Anyone that knows me well enough knows that I love freebies; the useful type of freebies that would help my life. I have a terrible poker face, so you can pretty much tell how I feel about certain things right off the bat. If you do not want to get a blank stare in response, please, do not give me beauty products, I can barely manage the ones I have. So, errrrr, no thank you…
Back to this freebie! I received a free copy this morning of Arese Ugwu’s The Smart Money Woman thanks to CountlessMiles.com’s ‘Who has travelled the longest distance by air’ competition. Whoop whoop! My travel time from Lagos through Johannesburg to Sydney got me the win ;). I could legit feel myself getting old during the entire flight.
Anybody that was attuned to Nigeria’s social media in August would have been bombarded with the rave reviews about how good the book is. Even when I watched SisiYemmie’s acceptance of a sponsored ticket to South Africa *envy!* my eyes got caught on to the panning of the camera to The Smart Money Woman book beside her computer. Serious marketing oh!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLf0U4TjkuN/
Most of the caliber of people raving about how good the book is, from the book’s pages i – iii, had me raising my eyebrows in respect. Serious respect.
I was almost tempted to count my kobo and buy it last weekend…almost, but I thought I knew enough about been money smart already. Apparently not.
So yeah, back to the koko of this, my thoughts on the actual book itself.
The Positives – I was surprised by how easy a read it was; I finished the fiction bit in less than 2 hours.
To be truthful, I skipped out on the financial advice section and gobbled up the actual story of Zuri and her compadres. I like how she slid a bit of romance into the mix to keep people like me with serious ADD attuned to it. For people whose brains mentally shut down when financial mumbo jumbo comes their way, Arese was able to subtly slide some sound financial advices within the predictable yet interesting storyline.
Edit – #LeSigh. Just for the sake of writing a proper book review, I fast read through the financial lessons in each chapter and I like how it is not so convoluted and can be understood pretty easily. The advices are sound, easily achievable, and should not lead anyone astray. I know that my account officers will definitely be hearing from me tomorrow morning. Treasury bill is now at 19% and I have been putting that off for way too long, time to invest.
Negatives – I almost dumped the book after the first 2 chapters. The number of business adverts that I came across made me want to search for a blooper that said ‘this book was sponsored by companies A,B,C…). At some point, I found myself googling the most marketed company to see if they would allow a noob like me to be a member. Darn it! The shameless plugs worked too! I did enjoy the romance bit of the book, but I would have appreciated the book more without it. Without him and his network, would she have accomplished certain things? If so, how? Yes, she was already on the path of getting her life sorted out, but the male component hastened it along. Ah well.
And I can not even lie, I rolled my eyes at the last line on page 196. Please read or borrow the book and roll your eyes with me if you are getting me.
Conclusion – Overall, The Smart Money Woman is a pretty good and easy read. For those looking to turn their financial situations around, grab a pen and book to start working towards it. I think I do okay in achieving my financial goals and reinvesting in my future, but even with my degree in Finance, I found myself mentally taking notes of things to quickly do as soon as the bank opens tomorrow.
Lesson Learned – You never know enough.
Many thanks to Monie from CountlessMiles.com for the gift! Mucho gracias!
