Our economy stinks right now. You will have noticed this, provided that you do not live in a cave. To improve your personal finances, you may wish to consider getting a better job (see yesterday’s post for some advice in that regard), or you may wish to ask for a raise (hellllllloooooooooooo, library administrators!).
But those things take time. If you want to make your money stretch farther, right now, today, then read On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girl’s Guide to Personal Finance.
Hint: you can read it even if you’re not a young woman, or for that matter, if you’re not a woman at all. The authors target their book toward women, since they not only earn less money than men but tend to live longer, too; nonetheless, the advice is good for everyone, so long as you can stomach the occasional pandering to women readers (“your credit score, just like your weight, is a fluid number”); could have done with less of the girlfriend talk, myself, but I’m prickly like that.
Because I have a ton of student debt, and because I’m not expecting a raise anytime soon (hello again, library admins!) and because I only have one income (hello, eligible-but-not-yucky people of considerable financial assets!), and because I have three hungry cats to feed, I have recently found myself pawing nervously through personal finance books. This is by far the best I’ve found. The advice is absolutely spot-on, delivered in a clear, succinct style. Consider the first three lines of the book:
The first step toward financial success is to develop the habit of saving. Developing this habit is a lot like developing the habit of flossing your teeth. It’s hard to argue against either practice in theory.
So, okay, I’m not the brightest bulb on the tree, but I do have some vague awareness that I’m supposed to save money. But then I also have a very vivid awareness that I am supposed to pay off debt, thanks to the insistent little reminders I receive in the mail each month.
Which comes first, paying off debt or saving for retirement? That depends on your personal situation, but this book gives you enough information to figure it out for yourself. And it goes beyond the basics, beyond savings and retirement and credit cards. The book does a fine job of explaining concepts that, until last week, were completely beyond me. I can now proudly claim that I know what “mutual fund” means. (It means, typically, that you should get an index fund instead.)
I finished On My Own Two Feet during the course of three lunch breaks. It’s a nice quick read, a standout amongst the many personal finance books you could choose from.
Blogging for a Good Book 
Leave a Reply