An Average Joe's Pursuit for Financial Freedom by Michael Munsey
When I first started reading this book, my thoughts were: "Deep sigh, this is gonna be boring, but I need a new outlook in my blog, so.....stay strong Deneale you can do this!" And so I started reading.
From the beginning, this "Average Joe" is more than that. "Boneheaded" as he is, causing me to wake my husband as he slept while I was reading in the dim light in my bed.
"What's so funny?" My husband mumbles.....
"This book I'm reading, the man actually used my word! He said: 'Bonehead!'" I explained.
"What kind of book are you reading? Comedy? I thought you were reading a financial guide, and you were actually gonna learn something?" My husband responded rubbing his eyes.
"It's just the beginning. But yeah, it's 'that' book!" I told him.
So hubby went back to sleep, and I continued to read. In the meantime, I did tweet jokingly to Michael how I enjoyed his "Boneheaded" comment. By the way, his www.Twitter.com handle is @FreeAverageJoe. When I did so, he explained that he wanted to write just like he speaks, this way, it was easier to comprehend, which honestly it is, and was.
The ultimate awakening for me, was learning about assets and liabilities. I always thought my home was one, and than I disappointingly learned it wasn't. Unless of course, you manage to make your house worth more than it actually is, which might I add: is hard to do. I always thought my home was worth something, that's why I have multiple of them! Now, here I sit, disappointed with my rental units, which aren't making money anyway. Deep sigh.
But allow me 'not' to blow the entire book out of the water for you, and continue with my review, because there is so much more to tell.
Michael Munsey graduated from Southern Illinois from a High School class of one hundred students total, whereas only twenty of them graduated! Later he went to College in Murray, Kentucky and married the woman of his dreams two weeks after graduation!
Through his book, he engages you in a much needed History lesson, keeping us on our toes, because let's face it: we don't keep these things on the top shelf of our memories as we age, and are no longer in School. Than he explains we need to work hard, but also: work smart.
Than my favorite: he tells you, if you want to hire a financial planner, than you may not want to read his book any longer. Point taken. My response though? Why would I want to hire anyone? I want my money all to myself! I'm greedy! I'm just sayin'!
He explains to get your spouse on board, he in fact devoted an entire chapter to it. "I love my wife, but she can wear you out talking." And he wanted to be sure to explain, share and educate his wife without "her eyes glazing over with boredom." And the way Michael introduced what he had been learning to his wife, was first through the book: "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. And with that said, he even managed to get his wife to read said book, and than, she even finished it before he did!
This book written by Michael Warren Munsey, "An Averages Joe Pursuit for Financial Freedom" has received 4.5 stars out of 5 on www.Amazon.com. Why? Because readers want to know how to be financially stable, and wealthy, and how to make money, and even how to keep it. And reading this book, will not only enlighten you, it will educate you as well. I suggest reading it. Not just because I did, and learned from it, but because we all have, want and need money. And there's no way around having it, needing it, and .... Face it.... We all want to be richer. If you say you don't. You're lying.
You can get the book at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and even www.FreeAverageJoe.com and again, I suggest that you check this book out. It's easy to comprehend, and you'll even understand when you're done done: what you've learned! So get crackin'!
By the way, I give his book, five out of five stars, and more if I could, and I will and do recommend it to everyone and anyone, because we all know, need and spend money. Thank you Michael.
This is a photo of the man who gives you a new outlook on money!
Here are my interview questions:
1.
In your book you mentioned that your
High School only had slightly over 100 students and your graduating class was
only 20 students. What was the reason
your school had such a small student body?
I was raised in a small rural
town in Southern Illinois with a population of only 3,000 people. Many of the school districts in the region
where I was raised had consolidated multiple surrounding small-town schools
with the exception of our small town. Many residences in our town were afraid
that if we consolidated with the other school districts and lost our school, our
town would lose its identity; therefore, our town chose not to consolidate our
school with the surrounding schools in the area.
2.
Please
describe the college where you obtained your undergraduate degree.
In May of 1995 I received my
Bachelor’s Degree from Murray State University (MSU). MSU is located in Murray, Kentucky which is located
in Western Kentucky. Murray is approximately 1 hour South of Paducah, Kentucky
and about 30 minutes West of Kentucky Lake.
