“Your Money: The Missing Manual” Review & Giveaway

Note:  If you cannot see the video book review, <– click here to watch.

First, I apologize for the darkness in the video!  I’m an idiot and recorded in front of an open window.  Doh!  I had to add a couple brightness notches post-filming, which lowered the quality.  Even still, I wanted to share the honest, non-scripted first take.  🙂  Enjoy!

How to win a FREE copy of Your Money: The Missing Manual!

In case you didn’t watch the video review (go watch it now!), I’m giving away 4 copies of J.D. Roth’s new book, Your Money: The Missing Manual.

Earlier today, I sent out instructions on how to win two of them to the Man Vs. Debt Militia.  If you are a member of the Militia, check your e-mail to enter to win!  If you aren’t a member, be sure to enlist now to get all future giveaway e-mails!

Militia member or not, you’ll still have two shots to win a free copy.  I’ll make these super easy:

  • Leave a comment below (on this post) describing why you deserve a free copy! I’ll pick the 5 most convincing comments (I’ll mix it up) and then randomize the winner among the top 5!
  • Leave a comment on Facebook describing what you will do with the book when you are done with it! J.D.’s financial turnaround was started with the gift of a book.  I’m trying to pass that along by giving away 4 books here.  What will you do with the book when you are done?  Donate it?  Sell it?  Give it to family?  Let me know and I’ll choose the best 5 and randomize a separate winner of the Facebook comments!

Two simple comments. One here on this post and one on MvD’s Facebook Fan Page gets you a chance to win a free copy of the book!  What are you waiting for?

You should buy this book.  Simple enough?  More info –> “Your Money: The Missing Manual”

*****

Disclaimer:  If you decide to purchase the book through a link on this page, Amazon will throw me roughly 60 cents.  Whoo-hoo!  Also, J.D. sent me a free copy of this book.  Whoo-hoo!  More importantly, I genuinely enjoyed the book so much that I personally bought 3 additional copies off Amazon to give away to you guys…  WHOO-HOO!

27 thoughts on ““Your Money: The Missing Manual” Review & Giveaway”

  1. Why me?

    1. I’m graduating high school in just under 2 months and think this book would be a great read for someone about to enter college and the “real world”.

    2. I’ll do a review on my own blog and brag about how awesome you were to run this giveaway!

  2. Walter Ballion

    I am just starting on my independent financial journey, and the road ahead looks very scary and filled with debt and bad decisions at every corner. I have subscribed to as many monetary advice groups as I possibly could to try and learn how to avoid falling into the pitfalls that await me. Having a book like this would be yet annother concrete subject of advice that I could keep with me and take notes on and in. This advice could not come to a person at a more oppourtune time than this, when one is just starting, before the debt comes, wouldn’t you have wanted a chance and advice like this to come your way and help you from going astray? Wouldn’t a little guide, like a bible, have carried you through the valleys that awaited and helped protect you from the harm that plauges us all? With the advice I have from people like yourself, the GRS staff, and the five cent nickle as my weapons and this book as a sheild, could not I fight the monstrous debt that seeks to kidnap my financial happiness?

    Or I could cut the romantic crap and study it like the dickens!!!

  3. Hi Adam! I could really use a copy of Your Money. I’m a newly single mother in the middle of a divorce and need to learn to live on one income instead of two. I’ve never lived on my own (without a roomate or my ex) and my current living situation with my parents is less than ideal. They’re great people and I’m thankful Mom and Dad let us stay with them, but the house is small and my daughter and I need our own place. I also planned on going back to school this fall and don’t plan on letting my single mother status keep me from going back. I know money and time will be tight for awhile but nothing worth doing in life is ever easy.

    I’m a big fan of your blog, found the 42 Ways to Radically Simplify your $ Life at LifeExcursion a few months back and have been hooked ever since. Thanks!

    ~Holly

  4. My wife and I have been struggling with debt for years. We have finally stopped incurring new debt but need help with getting debt free. This books sounds like a great tool to help with that.

  5. Wow – I am so excited to read this book after watching your review. I am a big fan of Dave Ramsey, but have personally struggled getting my spouse on board and getting “gazelle intense”. So much of what he says makes sense, but some of his suggestions do not work for us.
    We adopted our sons from Russia 5 years ago. Our oldest will be in 9th grade in September, and we strongly believe that his needs will be best served in the parochial high school. We are sick with worry, however, that we won’t be able to afford it. (And we do not live a lavish lifestyle, by any means.) Not being able to provide for your child’s needs is heartbreaking. A resource that gives us options that allow for this provision and also attack existing debt is what we need. We’ve been searching for other paths that would allow us to feel as though we can breathe again.
    I’ll happily pass the book along to our nephew, who is graduating college next month. I intend to purchase another copy for donation to our local library.

