Going Broke: Why Americans Can't Hold on to Their Money

by Stuart A. Vyse and Stuart Vyse

Book Overview

Over the last three decades, debt, bankruptcy, and home foreclosures have risen to epidemic levels. To make matters worse, the personal savings rate is at its lowest point since the Great Depression. Why, in the richest nation on earth, can't Americans hold on to our money?

Winner of the prestigious William James Book Award for Believing in Magic and an authority on irrational behavior, Stuart Vyse offers a unique psychological perspective...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195306996
• ISBN13: 9780195306996
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Details of the psychology of debt and indebtedness

Vyse looks at all aspects of the issue - how debt works on the psyche of those in debt, how certain instruments such as credit and debit cards can work on the psyche of people to lead them into debt, how debt amounts, number of debt sources and other things can play into the scenario and more. But, this is more than an abstract book of research psychology on debt. Between each chapter, Vyse has a 2-3 page "case study" of a real live person and his or her, or the couple's, problems with debt. In the body chapters, he also injects information from his life and that of other real people. He also offers simple suggestions to lessen the debt temptation. Of course, most of these will be hugely UNpopular with many people, despite their professed worries about debt. The suggestions include: 1. Basic cable if you have to have TV beyond rabbit ears, plus converter box; no premium cable. 2. Dial-up internet access only. 3. Use cash for more, debit card for less, in "everyday" buying. All very good suggestions, no matter their popularity level. If you're serious about understanding the psychology of debt and how it might be impacting YOUR life, this is a very good read.

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime??

Going Broke is a excellent book on why Americans cannot hold on to their money and stay out of debt. Author Stuart Vyse does a good job of explaining why 1) Americans are bankrupt due to over extending themselves.2)Instant gratification has replaced delaying the need of things.3)How modern inventions such as computers and credit cards have made the availability of buying things quicker and more convenient.4)How advertising influences us on a daily bases from tv to movies, to cell phones to junk mail.5)How society's view of needs are really more of wants and luxuries. The final chapter offers some help for those trapped in debt and addiction of spending. At the end of each chapter are real life examples of people caught in this deadlly trap.[[ASIN:0684859386 Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes And How To Correct Them: Lessons From The New Science Of Behavioral Economics] is another good book on this subject. Well done.

Lots of research went into this book

Heavily researched and well written personal finance book. Very good for those who dont have a clue about the subliminal ads and other money traps. I supose many people are tricked into all that stuff due to the broken financial aspects of many lives. Recommended for those who dont have a clue about the subject. Well written.

Completely Agree

I completely agree with the reviewer above. I found Vyse's sociological take on Americans and spending fascinating. He poses the same questions to his readers that he has posed to his university students and I found that my kids (teenagers) were interested in these questions and that they encouraged conversation. It was playful and energizing to take a look at the irrational ways that we relate to money and spending, and to choose ways to "trick" ourselves into spending less, rather than simply berating ourselves. An example of irrationality is the concept of "sunk" money. If we've already spent money on something, and we consider that money "sunk" or gone, we don't have as much motivation to recoup that money than we would have to "make" that much money. This helped me force myself go through the irritating process of trying to recover money from a travel insurance company when my son was too ill to go on a class trip to Costa Rica. I had already paid for the trip, so my motivation was lacking. When I posed the question to myself "would you spend an entire day dealing with an insurance company for $2500?" I decided that it WAS worth the aggravation of dealing with the paperwork. I also appreciated Vyse's compassion toward modern Americans and the trouble he took to detail the kinds of necessary expenses that our parents did not have. For just one example, he points out that there are thousands of medications that did not exist in 1970. Even with good insurance, these medications can cost hundreds of dollars a month. If you enjoy reading about money, this book is very different from all of the other cookie-cutter money books out there.

Economics, politics, popular culture, and science blended with humor and sound insight

There are many things this book does well. (In fact, everything this book does, it does well.) First, and most remarkably, it tells stories. Not only is the author brave enough to reveal his own financial foibles, he includes interviews with individuals who have suffered financial ruin and lived to tell the tale. The stories are striking in their variety and poignancy, and they are made all the more salient by Vyse's beautifully written prose. The author paints a clear picture of his subjects' various crises, so that each story--no matter how different it may be from our own--has a sense of familiarity. We understand that these are fellow Americans who for the most part have worked hard and played by the rules, and we can't help recognizing their humanity and vulnerability as our own. Moving beyond the stories that open each chapter, Vyse looks not only at the internal, "psychological" processes associated with financial difficulty--such as the seemingly inexplicable tendency to overpay for items on eBay--but he also uses a broad lens to examine the social and political forces that conspire against our best efforts to stay ahead in the financial game. Rather than simply attributing the bankruptcy epidemic to "shopaholism" or endemic self-indulgence (as many others blithely do), Vyse weaves together hard science, cultural criticism, and macroeconomic analysis to create a disturbing image of our personal--and national--economic landscape. Finally, the majority of Vyse's suggestions for not going broke are practical, common-sense solutions that almost every American can employ. But even in presenting his suggestions, Vyse acknowledges that there are larger forces which need to be addressed before a majority of Americans can enjoy financial security. Far from being a panacea, Vyse presents his suggestions as something of a self-defense strategy in a world where our senses and sensibilities are constantly bombarded, and our financial futures are bought and sold by corporations without hesitation or regulation. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in human behavior, American culture, economics, politics, or public policy--and to anyone who just wants a good, thought-provoking read.