Book Reviews
Book Review: “Breaking Free From Broke” by George Kamel
Throughout 2025, Fioney will be posting a new book review each month. In the meantime, you can check out our list of the top 10 financial books to start the new year off right and view my Goodreads for more.
When I attended 2024’s FinCon event in Atlanta, one of the speakers I was introduced to was George Kamel. From his short talk, I could tell that I liked his energy, humor, and overall vibe (even if it had tinges of “youth pastor” IMHO). So, when I came across his book Breaking Free From Broke: The Ultimate Guide to More Money and Less Stress after the conference, I decided to download it on Audible and make it the first book I reviewed in the new year.
Having listened to the audiobook version of Breaking Free From Broke, I do want to mention some of the elements of this book that are specific to this medium. On the plus side, I liked how we were able to hear the original versions of podcast clips that Kamel mentioned on a few occasions. I also admire the work that his team put into producing the audiobook to be something unique. Unfortunately, I wasn’t exactly a fan of those added touches — such as the sound effects and background noise/music that are ultra-present in the intro. Thankfully, things do calm down significantly from there and, while sound effects do pop up from time to time, I didn’t mind them nearly as much as I got further into the book.
On to the content of the book, if you weren’t aware that Kamel was associated with Ramsey Solutions, I suspect you’d figure it out pretty quickly upon starting Breaking Free From Broke. Not only are there plenty of quotes from Dave Ramsey himself (along with his daughter Rachel Cruze) utilized throughout, but Kamel also bases a lot of the book on the famed 7 Baby Steps, touts the EveryDollar app, and of course talks extensively about why credit cards are dumb.
In that aspect, it’s almost as though the book could have been written by Ramsey but, instead, the message is filtered through a younger, funnier version. Granted, I’m sure that Kamel and Ramsey have differences of opinion but I’m not familiar enough with the latter to know exactly what those are. Additionally, Kamel definitely inserts his own experiences into the book, so it doesn’t feel completely like listening to a surrogate.
Kamel mentions fairly early in the book that you may disagree with him — even joking at one point that listeners might be throwing their phones. Indeed, while I wasn’t frustrated by the book, there are some major sections that I don’t subscribe to. That (as you might suspect given what I typically write about) starts with the matter of credit cards. While I did find Kamel’s detailing of how debit cards can fill in for credit cards in almost all situations fascinating, at the end of the day, I still don’t see anything wrong with having a rewards credit card as long as you can responsibly use it.
Similarly, although I appreciate his concept of not even having a credit score, he seems to wave off some pretty major inconveniences and extra expenses (albeit many of them being refundable) that come with having no score. Plus, just as he laughs at the idea of people being obsessed with having a high credit score, I get the feeling he’s a little too excited to talk about how he doesn’t have one. But, again, the information about navigating the world sans FICO was interesting.
The following few sections of the book continue the theme of avoiding debt, with Kamel discussing why student loans, car payments, and mortgages are all bad. As you’d expect, he has solid points on each of these topics and offers some actionable tips for reducing your reliance on these debt forms. It was also from this book that I learned “mortgage” translates to “death pledge” — a fact my now-homeowner self truly appreciated. However, you can probably anticipate what his top solution to buying a home or car without going into debt is, right? Yup — pay cash. To be fair, he admits that, at least in the case of a home, that might not be so doable and proceeds to offer some more lenient advice.
I mentioned in my intro that I found Kamel funny during his FinCon speech. That remains true throughout this book — but that’s because I love pop culture and puns, which seem to be Kamel’s bread and butter. To give you an idea of what you’re in for, I wrote down one of my eye-rolly favorites regarding adjustable-rate mortgages: “As the lead singer of Creed could tell you, with ARMs you’re wide open… to risk.” I’d also like to take this time to point out that, although his “first cut is the deepest” joke was solid, attributing it to Sheryl Crow and not Cat Stevens or even Rod Stewart was an odd move.
Back to the book itself, one of the most interesting chapters for me was one on investing — more specifically “Investing Traps.” As one would anticipate, this is where topics such as cryptocurrency or whole-life insurance come up. Yet, I was a bit taken aback to also hear Kamel is not too big of a fan of index funds or ETFs. He also poo-pooed investing apps of many stripes for either being too gamified (fair) or not being worth your time since they only help you invest a little. To me, this came off as letting perfect be the enemy of good. I also found it ironic that one would look down on using an app like Acorns to get started with investing little by little but then talk up why the debt snowball method and its “small wins” mentality are far and away the best way to eliminate debt. Then again, I guess that’s why he labeled each of these “investing trap” analyses as “hot takes.”
While the first half seems to be geared more toward all the things you should do to avoid debt, the second half is more about getting out of debt in the first place. I actually really liked the names of these latter chapters, including:
- Budgeting is Freedom
- Spending is Self-Control
- Margin is Breathing Room
- Debt is a Thief
- Savings is Peace
- Wealth is Patience
- Generosity is Joy
Like in the earlier sections, each of these chapters contains some useful nuggets that those looking to budget, save, invest, grow wealth, and, yes, get out of debt will surely be able to use. There were also some encouraging and heartwarming stories throughout. Nevertheless, I didn’t think that it went as deep into each of the steps as it could have.
Through writing this review, I realize that I may sound more negative about this book than I intended to. After all, even if I don’t agree with some of Kamel’s takes (or Ramsey’s rules), I did enjoy listening to the book for the most part. It’s just that, based on the title, I was expecting something a bit different — namely a how-to guide for those dealing with debt rather than one that questions why you’d bother having a credit card when you can just buy a car with cash. For that reason, if someone were to ask me what book to read if they wanted to change their money ways and get out of debt, I’d point to something like Erin Skye Kelly’s aptly named Get the Hell Out of Debt instead. But, if you’re a nerd like me and want to learn more about living creditless, enjoy multiple 90s pop music references, or just want three free months of EveryDollar, then you may still enjoy reading or listening to Breaking Free From Broke: The Ultimate Guide to More Money and Less Stress.
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