What do you think?
Rate this book
Young Money: A Powerful 5 Step Money Plan to Financial Success Now
Do you worry about money? Do you think you have to be super smart or to have come from a wealthy family to be financially successful?
Are you sick and tired of how you loosely save, manage and spend your money? Have you wanted to begin investing but have no idea how and where to start?
When it comes to being financially successful in life, like many young people you might be worried that you will struggle with money issues for years to come due to the economy, the cost of living, an ultra competitive workforce, etc. You may also struggle with the fear of failure or believe the lie that you are not capable, smart or good enough to be financially successful and reach your dreams. Well, we have good news. There is a solution! Over the last 15 years we have been helping thousands of young people like you learn how to think about and see money differently by leveraging the power of your youth with the power of money--even small amounts of money. Our mission at Young Money University through the Young Money book and The Money System is simple. We cut through the clutter and failure of traditional financial education and provide you with a step by step system for dreaming, saving, spending and investing money differently to reach your dreams, goals and a life of more meaning. Young Money is for anyone who wants to begin living a life that fits your dreams. A better life awaits you! Join us!
Are you sick and tired of how you loosely save, manage and spend your money? Have you wanted to begin investing but have no idea how and where to start?
When it comes to being financially successful in life, like many young people you might be worried that you will struggle with money issues for years to come due to the economy, the cost of living, an ultra competitive workforce, etc. You may also struggle with the fear of failure or believe the lie that you are not capable, smart or good enough to be financially successful and reach your dreams. Well, we have good news. There is a solution! Over the last 15 years we have been helping thousands of young people like you learn how to think about and see money differently by leveraging the power of your youth with the power of money--even small amounts of money. Our mission at Young Money University through the Young Money book and The Money System is simple. We cut through the clutter and failure of traditional financial education and provide you with a step by step system for dreaming, saving, spending and investing money differently to reach your dreams, goals and a life of more meaning. Young Money is for anyone who wants to begin living a life that fits your dreams. A better life awaits you! Join us!
- GenresNonfiction
182 pages, Paperback
First published April 3, 2015
20 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 5, 2017
This book was an assigned text for a college class on Family Finance I will be taking this Fall.
The target audience of the book are Millennial-age college student types who are financially illiterate and/or incompetent in the extreme. In some ways it was nice having the advice geared directly to young people, but in other ways it was irritating because the advice was extremely simplistic and incomplete in comparison to the other personal finance books I have been reading this summer (see my shelf for reviews of those books).
The so-called "Powerful" 5 Step Plan is to:
1. Make a Decision to Dream Big
2. Set Up an Automatic Savings Plan
3. Track your expenses and create a Budget or Personal Spending Plan (which is apparently just another way to say budget without scaring people away)
4. Start an automatic investment account
5. Pay yourself second by giving first
In addition to outlining the plan the book also has two brief chapters talking about debt, credit cards, taxes, insurance, car buying, home buying, and another chapter about entrepreneurship. In these areas as in all others he barely scrapes the surface and then is done.
For example, these sections can basically be summed up as follows:
"Insurance protects you and your assets. You are going to need some."
"Taxes. You will be paying them"
"Credit cards. Paying the minimum payment is bad."
"Credit score. Bad credit scores are bad."
"Debt. Too much is bad."
"Cars. Used are cheaper." etc.
The chapter on giving was also pretty basic, but it had some good information that was new to me on evaluating charities and such. I do charitable giving primarily through my church so I have never had reason to evaluate many other charities before, so that part at least had some new and helpful information.
The chapter on investing was also hugely oversimplified. He does mention about a paragraph on index funds and a couple paragraphs on ETFs, but doesn't really say much about the benefits of passive investing other than saying that Warren Buffet reccomends it. He recommends you open up a a brokerage account and set up automatic investments similar to his recommendation for savings. He recommends taking advantage of employer-matching 401ks.
If anyone actually wants to know anything about investing I recommend the Boglehead's Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore et all and The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle. There are other worthwhile investing books on my personal finance shelf you can look at too.
