Ditching Debt

Janine Bolon
Lulu Publishing (2006)
ISBN 9781411694774
Reviewed by Vicki Landes for Reader Views (3/07)


Ready to get rid of debt but don’t want to spend weeks pouring over a thick book to get the answers?  If so, Janine Bolon’s “Ditching Debt” is perfect for you.  Bolon’s mere 49-page booklet guides you through her philosophy on putting that crushing debt behind you while changing spending habits at the source – your emotions.  Her lessons can be absorbed immediately and you walk away with a newfound sense of purpose and control.

Written in a wonderfully cheerful tone, “Ditching Debt” completely understands the emotions that go along with overwhelming bills and remains sympathetic to this difficult plight throughout.  The reader will find that Bolon has created a safe space within her lessons, making it easier to accept the past and embrace the future.  From creating a life vision to employing her surprising 60/40 principle to attract wealth and keeping track of even the slowest of leaks in your bank account, Bolon’s approach is fresh, concise, and easy to implement. 

Bolon does a fantastic job explaining her simple plan using visual descriptions that really stick with you.  For example, she parallels large, expensive purchases to ‘elephants’ and small, inexpensive ones as ‘mosquitoes.’  It’s easy to avoid the elephants but you may be completely oblivious to the mosquitoes – and it’s the mosquitoes that are eating you alive.  “Until you know what psychological triggers cause you to spend money, you’ll never be able to regain control over the emotions that rule your financial fate.”  She also correlates a budget to dieting, which makes it extremely easy to see why so many people can’t stay on a budget, starving themselves for a period of time before caving in and binging as guilt takes over yet again.   

“Ditching Debt” is for anyone sick of losing sleep over their expenses, has tried and failed with other debt-reduction programs, or is ready for a new outlook on how money works in their life.  Truly fun to read (how many debt books can you say that about?) and effortless to apply to your specific situation, this short book gets you excited about learning new spending habits without feeling controlled or limited. 

Janine Bolon’s “Ditching Debt” is a breath of fresh air in the stagnant atmosphere of debt management.    Unlike other debt reduction books that leave you overwhelmed, she leaves you with a new outlook, not only on spending but on life itself.  Super quick to read and just as easy to put into practice, “Ditching Debt” dumps the financial stress from your shoulders.   

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