by Edward H. Romney, Ed Romney
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Product Description
Living Well on Practically Nothing: Revised and Updated Edition is for people who need to live on a lot less money. If you have been fired, demoted, retired, divorced, widowed, bankrupted or swindled - or you just want to quit your job and remain financially self-reliant - this book is for you. In it are hundreds of tips, secrets and necessary skills for living well on little money. Chapters include: Save Up to $37,000 a Year and Live on $12,000 a Year; Low-Cost Computers for Fun, Profit, and Education; Some Ways to Live on No Money at All; A Day of Cheap Living; A New Career or Business for You; Fix Things and Make Them Last; and Protect Your Investments and Make Them Grow. From cover to cover, this book is stocked with proven methods for saving money on shelter, food, clothing, transportation, entertainment, health care and more. The author left the "system" in 1969 and has worked for himself ever since. Let him show you how you, too, can live happily, comfortably and with complete financial freedom.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Not so practical, but very inspirational, 2008-08-04
Edward H. Romney advocates (advocated?) a lifestyle based on voluntary simplicity and self-reliance, and here he gives a whole lot of ideas for achieving this. Some of these ideas are very sensible, such as buying used clothes, paying cash for reliable preowned autos, and avoiding debt.
Some of them, however, are hardly practical. His short "Chapter Three: Saving Up to $37,500 A Year" is an example of impractical thinking. One example he tosses out is "cutting off phone service and using an old citizen's band radio for emergencies". Sorry, but in the real world, a phone is essential for looking for work or doing business if self-employed. Ditto for internet connections.
Another example he tosses out is selling your $250,000 house, moving out to the boondocks "renting for $300 a month, and investing the difference." Sorry, but in the real world, renting is almost never smarter than owning, and while it is folly to buy more house than you can afford (as so many have realized in the real estate crashes of 2007-2008), it makes far more sense to live very frugally and hang onto one's home in the suburbs than it does to strike out for the remote countryside where there are usually no friends, no relatives, no jobs and no business. Amy Dacyzyn's advice makes more sense for those of us living in the real world.
Many of the suggestions the author tosses out are for those people facing the loss of everything and / or who are fed up and want to start a whole new life, away from major metropolitan areas, out in the country. The author also discusses more radical alternatives (or, given Ed Romney's politics, make that more ultra-conservative alternatives) for those who are REALLY down and out. For these people he talks about setting up camp in the woods, converting old school buses into homes, learning to hunt and fish, etc. That may work for some, but is simply not practical for most of us.
So if it's all too often impractical, why is this book great?
1. The book is great because it reminds you to keep your self-respect, not get caught up in the mentality of "I have to have it", and to think instead "Do I really need it?" The author reminds us not to be sucked in to a debt-fueled lifestyle, especially where he says you can be poor but proud, and that you don't have to give up your self-respect due to lack of money. Half the reason lower-income people can't make it is because they have been led to think they're failures--just because they have to be more careful with their money. Sadly that belief is a pretty powerful motivator into debt-fueled financial irresponsibility.
2. The author also remembers the Great Depression from his childhood, and his perspective from that era is sobering and inspiring at the same time.
3. I appreciated his thoughts on maintaining a spiritual outlook, keeping one's family together in hard times, and avoiding the pitfalls of too much dependence upon government assistance, and how such dependence often mentally and emotionally cripples and paralyzes the recepients that it is supposed to help.
4. Mr Romney boldly states a truth too many Americans today have forgotten: there is no shame whatsoever in "blue collar" work; much of it can actually be quite skilled. There is also no shame whatsoever in gruntwork, manual labor, or working fast food, if there are no other opportunities available, if one really needs the (extra) work, or if one is a young man or woman just starting out.
5. The author also has more serious business and investment advice, and his chapter on avoiding "redneck economics" when dealing in antiques, collectibles, thrift shopping, or investments of that nature, is well taken.
Because it gives the reader perspective and inspires one to think outside the proverbial box, I recommend the book.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Don't waste your money, 2008-07-21
I found Mr. Romney's self-satisfied ode to living the life of a small-town scrooge/tight-wad to be arrogant, self-righteous and bordering on out-right offensive in places.
His chapter titled "Save Up to $37,500 a Year and Live on $12,000 a Year" was basically the only useful chapter in the entire book and that was because it gave me my laugh for the day. Among such common sense items as home haircuts, vegetable gardens and doing your own yard work were cutting off phone service and using a $25 citizen's band radio for emergencies, no more country clubs, no more dining in fancy restaurants, and my personal favorite, selling your $250,000 house and renting for $300 a month. Except for one or two items, Mr. Romney's book is virtually useless for anyone living in an urban or suburban area and even if you're living in a small town many of his ideas are out-of-date, impractical or impossible to implement without having resources to start with.
If you looking for a way to save money... or at least not spend so much of it in these difficult economic times... the best place to start is by not buying this book. If you're looking for ways to be frugal or if you just want to live a simpler life, any other book out there that's not this one will give you advice and tips that are just as good, if not much better and more up-to-date, all without having to put up with Mr. Romney's fake-folksy, smug attitude, ripping off fast-food restaurants for condiments and jellies or dumpster-diving for government-surplus food in housing projects because 'Many of the people there are too lazy to cook things like flour and oats and they sneer at the government cheese and Spam.'
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 kind of bizarre, 2008-03-26
I'm a sucker for any book that tells me how to live a more frugal life. I think we're much too consumer oriented, so I like the idea of living a more simple life. This book touches on many of the "hints" that one can find in any book for more frugal living, but it seems to be filled with many odd tips. Even though the author doesn't condone it, he mentions all of the medications people throw away and implies one could go dumpster diving. Nothing like self-medication. This book seems to be a little more focused on survival and not living. I for one want to live comfortably and responsibly now, but also ensure that I won't have to worry about money or my basic needs down the road. I'm willing to make some sacrifices, but can't quite go this far. Yes, the author does have a very obvious political and religious bent. It is so obvious, that I didn't find it threatening. A little obnoxious though. I wouldn't buy this book, but I would definitely look through it at the library and save a few bucks. :)
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Living like a pauper., 2008-02-08
The author was older. He had lived during the depression. If you hate hearing your parents and/or grand-parents belittling you because you did not survive the depression you will not like this book.
Romney says to move to a small town where the living is inexpensive. If everyone did that the small town would then be expensive because that is what urban sprawl does to land values. I donated the book to a second hand store where, if nothing else, the charity will receive fifty cents.
I would recommend reading Suzie Orman or Progress & Poverty edited by Bob Drake if you want to have money.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
 Very Good, 2007-10-13
This Book has helped me to save a lot of money and learn to be smarter with my time and money Great Book I Highly Recommend it.
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