Helpful Score: 1
This book is a complete pile of manure. I've been in college for the last 6 years, so I think I have some experience in loans, scholarships, and general money finagling.
The introduction states that this book isn't about getting scholarships or actually being debt free, but MANAGING debt. Seriously, it's on page 3. It goes on to say that the only real way to stay out of debt during college is to have money beforehand. The first two chapters are on budget analysis before college, and how much you should save "before charging into college." (As an extremely irritating sidenote, the author uses "charging into college" about 1,000 times in the book)
So, what are you supposed to do if you haven't saved up thousands of dollars, or are already in college? Well, the author has the solution! STUDENT LOANS! I kid you not, the rest of the chapters are on which student loans to take out, how to pay on the interest, and of course you're expected to have a fulltime job to pay for college tuition... while you attend college. The rest of the book just emphasizes that you have to learn how to manage student loans. Call me insane or moronic, but isn't DEBT-FREE supposed to mean no debt? Like, no loans? I guess I should brush up on my dictionary definitions.
The cherry of this book though is the "79 secrets." Here's the list, from page 221: Budget management, money management, expense management. It also includes gems like "Don't overdraw your banking account," "Don't buy new shoes," and "Don't wire money to friends."
I've been making it through school on grants and scholarships, and after 6 years of college I only have 16k in debt, but I wanted a way to get rid of that 16k hence why I picked up this book. Apparently though, according to the author, I'm doing it wrong since the only answer is student loans (??????) and not giving my friends money. Thanks for that wealth of information, Sparks.
The introduction states that this book isn't about getting scholarships or actually being debt free, but MANAGING debt. Seriously, it's on page 3. It goes on to say that the only real way to stay out of debt during college is to have money beforehand. The first two chapters are on budget analysis before college, and how much you should save "before charging into college." (As an extremely irritating sidenote, the author uses "charging into college" about 1,000 times in the book)
So, what are you supposed to do if you haven't saved up thousands of dollars, or are already in college? Well, the author has the solution! STUDENT LOANS! I kid you not, the rest of the chapters are on which student loans to take out, how to pay on the interest, and of course you're expected to have a fulltime job to pay for college tuition... while you attend college. The rest of the book just emphasizes that you have to learn how to manage student loans. Call me insane or moronic, but isn't DEBT-FREE supposed to mean no debt? Like, no loans? I guess I should brush up on my dictionary definitions.
The cherry of this book though is the "79 secrets." Here's the list, from page 221: Budget management, money management, expense management. It also includes gems like "Don't overdraw your banking account," "Don't buy new shoes," and "Don't wire money to friends."
I've been making it through school on grants and scholarships, and after 6 years of college I only have 16k in debt, but I wanted a way to get rid of that 16k hence why I picked up this book. Apparently though, according to the author, I'm doing it wrong since the only answer is student loans (??????) and not giving my friends money. Thanks for that wealth of information, Sparks.
