Samuel K. Freshman and Heidi E. Clingen’s new book, The Smartest Way to Save: Why You Can’t Hang on to Money and What to Do About It, is so deceptively simple and reader-friendly that you almost don’t notice until you’ve finished how comprehensive it is. Replete with wise and immediately practicable suggestions about how to use money to enhance your life, The Smartest Way to Save is also peppered with meaningful anecdotes and money stories about the authors and those people who helped them shape their money behavior. These stories foster a bond between the writers and their readers, facilitating change.
The book’s three parts encourage a reader to focus on money through three different lenses: in relation to oneself, in relation to others, and in relation to the larger world. This variety of perspectives can’t help but expand the consciousness of someone who doesn’t customarily look at his or her spending and saving habits objectively. In addition, Freshman and Clingen offer up a panoply of tools for managing your money, getting out from under debt, and saving for the future—a richness of resource I’ve rarely seen in other financial self-help books.
Anyone who follows their detailed suggestions for saving money on food, clothing, transportation, travel, and entertainment—and heeds their shrewd advice on protecting oneself from scams and other fraud—should be able to go forth unafraid— ready, willing, and able to move toward financial independence.
Carrie Rattle is a Principal at BehavioralCents.com, a website for women focused on mind and money behaviors. She has worked in the financial services industry for 20+ years and hopes to inspire women to better prepare themselves for financial independence.