The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness

Dave Ramsey's seven-step debt payoff plan. Hardcover, 259 pages.

Ramsey lays out seven steps in a fixed order: a small emergency fund, then debts smallest to largest, then three to six months of expenses. The method is deliberately rigid and he defends the rigidity.

Thomas Nelson, 259 pages, hardcover. Plenty of advisers disagree with the debt snowball math, since paying the smallest balance first costs more interest than paying the highest rate first. Ramsey's answer is that a plan has to survive contact with a real person's motivation.