  6. Unlike some people here, I’m not going to post my entire life story. 😉 I’ll be brief: I love to read and people around me (friends, family, coworkers) often try to get their hands on the books I read. (Think Tom Sawyer painting the fence – everybody wants a piece of the action!) It would be different from just passing the book to a random acquaintance because in my case, they will *want* it. In a way, it’s passive viral marketing. ;^D

  7. I’ve been a reader of GRS for years now (that’s how I heard of MvD, actually!), and it was J.D. who started me on this path of caring where my money went. It was fun watching him get through writing the book, and I really would like to purchase it, along with your e-book, but as it stands, right now I’m at the end of a school term, and the entirety of 2010 has been basically awful in so many ways (breakup) and I went through all my carefully budgeted money when I had to pay an extra $200 a month in rent all term, Right now I’m down to putting basic expenses on a credit card (oh no), so my first few real paycheques this summer will be spent paying that off. Fortunately, I started practicing all of the stuff I’ve been reading about and have a very small emergency fund that keeps me from worrying constantly. (What if the cat gets sick?) Still, it’s hard to deal with the punches I have been thrown lately. I think this book could really help me get back on track. After your review, I know I’ll have to get it one day regardless, but it would really help to have it free (of course!)

    Thanks for your generosity Baker!

  8. Hey Baker!

    First off: great review – I liked your honest and raw approach, I agree that I go for dummy guides first and to see someone who I respects honest opinion about the book (besides J.D. who wrote it and would therefore be biased about his hard-earned baby) makes me want to spend the money on the book anyways. However, if I could win it for free – then all the better 🙂

    Second: I’ve made comments before about my path to savings which included a cross-global move to Israel in order to escape some debt and get my priorities in check, and now that I’m about to move back to the States, I’d like to have a manual that applies to the American side of finances, and I think this book would be a great start besides Your Money or Your Life (which I intend to get anyways).

    So win or lose – thanks for the review and hope all is well with you and your family! 🙂

  9. Id like this book not for myself. I follow JD’s blog and have really learned alot and been able to really restructure my thinking about money and stuff. I’m certainly not great at saving money but Im getting there. I’d like this book for my mother who thinks that money, stuff – happiness. I can see her spiraling out of control to have stuff make up for the things she is missing in her life. She fell and broke her shoulder in the beginning of Feb and has been out of work and is *bored* so she makes up for it by spending. But she isnt working, has no savings and has been what I call check chasing since then. She was lucky that she gets paid through disability except that it is a third of what she used to bring home. But the apartment complex she lives in is paying for her out of pocket expenses (she slipped on ice on the stairs outside) so she chases after those checks. She was in a car accident and had a lawsuit against the person who hit her, so she recently got a settlement for that. Her friends at work generously donated vacation hours so that she would have some semblance of a pay check while she is out of work but she spends her money the same as if she were able to work. Shes been out to dinner, purchased the 32 gigabit iPad, bought books and gadgets just stuff. She’s always been this way and as much I had hoped being out of work would be a wake up call for her it just hasnt been. Our conversations about money and saving is that she just says you will just always live paycheck to paycheck and not be able to save cause thats just how it is. She makes 6 figures and doesnt have much to show for it except stuff… While I dont know if the book will change her habits, I would hope that she might find a kindred spirit in JD’s story and learn that its not too late for her to change her thinking. Regardless if i win this contest or not – this book will make its way to her hands 🙂

  10. Why would I love to win a book? Well, I recently lent my friend $1500 and have yet to see it. They have even booked a trip to Florida. I’d love to be able to give them this book and see if it can help turn their finances around!

  11. Hey Baker,

    I’d LOVE to win J.D.’s book because, thanks to you my finances are now no longer automated, unfortunately my money is still missing so I need this manual 😉 (waka-waka-waka).

    Looking forward to reading his book!

  12. Raised four financially-responsible young adults, and I’m now working hard on my retirement after an unexpected life event. Working hard, saving lots, and I’d love some more good advice!