Kentucky Lake was created in 1944 when the Tennessee Valley Authority
built the Kentucky Dam impounding the Tennessee River. MSU has about 10,500 students enrolled which
8,500 of those students are undergraduates.
Murray, Kentucky is a typical college town with 17,981 residents.
3.
What
degrees have you now obtained thus far?
In May of 1995, I received a Bachelor of
Science from Murray State University.
In May of 2007, I received my Master of
Business Administration from Rice University.
4.
I was
impressed with the History lesson. Myself when I reminisce about History, it
shuts people down, and they turn and walk away. Yet I kept reading. How did you
do it?
While writhing the entire book I
tried to relate to all “Average Joes” like myself. I did not want to get too deep into the
history or the evolution of money. Hopefully the readers are reading the book
to look for a different opinion on ways to be free from a job and a paycheck
and not a history lesson. In order to
convey some of the personal finance struggles we all face, I felt that I had to
give just enough background on where we came from in order to show the reader
why we cannot perceive money and retirement like our parents and
grandparents.
5.
You're
the first person that made me actually understand a pension. How long did it
take you to understand it?
My first experience with a
retirement plan was when I hired on with Halliburton Energy Services in
1997. I was lucky enough to work with
several veteran employees that were very patient and explained all the
questions I had multiple times until it sank in my thick skull.
6.
Learning
assets and liabilities through you, blew my mind. To learn I was wrong all along shocked me,
with all the information in your book, how many other people have you
"woke up?" Into the "real reality of finances?"
I did not realize that the most
rewarding aspect of writing this book would be the positive responses from many
of the readers that I connect with through the book. I have had readers that reply “interesting.”
These readers are typically financial planners which I do not recommend using
in the book. Several people have
responded positively by saying it made them re-evaluate their own personal
finances, which is the highest compliment that I could receive.
7.
How
difficult is it to work hard, but also work smart? With this, can you still have fun too, and do you?
At any point in our career we
have to work hard, especially when we are working for money. With experience and time we should begin to
work smarter with a little discipline. Everyone
works hard so hard for their employer that they do not save enough energy to
take care of their own personal business, such as personal finances. How many people do you know that waste
multiple hours a week interacting with Social Media or watching reality TV? When a person decides to find a way to make
their money work for them rather going to a “JOB” working for money, they will
begin working smart.
Working smart is NOT easy. We have to be disciplined to work smart. We can all get tired and frustrated and take
the easy way out by making excuses. I
believe we should dedicate a portion of our “free time” to taking care of our
own business. Who is going to look after
our own personal business better than ourselves?
I understand finding time to
increase your financial knowledge is difficult, especially after working 60 to
70 hours a week not to mention the honey dos and spending time with our family. We all need down time from life or we will
get burned out. I recommend setting
goals for increasing your financial knowledge that you can fit in your “free
time” just as we set monthly financial budgets.
The goals can consist of reading one book a month geared at increasing
your financial knowledge or attending a financial seminar.
Yes, I have fun spending time
with my family, watching movies or practicing basketball 6 nights a week. With time and experience and success you will
become more independent from a paycheck and you will have more time to relax
and more time to focus on ways to make your money work for you.
8.
You said
it's up to each individual, their drive, their ambition; that will help them
with their opportunity, to strive to succeed. This may not make sense to you,
but it does to me. What about those people that don't care about themselves, or
care to try? And those of us whom keep trying to force them to become something
they’re not? Am I making sense? People trying to force change on people. Yes,
we want to become and be better, but it's also natural to want what's best for
your/our Children. So you try to help. Or maybe even another family member you've
taken in! And no matter what we do, they fail. You teach, educate, you name it.
So still, as we are trying to help them, what you're saying is they that we are
trying to help: they don't want it. Right? So are those that are trying to
help, also the failure?
In my opinion, drive and
ambition are inherent. I do not believe
that ambition is a learned trait. Human
nature will gravitate to the aspects of life that make us happy. We all work for one reason and that is to
provide for the wants and needs that each one of us have; therefore, each one
of us will rise to the standard of living of which we are comfortable and
content. That is not to discount that we
have different struggles, some we control and others which are out of our
control. We all have to reap the
consequences of the decisions we make for ourselves and work through the
aspects that we cannot control.
I did not realize that the hardest
job I would ever face was being a parent.
