The 60 Minute Money Workout

I recently received a copy of The 60-Minute Money Workout by Ellie Kay for review courtesy of Blogging for Books, a program of Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group. As a finance coach, I was very excited to review this book. Some people may think there are already too many personal finance books out there. I disagree however. There are still millions of people struggling with their finances, so the market is still there. Besides, people all learn in different ways, and connect with different methods. So a book with a workout theme may connect with a certain audience. Unfortunately I was very disappointed by this particular endeavor.

First of all, I did not find the content fit the 60 minute workout approach. Each lesson seemed to be forced to fit into the workout structure she had created rather than being a natural extension of it. There didn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason to why things were placed in a specific portion of the workout whether it be the ‘strength training’, the ‘cardio burn’ or some other part of the workout structure.

Additionally, I found that there was very little detailed help. Often the reader was referred to the author’s website for more information or for a form or worksheet to fill out. The book was also filled with lists of short ideas rather than detailed explanations of how to go about deciding something. This seemed more appropriate for a small gift book format rather than a how to format. Many of the sections also seemed difficult to follow. There didn’t seem to be a natural flow to the process.

On the positive side, I did like some of the later ‘workouts’ in the book where she discussed teaching your kids about running their own business, or how to start your own business. Again though, even these sections seemed to be lacking much depth. They were more of a brief overview with lists of ideas.

All in all, I can not recommend this book to others. There are far too many great examples out there that do a much better job of communicating the message and giving practical step by step advice for getting your finances into shape.