Power Borrowing

By William Proctor and Sandra Fiebelkorn

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 068806891X
• ISBN13: 9780688068912
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Length: 203 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Now Dated, But Still An Important, Must-Read Book

Power Borrowing provides readers who are not quite up on the mechanics of consumer credit and debt a number of lessons on the proper use of credit and debt in an accessible, very easy to read format. The book is a slim volume, divided into 12 chapters over 200 pages, making it a very fast read. Today's reader can find the heart of the book in the first four chapters. After that, the dated nature of the text (released in 1989)becomes apparent very quickly. Still, the book contains information in the remaining chapters that is highly applicable today. I suggest that readers pick up a copy of the book and read it from cover to cover, if only to get a sense of the contemporary history of consumer finance for comparison to today. In it, you will find such gems as the following: -folks were over-spending then (1989) as now -consumer debt, not including home mortgages, is at the same percentage of disposable income now as then. -back then, interest on credit card debt was tax-deductible (though in the process of a phase-out) -back then, kids (and parents) were borrowing precariously to go to college, not paying, and getting off penalty-free! (alas, the Feds got wise to this one, as the author predicted they would, with today's ominous consequences) -credit card grace periods were longer then -the float on checks deposited was longer then, and interest was paid on deposited checks immediately (try finding this now) ..and plenty more now historical gems. I like to think of the comparisons between then and now as being further evidence of the Great Republic's giddy and gleeful march to the New and Improved Feudalism! I found the book Power Borrowing to be a stand-out among personal finance books because having read many texts on the topic of personal finance, this is the only one that I have come across that talks about the inclusion of credit and debt as a part of one's overall personal financial strategy. That last part is critical, as most of us do not actively think about, or even use, a strategy. Those of us that do have a personal financial plan tend to cast debt in a wholly negative light and juxtapose investment and saving in opposition to debt. This book reminds us that credit and debt are tools, like any other, and depending on how these tools are used, they can be the negative things people perceive them to be in our consumerist society. Either you can control credit and debt, or it can control you. This book gives you the means to control these very important tools for your benefit, and not the creditors. Although the credit landscape has changed quite a bit in the last two decades, the basic precepts needed to navigate this treacherous financial terrain have not (though they have been actively obscured and suppressed by the likes of Suze Orman and other gurus of personal finance), and thankfully, this book still rests on library shelves across the country to guide the many abusive idolaters of credit to the light.