Susan M. Diamond

NOTE: I received a free eBook copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers (May 2022).

If any of Suze Orman's philosophies had mated with Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret" and had a baby, that baby might be this book. Susan Diamond is evidently making a career out of giving seminars to insecure women on how to improve their financial situation and how they feel about their lives; "The Money Belief Formula" appears to come directly from those seminars. I feel like this book is simply Diamond's speaker notes in book form. She strives to inspire readers, but does not really give much in the way of concrete advice. While reflection prompts and list of affirmations might be useful, there is not much else to sustain this book.… (meer)

This audiobook is a pass for me. While there’s some slightly useful advice included, it feels like it’s the introduction to a book rather than a book indented to help people. An entire chapter is dedicated to “prosperity phrases”. No amount of saying “I am….” is going to solve your issues, you need solid financial advice and this just isn’t it for me. A book I previously reviewed “Everyone is an Entrepreneur” did a much better job of giving advice, and elaborating on it and I still use it in my daily life while decision-making as the advice given was extremely useful.

Overall, the narration is good. I just get weird vibes from the narrator. She speaks like she’s trying to recruit members for a club who gathers around once a month to drink flavor aid to be closer to the one true God or something.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.… (meer)

I believe I've been rather fortunate regarding my fiscal fitness. I retired from my job with the NYCity Health & Hospital Corporation in February 2010, after working for just over 33 years. My fixed income these days consists of Social Security, my city pension, and a 403B.

The interesting thing is, these days, AFTERs deducting taxes from the three sources I've just mentioned above, my income is over 11.5% more than the income I earned BEFORE taxes. My 403B, thanks to my constant monitoring and lucky fund choices, is almost the same as on 01/01/2010, the year I started taking a distribution of $20,000/year, which is the limit for TAX-FREE withdrawals in NYState.

I used a systematic process for my savings; anything over $3,000 in my checking account goes to a money market account, and periodically these funds get moved into a CD account. My spouse's income gets moved from our joint checking account into a savings plus account for cash withdrawals to handle our monthly cash needs, like food shopping.

Given the status of my fiscal fitness, I can recognize the beneficial educational benefits this book can offer financially naïve women in a straightforward, no-nonsense, easy-to-follow plan to achieve a fiscal fitness of their own. Their being naïve regarding money matters has created the roadblocks they've been forced to endure until now. The empowerment capabilities that the pages of Ms. Diamond's book offer readers of her readers can be described as transformational. Given this and my knowledge and experience of fiscal fitness, I've given Ms. Diamond 5 STARS.

I received a PDF.file of this book from the author through a giveaway she had on LibraryThing, and the above is my honest opinion.… (meer)