At times as a parent or family member we can be blinded by the love we
have for our family. We have to remember
that we cannot help those that do not want to help themselves. As a parent, I try to go out of my way to
help my boys when they are willing to help themselves, but as soon as they take
my help for granted I let them work through the consequences.
9.
Financial
investments: half the investments my husband’s work offers we don't even know,
is there a way to change them?
I do not know the details behind
the benefits of your husband’s retirement plan.
I recommend that you contact his company’s Human Resources Department
and they should be able to answer any questions that you have. If they cannot answer all your questions,
they should give be able to give you a contact for the financial planner
responsible for the account.
10. Who would want to hire a financial planner
anyway, that's spending money that could be used elsewhere! So yes, reading
your book is a must do! Hiring someone to spend our hard earned money? No. I
guess I'm cheap huh?
I would not say that you are
cheap. I would say that you are smart
and confident in your ability of learning a way to make your money work for
you. Most people that use financial
planners are too busy to take care of their own business or they are simply
scared of the possibility of failure.
By working to learn, checking to
make sure you have ample cash flow through your due diligence or evaluation of
your investments and finally acting on your knowledge you will be
successful. The only failures in
investing are mistakes that we do not learn from. I have made plenty of boneheaded mistakes
myself, but I try to learn something from all of them.
11. Getting spouses on board? I can't even teach
my husband to learn the Internet! He says the Internet is the Devil's tool!
He's kind of old fashioned. But I'm actually reading your book aloud to him and
he's learning, but how do I teach him computers and the Internet stuff? When I
told him about assets and liabilities he rally started pouting. So how do you
really get him on board with everything? Some of it seems to go over his
head....
We all have to find the niche
that works for us. There are many ways to
get from point A to point B. We all live
in different regions that have different needs. We also have different interests. As we learn, we will gravitate to the things
that interest us the most. The internet
may be a good avenue for you to pursue, but most likely will not work for your
husband.
When I say get your spouse on
board, I mean you both should be engaged in the learning aspect, spending
aspect and you both should be working towards the same goals. You should both enjoy a reasonable reward as
you accomplish your goals. The fact that
you and your husband both took an interest in my book is the first step. I challenge you both to sit down and make
reasonable goals on increasing your financial knowledge and create a goal for
controlling your spending if you do not have any in place. As you both learn, you will be surprised the
ideas that you both will start discussing.
12. The book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by
Robert Kiyosaki, should people read it to go along with your book? Meaning, do
they need to read it too?
Increasing our financial
knowledge is critical in being successful at finding ways to make our money
work for us. It is something that we
need to work on continuously. Increasing
our financial knowledge and acting on what we learn is the way we take care of
our own business.
You will find that the concepts
in my book are very similar if not the same as Robert Kiyosaki’s financial
concepts because it was his book, Rich
Dad Poor Dad, that changed my perception of money.
Recommended Must Reads:
·
Rich Dad
Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki
·
Cash
Flow Quadrant - Robert Kiyosaki
·
The E-Mythes
Revisited - Michael
E. Gerber
·
The
Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J
Stanley and William D. Danko
13. My husband and I left our hometown of Akron,
Ohio to move to Mims, Florida for. Job. Yes, we relocated for a job, uprooted
the entire family. Do we regret it? Sometimes. Do you ever regret your choices
in life and moves?
The only thing that we hate or
regret is the lack of quality time that we have available to spend with our
family and friends. I do not regret my
choices, I love my career. I was lucky
enough to find an industry that I excelled in and found a little success. I provide a better standard of living for my
family than what I would be able to achieve if I had not moved away. There are many aspects of home that I miss,
but providing a living for my wife and boys outweighs them all.
14. Work for experience not for a paycheck. What
was your longest job and what experiences have you learned? And how have those
experiences benefitted you?
I worked for Halliburton Energy Services for
a total of 9 years which is the company that I worked the longest. The good people at Halliburton taught me the
most and without the training and on the job experience at Halliburton, I would
not have been able to achieve the accomplishments I have been able to achieve
so far in my career.
Halliburton’s training program did a good
job of walking us up the ladder of experience one step at a time. Every 1.5 to 2.0 years they exposed us to a
different aspect of the business. I am
now at my third company since leaving Halliburton. The second company I worked 5 years, the
third I worked 3 years and I am currently employed at my fourth company.
