Book review: Rich Bitch (2016)
You know how people say they want to take back words? Well, this is the first time someone has done that unapologetically that I experienced. The way she uses the word “bitch” in this book is beautiful. Everyone is a bitch of some sort and I love it.
Rich Bitch: A Simple 12-Step Plan for Getting Your Financial Life Together… Finally, by Nicole Lapin, is my bible of financial books I’ve read. I haven’t read every book out there, but I would definitely recommend this one, especially for basic bitches. Now, I don’t consider myself to be a basic bitch, but the information in it is just that good. I would say that if women’s voices annoy you, maybe don’t do the audiobook.
I want to acknowledge that this book is on the older side. She talks about Twitter being a great resource for learning about stocks, for example. But most of it is still great.
I also want to say, this book is geared toward "“women.” This is never defined, but if the female pronouns bother you, skip it. I’m sure there are other good books out there that will speak to you, maybe I’ll cover one in the future! Or if you have any suggestions on books for me to cover going forward, please let me know.
The book is organized into 12 steps, from budgeting to investing to careers to deciding what you actually want to do with your life. I’m going to talk about two of the sections more in-depth.
Pro: Budgeting
The chapter that breaks down your budget is Step 3: You New LBD: Create a Little Budget Diary That Fits YOU.
First, she talks about creating a balance sheet (assets versus liabilities). This is all good and all, but I think the day to day reality is that we need to know how to create a budget, not a balance sheet.
So, how do we do that? Below is what Lapin recommends.
35% - Housing
10% - Transportation
10% - Food
15% - Debt
15% - Retirement
15% - Extras
Now, please keep in mind that these percentages are of your net, versus your gross, pay. Your net pay is your pay after taxes and your gross pay is your pay before taxes. A good way to remember the difference between net and gross is to visualize your money going through a fishing net. Whatever money falls through the net is what you get to keep. It’s silly but it works for me.
Housing includes both what you pay in rent and all of your utilities. Car includes everything you pay for your car; car insurance, car payment, gas, bus tickets, everything. The same with food. It includes all of the food delivery you use and the groceries. I’ll talk more about how you can work with the budget in a bit, but first let’s look at what a budget using these percentages would look like.
Net pay: $4000.00/month (about $48,000.00/ year salary only taking out taxes and no benefits)
Housing, 35% = $1400.00
Transportation, 10% = $400.00
Food, 10% = $400.00
Debt, 15% = $600.00
Retirement, 15% = $600.00
Extras, 15% = $600.00
Now, $1400.00 per month for housing is low these days. According to RentCafe, the average rent in the US is $1713.00/month for an apartment of 899 square feet. Also, if you don’t have a car, $400.00 is a lot for you when you only take public transportation. So, let’s say you spend $200.00/month on public transportation. This means you can put $200.00 toward your housing costs. This gets you closer to the average, but you might live somewhere with lower housing costs or you want a studio, which will be cheaper. So, you can take what you’re not using in housing and put it toward buying a used car or your debt.
Also, quick tip, if you have debt and have put very little money toward retirement both, focus on debt first because you will have to pay it back either way. Also, compounding interest can work for you or against you and you want it to work for you. Compounding interest basically is interest on the total, which includes the interest already applied.
So, if you start with $100.00 and 10% interest, the second year you have $110.00 and 10% on that, then the third year you have $121.00 because you took 10% of the new total from the first year, which includes the interest accrued, instead of just the principal.
Con: Networking
I’m not just saying that networking sucks, although that is true. What I’m saying is that I don’t really agree with the way Lapin talks about networking and your hobbies.
The chapter that discusses this is Step 8: Work It, Bitches: Put Your Career in Overdrive. Most of what she says is great in this chapter, but she basically suggests using everything in your life as a method of furthering your career. Sure, stereotypically, men do deals on the golf course and women in the nail salon, I guess. And it’s true that some men enjoy golf and some women enjoy getting their nails done, but I will not be like Rachel from Friends and start smoking again just so I can “make a deal.” Or whatever.
In addition to starting hobbies just to further your career, I also don’t think it’s healthy to use the hobbies you already have and love to further your career, which is something she also suggests.
First of all, you should have a break from work. An outlet away from work where you can decompress. If you are bring work into that space, when are you ever allowed to be your non-work self?
Secondly, let’s say you meet a work connection at your monthly horror book club. Then, something goes wrong for whatever reason in your professional relationship. How could you decompress by going to the book club after that, knowing that person could show up, too? I mean, in an ideal world people are adults, but in the real world adults can be children. If you know what I mean.
On the other hand, I have nothing against if you happen to make a deal with someone from a hobby thing in general. I just think that you shouldn’t set out to make the deal by doing the hobby.
Work-life balance is real and important. Personally, I err on the side of more life than work.
Have you read Rich Bitch? What were your favorite parts? Leave a comment and let me know!
Talk soon, Madeleine