The Infographic Guide to Personal Finance: A Visual Reference for Everything You Need to Know

by Michele Cagan, Elisabeth Lariviere

This illustrated beginner’s guide to personal finance distills essential information into small, easy-to-follow steps to help you get your finances in order.

Get your finances in shape! In The Infographic Guide to Personal Finance, you will learn all the skills you need to make good financial decisions and grow your personal wealth. Full of colorful descriptions organized in an easy-to-read format, this book contains infographics such as:

-Choosing your bank
-Building an emergency fund
-Choosing a financial planner
-Where your money is going
-What not to buy
-Health insurance
-Property insurance
-What federal taxes pay for

With the help of this guide, you’ll learn how to make good investments, save for big things like a house or college tuition, budget, and more!

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

128 pages, Paperback

Published December 5, 2017

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is chockfull of common practical tips which would be useful for someone starting out in life. The infographics are colorful and kept me turning the page in interest. It's a good primer.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick review for a quick read. This is a decent, very easily readable guide to multiple dimensions of personal finance. The primary sections this book is divided between are:

1. Budgeting and Saving
2. Spending
3. Debt and Credit
4. Investing
5. Housing

I wouldn't say that this is an in-depth guide to personal finance, but rather gives you a bullet point introduction/overview of important topics and tidbits/factoids to remember. The illustrations are top notch and the quality of the book alone - page quality and full color illustrations included - make this a book I'll hold onto in my personal library for a long time. However, it serves as a general guide that's better to supplement other personal finance guides rather than seek advice in one swoop. I liked how easy it was to pick up and turn to specific topics for reference (such as the credit overview used for FICO scores, things to keep in mind when protecting one's financial information, etc.)

Overall score: 3/5 stars.

[Matthew Monnin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some helpful graphics for sure, but do not expect enough detail for rookie budgeteers to mine the information they need for strong personal financial skills. This book has some nice reference material and more than a few helpful suggested websites, but it is not a good substitute for a legitimate book on personal finance.

[G · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts off with good promise, but is both too basic and not simple enough. It is very accessible, with text that is striking and easy to read and graphs and illustrations. However, none of the advice is groundbreaking, and the section on investing isn’t broken down enough for true beginners.

This guide is a good start for those starting on their financial journeys who feel intimidated by traditional tomes, but if you’re looking for in-depth information, look elsewhere.

[Sarah Amour · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this was a very quick read, especially given the fact that alot of what is written in it does not apply to my current situation being someone who lives outside of the USA. However, for a person who does live in the USA, this book does provide a ground for those interested on better managing their personal finances.It has introductory information and basic tips which you can further dig deeper into and expand your knowledge.It certainly is written in a fun way with catchy illustrations, but if you are someone who already knows a bit about personal finance, this book will offer little to no new information to you.

[Ramy · Rating 3 out of 5]

الكتاب يستحق 3.5 / 5
ولعدم وجود انصاف نجوم يبقى 3 / 5

مؤلف الكتاب حاصل على شهادة ال *CPA
*شهادة محاسبية مفيدة جدا فى مجال ال personal finance
..تعطي ل معلوماته دقة و مصداقية
الكتاب ممتع "بصريا" و مفيد و مبسط

الكتاب يقرؤ كل صفحتين متقابلتين هما شكل انفوجرافيك كبير و مفيد ....
هناك فصول هى الامتع و الاهم و فصول عادية و مملة "على الاقل من وجهة نظري انا "
كتبت في كل فصل ازواج الصفحات المفيدة "من وجهة نظري انا الشخصية القاصرة "

الفصل 1 budgeting and saving
15&16
17&18
19&20
23&24
27&28
33&34

الفصل 2 spending
39&40
41&42
43&44
47&48
53&54
57&58

ألفصل 3 debt and credit
67&68
75&76
77&78

الفصل 4 investing
84&85
97&98

الفصل 5 housing
105&106
107&108
111&112


الكتاب القادم : The Compound Effect

[Freddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guide was extremely helpful and straightforward. I was able to take notes on the book super easy and I was able to have a better understanding of personal finance. It was super to the point but also had explanation to make it easier to understand. I feel like I have a better grasp going forward. But it is definitely a beginner book with simple advice and explanations. So if you're looking for something a little bit deeper this might not be the book for you. But it was a really good start to my personal finance journey.