  13. Ok… I need the book because I’m moving back to America after living in Korea for the last three years, and I’m TERRIFIED of falling back into the bad brainless consumerism that is much of our country’s culture. Furthermore, I am now married and therefore responsible for another human being and we want to start a family when we go to the U.S. which scares the financial pants off of me. So please, Mr. Baker sir, choose me!

  14. I started on my debt to zero journey last year. I cringe when I think about the path we were headed on before I became passionate about personal finance and budgeting. Unfortunately, my family and I have a long way to go before we will be out of debt. When my husband and I married, we didn’t know anything about budgeting. We were like the typical American family. We bought and credited whatever we wanted. Now with 3 children, a mortgage, credit card debt , and 2 vehicles we have financed we are in deep. Oh, how I wish i could take it all back. We didn’t realized the burdens we were placing on ourselves at the time, but thanks to websites like this and personal finance books like “Your Money: The Missing Manual,” we will be debt free one day. But since we still have alot of digging to do and could use some more education, my family and I would really benefit from me getting my hands on this book…for free.

  15. Hi,

    I am a reader from the NETHERLANDS. I like your blog a lot. Also i would love to read your book. I have blog myself about simplifying, less consuming and not spending.

    I will also add you on facebook, but how do you know it”s me??

  16. I am a reader in China who has been debt free since the day our 19 month old son was born (my last payment to Sallie Mae cleared while I was in labor!)
    I’d like to read the book, though not as much as I’d like for it to be sent to my 22 year old brother if I win it. He’s been through two layoffs and incured thousands in medical debt since he suddenly found out that he had epilepsy at the age of 19. I think this book, along with so many others, would help him get on track and become more financially responsible.

  17. Hi Baker. My blog reading days just began in October. I started with the Happiness Project, which led me to Zen Habits, which led me to Get Rich Slowly which led me to Man vs. Debt. Since then my life has been changed by these motivating sites encouraging me to change and giving me practical advice on how to do so. Because of J.D.’s blog and his recommendation of Dave Ramsey’s book, I am on a quest to become DEBT FREE. I AM GONNA DO IT. I have a voracious appetite for learning about how people have done this for themselves. I am a single mom (raising my niece and nephew). My relationship with money is going to affect my family tree for years to come, and I still have a lot to learn. So “Your money: This missing Manual” is something I want so much more than an I-PAD right now.

    Thanks,

    Mendy

  18. Why do I deserve a copy of JD Roth’s book Your Money: The Missing Manual?
    I am a single lady, and I put myself through college while staying completely debt free. This also includes paying for my car in full. My father died my senior year of high school and my mom worked as a gas station attendant. I got a full time job and moved out on my own. It has taken me ten years to finish school while working during the day. While working my way through college I saved up enough for a special award upon graduation. The reward I have been dreaming about is achieving my pilot’s license. I am graduating in three weeks and started flight training this semester. To achieve the pilot’s license, a student pilot has to have flown over forty hours in a plane; so far, I have flown eight hours.

    My next goal is to save money for the purchase of a house. This means (gulp) taking on debt! This also means that I should learn about having a mortgage, and the different types available. I need this manual to help instruct the best ways to save for such a large purchase and to manage the debt that I am planning on. Aside from just saving money in a money market or CD, I am not familiar with the other avenues of saving. This manual will inform me on what will be the best way to save for the next five to ten years. I am disciplined enough to save money, I just am not sure that I am saving money in the best way.

  19. If I win this book I will read it page to page, make notes of the most profound insights, noting the mistakes I do, sketch out a plan to do something about it and donate the book to the local community library (I live in the African bush since 4 years, by the way).

    I have followed GRS for some time now, linking the site and important posts to family, friends and aquaintances for their infoedutainment and would LOVE to be able to bring the possiblity to bring this on for my massai friend without network in a printed version!

    thank you for putting forward the invitation!

    and, if I do not reach it to the top I probably will still buy the book and donate it;) have given the local library (which I started) a few hundred books already as well as initiating a workshop and the community members are thrilled! my financial literacy is so-so, though… so…!

