Some of my clients always ask, Cristina, what do you do in your free time? Well, one of the things I do in my free time is read. I’ve actually been on this kick where I’ve read at least one new book a month. This idea came to me as I was walking in a major brick and mortar bookstore a few months ago. I had a 15% coupon and I was in there on a mission to buy a new book for some leisure reading. As I was perusing the New Release section of the store, I realized that there were so many new books that I wanted to read but didn’t want to fork out the cash to buy them all. I noticed that most books were between $10-$15 and if you got a hard cover they were more in the $15-$25 range. Don’t forget e-books are around $7.99-$10.99 as well! It pained me to think that if I read 1 book a month, totaling 12 books a year, that I could potentially spend $120-$300 on my re-ignited passion for reading.
So as I walked around, a friend I was with told me about an iPhone app called Goodreads. It allows you to scan the barcode of books and keeps them on your “shelf”. It’s a cool way to keep track of all the books you want to read. I walked around scanning all my books and decided that I wasn’t going to buy them all that day. I thought about about all the books I wanted to read and the lack of me wanting to pay for them and money saving idea hit me. I visited my local library that day and signed up for a library card. It made total sense to me, my city and property taxes help fund these “old school” institutions. I pay for books already!!! No matter what county you live in a portion of your taxes help pay for libraries.
I live in Fulton County(Georgia) where there are 33 branches that I can borrow from. Not only can I walk into any library and pick up a book that is available, but they also provide E-BOOKS!!! It brings me back to the days in school where we’d take field trips to the library or if we finished a book in class we’d get a pizza party. I’ve been happily downloading free e-books for the past few months now and it’s been great! For some of the new release books there is a hold line, however, they have all the new release books available for traditional paperback or e-book download.
So, some of you may be asking, what books have I read? Well here’s my list: Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, Deception Point by Dan Brown, Digital Fortress by Dan Brown, Inferno by Dan Brown, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. If you have any suggestions, let me know!
Written By:
Cristina Briboneria, CFP®, ADPA®, AWMA®
Vice President, Private CFO®
oXYGen Financial, Inc.
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