Living Rich by Spending Smart: Gregory Karp

Gregory Karp has taken it upon himself to compile hundreds of definitive money-saving tips into an easily referenced volume titled Living Rich by Spending Smart. After reading the notes on Karp and seeing that he had won a best column award from the Society of Business Editors and Writers, written on family finance matters for Better Homes and Gardens and exposed over 6 million readers to his Spending Smart column, I had high expectations for this book. Unfortunately, it fell a bit short.

Living Rich by Spending Smart is certainly geared towards everyday personal finance, which the average person will appreciate. It doesn't make any pie-in-the-sky magic-bullet claims, and that's always a good thing. It has quite a bit of practical information in it, and is written in a way that can be easily referenced at any time. There isn't even any real need to read the book in a linear fashion.

However, with all of that said, I was a bit disappointed by the fact that there really was not much in this book that was any sort of news. If you already have even half an interest in personal finance and frugality, you'll probably already be fully aware of most of the material covered in this book. Many of the suggestions - such as using a micro-shredder to help prevent identity theft and using the internet to help with comparison shopping - would even seem to fall under the category of Standard Common Sense. Basically, a lot of the material can be found just about anywhere where there is a solid discussion of money-saving measures.

Living Rich by Spending Smart is a good "everyday personal finance" book for a young person who is just starting out on their own, or perhaps young newlyweds. In other words, it's a nice introduction to the topics of personal finance and frugality. Those who have had more than a passing interest in these topics will probably be better off requesting this title from their local library and perusing it to see if there's anything they may have missed in their research. A book should not be purchased and take up space in your home if it only has 3 or 4 new tidbits to teach you, and I think Karp would agree with the frugality of using your local library in such cases.

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Publisher: FT Press
Pub. Date: February 2008
ISBN-13: 9780132350099