On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girl's Guide to Personal Finance

by Manisha Thakor

“ On My Own Two Feet is a must read for everyone. This book actually makes personal finance interesting. You will read it cover to cover. Go get a copy and get copies for the people you care about. Taking care of your money is important, and the earlier you start, the better.” —Tim Westergren, Founder, Pandora

Whether you've been living paycheck to paycheck or are saving for a down payment on your first home, this updated edition of the bestselling On My Own Two Feet will help you grasp the basic principles of money management. Written by Harvard Business School graduates and leading investment experts Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar, this finance guide provides you with all the information you need to know to keep your everyday spending in check, save for big-ticket items or emergencies, and create a secure retirement plan. Thakor and Kedar's time-tested strategies have been featured in the Wall Street Journal , Forbes, The Huffington Post , and are now adapted for your specific needs, such as paying off your student loans or budgeting for your future wedding, so that you'll never be short-changed by credit card companies or banks again.

With the valuable advice and concepts highlighted by On My Own Two Feet , you will achieve your life goals—and finally free yourself from financial stress.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Personal Finance, Self Help, Money, Business, Womens

208 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2007

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic book. I have never in my life understood finances/money. It was a language I did not speak. After reading this book, I totally GET IT. I have no idea how Manisha Thakor managed to make such complicated information so easy to understand, but this seriously is the best book I've read on the subject. Lightbulbs going off all over the place. I only wish I had read it 25 years ago, and I kind of want to buy a copy for every woman I know!

[Katie Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite the cheesy name and cover, this book has good, straightforward financial tips and lots of tables to help you see how much actual money you should be putting toward retirement, emergency savings, etc. Good tips about how to save for money you plan to spend in the next five years (savings account/money market account/CD) vs. money for retirement, and a financial action plan. A quick read because they get straight to the point.

The "modern girl" slant is just a brief interlude about not relying on a man to support you, and that he probably doesn't know as much about money as he says he does. (My boyfriend read parts because index funds know no gender.)

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book engaging enough that I read most of it in one night. And that is saying something, considering that it's a how-to book on finances. Everything is laid out in simple terms with great financial advice in a concise read which is utterly painless and dare I even say enjoyable?

It itemizes everything from budgets, the downfalls of credit cards, to stocks, bonds and IRAs neatly. It's the one book I'll never let go, and plan to do future rereadings whenever I run into some fine print I don't understand when taking care of my own finances.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I’d read this book in my 20s ...but better late than never. Helpful and easy to read/understand advice about how best to save and invest your money.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The five stars for this book are for the straightforward, simplified information on the basics of money management. It definitely helped me learn more and would recommend it to anyone--regardless of gender!--who wants to learn more about financial basic. That said, the metaphors that are supposed to be "tailored to women" are a little ridiculous and outdated. Metaphors such as "cutting up credit cards like pictures of ex-boyfriends" were definitely reductive, heteronormative but also honestly laughable. If you can take their metaphors with humor then this should be an informative and surprisingly funny read!

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good beginners book to learn about managing money

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the basics of finances in an easy-to read package without talking down to the readers. What more can you ask for?

[Kelli Kaesberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the legs on the cover suggest, the “for women” aspects of this book fell pretty flat, except for the chapter on talking about money in romantic relationships.

Other than that, very good and straightforward primer on personal finance

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously everyone I know should read this because now I feel like I understand way more about personal finance and it WASN'T EVEN BORING. Excuse me while I go save for retirement.

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, right off the bat: this book was published in 2007, which, in hindsight, might make you wary of some of its advice. But, actually (and it shares this with its companion book, Get Financially Naked), it's fairly conservative in outlook and the advice is not dissimilar to most of the financial advice you get these days. That is: start saving for retirement now, buy into index funds, home ownership isn't all its cracked up to be, careful with your credit cards. I thought the authors did a good job relating their financial advice to demographic information about women (for example, that women tend to outlive their male partners) and how things that are generally true about women's lives and circumstances can impact the choices we make with our money.

There's some minimal advice for getting out of credit card debt, and how to prioritize your money. I think that if, like me, your main money problem is "I don't have very much money," something like the Oh My Dollar! podcast might be more your speed. But I appreciated how very friendly this book was, and I think it would be useful information for, say, a new college graduate to have (though I wish they'd update it). It doesn't have a lot of ideological baggage that some other personal finance books or educators bring - it's less messianic in tone than Bogle's book, for example (though Bogle cites more people).

[Torie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that every woman should read this book. It's not even just for women; the author addresses the audience as though she is speaking only to women, but the tips and knowledge given are for both men and women, single or in a relationship. I was able to create a starting financial plan to get my family on the right track to saving and making our money work for us. If anything, read this book to understand the differences between IRAs, money market funds, savings account types, etc. It will really help you to re-look at your financial situation and evaluate it from a more financially-healthy perspective.

