You Need A Budget by Jesse Mecham | Book Review

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Experience a life free of financial stress and transform your relationship to money with this indispensable guide—the first book based on You Need A Budget’s proven method that has helped hundreds of thousands of people break the paycheck to paycheck cycle, get out of debt, and live the life they want to live.

No one should tell you what to do with your money—only you know what’s most important to you. Always guiding you back to your true priorities, Jesse Mecham will fundamentally change the way you think about your money and what it can do for you. His proven method—four, simple rules—will transform money management from a paralyzing burden to a powerful tool, putting you in total control of your life:

1. Give Every Dollar A Job. Be intentional about what you want your money to do before you spend it.
2. Embrace Your True Expenses. Break up larger, less frequent expenses into smaller, more manageable amounts. By saving monthly for insurance premiums, holidays, or car repairs, when the time comes, your money is ready and waiting to do its job.
3. Roll With The Punches. When life changes, so must your budget. Make adjustments and move along. Flexible budgets succeed because they’re guilt-free, realistic, and sustainable.
4. Age Your Money. As you repeat the first three rules, you’ll increase the time between the moment you earn a dollar and the moment you need to spend it. When your money is at least a month old, you’ll have finally broken the paycheck to paycheck cycle for good.

This tried-and-true system has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people by teaching them how to take charge, adjust money habits, eliminate stress, and build the life they want to live. Don’t waste another month counting down the minutes until payday....

I love books about personal finance. So, of course You Need a Budget: The Proven System for Breaking the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle, Getting Out of Debt, and Living the Life You Want by Jesse Mecham hit the MUST READ spot for me. I know that reading about personal finance is a little bit of a niche interest. However, I feel like I started out with very little financial education or smarts. So, to me, these books are helping me learn to be so much better with money.

Clearly this book is about budgeting. Basically it kind of lays out what the You Need A Budget software and system is all about. It boils down to — if I am remembering correctly — because it has been a few months, LOL, that every dollar needs a job. I also remember that this book talks about tracking all of your dollars spent. Essentially, the main tenet of this book is that to reach your financial goals and to improve your finances, you need a budget. You need to budget things like fun too, even if you’re struggling between paychecks because otherwise, you’ll break and go on a spending frenzy.

So, mostly, this book is alright. I did find myself very annoyed with the bits on saving for college and student loans. I thought it came across as out of touch with the price of college today. The author goes on about how he isn’t setting aside or budgeting money for his children to go to college. Instead, he expects them to save up the money from jobs worked as teenagers LOL and from scholarships. I guess it is slightly possible?

Anyways, he also says that his kids won’t take out student loans either. I just kind of wonder at exactly how much money he thinks his kids can make at the sort of jobs that will hire inexperienced teenagers? I think of myself and how I qualified for all the grants and for some scholarships and I now make good grown up money but am STILL in the hole $43k to student debt. It just came across as judgmental on that specific subject and completely rubbed me the wrong way.

In all, this is the kind of book you should check out if you are terrible at budgeting and need some real back to basics information. Otherwise, I found that I gelled with The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey much more. There’s a wealth of personal finance books out there that you can certainly find one that hits your needs, but for me, this ultimately was not it.

Other reviews of You Need A Budget by Jesse Mecham:

• Life By Kristen – “it goes in-depth with real life examples”
• Dames In Debt – “The advice is great for a true beginner“

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April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

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