Book Review: You are a Badass at Making Money

Book Review – You are a Badass at Making Money. In this blog post, I review You are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero. This book has been described as “The in-depth, step-by-step guide to overcoming your blocks, pushing past your fears, and starting to make some serious money”…

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Introduction – You are a Badass at Making Money 

A friend of mine recommended this book back in December 2019. She told me it totally changed her life and her relationship with money, so I just had to include in the 2020 Finance Online Book Club Reading List.

I decided to make it April’s book club read and I have to say, so far, it’s my least favourite book club read. My reasons for saying this will be explained in this book review.

About the Author

Jen Sincero is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, success coach, and motivational cattle prod who’s helped countless people transform their personal and professional lives via her products, speaking engagements, newsletters, seminars, and books.

Book Summary – You Are A Badass At Making Money 

This book is like many other self-help books I’ve read. Sincero covers the same basic principles which in a nutshell are:

• How to use mindfulness and meditation to become aware of your limiting core beliefs about money
• Many people have negative associations with money that keep them from their full earning potential
• Use positive thinking and visualisation to counteract your limiting core beliefs so that you can manifest more money into your life
• Money is an energy that will always flow to you at the moment that you desire
• Habitually become a more positive thinker and stop the self-limiting beliefs
• To become rich you need to take leaps of faith and believe in the not yet seen – the universe will move for you
• Positive thoughts and feelings will subsequently prompt you to take action on what you want to achieve
• Taking more action will lead you to make more money than you ever thought possible

What I Liked And Disliked About The Book

I’ll start off with the positives, as there were a few things that I did like about the book. They were as follows:

1. Money Is Not The Devil

I liked that Sincero emphasises the point that money in itself is not actually evil. Wanting more money, therefore, is not a bad thing. Having a negative view of money keeps people from realising their full earning potential.

2. Be Specific About Your Money Goals

Jen explains that in order for your money goals to become a reality, you need to be very specific about the amount of money you want to have and what you’ll use it for.  She shared Jim Carrey’s story as a perfect example of the power of having well-defined financial goals. Starting out poor, Carrey dreamed that one day he’ll be a famous actor. One day he wrote himself a check for $10 million for “acting services rendered,” and dated it for three years in the future. Approximately three years later, Carrey found out that his role in Dumb and Dumber would make him $10 million.

3. Motivational Content

Sincero is an excellent motivational speaker. Her style of writing is very witty and will have you thinking you can achieve the impossible. She talks about us having all we need to survive within us and were created to be successful. I definitely agree with this sentiment and if nothing else, it’s a great ego boost to hear how fabulous I am!

Now onto the things I disliked about the book…

1. Imitative Content

I’ve read my fair share of self-help books over the years and attended many motivational seminars, which is probably why I didn’t think much of this book. I couldn’t help but get the impression that the author has read a thousand self-help books in her time and simply taken the contents from the top ten and consensed it into this book. Nothing new or original here.

2. Very Repetitive

There wasn’t really anything new that I haven’t heard before and I found it quite repetitive. The book could have been half the length, Jen made her point within the first few chapters and spent the second half of the book hammering home the same points.

3. No Practical Steps To Becoming a Badass At Making Money 

Throughout the book Jen talks at length about energy, visualisation, and meditation…  however she fails to provide and real substantial practical advice on HOW to actually make money. This makes the title very misleading.

4. Too Much Profanity

To be fair, the title of the book should have been an indicator that this would be the case in the book. However, I think Jen could have made her points without including all the swear words throughout the book. I listened to the audiobook so it hurt my ears every time she swore!

5. It’s All Your Fault

The author assumes that the reader has a bad relationship with, or a negative view of money, which is the reason why they are broke. This isn’t the case for every single person that isn’t rich… so what is the solution in this instance? Jen doesn’t provide one. If you’re broke it is because you don’t love money. You need to love money to attract money. I can’t subscribe to this premise.

6. Debt Can Be Good

Jen talks about using debt to back yourself and invest in yourself,  knowing that money will always come back to you. Having been in £36,000 worth of debt before, there’s no way I’m going back there again. I’m all for backing myself and investing in myself, but I’m not prepared to get myself back into debt to do so. Nope, sorry!

Rating

I would give this book a 3/5. I liked Sincero’s delivery, and she did make some valid points, even if I had heard it all before. It’s always good to have that reminder and refresher of how great I am and how much dormant potential I have.

Summary

If you’ve never read a self-help book before, then Your Are A Badass At Making Money is a fantastic starting point. It’ll definitely have you thinking about your thoughts on money and the self-limiting beliefs that you hold. This book should help you identify the unlocked potential that you’re wasting, giving you permission to back yourself.

Have you read this book before? What did you think of this book? Was I being too critical? What rating would you give it? Comment below.

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Join My Finance Online Book Club

I started a finance online book club in January where we read and review one personal finance book every month. Master Your Money by Vicki Robin was the book of choice for March. You can find the full reading list for 2020 below, click on the image to join the Facebook group:

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