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Rating: 
Summary: Rather Ingenious
Review:
This is not your typical "How To" budgeting book. It is a marketing tool, both for a software service and a way of life. The cleverness comes in the way it is packaged. Most "Start Budgeting, Get Out Of Debt" books I've read are very direct, with lots of facts, figures, instructions, and warnings. Some people love this sort of thing. Others have flashbacks to algebra class and their eyes glaze over.
My friend's wife is one of these people.
He and I have discussed at length how to get her "on board" with the household budget. This book may be the answer.
Instead of a step-by-step, rational explantion of the budgeting process, this book is about relationships: a husband and wife, the wife and her best friends, and the well-meaning son and his parents. Stepping into this mix is the wise old financial planner, with time-tested advice and tales of the good life, free from worry, debt, and public embarassment. As the couple progresses through the stages of getting their financial house in order, their relationship deepens and grows, to the point where they are able to offer the same to their friends. The husband, who in the first chapter overcharges their credit card and causes his wife humiliation at the checkout counter, slowly becomes the perfect mate, and in the end treats her to a perfectly romantic beach picnic in the tropics.
Sound hokey? It is. But, this is the kind of visionary thinking that may get my friend's wife to get the Big Picture that gets lost in all the talk of bank accounts, envelopes, and receipts. By couching household budgeting in terms of personal relationships rather than account balances, she might just catch the vision. I expect that my own wife won't be swayed so easily. But, I think it does demonstrate a better approach than the figures and spreadsheets that I have been plying her with. So to that end, it's well worth reading, even if you already understand the topic. It might help you explain it to someone else.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally-- a helpful guide for spending management
Review: Finally-- a helpful guide for spending managementI've browsed through so many books about money and never found quite was I was looking for- not stale tips on how to save money (eat out less, clip coupons), not complicated strategies for investing large sums of money (which I don't have). I wanted a book that would be a step-by-step guide with specifics on how to budget and not overspend. I'm glad I finally stumbled upon Money for Life. Smith's book wasn't boring, I actually felt excited to finish it. I haven't started on the envelopes plan yet, but I'm heading home today to finish up setting up my spending accounts. Hopefully, I can keep to the principles of the book and this will work for me. If you're looking for a book that will walk you through specifically what you can do to manage your spending (so that you'll eventually have some money, and THEN you'll need those investing books), try this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Just a marketing tool
Review: This book was difficult to read in my opinion because it inched along in Wealthy Barber fashion. Some people like that, but I don't. You had to read about detailed mall conversations with fictitious people for a page before you get to the part about budgeting. Ultimately, the book does not address what to do with the complex issues of envelope budgeting such as a single Walmart purchase of clothing, food, toys, and cleaning supplies. Do you haul out four envelopes and make change? How do you carry large amounts of cash safely? All the "how to's" conclude with a suggestion to do the envelopes with software, i.e., the disk included with the book. This is nothing more than a software sales pitch, and it gets worse.
In order to use your 30 day trial of the disk included in the book, you must ante up your credit card number and agree to pay the a monthly fee if you forget to cancel. You cannot access the software without signing up for this service. I got taken. You don't have to.
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