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eBook review: Jump Start your Money Confidence by Penny Golightly
Confidence looks like different things to different people. For many, it’s what you need when tackling a tough issue with your boss or wearing a slightly more daring outfit than usual. Money confidence can be a more complex beast altogether.
What is money confidence? Is it about having faith in your ability to spend wisely? Is it the guts it takes to face down the debt problems you’ve been meaning to deal with? Is it the joy of building a realistic budget and knowing that by sticking to it, you can become a money-saving superstar?
It turns out, as Penny Golightly’s new eBook will show you, that it’s all these things and more.
I was really pleased when Penny got in touch and asked me to take a gander at her most recent downloadable book ‘Jump Start Your Money Confidence’. I enjoy her writing style a great deal, so I was hopeful that I would find it an engaging as well as informative read. Here are my highlights from the book, and why I think it’s definitely worth a read.
You can take it in your stride
The book is stretched over 30 days with manageable tasks you can tackle each day. New habits can take around 21 days to become part of your normal routine, so 30 days is a realistic timeframe for you to put these techniques into practice.
The lessons in this book are not meant to turn you into a financial guru overnight. Rather, it’s about building up your money confidence from the ground up. It’s also about realising that you may actually be more money-savvy than you may think, which is a good thing!
It doesn’t interfere with your day-to-day life
One thing I dislike about many ‘self-help’ books is that they give you assignments to do which can be difficult to work around a busy life. It’s my feeling that this is where a lot of people become unstuck – with everything else going on, they just don’t have the time to fit it all in.
One task a day for 30 days may sound daunting, but many of them literally take minutes. you can do them on the bus ride home, during your lunch break, or even before you go to bed.
It encourages you to deal with your debt problem
At the risk of sounding biased, what I really liked about this book is that Penny actively encourages the reader to face their debt problems, just as she frequently does on her website (thanks for the plug, Penny!) I also liked the mention of several ‘debt danger signs’ that people need to be wary of.
It helps you do a mental (and physical) de-clutter
One of my favourite parts of ‘Jump Start’ is Day 5, when the book looks at how to organise your credit card paperwork like a boss. Being able to sort the important stuff from the faff can be so mentally freeing. I hate clutter (despite creating enough of it!) so knowing that my statements can be accessed in seconds when I come to do my tax return later this year is a great feeling.
It gets to the heart of the problem
Whether it’s getting fit or packing in the cigs, most of us know that good intentions only stretch so far without motivation. The problem is that we can often set ourselves up for failure with self-defeating statements such as ‘I’m useless with money’ or ‘budgeting properly is too hard!’.
As Penny mentions on the cover, this book has been specifically written for people who think they’re forever doomed to be ‘hopeless’ with money. Maybe they feel they’ve made mistakes in the past, but that in no way determines how things will be in the future. The activities and examples in the book are meant to help you turn everything you’re learning into action. When that happens, being money confident won’t seem so far out of reach.
All in all, I found this to be a really useful guide and worth a read by anyone who feels like a financial underdog from time to time. The eBook is currently priced at £2.99 on Amazon, but you can sign up to Penny’s newsletter for lots of free money-saving tips and ideas straight into your inbox!
Disclaimer: we received this ebook for free in return for an honest and open review.
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