Zaphod for President

I was recently contacted by the lovely Janine Bolon, and asked to review her book: Money…It’s Not Just for Rich People!. To be honest, at first I put off reading it. Not only was I having a very busy week, but I also find 99% of financial advice books to be tediously boring. As I skimmed through, trying to think of a good excuse to avoid reading the full 213 pages, the following passage caught my eye:

I watched the probability of motherhood drop logarithmically with each passing year. However, the Universe had a good laugh at my expense, and reassigned me into the brand new career of stay-at-home mom.

I don’t know about you, but any woman who uses the word “logarithmically” in context deserves my full attention. Needless to say, I have now read every word, and am prepared to give my report.

As with most financial advice books, Janine offers us countless tips and tricks in order to live within budget and accumulate wealth. Unlike most financial advice books, she also takes the time to discuss moral responsibility, and the true meaning of “wealth”- not numbers and stuff; people and hugs.

Enough blather: how do we save some cash? Janine offers the following tips (and I chime-in with italics):

• Don’t go shopping
  Obviously we need food, soap and toilet paper, but do we really need another $300 paper weight from “The Sharper Image”?

• Take care of what you have
  You might be amazed what can be accomplished with a screwdriver and 15 minutes.

• Get it for less
  Make sure you search the web for a cheaper price before making any significant purchases.

• Anticipate your needs
  Of course we all pray that this is the month that a computer glitch erases all of our debts, but more likely the car will explode and the bathroom with start leaking. Is your emergency fund ready for whatever disaster awaits you?

• Wear it out
  I enjoy a growing collection of Hanes white t-shirts, and can say without hesitation that they are the most comfortable things in the world. Best of all, as they collect an exciting assortment of colorful stains, I find myself enjoying them even more.

• Pay with cash
  True story: we bought a new freezer at Lowes this past week. The clerk was dumbfounded that we wanted to pay with cash, and kept reminding us that we were already pre-approved for the “36 E-Z payments” plan.

The majority of the book contains solid advice, and reads like common sense coming from a loving mother. However, the book also contains several points of potential controversy.

Says Janine: 60% of our money is ours for the here and now. Another 20% belongs to our future selves, and belongs in medium-term and long-term savings. And what should we do with the remaining 20%? Give it away.

You heard me: give it away. Are you going to argue with a woman who knows what a “logarithm” is?

The 20% of your money dedicated to this Giving goes to the community, to worthy projects that will improve the world around you. This dispersal of money represents Giving in the truest sense. And the Universe will acknowledge the debt It owes you by sending more money your way – as long as you Give.

What’s that you say? This sounds like new-age babble? Maybe so, but unlike most, this new-age babble has been psuedo-scientifically tested! In preparing her book, Mrs. Bolon recruited 135 “guinea pigs” in order to test her bizarre and seemingly un-American theories. Of these, 34% quit within a week, unwilling to engage in philanthropy at the cost of a few mega-super-lattes. Those were the suckers. 95% of those remaining in the study became certified, Janine-approved wealth accumulators.

So what? So the average wealth accumulator enjoyed an average savings increase of 48% after only three months. Let me say that again: Janine’s students had increased their savings an average of 48% in only three months.

Make money by giving it away. Quantifying the ROI of karma itself. Pretty interesting stuff.

So what about you? Do you have the guts to give 20% of your hard-earned cash away?

Please note: this was not a sponsored post. Zaphod don’t play that game. If you have a product that will help our fellow Americans, send it my way for an honest opinion. If you are peddling crap we don’t need, please leave me out of it.

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