January 2023 MBR The Money/Finance Shelf

The Money/Finance Shelf

Wealth Habits
Candy Valentino
Wiley
c/o Wiley Professional Trade Group
www.wiley.com
9781394152292, $28.00, HC, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Habits-Ordinary-Extraordinary-Financial/dp/1394152299

Synopsis: The underlying message of "Wealth Habits: Six Ordinary Steps to Achieve Extraordinary Financial Freedom" by entrepreneur Candy Valentino is that you don't have to be educated or connected to be wealthy. How do wealthy people do it? Are they geniuses? Lucky? We tend to think something special must be going on because it looks like magic. But nothing could be further from the truth. Wealthy people have simply adopted six ordinary habits -- and they do them extraordinarily well.

Valentino opened her first brick-and-mortar store at 19 (no college, no connections, no money) and built it into a seven-figure business before most of her friends graduated college. Over two decades of success as a serial entrepreneur and real estate investor, she has labored relentlessly to crack the code of the super-wealthy, and in doing so, has unearthed six simple habits that directly contribute to those who become part of the self-made millionaire class.

With the publication of "Wealth Habits", Valentino reveals all six habits, and shows how to put them to work including: Long-term investing strategies; Recession-proofing your business; Keeping money out of the hands of the IRS; Teach your children about money; Establishing financial protection and security; plus the secrets to keeping more of the money you make (so that you can invest even more).

"Think and get rich" will only get you so far. It's time to do and become wealthy and set yourself up for a lifetime of true financial freedom beginning with a copy of "Wealth Habits".

Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the subject, "Wealth Habits: Six Ordinary Steps to Achieve Extraordinary Financial Freedom" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Business & Finance collections in general, and Budgeting/Money Management reading lists in particular. It should be noted for MBA students, academia, corporate executives, business managers/financiers, and entrepreneurs that "Wealth Habits" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.00).

Editorial Note: Candy Valentino (https://www.candyvalentino.com) is a successful founder, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. She started her first business at 19 years old with no degree, no corporate background, and no money. She has gone on to build, scale, and exit businesses in a variety of industries in addition to investing in real estate for more than two decades. Leveraging 25 years of actual business and investing experience, Candy is sought after to consult, speak, and train on the topics of wealth creation, business growth, and investing.

The Science of Getting Rich for Women
Sara Connell
Muse Literary
https://museliterary.com
9781958714232, $29.99 Hardcover; $18.99 Paperback; $9.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BCKDPPNJ

The Science of Getting Rich for Women points out that not only have women traditionally earned less than their male counterparts, but they've lost more money during times of financial crisis and have too often opted for choices that garnered less financial rewards than their male counterparts.

Sara Connell points out that the bulk of money advice and management books assume a decidedly male overtone that embraces white male privilege over the experiences, attitudes towards and special concerns of women. She seeks to rectify this in an advice guide specifically tailored to female readers. One might wonder about how such financial advice would differ, but Connell's own motivation for writing this book (which isn't the first to offer money advice to women) sets the stage via her own experiences.

Her hard-hitting messages open with an acknowledgement that conscious and subconscious social messages create patterns of expectation and judgment that often direct a woman's drive for financial success: "I was living out old family messages and cultural programming that said pursuing money or having abundance was bad, that it was unspiritual to care about material things, that caring about money meant I was greedy or a "bad" person, superficial, wrong. The truth was, I was broke and disempowered with money, because I'd guzzled cultural, religious, familial, ancestral societal and gender "Kool-Aid" from my earliest cell development that said I was not allowed, that I shouldn't, that I wasn't worthy, wasn't capable, didn't deserve and wasn't good enough to have it."

By now, it should be evident that The Science of Getting Rich for Women isn't just another "one size fits all" set of money-making or financial management strategies. Nor does it represent Connell's singular success (though that is intrinsic to the story). It's a key to a personal makeover that flavors insights about the process with case histories and experiences of other women who have faced their inner dollar demons and come out richer for the effort on not just financial, but psychological levels.

As readers learn about these diverse successes, they will be prompted to examine their own approaches to business, money, and independence. This requires of readers the willingness to do so and the flexibility to absorb statements and messages that defy the common picture of women's financial worlds and motivations. Women who choose The Science of Getting Rich for Women will find "rich" defined as more than monetary wealth. It documents attitudes, misconceptions, influences, and approaches to money and success that ideally will receive book club and women's group attention and discussion. Its biographical profiles should also spark lively debates among such circles.

The Science of Getting Rich for Women is highly recommended not just for libraries catering to women who look to improve their financial or business status, but for collections interested in powerful women's issues for discussions and bigger-picture thinking that expands the notion of wealth and riches to psychological understanding and social and business transformations.

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