Are you looking for practical steps that will help you get your financial journey in order? This book is for you.
The 21 Day Financial Fast is written by Michelle Singletary. The author is an award winning writer and Washington Post Columnist. In the book, she provides practical steps that people can take for 21 days. Michelle calls it a 21-day fast.
We usually fast from food, for instance, we can choose to opt out of sugary foods. Similarly, we can fast from unnecessary spending, such as going to the movies, buying stuff we don’t need, having cake for dinner, getting your hair done, or any other bad spending habit. Once we control the spending, we can work our way towards clearing our debts.
Michelle introduces a debt dash plan where you list all your debts beginning with the one that has the lowest balance. Next, take any extra money you make from budgeting and apply it to the first debt you listed while making minimum payments on all other debts. There are many other awesome concepts that the author introduces in the book to help you fast from unnecessary spending. For example, how do you overcome unnecessary spending? Well, if you follow Michelle’s advice for 21 days, you’ll find that you’ve overcome this challenge.
Overall the book is a great read, with a 4.7 rating on Amazon. It has a simple front and back cover, with the face of the author on the front cover. What I like about the book is that it combines financial discipline with spiritual principles. Also, Michelle has a whole chapter that covers how to care for the elderly without killing our finances. She covers how to create a long-term care plan that covers expenses for the elderly. Every household has that once dependent person, be it a elderly or another relative, with Michelle’s advice, you’ll learn how best to care for your dependents without bearing the stress that comes with such a responsibility.
Once you commit to not shopping for anything except necessities, you will enjoy each chapter of the book as the writer talks about different key principles that are applicable to your life.
Some of the best quotes from the books are:
- Greed blocks your path to prosperity.
- Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshiped.
- To increase my wealth, I had to decrease my wants.
- Money cannot purchase what the heart desires.
In Chapter one, the author admits that this book is not a quick fix to financial riches. She admits the journey is tough and calls for self-discipline. You have to put in the work for your financial freedom. No doubt there are times you will want to scream. You may even break the fast before the 21 days are over. But Michelle encourages readers to persist no matter how many times they falter.
Thousands of people have tried the fast and there’s a woman who got out of a hundred thousand dollars in debt thanks to the principles in this book. So if you’re looking for practical solutions to get out of debt and become a better manager of your finances, this book is for you.
You can get Michelle’s book on Amazon. Feel free to check out the audio version on Scribd.
