Best Books On Getting Out of Debt: 7 You Should Read

Getting out of debt isn’t as simple as just paying off odd amounts here and there.  Depending on how much you owe, you are going to need to think about setting up a plan.  What’s more, you’re going to need to realise that plenty of people go through debt.  In fact, there are millions of people borrowing money right this second.

Debt isn’t something you should have to live with hovering overhead, however.  There’s good, and there’s bad.  In this day and age, it’s healthy to need to ask for help.  Some of the best advice you can get on how to break free of debt is available on Amazon, or may even be available at your local library.

Best Books On Getting Out Of Debt in 2019

Dave Ramsey – ‘The Total Money Makeover’

Dave Ramsey’s 2009 book has become one of the most useful debt management books available, whether through online bookshops or through lending libraries.  Ramsey’s approach to debt management is to-the-point, but it’s overwhelmingly positive.  When it comes to breaking free of debt, you’re going to need tough love. 

Ramsey’s best-selling guide makes the most of his counselling experience by sharing with readers step-by-step guides on how to approach money.  The Total Money Makeover focuses most of all on how you see money, and how you use it.  Ramsey is quick to help you identify myths about debt which will only harm your ability to pay money back long term.

The book also encourages you to get interactive.  This means it’s more than just an exercise in empowerment, but is also a workbook for you to leap into action from.  Ramsey focuses on showing you how to safely and healthily eschew debt from your life while building a fund for emergencies as well as for later life.

Jean Chatzky – ‘Money Rules’

Subtitled ‘The Simple Path to Lifelong Security’, Chatzky’s book is a little similar to Ramsey’s in that it is less an empowering read, and is more of a workbook of sorts.  It’s a great call to action for anyone who simply doesn’t know quite what to do next in terms of money and in terms of paying off debt.  Part of this book’s appeal lies in the fact that it’s written to be used to face almost any financial problem or crisis.  For those people looking for a practical handbook to keep on side when finances look lowly, you can rely on Chatzky’s support.

Tips include learning how to cap your borrowing, which is great to bear in mind if you’ve not yet got any debt to your name.  Once you do have debt, however, Chatzky knows more than a few tricks which can help to prepare you for later life financial protection.  It’s one of the best debt management books out there simply because it’s no-nonsense, and it’s so easy to use in a wide array of contexts.

James Scurlock – ‘Maxed Out: Hard Times in the Age of Easy Credit’

To be able to get out of debt safely, it does pay to know quite how everything works.  Scurlock’s book is, therefore, an extremely interesting read as far as learning about money is concerned.  It’s something of a lid-lifter on money practices, which helps elevate it into the pantheon of best books about debt.  The best books for getting out of debt don’t just give you ideas, they give you background information and the tools to work with.

Scurlock’s tome exposes plenty about the credit industry which, while widely happening even to this day, isn’t actually all that well-known.  The author examines the economy in grave detail, though in a way which is easy to digest.  By the end of you reading Maxed Out, you should have a better idea of what credit card and loan companies do to make money, and what you need to do to avoid falling further and further into the spiral.

Barbara Stanny – ‘Over Coming Under Earning’

Stanny’s volume is one of the best books for getting out of debt because, like some of the books listed above, it gives you a practical look at how to manage your finances when they’re hardly flowing thick and fast.  Stanny takes time to understand how people end up living from month to month, and how you can start making more money through simple exercises.

This book is a little different to the others in this list as it focuses on how to make more cash, as opposed to analysing debt and credit in detail.  Even so, it’s a fantastic read for anyone lacking self-empowerment.  The best way to get out of debt is to, of course, make more cash to pay it off.  This might seem like simple maths, but let’s face it – things are often a bit more complex than that.

Stanny’s book should appeal to anyone who is keen to earn to their full potential, but who may be feeling a bit beaten back by rising debt and money problems.  Ultimately, the exercises in this book should help you to break down old cycles and to build new, healthy ones.

Jerrold Mundis, ‘How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously*’

Billed as a catch-all guide on how to escape the clutches of any kind of debt pile-up, Mundis’ volume is fantastic reading for the practical debt-buster.  The author has actually based his guide to breaking free from debt on the principles of Debtors Anonymous, the US self-help group which helps millions of Americans each year in taking control of their money.

Mundis’ book is going to be ideal for anyone who wants to take debt recovery one step at a time, and for those who prefer to make plans and to plot out courses of action.  For example, the author explores useful negotiation strategy when you need to speak with the taxman, as well as how to harness your own anxiety when debts start piling up.

While this book is clearly aimed at a US audience, I think British debtors could learn a lot from Mundis, as he certainly doesn’t shy away from splitting up the debt-free journey into manageable chunks.  The Debtors Anonymous route helps to make things that little bit easier to comprehend – as opposed to dealing with long reams of text.

Karen McCall, ‘Financial Recovery’

Subtitled ‘developing a healthy relationship with money’, McCall’s popular book is one which focuses on not only helping you get out of debt, but on making sure you never head back there again.  The author understands that debt recovery isn’t something that happens once and never again – it can be a repetitive cycle.

The book helps you to identify where you may have made poor decisions regarding money, and how you can transform your thinking for years to come.  It is rather like a journey into the psyche of a debtor – where McCall takes you through each step of your thought process and carefully unpacks it for future education and healing.

This is a book which is all about developing awareness of any financial problems you may be experiencing, and how to avoid falling into the same traps again and again.  Think of it as a cognitive therapy book for getting out of debt – it’s marvellously well-devised.

Richard H Thaler, Cass R Sunstein, ‘Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness’

Thaler and Sunstein’s book isn’t solely related to money and debt, rather, the authors apply a kind of thinking that lends itself to a variety of different human behaviours.  For example, the book looks at every single choice that we make.  It’s regarded as a ‘popular science’ book, but its analysis of financial behaviour is well worth reading into.

The research which has gone into Thaler and Sunstein’s book is obvious, particularly as it draws on it constantly.  Why do we make some of the choices we do?  What influences our thinking the most?  Why do we end up in debt – and how can we avoid this in future?

Unlike some of the more practical how-to guides in my list, this book delivers a really enthralling look at why we get into debt – and what we can do to keep out of it.  Understanding why we do things is the first step to never doing them again.  If you like your self-help books entertaining and eye-opening in equal measure, start here.

Conclusion

It may seem a bit rich that there are so many debt management books out there.  However, the best books for getting out of debt are those which are written by genuine experts.  Not necessarily people who are qualified to manage finance, but those who have been there and paid debts off.  The books in this list are written by authors who genuinely care about beating the debt cycle, and who have found ways to help people rebuild their lives.

Whether it’s analysing expenditure, making more money or simply changing the way you pay debt off, the above books should give you enough bedtime reading to begin with.  All debt is different, of course, but it’s handy to have a few ideas and exercises to hand to help you get started.