you can start to see what you’ll need to do to get from here to there, which means you can begin defining and working towards some long term goals, whether they be retirement oriented or otherwise.

Step 2: Plan to Become Wealthy
You know where you’re at and you know where you want to be. How do you get there? The key, actually, is in how you set the goals themselves – the more specific your goal, the easier it becomes to get there because it’s easier to pull out small pieces that you can wrap your hands around. In other words, take your long term goals and break them down into medium term goals, then break those down into short term goals and microgoals.

Let me give you an example in my own life. I have a long term goal of being debt free. This breaks down into two intermediate term goals: the elimination of my student loans and the elimination of my mortgage. Then, I can break the student loan elimination down into short term goals associated with large chunks of my student loan: eliminating one of them and three instances of eliminating $7,000 worth of the debt – each of those can be done in a year. From here, they become microgoals: I need to pay off $150 in student loan debt each week, and I can get there by trimming fat from my spending by doing things by not buying any lattes this week or resisting the urge to buy a Wii game – in other words, microgoals.

Step 3: Develop Wealthy Habits
A while back, I wrote a very critical review of The Secret in which I stated that “the secret to having everything you want is simply figuring out what you actually want and working to get there.” From that perspective, you can imagine how pleased I was to find that Masterson wholly agrees, and it comes through loud and clear in this chapter with the first subheading shouting in big, bold letters It’s Not About Thinking… It’s About Doing.

The chapter goes on to define eight habits of highly successful wealth builders:

1. They work hard.
2. They are good at what they do.
3. They have multiple streams of income.
4. They live in (relatively) inexpensive homes.
5. Thye are moderate in their spending.
6. They are extraordinary in their saving.
7. They pay themselves first.
8. They count their money.

These are basically the same exact habits outlined in The Millionaire Next Door: you don’t get rich by buying Lexuses and extravagant houses, you get rich by working hard at something you’re good at and not wasting your money. A good chunk of this chapter is actually devoted to frugality, which will perhaps surprise and alienate some readers, but definitely legitimized the book in my eyes, as frugality has been a big part of my financial turnaround.

Step 4: Radically Increase Your Personal Income
Here, Masterson focuses on career advice, stating in no uncertain terms that the only real way to get ahead is to bust your tail, but to make that work pay off you need to make sure that the right important people know about it. One big suggestion he offers is giving regular status reports to people who have power to give you significant raises and promotions, but in those reports focus on the accomplishments of the project as a whole and give most of the credit to the team that helps you do it.

From there, Masterson suggests becoming a consultant (so you can make stronger salary demands and work more independently) and then eventually starting a side business or two, both of which I agree with depending on the exact situation. He does highlight the idea of using real estate investment as a side business, which I’m not strong on, but he recovers with much stronger investment advice in the next chapter.

Step 5: Get Richer While You Sleep
The fifth step revolves around building a diversified investment portfolio, offering some basic investment advice that’s worth reading through. However, I find that if you’re seriously looking at investing, you’re much better off getting a fuller picture on how to invest from a book like The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing.

If there’s one flaw in Masterson’s writing (and it’s a flaw that also crops up in Automatic Wealth For Grads), it’s that he’s very much caught up in the absurd returns generated by the housing bubble in 2002 to 2006. Because of that, he strongly encourages people to jump into real estate investing, particularly housing investing, even making some risky moves to get in. Obviously, this was a bit on the aggressive side and is a great example of why it makes more sense to turn to a more well-rounded strategy like the one in the Bogleheads’ book.

Step 6: Retire Early
The last chapter, interestingly, continues the investment theme, but turns much more conservative, looking at how one should invest as they move close to retirement – and into retirement. The investing strategies here are much more sensible than the ones in the previous chapters, but again, it makes more sense to get thorough investing advice from another source.

Buy or Don’t Buy?

Automatic Wealth is a very strong food for thought book, and the first four steps make for excellent reading – Masterson excels at showing you how to evaluate your situation and put yourself in the best possible state to really ramp up your income. However, he’s much weaker at dispensing investment advice.

So, for that reason, this is well worth reading for almost anyone, but only for the non-investment advice. For investment advice, I really would look elsewhere to a complementary book, something like The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing. If you’re looking for strict investment advice or information on how to dig out of debt, this really isn’t the right book for you.