Make Money, Not Excuses

"Make Money, Not Excuses: Wake Up, Take Charge, and Overcome Your Financial Fears Forever"
Jean Chatzky
Crown Business, $24.95



Jean Chatzky, an editor for Money magazine and the Today show wrote "every woman's guide to getting really, really rich," according to the cover of her book, "Make Money, Not Excuses: Wake Up, Take Charge, and Overcome Your Financial Fears Forever."

"Make Money" is a great resource for any woman who wants to get really, really rich. The book is split into chapters labeled by different excuses women give for not saving their money or investing. Each chapter is further split into two sections: Don't Bitch, and Get Rich. The former goes into the excuses women make for not doing what they need to in order to save and invest, and the latter explains what women can do to get past the excuses to make money.

Chatzky addresses a variety of excuses and fears, from "I don't know where to begin" to "I don't have any time" to "I'm too old — it's too late for me." She gives details for how women can overcome these fears: sign up for a 401(k) at work, think twice before buying, prioritize, stop procrastinating, get help if you need it.

And she makes it seem EASY. It's not too hard to eat out one day less a week, and instead invest that money in an account that gets an 8 percent return. Clean out your house, have a garage sale and invest that money in an account that gets an 8 percent return. Cancel your landline and use only your cell phone, and invest the money you would have spent on a phone bill in an account that gets an 8 percent return. And when you retire in 15, 20 or 30 years, that money will have added up to a nice chunk of change.

Each chapter also includes a "Map to a Million," which takes a point she homes in on and puts it into real terms:

Jane is 30 years old and earns $35,000 a year. If she puts 10 percent of her gross income into a stock market index fund each year for the next thirty-five years, she'll have a bundle at retirement. That's assuming she gets absolutely no raises in pay. That's not factoring in any matching dollars from her employer. Add in a 5 percent match from her employer, and watch what happens.

Start at age 30
Invest 10 percent of $35,000 salary a year
Retirement savings: $457,254

Invest 10 percent of $35,000 salary plus 5 percent employer match
Retirement savings: $685,881 (184)

The "Map to a Million" is laid out at the end of the book, suggesting expenses that can be cut out and invested using real examples and real numbers that will make sense to readers.

Another helpful tip from Chatzky is the "Questions from the money group," something she suggests all women join. A money group can include all types of women in all types of jobs at all different ages, and they can get together and talk about money — either just with themselves or with financial experts as guests. Having a money group can give women the push they need to start investing, give them advice and tips on how they should go about doing so.

Chatzky also includes a "Get Rich Spending Tracker," a "Ballpark E$timate of Your Retirement Needs" created by economists at the American Savings Education Council and an index of financial terms — something tremendously helpful for one just getting started. All the tools will help readers see how much they spend, how much they need to save, and what type of investment will best suit their needs.

The only excuse that remains at the end of Chatzky's book — one that remains unaddressed — might be the biggest roadblock for most women: "I just don't want to." There are very few people who would say that they don't want any more money or to have enough for a retirement they truly can enjoy

While I don't think it helped me overcome my financial fears forever, it did make amassing the amount needed to live comfortably seem a lot easier. It's just too bad Chatsky can't actually give women like me the final push to doing everything she suggested. She offers great advice and makes everything seem easy, but I'm sure there will be people like me who read her book and still think, "I can't do this on my own."

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

"Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story"
Chuck Klosterman
Scribner, $23





In "Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story," Chuck Klosterman chronicles two and a half weeks of his life, with plenty of anecdotes from his past and predictions of his future. He has loaded up a rental car with CDs with intentions of driving around America, visiting places where musicians have met their end — which, he observes at the start of his journey, often tend to be the beginning of their notoriety, or at least what people remember them for.

But this book is not just about the life (and death ) of musicians. It is about Klosterman's life, and his thoughts, and the women he loves, and music, and mastodons.

Klosterman is funny and clever. His observations of life seem ordinary and obvious, but his explanations are entertaining and engaging.

I feel like I can relate to everything Klosterman has said, never mind the fact that what we have in common hardly extends beyond the facts that we both have worked for newspapers and enjoy writing and music. He is able to explain the very exact feeling I have felt in a very specific situation at some important point in my life, even if what led him to have that feeling is something I never have nor ever will experience.

His perception of human interaction is fascinating, especially the integration into pop culture and society. His insight on human nature is funny, because it's true, and sad, because it's true. If I were someone who smoked marijuana, I feel like I could get high with my friends and talk about how Klosterman's writing is so deep and real and we soooo get it, and I think he would be flattered by that. (Though, I'm sure we could do the same thing sans marijuana and he would appreciate it just as much.)

Reading "Killing Yourself to Live" made me feel as though I had learned something about human interaction — but perhaps the only thing I definitely learned was that I don't know as much about music as I had hoped (or wished) I did. And even though I enjoyed the entire book, my favorite part was toward the end:

We all have the potential to fall in love a thousand times in our lifetime. It's easy. ... But there are certain people you love who do something else; they define how you classify what love is supposed to feel like. These are the most important people in your life, and you'll meet maybe four or five of these people over the span of 80 years. But there's still one more tier to all this; there is always one person you love who becomes that definition. It usually happens retrospectively, but it always happens eventually. This is the person who unknowingly sets the template for what you will always love about other people, even if some of those lovable qualities are self-destructive and unreasonable. ...The person who defines your understanding of love is not inherently different than anyone else, and they're often just the person you happen to meet the first time you really, really want to love someone. But that person still wins. They win, and you lose. Because for the rest of your life, they will control how you feel about someone else. (232)

And that is why people are so happy and unhappy about love all at the same time. And Klosterman found a way to put it into words. And that is one of the things that makes his writing great, which is definitely the reason you should read this book*.


* "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" might be the best way to dive into Klosterman to get used to his writing style, unless those of you who make fun of me for rambling while telling stories actually don't mind it.