[Julia Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Pretty good primer if you’re starting from tabula rasa and it would be an easy one to keep at your finger tips. I read the 2007 edition from the library and was surprised about the lack of focus on debt repayment and also just had a general sense a lot of stuff was somehow missing for most 20 somethings reality. Then it hit me, this was written before the 2008 crisis and before the AHCA.
The advice on savings is timeless though and helpful and this is probably the first book I read the entire appendix.
A great book to reference before any major starts: what to do when you make your first income and starting a budget and retirement strategy, buy insurance, buy a car, buy a house or get married. It also broke down specifically a lot of car and insurance terms I didn’t understand previously.
Not recommended for strategies for debt repayment or breaking the paycheck to paycheck cycle.
A wonderful emotional but important element this book uniquely offered was the focus on your partner and marriage and money. How to talk about those topics, how to assign who manages what and has financial health checkups and how to protect yourself in the event it’s not happily ever after.
Also features some cringeworthy lady specific quotes such as “A Roth IRA is like a perfectly fitting pair of jeans”

[Stephanie Glass · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing revelatory here, this book does exactly what it's supposed to do: it educates you on the most basic aspects of your financial well being. What I appreciated most was that this took the jumble of financial advice I'd been hearing for years and broke it down into specific, grounded concepts. The clarity and matter-of-fact approach was just what I needed.

"On My Own Two Feet" offers very simple break downs of what I'd always considered complicated financial matters. Thakor and Kedar offer the tips you need for financial control over your life, without ever exceeding the barebones of information. The fact that the information was broken down into clear sections will make it easy for me to refer back to it in the future one additional aspects of financial management (for instance, investing) become more relevant to my life.

I could have done without some of the "don't buy shoes and jewelry" examples that seemed thrown in specifically because it's a book written for women, but hey: I could do with buying less hiking gear and gardening supplies. So I just tried to swap the words in my head whenever I got irritated.

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm glad I finally read this book that's been on my to-read shelf for years! It is a good refresher on a lot of what I read in Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties in 2017.

However, the tone is condescending at times, for instance telling the reader they don't really need to buy a pair of designer shoes. Excuse me? I wasn't going to buy designer shoes? And especially if I can't afford them? It's rude to assume that the reader is some air-headed shopaholic—even if it were true. I decided to overlook the talking-down tone and keep reading the book, but it's definitely a turn-off.

I like the part on budgeting, and it inspired me to try to track my spending for 2 months to see where things are at currently in my financial life, especially with my new job just started.

[Elizabeth Q. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for a Personal Finance course at my all-girls university and I really did not enjoy it. Although this book did contain some important financial information, many of the examples and circumstantial cases were incredibly sexist. I mean, even in summary the author talks about a woman’s desire to ‘shop’ and own brand names. I think this book was great for beginning personal finance information but it also contributed to the idea that women are poor with finances because we are ‘more prone to insipid purchases.’

The reason many woman are not taught about proper financial practices in the first place is because of the idea that we are not the ‘bread winners.’ What could have been an amazing guide to finance really just became a sexist piece of work that often perpetuated the ridiculous stereotypes that woman are faced with in finance and everyday life.

The videos this author makes are much worse so I gave this a two star review because AT LEAST it was not like her videos.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for anyone starting out. It really doesn't matter if they are female or not. Everything is explained in clear and concise terms. If you really want to get hard into investments they offer sites and books to go there. Nut this is to teach you the basics, no matter what your age, of what you really need to know about in todays world. There are a few appendix at the end but don't let them scare you. They are mostly tables or a budget page example that is really well thought out. No matter who you are or how old you are, this book will have tips in it for you if you have not given much thought to your financial health.

[J.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

On My Own Two Feet covers a lot of topics - budgeting, saving, credit cards, credit scores, insurance, investing, and even relationships. It is full of useful and good advice, even though it does miss a mark a bit with suggesting that women save 15% of their income for future spending and retirement. It's a fine goal, but unattainable to too many women, no matter how hard they budget. Still, four stars because the book is worth reading, and explains the topics in clear, easy to understand language.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's definitely some good advice in here, and I'm going to go back and look at some of it before I return it to the library. I am annoyed by the stock advice about how much of your income to spend on housing, though- in an expensive place like the Boston area, where I live, it's simply not possible for most people to spend only 25-30% of their income on housing.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

On My Own Two Feet is packed with relevant information. Most of the information I was aware of, but it was a great review. One of the best books I have read regarding finance and very simple to understand. It gives good examples for investments. I'm especially fond of the Appendix's in the back of the book.

[Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was definitely a helpful introduction to personal finance. It helps you see that taking charge of your finances early can help you in the long run. I will definitely revisit this book and other sources it recommends when I have questions or need help formulating a game plan dealing with personal finance.

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a really good reference book if you know nothing about money. They explained things in easy to understand terms and examples. It’s very high level so if you want to know more about saving, investing, insurance, and big purchase buying, then more research will need to be done on your own into specific topics.

[Mollie Ray Lavezzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good first step into financial literacy. It’s a quick easy read, the chapters are topical, with manageable amounts of basic information. While there are some “annoying” female stereotypes used for examples I felt these were not frequent enough to really take away from the overall effect of the book.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fair summarization of everything u need to know, I knew a lot of this from other finance books but happy to review it- wasn’t as corny as some other financial help books I read that are targeted toward men so despite the fact I don’t fw a gender binary, I liked this style better bc it go to the point without all the fluff

[Jenner · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a short and easy read. I think it would be good for someone who does not know much about personal finance because it covers fairly basic information. I did not agree with everything but finance is personalized for a reason.

[Brittany G. House · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Basic

Good basic book about finances. Geared towards women with title and examples only. Great way to get a handle on things that sound intimidating, but isn’t for those who are already somewhat financially savvy looking for more info.

[Kaelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book with easy to read, practical knowledge. Targeted for young women, but applicable for all walks of life!

[Lina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read!

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a good book to start with to learn to get your finances in order.

[Phenomenon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned the difference between mutual funds and index funds.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for newbies trying to get their finances in order.