Simple Money: A No-Nonsense Guide to Personal Finance

I have bought multiple copies as graduation and young adult gifts. I keep a copy myself as well. It is a great beginner's guide to personal finance with some sections that may be helpful to those who already have a fundamental understanding. There are chapter summaries so that people can jump straight into what they need most. There are also free companion worksheets on Tim Maurer's website for those that need the extra organization boost. I have read multiple books on personal finance (including skimming through some Financial Peace material) and this one is the best I have found for getting through the basics. I highly recommend it.

Tim Maurer is an excellent educator in every sense of the word. I say this not only as a reader of his books, but also as a former student of the last class he taught at Towson University. Boy was I lucky to catch him on his way out the door! The Ultimate Financial Plan was an amazing book and Simple Money just goes on to highlight just how knowledgeable Mr. Maurer is. This book was very important for me as a senior in college transitioning into the real world. His simply and engaging style makes the message of finance with a personal focal point, all the more important. I am looking forward to passing the knowledge I gained from this book to all those around me. Everyone I know will be getting a link to order their own copy very soon because as he stated "personal finance is a great deal more personal than it is finance". Well done Mr. Maurer! I look forward to your future publications.

Practical and really helpful! I recommend this book to everyone, especially to the people that have just started their financial life!

Overall, I liked the book, but I found a number of items that I took issue with:The primary issue, without question, is the obvious bias towards structuring your finances to, first, protect and preserve everyone else first - whether that be your family, your church, charities, those that you leave behind upon death - and then "you" come last. In contrast, I tend to view and recommend one carry out rational, personal finance management the same way an airline would have you use your oxygen mask, which is make sure yours is secure and functioning properly before you even attempt to help someone sitting next to you, even if that someone is your child (there are logical reasons for that, by the way, which have nothing to do with encouraging heartlessness).Some examples of this?1. The most obvious example is found in the "Where do you stand (financially)" chapter (Ch. 6) which had one of the 4 factors measuring your financial strength is your "giving index", so that means if you don't give, you score a zero on one of the four major personal financial measurements. And even if you have (revolving unsecured) debt (e.g. credit card debt), the author made no mention (that I recall) to not suspend giving in that instance. And on the matter of giving, while I commend the author for personally wanting to give above and beyond the giving that every taxpayer does (because those federal and state taxes support literally thousands of social programs as well as entitlements such as social security and medicare), giving doesn't make one stronger at personal finances that a non-giver. To quite the contrary, there is no denying that if you give, say 10%, then you're going to have to accomplish everything else finance related with the remaining 90% while the non-giver is working with the full 100%. And also, the author later showed an example cash flow sheet where the giving amount exceeded Roth IRAs, other savings, revolving-unsecured debt, life insurance, and disability insurance COMBINED.2. Other examples of the "selfless servant" approach: He has a great "simple money risk-management method" for life insurance, which would have you eliminate, reduce, assume, and then as a last resort insure risks you can't assume. But then in the following chapters, he has you choosing the last resort option, "insure", to a greater extent than most people do, particularly on items that are not for "self only". For example, the author takes the view that you should have enough life insurance that you would essentially completely replace the fact that you're no longer here, so if you make 100k, he'd have you buy 1.5 million in insurance. My view? Life goes on. If you're married, for instance, certainly the remaining family members would benefit from a couple of years of covered finances, but a left-behind spouse, can remarry, enter the job force, downsize, family can step in and help, etc. I think it is overkill to think you have to provide for love ones for the remainder of their life, even in the event of your death.3. While a Will (beyond the state default will) is important, the only way it should make #1 on one's personal finance to-do list is if one values everyone else more than themselves. Again, if you're a selfless servant, this is your book, because you probably WOULD put that first. In practice though, It's quite rare to die young and leave loved ones behind stranded, but it is almost of epidemic proportions the amount of families that have little to no retirement savings and who are living paycheck-to-paycheck. So, in my opinion, one should really order their personal finance to-do list based on probability of neglecting that financial item causing a detriment in one's financial life, not based on the level of devastation caused to others if the neglected finance item comes to pass.4. Another tell-tell sign this is a selfless servant's finance book? The author overtly says the legacy aspect of your estate is more important than your tangible estate items. But by legacy, he makes quite clear he's not talking about you being remember because you're powerful, say like a Donald Trump, rather remembered because of all of the charitable things that you did for everyone. While I find this touching that this is important to him personally, again, I don't see how one's charitable legacy, tangibly matters to someone that is dead.In close, I would say if he wanted to write a finance book for the selfless servant, or for the practicing religious individual (this would be a great book for a deacon, for example!), then he should be genuine about that upfront and make that clear in the title of the book. So this is an alternative to, say, a Dave Ramsey finance book. For everyone else, especially the non-religious of us or those of us who don't "give" more than the average person saved for retirement, there are better choices.@myersbradley

Great read, pleasantly simple and overwhelmingly helpful when it comes to the complex world of personal finance. The problem with the personal financial services industry is the continued push for action, sophistication or exclusivity. Yet, just like health and diet - we typically look for the simplest of solutions to help with our goals. Tim does a wonderful job of highlighting and helping us journal our unique behaviors and beliefs of money to help us find our own personal definition of "enough". I highly recommend you read Simple Money.

This book was a great all around perspective on personal finance. It was more centered around personal behavior and habits that produce the financial results that are searched for. It also had easy to follow lists and simple guidelines to follow that made planning your future simple and easy.

I love the way Tim Maurer drills necessities down to a level that is easy to understand and how he helps you create an action plan to implement. I wish I had read this when I was thirty! Even at my age, retiring in 7 years, it was very helpful.

Pretty decent intro book to personal fiinance. I found a lot of it was wishy-washy, not really going deep into the subjects it was exploring. But, it did give a good overview of some basic parts of finance, and the advice was very clear and straightforward. There were also some eye-opening explorations into the psychology and emotions behind money and happiness.Overall, I'm glad that I bought this book, and it'll certainly compel me to read more books on this subject. But, I probably wouldn't consider it as a must-read.