With my wife now back in school I get to spend more time with my son each week. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday we hang out together. Lately he’s been getting bored with the house, understandable since he is there all day. Theres no need to spend a lot of money in order to hand and have fun, and if I did it sure would add up over time. One thing my son and I enjoy doing is going to Barnes and Noble. In the children’s section is a small train set that he plays with for hours and I can usually read through a book while he crashes and derails the train! Last night I had a title catch my eye in the personal finance section “Rich by 30”. I picked up the book and we headed over to the train set!
The book is only 170+ pages so if you are a fast reader like myself you can get through the entire book in a short period of time. The book is well written and after reading it I think should be a required high school reading! At the very least anyone heading off to college should read this book! This book does not go into great detail about finances but it does give you enough information to be set on course toward financial freedom. The author Lesley Scorgie starts the book off with some background information on herself. Her background is very similar to mine up until she received her first large amount of money. She saved hers, whereas I feverishly spent mine! From that point on Lesley had an article in the local paper written about her, which was picked up by Ophra Winfrey show!
The book starts off with financial motivation , showing you the numbers and discussing why you should save and get things in order. The chapter on Budgeting is verbose and I enjoyed how it highlighted what you should do with excess. Many books will show you budgeting, but Lesley definitely elaborates on this section in lay mens terms. Lesley also addresses the basics on investing in her book and splits it into two sections. The first section goes over terms and the basics of investing, where as part two gets a little more advanced. The Final chapter is planning for down the road, Retirement, house, kids! There are very few personal finance books out there for people under 30 and I like how Lesley includes a chapter on future outlook and planning.
Overall this book is an excellent introduction to personal finance, but it is just that an Introduction. The brevity of the book is ideal for a plane right or ride on the metro into the city. One particular thing I did not like about this book is many of the examples use teenagers. For someone in their twenties as you read through this you will find the examples and say “Well yea, hindsight I could have done that.. but it’s too late now.” This book is formally being recommended by TMM as an excellent introduction to personal finance!
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[...] Lesley Scorgie if you recall wrote the book titled “Rich by Thirty” [...]