There are so many personal finance books out there with the goal of helping you combat debt, put together a budget, teach you about credit, or just overall help you work on better money management skills. It can be hard to tell if a book is right for you without actually reading it, so we're here to help! We'll choose some personal finance books and read through them ourselves, then put up a blog post with our review of the book.
First up is a newly released book by author Erin Lowry, who is also the founder of BrokeMillennial.com. She recently released her book titled Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping by and Get Your Financial Life Together. As a millennial myself, I felt this would be the perfect book to start off with.
Let me start off by saying that this book is filled with all the relevant information you could ever need to get your financial life together (#GYFLT), as Erin the book’s author would say. Don’t let that amount of information scare you though, it’s well organized and broken down nicely as to be easily understood by just about everyone, no matter the generation. I felt that the book wasn’t overly preachy (if that’s even a word), is very down to earth and the author was willing to share her past personal experiences with money, the good and the bad. Managing your finances is not a one size fits all concept, and Lowry understands and emphasizes this in her book. She provides various methods for your situation, whether it be budgeting methods, paying down debt methods, or 401k options there’s always more than just one way to achieve your financial goal.
If I had to find one thing about this book that I wasn’t fond of, it would have to be some of the millennial references. While I fully understand that it is the generation this book is focused on, I feel like it gives in to some of the millennial stereotyping that I see and have experienced firsthand, such as references to being frequent job-hoppers, the numerous tinder references, etc. However, this is just my personal opinion and may be just because I feel I don’t tend to fit in some of those common millennial references. Some millennials may very well relate to it though, and the focus when reading this book should be the fantastic information that you are learning as you get through each chapter.
If there’s ever any terms you don’t understand or don’t remember how she defined it, just turn to the handy glossary at the back of the book! Many of these are common terms that we hear, but may not fully understand. I also just have to say that as a credit union member and employee, I love that Lowry mentions credit unions, along with banks, but I would’ve loved to see a little more of an explanation on the differences between the two. Side note, Lowry mentions Popmoney, which we offer here at HFS!
Whether you’re a millennial or not, this book is a must read for anyone wanting to learn more about all aspects of finance with a desire to take charge of their own financial life.
