Book Review: Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!

As part of the Boost My Budget project I’m challenging myself to read one personal finance book every month! See my previous reviews here. 

This month’s book review is Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!: Release Your Money Blocks and Live a First Class Life by Denise Duffield-Thomas.

I’ve covered a lot of the classics of the personal finance world recently, so I thought I’d go for something a bit different this month.

Denise Duffield-Thomas is a self-described ‘money mindset mentor’ who helps women work on their attitudes to money. A lot of her work is aimed specifically at female entrepreneurs, but I think that most women can benefit from her lessons, whether you own a business or not.

Money blocks

Get Rich, Lucky Bitch! is subtitled ‘release your money blocks and live a first class life’. The first half of the book is dedicated to identifying and clearing your money blocks.

So what is a money block? Simply put, a negative belief or attitude around money. According to Duffield-Thomas, everyone has these blocks which are holding them back from their full earning potential. It could be something you’re very aware of, or it could be something subconscious – perhaps a deep-seated childhood memory.

Everybody has blocks to some degree, but women often have more of them than men. A lot of it comes from the way girls are brought up to be ‘nice’, and how we’re used to seeing men as the highest earners and might not feel comfortable stepping into that role ourselves.

Some examples of common money blocks are:

• I shouldn’t earn more than my partner/father/friends
• To get rich I’ll have to work 24/7, which means my family will suffer
• Rich people are greedy
• People from my background just don’t get rich
• My friends will be jealous and dump me if I start earning more than them

If any of these ring true, you might subconsciously be sabotaging your career or business to avoid becoming rich!

The section on money blocks was really valuable for me. I’ve been reading and writing about money for several months now, but I was amazed how much I learned about myself working through this section.

In my case, I realised I was still holding grudges against ex-boyfriends and former employers who I blamed for messing up my finances years ago! A lot of memories came back reading this section.

Thanks to Lucky Bitch, I’m working on getting a grip, and moving on to the next part… making more money!

Manifesting money

Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!: Release Your Money Blocks and Live a First Class Life is also strongly centred around the idea of ‘manifesting money’. This refers to the law of attraction: the concept of attracting what you want through positive thoughts, first introduced in Napoleon Hill’s personal finance classic Think and Grow Rich and later popularised in the 2006 book and film The Secret.

I’m extremely sceptical about the whole law of attraction thing. To be honest, it put me off reading Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!: Release Your Money Blocks and Live a First Class Life for a long time, even though I’d heard great things about it.

My understanding of the law of attraction was that you basically just told ‘the universe’ what you wanted, and then sat back and waited for mystical forces to happen. Clearly a load of woo-woo rubbish.

Ok, this book is still a little woo-woo in places, but it also has an emphasis on taking action yourself to manifest what you want. Duffield-Thomas explains how the most important action to take is changing your mindset, and the rest will fall into place from there.

So if you want to earn an extra £1000 each month, you don’t just announce it to the universe and then sit back and wait for the money to roll in. Rather, you set a clear goal for what you want, and repeat it morning and night. You make sure you’ve cleared any money blocks and aren’t self-sabotaging your own business. You remain completely focused on your goal and confident that you will make it happen.

Then, you start getting out there and looking for opportunities to make it happen! The more focused you are on your goal, the more receptive you’ll be to any little opportunities will come your way, and the harder you’ll be working to make your own luck.

I’m still not exactly a convert to the whole law of attraction thing. But, I do think that following some of the principles can bring results, regardless of the workings behind it.

Many experts agree that mindset, focus and motivation are the key ingredients in success. Maybe it doesn’t matter so much what you believe, as long as you’re taking positive action.

My thoughts

There were a lot of things I wasn’t keen on in this book. The whole ‘asking the universe’ thing made me cringe each time I read it, for a start.

I also didn’t agree with the chapter ‘Upgrade Your Life Now’, in which she tells you to buy nicer versions of things now, because being frugal sends out the message that you are happy being poor… no, no, no! People believing they’re entitled to nice things before they have the money is what gets so many people into financial hot water in the first place! I can see where she’s coming from on this because I do think it’s helpful to have a concrete idea of the lifestyle you want to motivate you to earn more, but I don’t think this is explained well enough in the book.

Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!: Release Your Money Blocks and Live a First Class Life is not a money management book. It  doesn’t talk about investing, saving or sensible spending, and it won’t tell you what to do with your money once you manifest it. The focus seems to be on getting rich so you can spend more, rather than building wealth and security.

However, despite all this, I really enjoyed this book!

Perhaps it’s the way the book is written. Denise’s’ voice is very down to earth, slangy and even sweary in places. It’s easy and fun to read. It reads like a very enthusiastic friend is giving you a few home truths and cajoling you into action.

I also enjoyed the novelty of reading a personal finance book written by a woman, for women. I found it so refreshing to read a book that directly addresses things that women are taught about money. So much of the money blocks section rang true for me. At first I found it almost freaky how much she seemed to know about what’s going on inside my head, but then I realised that’s because I have thoughts that all women have – I’ve just never heard them articulated before!

I read a lot of personal finance and personal development books. Most of them have some kind of tasks for you to do at the end of each chapter. I have to say, this probably the first book I’ve ever read which actually inspired me to get out a notebook and work through all the activities.

As you can tell, it really struck a chord with me, even though I am a bit of a sceptic!

Boost My Budget rating

4/5

Regardless of your views on the law of attraction, Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!: Release Your Money Blocks and Live a First Class Life is a valuable book that will teach you a lot about your relationship with money.

If you want to hear more about Denise Duffield-Thomas before picking up her book, you can head over to her site Lucky Bitch here. She has a free workshop and a fantastic blog. Her blog posts are also available as podcasts.

Here are some of the other titles on my reading list. Have you read any of these? Any more recommendations for me? Come back soon for more reviews!

• It's Not About the Money by Brent Kessel
• The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley
• The Richest Man in Babylon: George S. Clason's Bestselling Guide to Financial Success: Saving Money and Putting It to Work for You by George S. Clason
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich: No guilt, no excuses - just a 6-week programme that works by Ramit Sethi
• A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing (Eleventh Edition) by Burton G. Malkiel
• Rich Bitch: A Simple 12-Step Plan to Decoding Financial Jargon and Having the Life You Want by Nicole Lapin
• The $100 Startup: Fire Your Boss, Do What You Love and Work Better To Live More by Chris Guillebeau
• Money, a Love Story: Untangle Your Financial Woes And Create The Life You Really Want by Kate Northrup