book reviews

Gold Diggers and Deadbeat Dads

Gold Diggers and Deadbeat Dads: True Stories of Friends, Family, and Financial RuinIsn’t that the perfect name for a book?! I thought so and so did the author (and my fellow finance friend) Valerie Rind.  There is nothing more in the world that I hate than people who want things handed to them.  I’ve worked for everything my entire life and I just can’t stand, a.k.a. I’m so jealous of, people who don’t do the same.   Rich kids, gold diggers and housewives are all at the top of my “Get a Life” list.

You think your money story is bad…

You know what they say “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, but in this particular situation you definitely should!  It’s true that we don’t know the things people have gone through in their lives that have made them the way they are today.  I for example learned about money the hard way, meaning I learned from my mistakes.  I can really relate to the stories in Gold Diggers and Deadbeat Dads because I was a naive girl who mismanaged her money and ended up in debt.

I don’t want to spoil it for you because you should definitely buy the book but I’ll give you a little sneak preview.  Pick up a copy of Gold Diggers and Deadbeat Dads and you’ll read personal stories like “The lying is worse than the spending” and “Because she’s my sister”.   If you’ve ever had a personal finance mishap then you will appreciate all the horror stories of marrying into debt and co-signing for losers.

In light of just finishing this hilarious yet shockingly real book I’ve decided to share some of my own personal finance stories with you.  So here we go:

Family steals money too

I have a cousin who I love.  He’s a fun guy to be around and BF really likes hanging out with him, but he’s not the most financially stable 27 year old.  Keep that in mind as you continue reading.  I bought tickets to an NBA game  and surprised BF with them last Christmas.  Long story short we couldn’t make it because BF had a prior engagement.  I offered to sell the tickets to my cousin because he’s a huge basketball fan.  The agreement was my cousin would pay full price for the tickets and as soon as I received the payment I would ship them overnight and absorb the costs. My cousin agreed.

Four days before the big game my cousin told me he didn’t have the full amount but would send me some money now and pay me the balance within the next week.  I immediately had a bad feeling, I mean my gut was telling me not to send the tickets because although my cousin is lots of fun he’s not really the most responsible or reliable guy in our family.  I didn’t want to go through with the deal because I knew I would come out on the losing end of this deal.  I wasn’t really in a financial position to lose $240 right after the holidays.

Where’s the trust between family and money?

Fast forward after a day of inner discussions,  a voice inside my head was saying “Just send the tickets, he’s family. ”  I kept asking myself “What would your Dad do?”  “What would your Dad say if he found out I didn’t trust family?’  I didn’t want my Dad to be disappointed or ashamed of me so I sent the tickets.  My cousin went to the game and surprise, surprise a year later I still haven’t seen any of the money.

What’s the moral of my story?  Don’t trust family when it comes to money.   Also don’t let other people influence your decisions, especially when it comes to money.

You can buy a copy of Gold Diggers and Deadbeat Dads here on Amazon.

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