Women today are often afraid of facing their money demons and taking full control and responsibility for their financial affairs. For help in becoming debt free, consider reading Sheconomics – add power to your purse with the ultimate money makeover, by Karen Pine and Simonne Gnessen.

Sheconomics gives women the courage to face their spending demons by featuring seven ‘laws’ which enable them to take responsibility for their own financial situation.

The laws – take emotional control, go beyond beliefs, spend with power, have goals, look debt in the face, share financial intimacies, and know tomorrow comes – provide the topics many women are afraid to confront and, thus, do not take responsibility for their own financial situation.

The book provides useful tips on what women with unmanageable debt can do to reduce the burden on their budgets, and also provides a realistic spending plan for women who are not able to stick to a budget based on their own will power.

Sheconomics is written in easy-to-understand language, with a guide at the end explaining, in everyday language, the financial jargon that many people find impossible to fathom.

Throughout the book, practical examples provide tips on how to do things differently when it comes to money. There is significant emphasis on the psychology behind spending habits and much insight is gained by completing the tests provided.

These trace one’s attitude to money from childhood, providing solutions to changing those beliefs and feelings.

The power of positive thinking works for money too, and the book gives good, realistic examples of attracting money into your life.

Debt is demystified and well explained, with practical examples of good and bad debt. Also, for all those credit card fans, there is good news: not all credit card debt is bad and Pine and Gnessen do well in explaining how credit cards can work to your advantage.

They also explain the absolute necessity of saving for your retirement; however, one tends to feel terrified of the prospect of leaving it too late. The authors should have, perhaps, put more emphasis on ‘it’s never too late, but get started as soon as possible’ instead of using the fear of poverty as the motivating factor behind the need for pension savings.

That said, the authors provide good advice on how to live well, have fun and be debt free, but the chapters do become repetitive.

Throughout the book, one feels as if the advice has been given before, only to realise that the same topic is being repeated, but from a different angle. The repetition is the only negative aspect of this book.

But if becoming debt free is a short-term goal for your money future, this book is a must: handy, easily understood and, most importantly, written for women, by women. The psychology behind debt and women must never be underestimated, and the authors seek to shed light on women and (bad) money habits.

Useful contact numbers are provided, but only for the UK. South African readers will have to do their own research. However, if you have made the decision to become debt free, this should not be a problem. You would already be on the right path; it is just a case of changing your spending habits and having the will power to do this.