CHOOSE FI: YOUR BLUEPRINT TO FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE, Your Cut-To-The Chase Book Review

October 7, 2019

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When I was given an advance copy of Choose FI – Your Blueprint To Financial Independence to check out, I was ecstatic. I mean, I LOVE all things finance, especially when it’s related to independence. So, I took it with me on our big vacation across the country to Yellowstone National Park this past summer. Not only did I love reading this book but I was also able to get tons of cool shots of me holding it with ultra-cool mountainous backdrops. Whoa, was that some forethought, or what? Our plane hadn’t even left the ground before I was cracking it open…

I’d love to say I finished it before we landed in Jackson Hole, WY, but, alas, I’m a slow reader. Not to worry, I read more by the hotel pool as my daughter was doing underwater handstands, I read more at breakfast when I was waiting for my husband to finish his eggs, and I finally finished one evening while my other two travel mates were enjoying an episode of Love It Or List It.

And speaking of love it, I did. But, of course, I did. It was right up my alley and written by folks I know and respect. So I decided to do something different. Just as I finished the book I lovingly looked at my husband and suggested he should read it.

Now, let me just make something clear. Even though we call ourselves Mr. and Mrs. Mad Money Monster and we’re both involved in the blog and the podcast, I’m the one who loves money around these parts. Mr. MMM is just along for the ride. I mean, he picks up ideas and strategies here and there and he likes it when I tell him our net worth is ascending, but, if he never had another single conversation about money again, he’d be just fine with that. HIM reading this book would be a real, unbiased, unfiltered opinion from someone who really isn’t entrenched (like I am) in this world of personal finance. THIS was the book’s true test. And with that, I give to you, HIS REVIEW of CHOOSE FI: YOUR BLUEPRINT TO FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE…

Book Review: CHOOSE FI: YOUR BLUEPRINT TO FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE

Having someone say, “Hey! Ready this book,” is on the same level as someone asking you to do a favor you really don’t want to do. You smile, say you’ll check it out and try to shift the conversation to something else.

Sometimes they have the book with them and they insist on letting you borrow it right there. Do you be polite and take it? Or do you say you just don’t have time, but you’ll definitely check it out when you do?

And then…sometimes…you actually follow through. You look at the book. You open it. Look at some chapter titles, the author notes and sometimes…you actually read it.

And you’re glad you did.

Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence Book Review — Enjoying my book over the breathtaking, snow-covered Rocky Mountains

Choose FI: Your Blueprint To Financial Independence isn’t exactly summer beach reading. It’s not Stephen King or a romance novel. The title tells you this will be clinical and the subject matter sterile or worse yet, structured to make you feel below the message of the book.

The great thing is, Choose FI: Your Blueprint To Financial Independence actually IS great summer beach reading. It’s not a dull outline of finance-speak done by three people who want to tell you what you are doing wrong in your life. Instead, this well-written guide talks in average, real-world speak as if you have the authors sitting across from you and engaged in some lively and friendly banter.

From headlining each chapter with an inspirational and relevant quote to identifying the issue and/or problem and subsequently offering real advice with ending action plans, yeah, this is something to pack for the beach.

Because I want to know what’s working not just in the global economy but in my own career and life. I want to know how to expand on my own value, assess the markets better and use that application to my own resources. I want to know about the injection of smart real estate moves by starting with an action plan that originates in the concentric circles around my own home.

The authors, Chris Mamula, Brad Barrett, and Jonathan Mendonsa offer up more than a book, but a solid and realistic action plan that is bolstered by real-world advice and written in a way that does not alienate those new to FI, no matter what age, and eloquently walks that tightrope of teaching a few of the old FI dogs some new tricks.

This is not another financial “diet fad” type of book that wants you to embrace FIRE or any of the other mantras you come across in the FI world. Instead, their casual, easy to follow conversation takes you in, winds you through and allows you to almost ala carte the financial “plugins” that best suit your life and financial standing.

And with any good speaker, dinner date or comedian…it knows when to leave the stage when its point has been made.

Looking for some sense, some light or simply some direction in where to go in not just accumulating wealth, but building a real foundation that incorporates the financial maelstrom around us?

Then pack this book, head for the beach or the mountains or wherever your happy place may be and enjoy it like good company.