The Ms. Spent Money Guide

Introduction.

READY TO CHANGE: IS YOUR HIP POCKET OFF BALANCE?

Where Did It All Go?: The Unconscious Spending Trap.

Conscious Spending: Honoring Your Values.

Becoming Conscious: Getting More of What You Want.

The Excuse File: Why Unconscious Spending Tempts.

SET TO SPEND: THE SEVEN CONSCIOUS SPENDING CATEGORIES.

Security: Your Financial Foundation.

Shelter: Your Home, Sweet Home.

Sustenance: Feeding Your Body.

Self and Family: Everyday Expenses.

Social: Connecting with Others.

Society: Giving Back.

Soul: Expressing Your Higher Purpose.

GO: BECOMING A CONSCIOUS SPENDER.

Starting Out: Creating a Conscious Spending Plan.

Keeping Conscious: Designing a New Hip-Pocket Habit.

Iceberg Ahead: When You're Weighed Down by Debt.

The Big Squeeze: When Your Means Are Not Enough.

Bibliography.

Conscious Spending: Next Steps.

Index.

DEBORAH KNUCKEY is a writer, money coach, and speaker. She writes an Internet money advice column, speaks and coaches groups about Conscious Spending, and regularly appears in the media. Knuckey has an MBA from UCLA and has worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Co., Inc., Andersen Consulting, and Ketchum and as a financial reporter at News Corporation. She lives in Washington, D.C.

There's no "right" way to spend, says Knuckey, a personal finance consultant who calls her system "coaching" not "counseling," since "you may never understand the details" of your feelings about money, but "you can still change your behavior." Happily, her behavior modification plan involves no penny-pinching, few rules and not much of that "b-word"(budgeting), which is about as much fun as dieting. The bottom line to Knuckey's system is her focus on "Conscious Spending," which means only buying what really makes you happy. While there are the obligatory passages on the trap of escalating wants and the ball-and-chain of debt, her main message is positive: focus on satisfying yourself, and you'll never lack motivation. Apart from such truisms, there are occasional mentions of more radical notions, like the idea that having enough is a very real concept for people who have come to the end of their "journey of self-expression." Knuckey's program is basically sensible and unthreatening, low on "shoulds" and sprinkled with humor. Her own persona] lifetime spending program, for instance, assumes "that I will die broke" - why support lazy heirs? And, she advises, don't play the lottery: "if you want to buy hope, buy a drink at a singles bar!" By the end of the book, a complex budgeting plan sneaks in anyway, but readers who've gotten that tar won't mind.Forecast: While there's no dearth of personal finance self-help books on the market, Knuckey's down-to-earth tone should appeal to 20-somethings, especially considering her online presence, detailed in the book's final pages.--Publisher's WeeklyIn The Ms. Spent Money Guide, Deborah Knuckey wants everyone to be a conscious spender.You know, someone who never buys things spontaneously and never purchases things they never use. (The kind of sensible person, in short, who is the opposite of the heroine in the funny best-selling novel, Confessions of a Shopaholic.)No one makes you spend money, but experts spend a lot of time and

There's no "right" way to spend, says Knuckey, a personal finance consultant who calls her system "coaching" not "counseling," since "you may never understand the details" of your feelings about money, but "you can still change your behavior." Happily, her behavior modification plan involves no penny-pinching, few rules and not much of that "b-word"(budgeting), which is about as much fun as dieting. The bottom line to Knuckey's system is her focus on "Conscious Spending," which means only buying what really makes you happy. While there are the obligatory passages on the trap of escalating wants and the ball-and-chain of debt, her main message is positive: focus on satisfying yourself, and you'll never lack motivation. Apart from such truisms, there are occasional mentions of more radical notions, like the idea that having enough is a very real concept for people who have come to the end of their "journey of self-expression." Knuckey's program is basically sensible and unthreatening, low on "shoulds" and sprinkled with humor. Her own persona] lifetime spending program, for instance, assumes "that I will die broke" - why support lazy heirs? And, she advises, don't play the lottery: "if you want to buy hope, buy a drink at a singles bar!" By the end of the book, a complex budgeting plan sneaks in anyway, but readers who've gotten that tar won't mind.
Forecast: While there's no dearth of personal finance self-help books on the market, Knuckey's down-to-earth tone should appeal to 20-somethings, especially considering her online presence, detailed in the book's final pages.
--Publisher's Weekly
In The Ms. Spent Money Guide, Deborah Knuckey wants everyone to be a conscious spender.
You know, someone who never buys things spontaneously and never purchases things they never use. (The kind of sensible person, in short, who is the opposite of the heroine in the funny best-selling novel, Confessions of a Shopaholic.)
No one makes you spend money, but experts spend a lot