[Hafidh Fikri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buku yang membahas tentang basic keuangan pribadi dan dijelaskan dengan cara ringan menggunakan infografis dan gambar yang bagus hanya disayangkan saja beberapa topik dalam buku ini tidak relate dengan kondisi yang ada di tempat saya tinggal di Indonesia seperti US Government Bonds, cara menghandle pencurian data probadi yang dimana di US sudah cukup baik sedangkan disini tidak dan beberapa masalah asuransi yang berbeda dengan kodisi di Indonesia.

[Sean Tordecillas · Rating 4 out of 5]

thought this would be a fitting read for tax day lol
this is a helpful graphic reference book when revisiting personal finance topics. i wouldn’t recommend relying on just the contents of this book for any in-depth understanding of personal finance but it’s a good start/overview. would make a great bathroom read as well 😄

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to personal finances. It gives clear and concise overviews of varying subjects. It is not meant to be an in-depth description but a way to get a basic understanding of a topic that you could research for more information on later.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book to cover the breadth of the essential topics for personal finance in a way that is both informative yet not overwhelming. I think Lariviere and Cagan did a fantastic job covering the topics clearly and succinctly and this book is now on my top list for recommendations to those who are just starting on the journey understand and better manage their own finances.

[Shamekia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this was a good start for me. I'm not very financially savvy. some of this information I knew already, buy a lot of it was new to me; and I like having the visuals.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the infographic format of this book

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing wildly revolutionary here, but I liked the sections it was broken into and the infogaphics definitely made for a quick, eye-catching read.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Ikhwan Hafiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book for newbie. Have abundance of rule of thumb to follow with.

[Cassie 'The Thinker Go Go Go Go' Mis. Roben Goodfellow'\Isabelle Lightwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very information, I got this on Sunday and started reading it. Seeing as I need a little help in the area. It was actually by accident that I got it. Seeing as the shelf threw the book at me. Would highly recommend to anyone just getting started with there own finances or someone that has been at it for years.

[Andrea Itta · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a good beginner book, but the graphics and charts didn't enhance the learning or topics they covered, instead, they were simply placeholders. It's a good book to pick up if you need direction though!

[Noa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly solid advice -- some of it is weird, though... so I took it down to 3 stars. Here's the weird bits:
1 - starting the intro with victim Olympics that personal finance isn't taught in schools (what a WEIRD stretch of the concept of "oppression" -- can only be done by people so far removed from actual trials - made me look up the authors immediately) ...when Financial Literacy is literally a state requirement to graduate from high school in most states -- and was a required class in junior high too. Blaming teachers and schools is such a tired trope and these authors in well of their creativity dove right into that sad puddle. Obnoxious, but not worth taking a star.
2 - Not citing who came up with the 50-30-20 rule. The author's made it sound like some ubiquitous rule when really, it was created by a well-known senator: Warren.
3 - I'm reading it in 2025 -- it was written in 2017 -- and that 8 year gap MAKES A DIFFERENCE. We are upper-working class (not quite middle class) and yet according to this book, our net worth is better than the average of any country cited.
4 - It covered CDs but not HYSA...but the latter do better than CDs and aren't tied up like CDs.
5-It simultaneously encourages marriage (joining resources) but getting away from family (to "reduce your expenses")...so a hard lean to the nuclear family and ignoring that the extended family/village is a major way to pool resources. I mean, while we are floating in the best case scenario mode (because getting married is a "good" financial decision for everyone...)
6 - it switches tone from "best case scenario" to "worst case scenario"...it needs to pick a perspective, because otherwise it creates obvious bias towards certain strategies over others
7 - It suggests getting rid of cereal on one page but continuing cable TV on another. What the random. The only pattern I can see is some 1990s home where they have cable, but homemade meals (that was emphasized a lot), nuclear family, no extended family nearby, and 5 credit cards, with lots of debt. Also, use a broker (...but then admit on the next page that index funds do better than brokers -- so a lot of people like them). Also -- stock market is encouraged as an alternative way to gamble.
Ok - this review is too long. There were also some good points I want to look into (apparently, a lot of credit cards have lots of hidden rewards...I'll check --- and "check your credit" is different than "read your statements" -- which is a bit alarming and I'll look into it too).

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

How to manage your own money is not something that common to teach in formal edication. Yet it’s probably the most important thing to know for adults.

To be honest this book is not quite applicable for me, a young adult who live in Indonesia.
People are not familiar with terms like credit score, tax refund, and so on.

It suggests you to hire a financial adviser which is something i don’t think most of young adult can afford to do so. hack i don’t even know any person in my age who have financial adviser. hell even my parents, boss, colleagues dont have any financial adviser. well at least, it is not common in my country.

