Your Money or Your Life - Alvin Hall

...TV series 'Your Money or your life' in which financial adviser Alvin Hall comes to the aid of people in financial trouble, and always enjoyed it, so I was interested to read this, the accompanying book to the series.

I expected that this book would be solely advice on getting out (and staying out) of debt, and as I am (luckily) not in any debt myself, I did not think most of it would be relevant to me. I was wrong. Although there ...
...look at the reasons behind your spending, so that you can learn to control it in the future. The overall feeling I was left with from this introduction, was that I was impressed that it looked as though this would delve deeper than simply saying 'save more, spend less' and work on changing the readers attitude towards their finances.

CHAPTER ONE - MONEY AND YOUR MIND

Following on from the intro, this chapter deals with ... more

My dad gave me this book, most likely as a hint that I need to be more financially responsible! I had seen the TV series 'Your Money or your life' in which financial adviser Alvin Hall comes to the aid of people in financial trouble, and always enjoyed it, so I was interested to read this, the accompanying book to the series.

I expected that this book would be solely advice on getting out (and staying out) of debt, and as I am (luckily) not in any debt myself, I did not think most of it would be relevant to me. I was wrong. Although there is such a chapter, the book covers a much wider range of topics, such as Property choices, Insurance and retirement.

The book is split into twelve chapters, and I will give a brief summary and my thoughts on each chapter.

INTRODUCTION

The book starts with a short introduction, in which Alvin explains that he has been in debt himself and how he found that the key to overcoming this problem, was learning to understand the psychological reasoning behind his spending. Although brief, I found this introduction very interesting, and insightful, and it actually made me sit and think about my own spending habits, and why I find the need to fritter so much cash! I also think that it can only be a good thing to look at the reasons behind your spending, so that you can learn to control it in the future. The overall feeling I was left with from this introduction, was that I was impressed that it looked as though this would delve deeper than simply saying 'save more, spend less' and work on changing the readers attitude towards their finances.

CHAPTER ONE - MONEY AND YOUR MIND

Following on from the intro, this chapter deals with taking a full, frank look at what you are spending, and areas where you can cut back. Alvin recommends that you start a spending diary - a log of every single thing you buy for one month. Personally I thought a month was slightly excessive, but according to the book, anything shorter would not give a true representation of the facts. It is in this chapter that you first see a glimpse of Alvin's no-nonsense attitude. You can tell from reading, that this is a man, who in his time has come across every excuse in the book from people who are unwilling to face up to their debts, or plan for their families futures. He says in a blunt, yet often humorous way, that until you stop making excuses and blaming everyone else for your situation, you have no chance of improving things.
This chapter also includes a template of a spending diary, which he recommends you photocopy 31 times (for each day of the month). The spending diary not only includes a section for what you actually spent, but what you did that day and how you were feeling. I think this a really good idea, as it teaches you to recognise emotional spending habits - like do you tend to spend after an argument or bad day at work to cheer you up?

CHAPTER TWO - CONSUMER DEBT

As I said above, I'm not actually in debt, but the press constantly bombard us with figures and statistics about the spiralling debt of many people in the UK, and I'm sure we all know at least one person who is in debt.
Again, this chapter looks into reasons why people so often get into debt, and practical advice on how to get out of debt.
I must admit that as I have never had a credit card, I found that a lot of this section went over my head. He explains a lot of the mathematics behind interest rates and shows a somewhat shocking table of figures, representing how interest can mount up. There is lots of advice on how to minimise and understand your debt more efficiently, and also a 'credit card debt reduction plan' template similar to the spending diary in chapter one.
I was also glad to read that being someone who has never had credit, means I have a low credit rating as 'people who pay with cash are in the same category as drug money launderers.' Great.

CHAPTER THREE - THE JOY OF SAVING

I have found this chapter to be very useful, as I wanted to open a new savings account, but was baffled by the many different choices offered by high-street banks. This chapter offers much more practical, rather than psychological advice, outlining the difference between ISA's, shares and government bonds, and how they work. I found Alvin's advice to be very realistic - for example if you can only afford to save £10 a month, that's fine - anything is better than nothing.
He also explains compound interest, giving a table of figures based on saving £100 a month, which I found quite interesting as it was not something I had thought about before.
So far, this has been the best chapter in the book for me personally, as Alvin's easy to follow advice helped me make more informed choices about my savings.

CHAPTER FOUR - PROPERTY CHOICES

As I rent my home, I am baffled when it comes to mortgages, but this did go some way to clearing things up. It explains the (financial) advantages of owning your own property, and summarizes different types of mortgages and the risks involved. I think this would be useful if ever I did decide to buy a house, and I would definitely refer back to the book, but for someone like me who knows nothing about the subject, I found that a lot of the information in this chapter went over my head, and therefore I found my mind wandering off a lot.

CHAPTER FIVE - FINANCIAL PARTNERSHIP

I found this chapter really interesting, as again it looks into the psychology behind peoples money habits and their relationships with money. It covers subjects such as your families attitude towards money when you were growing up and what influence this has had on you, and how you and your partner can learn to handle money without arguments. There are also sections such as saving for having a baby, and teaching your children financial responsibility from a young age.

CHAPTER SIX - INVESTMENT BASICS

This chapter starts by explaining the difference between saving, investing and speculating, and goes on to explain different vehicles for investing, such as bonds and shares. Alvin advises at what point he thinks you should be at financially before undertaking any of these investments. He also strongly emphasises the risks that all of these investments carry, and not to undertake any of them lightly. I thought this was quite interesting, especially the part where he explained about corporate bonds, as this was something I did not know much about prior to reading this book.

CHAPTER SEVEN - INVESTING FOR LIFE

Following on from the theme of chapter six, this basically explains how to build you investment portfolio, and gives advice about shares.

CHAPTER EIGHT - INSURANCE OPTIONS

A fairly short chapter, this outlines different types of insurance, and which type of cover it is worth having, and which is not so important. It covers life, health, car, home and travel insurance, outlining different aspects and how to choose the best company. I was recently looking into getting contents insurance, and so referred to this book, but unfortunately this topic wasn't covered, which I was slightly disappointed with.

CHAPTER NINE - YES, YOU CAN RETIRE

Being only 21, retirement is not something that I have ever worried about. If this chapter is anything to go by, I should start worrying! In this section of the book, Alvin explains state and company pensions, and why it's so important to save towards retirement. If like me, you think 'I'm too young to be thinking about retirement' apparently you have the wrong attitude. According to Alvin, to work out how much you need to be saving for retirement, you need to divide your age by two, and that is the percentage of your income you need to save for retirement. That means at 21 I should be saving 10.5% of my wages for retirement. That kinda seems ridiculous to me, as I could not possibly think about putting that much money away for use in 45 years time. Nevertheless, this is a good, informative chapter, which will tell you everything you need to know about the subject.

CHAPTER TEN - PASSING ON YOUR WEALTH

OK, so it's slightly morbid, but this chapter deals with passing on your wealth after you die. It covers writing a will and inheritance tax. I've only skim-read this chapter, as quite frankly, if I died, I would have nothing to pass on! What I have seen, looks as though the subject is covered pretty thoroughly.

CHAPTER ELEVEN - WHO TO BELIEVE?

This chapter is all about choosing a financial adviser. Although at this point in my life, I would never have the need to hire a financial adviser, I found this chapter quite interesting. It deals with different things you need to consider when choosing financial help, and also has a checklist of questions you should ask, and questions a good financial adviser should ask you.

CHAPTER TWELVE - ONE HOUR A WEEK

This chapter is practical advise on how to maintain the organisation of your finances. It recommends different things that you should do on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or even yearly basis, such as sorting through receipts, balancing your current account etc.. Also, quite bizarrely I thought, suggests low-cost activities you can do, which will be fun, without breaking the bank. I'm not quite sure what I think of some of these suggestions - one of which is 'flying a kite'.

MY VERDICT

All in all I think this a good book if you are, like me, baffled by finances. As you can see from the rest of my review above, this covers a huge range of topics, often in a simple, easy to understand way. Alvins humorous, straight-talking attitude makes what can often be a boring subject interesting and often a delight to read. I have kept this book as something to refer to whenever I need to know something about money matters. This is a great read and I'd definitely recommend this, for anyone who is confused or in a rut financially - even if you don't read the whole thing, it's good to have as a point of reference. Five stars!!!

This is currently selling on Amazon for £3.99.

 

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