With so much bad economic news coming out almost daily, you might be feeling overwhelmed. You might feel there’s nothing you can do to prevent your own household from crumbling financially.
But you don’t have to wait for the official word that we are in a recession to start shoring up your own financial house.
Now may be the time to embrace frugality. It might be a good time to say, “Enough is enough.” That is one of my personal mantras. It’s also one that Jeff Yeager has lived by for most of his life.
Yeager has conquered what he called “Enoughasaurus.” “Conditioning yourself to spend less and to be content doing so is the way to slay your Enoughasaurus,” he writes. “It’s the only financial advice that will work for almost anybody — at least those of us fortunate enough to be above the point of abject poverty.”
Yeager’s become the go-to-guy for NBC’s “Today” show on cheapness.
So my selection for this month’s Color of Money Book Club is Yeager’s “The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches.” His book is published — appropriately enough — in paperback by Broadway Books and costs $12.95.
Yeager honed his cheapness while working 25 years as a chief executive and fundraiser for non profits. He also created the website .
Yeager provides useful tips on reducing your spending in major expense categories — food, health, housing, transportation, technology and entertainment.
One of the first things Yeager says you should do is commit to a “fiscal fast.” That means not spending money for a specified period of time, usually a week. To those who think they can’t live a week without spending any money, Yeager says: “If you can’t, it should tell you something even more important about the life you’re leading and how you’re wasting money.”
Yeager spends a lot of time debunking money myths, like this one: You need to spend money to make money.
“That is patently false,” he writes. “The easiest and cheapest dollar we’ll ever make is the one we don’t spend.”
Despite Yeager’s frugal ways — he hunts for lost change in the cushions of hotel couches — he’s not insanely cheap or a miser.
“Money is relative — what’s a lot of money for one person is very little to someone else, and the other way around — so it’s not a matter of a lot or a little, of more or less, but it’s all about enough.”
Yeager has the right perspective on penny pinching. I invite you to join me online to chat with the author Feb. 28 at . at 10 a.m. MST.
Michelle Singletary: singletarym@washpost.com
