The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life Hardcover – September 6, 2011

I have not finished this book, I am only on page 81 but it has already helped me to understand how important it is to budget your money each month, and to allocate certain amounts for different expenses. This doesn’t mean that you can never deviate but the budget is a goal that you try to reach each month. A budget is not the same as looking back and seeing how much you spent last month. A budget is sitting down and deciding how much you need each month and for what. Also, the book gives a web site called mint.com which consolidates everything for you.As I said, I am not even half way through the book, but I think it has valuable information for anyone who doesn’t want to get into a cycle of debt. Think of some of the people you know, oneself included, who owe money on credit cards, etc.. and they generally will always blame their problems on everything else but their own inability to budget. Before I take the moral high ground, I want to add that any one of us can end up in debt if we are not careful. It is the easiest thing in the world to be indebted financially. Also, we don’t know what life will bring, so we have to try to anticipate potential problems down the road, like an unexpected illness or job loss.Lastly, I think it is very important to remember this fact: Most of us today can easily spend what we earn and then some. It doesn’t matter if we make 20,000 or 100,000 or 1,000,000 dollars a year. The problem is that for whatever reason, we easily adapt to a higher salary and we just end up spending more on dining, clothing, travel, etc…. So usually the problem is not that we don’t make enough (however, in some cases it is); the problem is that we spend too much. We are spenders, not savers. So if this is our mentality, then what we need to do is remove the temptation from the very beginning. Every month we need to make it a habit of putting money into a long term savings account or/and other accounts that cannot be touched for every day spending. This way we don’t end up spending the money. The other important lesson is to always, always, always pay our credit card each month, not to get into the habit of putting items on a credit card and then not paying off the credit card. Whatever ends up on our credit card, we somehow see it as something that we should not have to pay, and we just end up with credit card debt before long.

Book arrived on time and in very good condition. Thank you

Although it has insightful information, the key to use of this book - Kindle edition or physical book is to perform and use the forms and documents referenced in the book. It was originally written in 2001 and it constantly references the link: http://www.ultimatefinancialplan.com/This link DOES NOT work. It comes up to a BLUE Host website with related links - none of them are for the book and its forms and documents referenced in the book.VERY DISAPPOINTING - feel like I have been cheated in using the book's full ability to help others in their financial planning.UPDATE: Website available for forms is now http://timmaurer.com/about-the-book/Changed to four stars.

From Jim Stovall, author of the bestselling The Ultimate Gift and The Ultimate Life, and financial planning expert, Tim Maurer, comes the latest volume in the acclaimed Ultimate series..Like its predecessors, The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life is sure to have a significant impact on the way we think about money. Examining the connection between actions, thoughts, and feelings when it comes to all things financial, the book makes a revolutionary argument: that the key to getting the most out of personal wealth comes from the contentment found in balancing the influence of money in our lives with personal values and goals..

The book was effective in pulling together all aspects of financial planning and life planning. It did not get overly technical and had lots excellent examples to drive home the concepts. The book referenced a website to help pull together a life plan, but the website has been taken down (was not able to access the site with the web address referenced in the book)

This book is actually for consumers yet the message is equally applicable to financial advisors. I have been in the financial services industry for 41 years and agree with the advice 100 percent. The authors are very clear about the need for authentic advice from professionals who are fee-only advisors. I heartily recommend this book for anyone who wants to better understand the financial services and investment environment today. It is clear that the authors are authentic "Value Creators" and always work for the benefit of their clients. Jim Stovall and Tim Maurer really are experts!

This book is amazing if you want to change your life and not live paycheck to paycheck. It was a required text for my personal finance class in college but I am so glad that I was required to take this class. I learned so much from this book and it was co-authored by my professor.

Terrific book. It's full of direct advice and insight. I felt like he was talking directly to me in a direct manner. I would definitely buy this again and recommend to everyone!