Finances

While the title of this book may sound a little creepy, we promise you that it is anything but that. It is a must read for every frugal family. The authors deal with every aspect of how to thoughtfully and carefully leave an inheritance to your children when you die, including such touchy subjects as: how to deal with kids who are financially irresponsible; what to do about kids with addictions; planning fairly when you have kids from multiple marriages; and how to distribute your family business.

Okay, so the title just doesn’t grab you, but the content will. This book is worth buying and worth reading at least once every 2 years. It talks about contentment, controlling your spending, avoiding debt, living in a smaller house, college scholarships, the value of sleep, recreation ideas, parenting and a lot on investing. They don’t adhere to the common wisdom of most money experts that you should “pay yourself first.” The Toohey’s advocate cutting expenses, living less expensively and getting rid of debt so that you can create an excess of money.

Greg Karp is an award-winning, nationally published newspaper columnist. He understands that earning more money isn’t the solution to most financial dilemmas — but that spending smarter is! He discusses evaluating your life insurance; owning cars; analyzing phone, internet and cable TV bills and usage; options to wasting money on overpriced bottled water; extended warranties; timeshares; smoking; playing lotteries and much more. This book talks about lots of very practical ways to save money — but doesn’t really address how to develop a budgeting system.

Rock and Brock are twins, but they are as different as night and day. Their grandfather comes to them one day with a special deal: For the next ten weeks, every Saturday he will give them each one dollar . . . and another dollar for each one that they have saved. Kind of like a 401k with matching. Rock’s “wanter” goes wild because there are so many things he wants to buy. As a result he never saves anything. Brock, on the other hand, delays his buying frenzy and saves his money. At the end of ten weeks, Brock has $512 and Rock has a bunch of cheap toys.