All Your Worth

I picked this up on Moxie's recommendation, plus I really learned so much from the authors' first book, The Two-Income Trap. The authors impress me as people who are on their readers' side. What they have to say is only partly depressing, and wholly empowering.

Moxie recommended this especially for people who may have zero or less than zero saved for their retirement. (Certainly a group I can identify with...but never mind retirement, try college for Teo!) Unlike other investment planning books that assume yu have money just sitting in a bank waiting to be told where to go, this assumes that you're a "normal" person who's made a few mistakes regarding your finances.

It has a great formula for what to do with your income to get your life in balance and eliminate the worry from your ife: spend 50% on your must-haves (which includes long-term obligations, mortgages, health and life insurance, and food), 30% on your wants (which includes cable, phone services that are above & beyond basic, your daily coffee, and the like) and put 20% toward savings.

We are nowhere near able to follow this formula right now, and the authors say that's ok too--now that we know what the ideal formula is, we need to work toward that as fast as we possibly can.

This book showed me the errors we've been making, but also showed me a light at the end of the tunnel.