Dollars & Uncommon Sense
Basic Training for Your Money
By: Steve Repak, CFP®
Published: January 2, 2012
Format: Paperback, 166 pages
ISBN-10: 0983901104
ISBN-13: 978-0983901105
Publisher: RFS Publishing
"The basic principles for building wealth have been available to you for years. The key to being able to use them effectively is changing the way you think about money. From now on, you will no longer use common sense when making financial decisions but start using uncommon sense", writes Army veteran, motivational speaker, consultant, and a principal at Repak Financial Services, Steve Repak, CFP®, in his straight talking and wealth building book Dollars & Uncommon Sense: Basic Training for Your Money. The author describes how to start thinking differently about money, which leads to doing things differently with money, which he calls practicing uncommon sense about money and wealth.
Steve Repak recognizes that there is no magic formula for building wealth. The author points out, however, that one of the overarching difficulties for most people is developing and practicing successful habits of thinking. Steve Repak demonstrates that wealthy people think about money in a very different way than those who lack wealth. For most people, the problems with money arise from not maintaining control over their spending, or from having too much consumer and credit card debt. At the same time, the author writes that the average person is overwhelmed by the technical terms and jargon involved in the investing of money. Steve Repak prepares the reader to think and behave differently about money, so as to be prepared in the event of another financial crisis.
Steve Repak (photo left) understands that the best approach to creating a healthier financial situation for oneself is think and act differently with money. Utilizing his military experiences as an analogy, the author puts the would be wealth builder through a basic training course that transforms instructions into a reflex action. In this case, the more closely that the author's advice is followed, the better off a person will be regarding their personal finances. The book is about changing the way a person thinks about money.
To achieve that alteration of financial worldview, Steve Repak puts the reader through his form of money boot camp. To illustrate his concept of changing patterns of thinking about money, Steve Repak presents what he calls the Six Key Traits of Wealth Builders. These six traits are as follows:
* They spend less money than they make
* They have little or no debt
* They save
* They plan long term for their money
* They make reasoned financial decisions not based on emotions
* They start their savings plans and goals early
For me, the power of the book is how Steve Repak presents an easy to follow, and very hands on approach to personal finance. Recognizing that for most people, the main thing holding them back is their own mode of thinking about money, the author addresses that challenge from the very beginning of the book. Without the thought process being changed, nothing else in the way of money management will be altered either. Steve Repak sets out a series of principles, priorities, and plans that are easy to understand and to follow.
The author avoids the all too frequently encountered technical terminology that only serves to confuse most people. Instead, Steve Repak offers straight forward information and easy to follow numbers, that encourage the reader to look more deeply into their own personal finances. Overall, Steve Repak provides an excellent personal finances primer that anyone can follow and understand, leading to a change in thinking and a dramatic increase in their net worth.
I highly recommend the results oriented and no nonsense book Dollars & Uncommon Sense: Basic Training for Your Money by Steve Repak, CFP®, to anyone seeking a real world based book on personal finance that will lead to actual changes in thinking and behaving with money. This book will change how you think about money, how you act with your money, and build your overall personal wealth as never before.
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