Each time I moved companies it was for a new
experience which would teach me more about the industry. These experiences made me more valuable to my
employer. I recommend learning as much
as you can at any position that you currently hold. When your learning curve flattens and you
become comfortable in your current job, search for a job that will challenge
you and make you more valuable to your employer.
15. Have you learned anything negative while
writing and researching your book that impacted you?
My experience in writing this book has been
positive and very rewarding. The only
negative aspect so far in the venture is the amount of time it takes to launch
the book and getting the book to move in a positive direction. The book has only been out for 3 months;
therefore, it is still very early. I am
very action oriented and launching a book takes patience and persistence.
An Average Joe’s Pursuit For Financial
Freedom can be
found at:
Website
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
Google +
Displaying Deneale Internet Interview.docx.
An Average Joe's Pursuit for Financial Freedom: Change Your Perception of Money by
Michael Warren Munsey
My rating:
5 of 5 stars
When I first started reading this book, my thoughts were: "Deep sigh, this is gonna be boring, but I need a new outlook in my blog, so.....stay strong Deneale you can do this!" And so I started reading.
From the beginning, this "Average Joe" is more than that. "Boneheaded" as he is, causing me to wake my husband as he slept while I was reading in the dim light in my bed.
"What's so funny?" My husband mumbles.....
"This book I'm reading, the man actually used my word! He said: 'Bonehead!'" I explained.
"What kind of book are you reading? Comedy? I thought you were reading a financial guide, and you were actually gonna learn something?" My husband responded rubbing his eyes.
"It's just the beginning. But yeah, it's 'that' book!" I told him.
So hubby went back to sleep, and I continued to read. In the meantime, I did tweet jokingly to Michael how I enjoyed his "Boneheaded" comment. By the way, his
www.Twitter.com handle is @FreeAverageJoe. When I did so, he explained that he wanted to write just like he speaks, this way, it was easier to comprehend, which honestly it is, and was.
The ultimate awakening for me, was learning about assets and liabilities. I always thought my home was one, and than I disappointingly learned it wasn't. Unless of course, you manage to make your house worth more than it actually is, which might I add: is hard to do. I always thought my home was worth something, that's why I have multiple of them! Now, here I sit, disappointed with my rental units, which aren't making money anyway. Deep sigh.
But allow me 'not' to blow the entire book out of the water for you, and continue with my review, because there is so much more to tell.
Michael Munsey graduated from Southern Illinois from a High School class of one hundred students total, whereas only twenty of them graduated! Later he went to College in Murray, Kentucky and married the woman of his dreams two weeks after graduation!
Through his book, he engages you in a much needed History lesson, keeping us on our toes, because let's face it: we don't keep these things on the top shelf of our memories as we age, and are no longer in School. Than he explains we need to work hard, but also: work smart.
Than my favorite: he tells you, if you want to hire a financial planner, than you may not want to read his book any longer. Point taken. My response though? Why would I want to hire anyone? I want my money all to myself! I'm greedy! I'm just sayin'!
He explains to get your spouse on board, he in fact devoted an entire chapter to it. "I love my wife, but she can wear you out talking." And he wanted to be sure to explain, share and educate his wife without "her eyes glazing over with boredom." And the way Michael introduced what he had been learning to his wife, was first through the book: "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. And with that said, he even managed to get his wife to read said book, and than, she even finished it before he did!
This book written by Michael Warren Munsey, "An Averages Joe Pursuit for Financial Freedom" has received 4.5 stars out of 5 on
www.Amazon.com. Why? Because readers want to know how to be financially stable, and wealthy, and how to make money, and even how to keep it. And reading this book, will not only enlighten you, it will educate you as well. I suggest reading it. Not just because I did, and learned from it, but because we all have, want and need money. And there's no way around having it, needing it, and .... Face it.... We all want to be richer. If you say you don't. You're lying.
You can get the book at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and even
www.FreeAverageJoe.com and again, I suggest that you check this book out. It's easy to comprehend, and you'll even understand when you're done done: what you've learned! So get crackin'!
By the way, I give his book, five out of five stars, and more if I could, and I will and do recommend it to everyone and anyone, because we all know, need and spend money. Thank you Michael.
View all my reviews