But there are few things tho that i learn from this book, such as make sure to have stabile income and emergency fund ready before invest.

My favorite point from this book is that how to make sure that to have more money in the future is not by having more income but by saving and go easy on expense.

It’s a good book for young adult to learn about personal income, but just not to applicable in some countries.

[Eric · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was fairly sad. If you want to learn about personal finance, this book will leave you with questions, odd holes in your knowledge, and in some cases inaccurate information.
Here's a few examples:
Page 15 shows how to break 50% of your budget into a series of categories. Each category is expressed as a range and you're to choose values in that range for each category, with the rule being your selection needs to add to 50 or less. But the addition of the minimum value for each of the stated ranges is 49.
There's no discussion of 403bs, or the different type of retirement vehicles. No discussion of roths, their benefits, and/or how to prioritize between these types of accounts and/or debt repayment.

[Eduardo Montiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the concept of the book and the visual representation of the infographics. However, I think the format and organization of the content could be much better.

The book is divided into 5 chapters:
1. Budgeting and Saving
2. Spending
3. Debt & Credit
4. Investing
5. Housing

I used some sections from this book to update a few of my financial planning worksheets / guides. The budgeting section was particularly helpful.

Overall, this is a good beginner guide but its still missing key information in certain sections. A better edited and organized version would definitely make for a more practical guide.

The infographics are easy to understand but its distracting that the color palettes and styles vary per page.

September 2021. 3/5

[sinag · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 stars!

This one contains topics such as budgeting, saving, investing, and many more, all of which are not taught to us in school but are highly needed as we become adults. I appreciate the knowledge that I've gained while reading this book despite having confusions on some areas still as someone who is financially illiterate at the moment. I would love to read more books regarding finance with a more easy to read writing since this one has finance jargon that really confused me. Aside from that, this book was centered towards the finance situation for US citizens which non-US citizens like I, can't relate with the numbers and other US-related things mentioned in this book.

[Dieu · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started off promising but then a chunk of the information turned out to be basic. I did get a few knowledge nuggets out of this and the infographics made things easy to understand. It may be helpful for an 18 year old who is adulting for the first time ever or a person who just really has no clue about finances at all. I would say maybe half of this short book consists of the more helpful infographics (like credit cards 101, investing 101 etc).

Basically, don’t go into this expecting extraordinary tips and in depth info. I think it serves better as a quick review or quick lesson in finances for the ignorant. This book is American-centric and the advice applies mostly to Americans.

[Sharlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really hoping to take a paper this year on personal finances but my aim should be to finish my degree. This guide made me feel a little more comfortable about the position I am in. Married, young bub, debt and want to buy my first home.

Excellent graphics. Makes all the technical terms seem so simple.

I can’t wait to discuss my finances with a mortgage broker. That wasn’t really discussed.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty basic intro to personal finance, might be an easy way for someone in late teens / early 20s without much exposure to get their feet wet. Some good principles, but very basic and simple. Nearly lost a star or two for recommending direct sales as a way to bolster income (aka MLM). Marked a couple pages about finding a good financial advisor and another that I'm blanking on right now.

Rating: G? Nothing objectionable I can recall.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great, quick reference guide to overall personal finance. I definitely got more out of the chapters on budgeting, spending, and debt/credit management.

The last 2 on investing and housing did not help me much, as it was clear I need more help with the first three based on the chart at the beginning of the investing chapter to even consider them.

I will consider looking into Michele Cagan’s more detailed guide on budgeting, though.

[Amy murray · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this- I love books on personal finance and picked this up because I thought it might be a good gift for a recent college grad. But the calculations on page 25-26 demonstrating compound interest are grossly inaccurate. They state by saving $2,000 per year in a 401k beginning at age 25, at a 6% interest rate, you’d have $3.9 million at age 65. It should be $2,000 a MONTH for the math to work- it’s a $10,000 per year difference!

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't learn anything new from this book (I'm already a personal finance junkie), but I do think it would be great required reading for a high school or college finance class. The information is presented in appealing, easy-to-digest infographics, which will hold the reader's attention. However, don't expect any advanced advice here; the topics are pretty basic (401ks, buying a house, credit/debt, etc.).

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book won't blow your mind, but it will get you thinking about a lot of really useful and important things surrounding getting your personal finances in order. Great visuals, really quick and easy to read and understand, a terrific entry-level personal finance book for anyone. It's definitely a 3.5 star item.