You really can be rich in every way, every day.

So you want to own the home you love, make memories on wonderful vacations with family or friends, finance college educations, and help others too?

You can--starting here and now.

With lively humor, proven know-how, and practical principles for financial health, Living Rich for Less helps you stretch your dollars to realize the lifestyle of your dreams. Ellie Kay's entertaining and enlightening examples show you simple steps to save, spend, and give smart, and her three main principles are undergirded by dozens of effective rules and hundreds of Cha-Ching Factor™ tips that keep or put money in your pocket.

Ellie knows what it's like to be financially-strapped or struggling, wanting to be the Joneses but feeling as poor in spirit as in pocketbook. She went, within two and a half years, from being a new wife and mom with $40,000 in consumer debt and seven children (and college educations) to support, to being completely debt-free and within fifteen years able to pay cash for eleven different cars, give away three of those cars, buy two five-bedroom houses (moving from one to the other) and nicely furnish each, take wonderful vacations, dress her family in fine fashion; and support more than thirty non-profit organizations in more than a dozen different countries, giving away more than $100,000.

Isn't that the kind of transformation to a rich life that you want?

Living Rich for Less helps anyone get there in our taxed-out, maxed-out times. Because financial security doesn't mean just genuine prosperity, but being able to live luxuriously, give generously, and care for yourself as well as the others around you.

Why keep up with the Joneses when you can be them?

From the Hardcover edition.

Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, and X-Men all have something more in common than being comic book characters. They are part of a dream, the American Dream, the dream each of us wants, whether we admit it or not. WonderWoman, for example, is drop-dead gorgeous, andher 38-inch inseam makes me want to get leg extension surgery; if my husband had Wolverine's abs, I'd be a lot more patient when he missed yet another highway exit because he's fiddling with the satellite radio. Again. And if any of my kids had Bruce Wayne's wealth? I might never have to
clip another coupon in my life!

I may not be a superhero, but I've learned how to do practically supernatural things with money--like help people save $30,000 in the next year.

How can I make such a claim?

Because I've been there and done that. My family tried for years to get ahead, even before these taxed-out, maxed-out times, and we found the tried-and-true way to live rich. The really cool thing is that I believe there's a superhero embedded in you--one waiting to make a grand entrance and save America from financial disaster. For every family that becomes financially solid, we build a firmer economic foundation for our country. Therefore, you can save America by saving yourself and unleashing your inner superhero!

I'll call you "Mr. and Ms. America."

This book is for you, written by someone (and her family) who was average by day but ambitious by night, dreaming of:
• getting out of debt.
• owning our cars outright.
• buying a dream house.
• putting our kids through college debt free.
• learning the ins and outs of saving and investing cash.
The thing is, I didn't stop with a dream. That's where it began. Then there was a process, and now, on an average American salary, we've seen all those dreams come true. We've discovered that there is a rich lifestyle embedded in our checkbook. There's one in yours too, and I'll help you discover it so you can make a life and not just a living.

My greatest ambition is to helpMr. andMs. America live rich for less. If you're wondering whether you're the Mr. and Ms. America who can find similar financial success, realize that the average family makes $48,000 per year, and an amazing 85 percent of the population makes $100,000 or
less. I'll leave the top 15 percent of the nation's wealthiest to experts like Jim Cramer and Suze Orman. I'd rather help people who come from an average background to find above average success. People like us.

When I first met Bob, my husband, I was searching for my own personal Superman. If he looked like Christopher Reeve, all the better! I never expected him to fly in on a jet. But alas, my superhero really was a pilot named K-Bob, and I found that time flew around this guy as well. I protested, "When I'm with you, time goes by so quickly that if I married you, I'd be an old lady before I knew it!"

I gave in and married the flyboy, just yesterday...or so it seems. I left my job as a broker and followed my guy around the world. Today we're living the rich life, but it wasn't always that way. Our early marriage was filled with major villains, like the Joker of debt and the Lex Luthor of near bankruptcy.

When I married the guy in tight tights, I found myself with a three-for-one deal, because not only did I get a great guy, but I also inherited two beautiful stepdaughters in the process. As with many second families, we struggled with the financial aftermath of divorce, which included $40,000
of consumer debt with nothing to show for it. In those early years, a crossstitch sampler on our wall summed up our situation well: "Blessed are the poor,...

"Suze Orman, you've got a powerhouse who just moved in next door! Ellie Kay is a financial expert whose time has come. Her advice is for Mr. and Mrs. America and not just Wall Street. If you live on Main Street, you need to meet your new neighbor, Ellie Kay, who's spiked the Koolaid with the wakeup juice that mainstream America needs in order to survive today's money woes and tomorrow's future challenges. I love this book more than a bowl of fat grams."