Are you a smart cookie?

In my quest for continued financial education, I turned to my local library in search of some books recommended by Even Steven Money, but they are pretty darn popular. I'm on the list, so those reviews should be coming shortly. For now, I picked up a few personal finance books written for and by women.

The most notable, so far, is The Smart Cookies' Guide to Making More Dough: How Five Young Women Got Smart, Formed a Money Group, and Took Control of Their Finances by the Smart Cookies and Jennifer Barrett. Just from this title I thought it would be a good place to start. In synopsis, five ladies formed a social group to tackle their money issues and support one another. They were inspired by an Oprah segment and even appeared on the show as one of the success stories from the season.

This book doesn't offer as many hard numbers and formulas as I had initially expected. Instead I got a lot of advice and stories about how to curb one's spending and for readers to consider WHY we spend. Although spending less is essential to saving more, these authors chose to cover the topic for two thirds of the book. Many many times they illustrated how much just cutting down on one Starbucks run a day can save someone.

Some of their tricks to curb shopaholic natures were helpful and certainly could apply to a lot of Americans already in credit card debt. They suggested trading clothes with friends, calling someone before buying an item, sleeping on the decision, and even putting something on hold while at the mall. My personal favorite piece of advice was to think  "Would I rather have ____ or reach my goal?" before a purchase.

The groups' major trick to making more money, was literally that. Each member of the group increased her salary by getting a raise, acquiring advanced degrees, or becoming self employed. If someone is motivated to save and pay off debt, a key to success is being passionate about his or her career.

Overall, I would recommend this to women looking to get a jump on their finances. Ones, like the smart cookies, that have no grip on their finances and haven't even looked at their credit card statements will benefit the most. We all can be smart cookies.