Book Review: Smart Money Smart Kids {BookLook Bloggers}

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Smart Money Smart Kids by Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze*

ISBN: 9781937077631

Hardback, 256 pages

Publisher: Lampo Press

Retail: $24.99

About the book:

Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze teach parents how to raise money-smart kids in a debt-filled world.

In Smart Money Smart Kids, financial expert and best-selling author Dave Ramsey and his daughter Rachel Cruze equip parents to teach their children how to win with money. Starting with the basics like working, spending, saving, and giving, and moving into more challenging issues like avoiding debt for life, paying cash for college, and battling discontentment, Dave and Rachel present a no-nonsense, common-sense approach for changing your family tree.

About the authors:

Dave Ramsey is America's trusted voice on money and business. His four New York Times best-selling books- Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover, and EntreLeadership- have sold more than 7 million copies combined. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 6 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations and iHeartRadio.

Rachel Cruze is a seasoned communicator and presenter who has been speaking to groups as large as 10,000 for nearly a decade. The daughter of Dave Ramsey, she now uses the knowledge and experiences from growing up in the Ramsey household to educate America's students and young adults on the proper ways to handle money and stay out of debt.

My thoughts:

Excellent book! I have read (and reviewed) Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover, and I like this one much better. Perhaps it is the tone that the book uses- it's more of Rachel Cruze talking than Dave Ramsey- that appeals to me. Who knows. This is a great book to help those with kids to teach them how to tell their money where to go so they don't have to wonder where their money went! 

It has suggestions and tips for ages three to adult. Tips on working, 'commissions' (not 'allowances'), saving, spending, and giving (it's not ours anyway). It also breaks down why a budget is necessary, and how important it is to be able to spend all your money on paper, and know exactly where it will go before actually spending it and not being sure where it went. The back of the book also has some sample forms for budgeting. 

I will admit that the budgeting at first confused me because I'm used to using a formula much like "income-expenses=leftover for whatever!". Not exactly like that but close enough. I often don't have a set category for that 'leftover for whatever' money (when there is some). The Ramsey's budget fixes that. There should always be enough money for what is necessary when a budget is followed. 

Great book that I'd recommend to others. There may be things that you'll not agree with (just calling allowance commission isn't going to fly with some people, even with Ramsey's way of explaining that it is a bit different than the usual allowance), just take what's good and applicable. But really, following his plan all the way is going to give results like he says. Not following the plan as it is laid out, well...the results will definitely vary.

My daughter also has read some of this and really appreciates the advice given. 

**Disclaimer: I was given the reviewed book for free from BookLook Bloggers for the purpose of an honest review. No compensation was given. All opinions are my own. See Disclosure/Policies.