  20. My husband and I got married and moved away from our hometown. We hated it there and travelled back to our hometown every weekend. Moving out of our parent’s houses and into mortgage payments, car payments and other bills was a shock. We got a small credit card, the bank extended the limit and we spent that too, they extended, we spent and on it went until we were $16000 in credit card debt, had a truck loan, a car loan, a line of credit worth $5000 that was also maxed out. I had a bank account separate from our joint account that was $3000 overdrawn and I was barely making the interest payment every month.
    We sold our house, paid off the credit card, overdraft and line of credit and have been living with my parents while we build our new house. We have changed our spending ways a bit, but could definitely use more help. Also, we want to work at paying off this new mortgage as quickly as possible, so we are looking for more advice there.
    I would LOVE to have a copy of JD’s book, as I believe he has a lot of great ideas and his experience with his own financial turnaround has inspired me to take the helm as well!
    Thank you for hosting this giveaway!

  21. Adam:

    It was great to meet you last night at the Nonconformity meetup. As for the Money: The Missing Manual, I need as many copies of this book as possible so I can give them to members of my family who have little education in financial matters.

    I’d really like to break their cycle of money ignorance and give people I care about the freedom to actualize and stop letting money control their behaviors and their lives.

    Thank you in advance!

  22. Hi Baker! I think this book looks great for me for a couple different reasons. My husband and I are making that transition from college students to full workers. He is getting a job while I want to work from home with my own craft business. We want to start a family soon too. These all are things our parents did, and to tell you the truth, I don’t want to spend my money like our parents did. I see them burdened in their 50s and 60s by mortgages, loans, credit card debt, and car loans with a mentality that, “this is just how it is.” I don’t want to be complacent or conform by burying my dreams and freedom under a mountain of debt (on top of the school loans, car loan, and credit card debt we already have). I want to revolutionize how I deal with MY MONEY! I always thought what I was doing worked for me, but it was what worked for my Baby Boomer parents. I need new and fresh ideas. I need a better education about money and use the education to make smart decisions about credit, debt, saving, buying a house, and everything else under the sun that affects my financial health. I feel like I can’t move on to this next step of my life with old habits and my husband and I both want to rehabilitate our sense of our own money. Thanks for hosting a giveaway and reviewing this book- whether I win or not, I think it would be money spent wisely to buy it.

  23. I would like to win a copy…no I deserve a copy because I am a ‘do it my own way’ kind of girl…and I still need help. I have a budgeting program, I still struggle with it. I know nothing of investing and really need to take that first step. I think this book would actually motivate me to do this. Especially since I can ‘do it my own way’. Thanks for the contest!

  24. Hi, from another Indiana Baker!

    I would love to win and pass on Roth’s book. My husband and I moved from Bloomington, Indiana to Homer, Alaska two years ago. We’ve definitely taken an unusual path and have worked with sled dogs, started a business, and worked in the airline industry. In those two years, we also tried to buy a house (twice!) and have made only 10% of what we used to make in Indiana–so while we haven’t lost our jobs like many people in the United States, we have still felt the crunch of having very little money and A LOT of debt (mostly school, not so much consumer).

    Our priority is traveling and adventure. As two outdoor guides/leaders, we thought we could have that adventurous life in Alaska. WRONG! Our debt has kept us prisoner and we can’t travel because of the high cost. This has changed our spending priorities and has made us extremely aggressive fighters against our debt (we call our snowballing payoff method The Voltron Project!).

    We have changed our lifestyle dramatically–we are part of The Compact (no buying anything new), we make our food from scratch, we are starting a garden, hopefully raising ducks and bees, and made sure to rent a house that has space available to sub-let so that we can get seasonal renters to cut our housing costs. We moved into town to cut down transportation costs. And then I took a full time job with a regional airline so that we could travel for free/mega discount! This job is also the first in two years to provide insurance so that we know we are covered in case of an emergency.

    While it sounds like we are doing a lot of things right, it is hard to explain to others (other than by example). Adam, I would love to win this book so that I can pass it on to others so that can also enjoy this financial freedom!

    Thanks, fellow Hoosier!

  25. I just came across your blog. I deserve this book because money seems to melt through my pocket and I am hopeless about money matters. I’m trying to break the cycle of poor money habits I watched in my family. I’m a full time student now with limited means and money is something I need to learn to have more control over. I will share my copy with my fellow students so that they too can be financially free.

  26. Hey Adam!

    With the book, I plan on devouring the content inside and applying as much of it as I can to my own life. After becoming a success story, I plan on passing the book on to another person to change their life. The main condition would be to have them send the book to another person in dire need of guidance.

    I plan on having this continue until as many people have their lives changed by GRS as possible.

    Thank you for the opportunity.

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