This book was decidedly underwhelming to me simply because I am not in its target audience. I have dedicated hundreds of hours over several months to self educate myself about personal finance, which makes me WAY better informed than the people this book is intended for, and that made reading this book a poor use of my time. This book may be useful to someone who truly knows nothing or almost-nothing about personal finance, but even then there are other resources I would recommend over this one. The personal finance articles on artofmanliness.com for example are a much better beginning resource to educate oneself about personal finance than this book is.
The target audience of the book are Millennial-age college student types who are financially illiterate and/or incompetent in the extreme. In some ways it was nice having the advice geared directly to young people, but in other ways it was irritating because the advice was extremely simplistic and incomplete in comparison to the other personal finance books I have been reading this summer (see my shelf for reviews of those books).
The so-called "Powerful" 5 Step Plan is to:
1. Make a Decision to Dream Big
2. Set Up an Automatic Savings Plan
3. Track your expenses and create a Budget or Personal Spending Plan (which is apparently just another way to say budget without scaring people away)
4. Start an automatic investment account
5. Pay yourself second by giving first
In addition to outlining the plan the book also has two brief chapters talking about debt, credit cards, taxes, insurance, car buying, home buying, and another chapter about entrepreneurship. In these areas as in all others he barely scrapes the surface and then is done.
For example, these sections can basically be summed up as follows:
"Insurance protects you and your assets. You are going to need some."
"Taxes. You will be paying them"
"Credit cards. Paying the minimum payment is bad."
"Credit score. Bad credit scores are bad."
"Debt. Too much is bad."
"Cars. Used are cheaper." etc.
The chapter on giving was also pretty basic, but it had some good information that was new to me on evaluating charities and such. I do charitable giving primarily through my church so I have never had reason to evaluate many other charities before, so that part at least had some new and helpful information.
The chapter on investing was also hugely oversimplified. He does mention about a paragraph on index funds and a couple paragraphs on ETFs, but doesn't really say much about the benefits of passive investing other than saying that Warren Buffet reccomends it. He recommends you open up a a brokerage account and set up automatic investments similar to his recommendation for savings. He recommends taking advantage of employer-matching 401ks.
If anyone actually wants to know anything about investing I recommend the Boglehead's Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore et all and The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle. There are other worthwhile investing books on my personal finance shelf you can look at too.
This book was decidedly underwhelming to me simply because I am not in its target audience. I have dedicated hundreds of hours over several months to self educate myself about personal finance, which makes me WAY better informed than the people this book is intended for, and that made reading this book a poor use of my time. This book may be useful to someone who truly knows nothing or almost-nothing about personal finance, but even then there are other resources I would recommend over this one. The personal finance articles on artofmanliness.com for example are a much better beginning resource to educate oneself about personal finance than this book is.
February 3, 2018
The frequent grammatical errors distracted from the message and purpose.
February 26, 2022
Pretty bland, mostly obvious information presented in a boring way.
June 16, 2023
On one hand, it did get me to start planning and that sort of thing; but that's more just me than the book. The assignments during this class were *sometimes* helpful (when they had coherent instructions, that is), in helping me plan things out. But holy moly this book in all essentiality basically goes "don't eat out too much. YOU CAN DO IT." More motivational than helpful. Unless you're completely stupid in the ways of money, it's basically worthless. I get that some people are like that, I totally do. Some people buy designer clothing and some people eat out a lot. But they're completely aware of the fact that it costs money and that is where their money goes, so....just a waste of time to be honest.
February 4, 2020
I read this for a family finance class and it was very basic and unhelpful, especially for a person over 30 (like me). If you are in your early 20's, maybe it could be motivating and helpful, but if you already have a checking and savings account and have started investing, don't waste your time on this one.
May 14, 2024
I've never read this book, but found a flattering review posted without my consent under my account.
September 20, 2020
So helpful!! I’m excited to start thinking more about money!
September 24, 2021
Straightforward and solid
This book provides great advice to create a solid financial future. It was a quick read and was full of inspiring anecdotes as well.
This book provides great advice to create a solid financial future. It was a quick read and was full of inspiring anecdotes as well.
March 28, 2021
This book is helpful for young adults just getting out on their own (not so much for older adults).
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews