The Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money: Thirteen Ways to Right Your Financial Wrongs

by Jill Schlesinger

You're smart. So don't be dumb about money. Pinpoint your biggest money blind spots and take control of your finances with these tools from CBS News Business Analyst and host of the nationally syndicated radio show Jill on Money, Jill Schlesinger.

"A must-read . . . This straightforward and pleasingly opinionated book may persuade more of us to think about financial planning."--Financial Times

Hey you . . . you saw the title. You get the deal. You're smart. You've made a few dollars. You've done what the financial books and websites tell you to do. So why isn't it working? Maybe emotions and expectations are getting in the way of good sense--or you're paying attention to the wrong people. If you've started counting your lattes, for god's sake, just stop. Read this book instead.

After decades of working as a Wall Street trader, investment adviser, and money expert for CBS News, Jill Schlesinger reveals thirteen costly mistakes you may be making right now with your money. Drawing on personal stories and a hefty dose of humor, Schlesinger argues that even the brightest people can behave like financial dumb-asses because of emotional blind spots.

So if you've saved for college for your kids before saving for retirement, or you've avoided drafting a will, this is the book for you. By following Schlesinger's rules about retirement, college financing, insurance, real estate, and more, you can save money and avoid countless sleepless nights. It could be the smartest investment you make all year.

Praise for The Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money

"Common sense is not always common, especially when it comes to managing your money. Consider Jill Schlesinger's book your guide to all the things you should know about money but were never taught. After reading it, you'll be smarter, wiser, and maybe even wealthier."--Chris Guillebeau, author of Side Hustle and The $100 Startup

"A must-read, whether you're digging yourself out of a financial hole or stacking up savings for the future, The Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money is a personal finance gold mine loaded with smart financial nuggets delivered in Schlesinger's straight-talking, judgment-free style."--Beth Kobliner, author of Make Your Kid a Money Genius (Even If You're Not) and Get a Financial Life

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

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 2019

Reviews

[Amy L. Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This seems to be primarily for people who make twice as much as I do annually (I make 36k). There are some good general rules, but there _has_ to be another book for those of us struggling on a different level...or maybe there's no money in publishing books for people who can't really afford to buy any book they want.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be clear, when Schlesinger says "smart people" she actually means "rich people." The lowest income clients Schlesinger discussed included a single mother of three making 150k a year selling Jaguars and a teacher making 100k with a husband bringing home a salary twice that.

That said, this book is super readable and does a good job of covering a bunch of different concerns. I found this book valuable in identifying lists things I should probably be thinking about (types of insurance and the different documents you need when creating a will for example). For the most part, it made me feel more comfortable in the financial decisions I'm already making. If your financial life includes a sneaking suspicion that you're doing something profoundly wrong, this book is probably worth a read. I certainly found it helpful and reassuring. If you're new to the personal finance space, I would recommend starting with something like Worry Free Money instead. And definitely go in knowing that at one point Schlesinger will assume you are making too much money to be eligible for an IRA.

[kartik narayanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can listen to the review on my podcasts available on Apple Spotify Stitcher
You can also watch it on Youtube

Read the full synopsis & review at the Digital Amrit


Overview
As the title suggests, this book explains 13 wrong decisions which otherwise-smart people make in financial matters. The kinds of mistakes and how to avoid them are explained using real-life examples along with a set of questions for each of these situations to help you. So, what are these pitfalls?

1. Complicated financial products
2. Financial advice from wrong people
3. Stressing too much on the importance of money
4. Too much college debt
5. Buying a house
6. Taking too much risk
7. Identity theft
8. Overindulgence in early retirement
9. Financial issues vis a vis bringing up kids
10. Plan for the care of ageing parents
11. Wrong insurance or no insurance
12. No will
13. “timing” the market

Complicated Financial Products
Let’s go through each of these, starting with complicated financial products. Almost all of us invest in some kind of financial product or the other. These can be simple stocks or (Read the full review at my blog)

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[Sunflowergurl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been a fan of Jill Schlesinger due to her podcast. I'm a personal finance geek and I like listening to her advice in the podcast. This book further explains financial moves one needs to make in order to have a less worrisome life. What really resonated with me is the chapter about discussing your older parents' financial situation and how they'd like to proceed with them. There are some things there that the average person doesn't usually think about and it's advantageous that they do. Some things might take some time and money to do but they are worth looking over. I highly recommend this if you're starting a career, a family, buying a house, or taking care of elderly parents.

[Aiza Idris (biblio_mom) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The smart things I've done so far is having an investment since 20 years old, saving for Hajj and having a health care insurance. I need to revisit this book in probably 10 more years to avoid myself from doing the "dumb things".

Some of the points that really made me stopped reading for a while just to think is about retirement plan, our kid's college fund and you don't need more money when you already have enough because a lot of people according to researchers, are not happy "hoarding money".

So here is 13 ways according to Jill, to right your financial wrongs :
1. Review your bank account and credit card statements
2. Think about how you feel about your financial life
3. Think about pending purchases of financial products
4. Reflect on your behaviours around investments
5. Review your ageing parents financial situation
6. Review your investment and retirement accounts
7. Change all passwords on your financial accounts
8. review your investments
9. Perform a Tax audit
10. Secure your Identity
11. Check in on college planning for your kids
12. review your home owner and life insurance policies
13. Review your estate plan

If you are rich, this is definitely for you.
If you are just living comfortably, there is a few things could be learnt.

[steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been listening to Jill's daily podcast Jill on Money for the last eight months or so, ever since it was recommended on a financial group on a list of money podcasts. I enjoy her podcast overall, even though there are times that I don't agree with Jill's answer to callers and sometimes her bluntness/candor can be a little off putting. However it is obvious that Jill has been in the financial world for over thirty years and thus she is knowledgeable about many topics which is why when I realized she had written a finance book, I knew I had to check it out from the library and read.

This is not your typical finance book. It does not tell you how to build your credit or pay down debt or invest or how to make more money or buy a house etc. It is not a comprehensive guide to personal money management. What this book is in a nutshell is exploring the most common (and costly) mistakes that people make with their money whether they have $500 dollars in the bank or $2 million.

The Thirteen Mistakes are:
1. You Buy Financial Products That You Don't Understand
2. You Take Financial Advice from the Wrong People
3. You Make Money More Important Than It Is
4. You Take on Too Much College Debt
5. You Buy a House when You Should Stay Renting
6. You Take on Too Much Risk
7. You Fail to Protect your Identity from Online Theft
8. You Overindulgence in Early Retirement Leaving No Money for Your Later Years
9. You Give Your Kids Your Own Financial Issues and Worries
10. You Don't Plan to Care for your Ageing Parents
11. You either have the Wrong Type of Insurance or No Insurance at All
12. You Don't Have a Will (**** probably her #1 pet peeve. Everyone dies so everyone needs a will!)
13. You Try to “Time” The Market Instead of Just Riding it Out

I see from the reviews on here that some people say this book is not applicable to people who don't have millions of dollars in the bank or are not upper middle class and above. And while I get where they are coming from, I do not necessarily agree. Yes, if you are living paycheck to paycheck and trying to decide between putting groceries or the car repair bill on your credit card then this book is probably not for you. You have other worries than these. But if you are not treading water, even if you are not making a bunch of money (believe me, I am not), this book can still be relevant and helpful. Don't take money advice from people who do not have your best interests at heart or are trying to sell you something only so they can get the commission (Find a fiduciary advisor if you need a financial advisor. Find a fiduciary advisory). Don't give out your personal information online, change your passwords often, check your credit report annually to make sure nothing weird has been added. I would even go one step further and recommend signing up for a credit monitoring company. I get one for free through my car insurance company and every month it sends me an email letting me know that no one has opened a new credit line in my name which is very reassuring.

Have disability insurance because people get injured. Have life insurance, especially if you have dependents, because people die. Have a will because again, people die. These are not your regular things that people thing about when they think of finances but they are important and I think the author does a good job of explaining why they are so important. Protecting yourself and your loved ones is the hallmark of good financial decision making. She definitely inspired me to do some thinking.

I also liked the appendix in the back where she lists what you should be doing every month, quarter, year and three years with your finances. It's a short bullet point list that is very helpful to refer back to. All in all, I would recommend this book especially if you have some financial knowledge under your belt. It helps to understand things just a little more easier.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be the most well-written, well-rounded financial book I've ever read.

Written by a former Wall Street trader and investment banker, Jill Schlesinger gives insights and advice on a range of topics from why trying to time the market is a bad idea, how best to save for your retirement given your means, when you should start using your retirement funds, how to protect against identity theft, and the importance of setting up a will now, whoever you are, at any (adult) age, to name a few. Not only does she address these financial nut-and-bolts and to-dos, she also goes into the emotional side of money and how it affects our actions and how we model money-habits and beliefs to children. She weaves in a ton of personal stories of her own and of clients she's had over the years (from low-income families to the uber wealthy), which are all fascinating and keep the book running along at a super fast clip.

All in all, I learned a TON from this book and have already taken some action steps as a result of it, and am excited to do even more. Her tone is, most of the time, like a loving aunt or older sister giving you tough love. At times the use of phrases like "don't be an idiot" and various "ass-" phrases I hadn't even heard before (! Impressive!) were a bit distracting, which is my only small criticism, but you certainly got the message loud and clear on those topics!

[Dutch · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I Loved: I enjoyed Schlesinger's candid writing style, the stories she weaved in throughout the text, and her direct approach to explaining somewhat complex finance topics.

What I Didn't Love: If you know a decent amount in terms of personal finance (e.g. have read any personal finance book or keep up with personal finance blogs) then the information in this book will not be new. Most of the information is anecdotal and so it feels like reading one long narrative - I wish she had concluded each chapter with a bulleted list or with text boxes throughout the chapters that provided more technical knowledge.

Who's It For: If you are someone who enjoys reading about personal finance, have a base knowledge when it comes to the topic, and are looking for a light read which provides some great reminders and good insight into making some of the bigger financial decisions - it's a solid choice.

[Vasco · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bad: although it's an interesting book, much of it is actually simple and obvious. If you've read other financial management books, you'll most likely have heard of everything here, and to a much higher degree. Fiduciaries, index funds beating most hedge funds, prioritizing the 401(K)/Roth IRA and the 529 for education, etc.

The good: it's an interesting book. I like Schlesinger's candid style with all the cursing and talking from the heart. It's refreshing.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but I’m a business graduate with a thing for personal finance. This book contains a plethora of information for your “middle of the road” reader, but there’s little new in it for the avid financial literature geek.

Another caveat is that it’s written for people who already have enough disposable income to have no credit card debt, have a safety fund, and then some money left for investment... so not your average reader? I thought the title could’ve reflected this somehow. Overall, the book isn’t bad, but it’s addressed to a narrower segment of readers than just “smart people”, and the general financial literacy that it offers for the rest of the readers can be found elsewhere.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed review on this book. I agree with some of the suggestions that Schlesinger gives, not all. I'm amazed that she used so many examples that maybe the top richest (1%) can relate to, not my income level. She gives these examples of dumb things these friends and/or clients of hers have done or wished to do; however, they have all saved millions of dollars! It sounds like they don't do too many dumb things!

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah, pretty good! I heard Jill on a couple personal finance podcasts I listened to and liked what I heard, which is what spurred me to pick up the book. For me her personal voice works better in audio than in text, as I think the tone of this book read a little cheesy, or like a parent trying a little too hard to be cool. But we don't come to personal finance books for the narrative style, do we?

The overall content of the book I think is solid. It's essentially a Personal Finance 201, after you've gotten the Personal Finance 101 course under your belt. (The PF 101 course is basically the reddit wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfina... , or else Dave Ramsay's Baby Steps, or else Broke Millennial by Erin Lowry, or else the basic steps that every personal finance blogger, writer, and podcaster spouts because it's really not controversial and it's all the same.) So even this 201 level stuff is not especially groundbreaking or surprising for anyone who's clued into their financial situation, maybe more so for those who haven't personally gone much deeper than the 101 stuff. For me personally, I was already aware of and following her advice on most topics, but a couple chapters were a good reminder to pay attention to a thing that wasn't really at my top of list to pay attention to.


Now, I do think there are a couple glaring flaws that detract from the message a bit. So understand that I did reasonably enjoy this book, and I do reasonably well recommend it. And with that being said, if you were going to read it on my recommendation, here's what I'd want you to watch out for:

PROBLEM #1: this book is written for rich people.
This is really too bad, because the advice does not only apply to rich people. Because of her career I think Jill has probably mostly only worked and socialized with rich people, so it's an understandable oversight I guess? But most people in the country are not rich, and a lot of the advice here is plenty applicable to most people who are going to miss the message because she's ignoring them. For example, she starts off the book -- in the introduction, literally the very first anecdote -- with a hair-raising, horrifying story about how one primary breadwinner had his life collapse around him: "Instead of earning $300,000 each year, he would eke out only $75,000." This is said with a straight face. Also, his wife is working part-time too, so it's $75k plus her income. In 2019 (when the book was published), median US household income was $68,703. So her "scare them straight" worst case rock bottom scenario is a family making more than half of America. This is extremely typical of the examples used throughout the book. Sometimes she seems to wake up and notice this, and throw in quips about how we probably don't feel bad for the person who got a $1M (yes; $1,000,000; one million united states dollars) annual bonus (yes, in one year; yes, on top of a base salary) instead of the multi-million bonuses their peers got. You're abso-fucking-lutely right I don't feel bad for that person, Jill.

But aside from the anecdotes just not landing, this means that the advice really isn't calibrated for non-richies. She often mentions that $500 a year or $1000 a year is cheap or obviously worth it to buy something. When $75k for your family is an aspiration instead of a nightmare, $500 a year is Really Not Nothing! And that means that whole chapters where she's telling you to buy some insurance product or pay for such-and-such service with no nuance, actually doesn't apply to people who aren't rich, where there needs to be more nuance about what genuinely *is* important for that scenario. Which may be that product, or may be a cheaper alternative to that product, or may be achieving a similar goal with a different sort of product, or may be forgoing that product altogether, but there's no guidance for making that judgment call here. I fear it leaves us with the only option of throwing the baby (the underlying advice, which may apply) out with the bathwater (a chapter full of scenarios that definitely don't apply).


PROBLEM #2: Jill spends a little time in a later chapter explaining the "resulting fallacy" (where you tie the actual result to the quality of the earlier decision -- that is, if things turned out well you think you made the right decision, and if things turned out poorly you think you made the wrong decision). Ironically, she really doesn't apply it to the rest of the book. For example, she talks at length about how dumb one of her young, healthy clients is for not purchasing expensive disability insurance, and how smart she was for repeatedly exhorting him to buy disability insurance. (In his case, he later became disabled. This is the guy who, the horror, now has to survive on $75k+ / year.) However, it's not at all obvious to me that he didn't make the right decision. If something costs a ton of money, and will only be worth it in, say, 1% of possible outcomes, and in those 1% of outcomes the worst case scenario isn't actually unlivably bad... well, it's very possibly the Right Decision to not buy that thing. If, in our lived world, we end up hitting that bad outcome, that doesn't mean we made the Wrong Decision, it could just mean that we made the Right Decision but also got unlucky. For more on this concept, I've enjoyed learning about Annie Duke's research on poker bets, and reading Nate Silver talk about how to understand 538's projections, especially after the 2016 election (when he seemed, on the surface, to have gotten things wrong).

This ties into Problem #1, because I think if you're fantastically wealthy, then you can hedge against all bad outcomes no matter how pricey it is to do so and no matter how unlikely the bad outcome is. But when the marginal value of your dollar is really high, then no, hedging for every potential concern is neither feasible nor the correct use of your money. Jill mentions throughout the book that she's really conservative when it comes to personal finance, and I think it shows, and I think when you're rich you get the luxury of being conservative about everything. Unfortunately when she's speaking as the authority and giving blanket directives, in my opinion she has a responsibility to be more clear-sighted and nuanced in her advice than she's being.

[Karen Kayfetz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some great nuggets of advice in this book. Goes well beyond the basics of, "save X% of your salary for retirement," and "stop buying coffees out and you'll be rich," while also avoiding the poison trap of a "get-rich-with-my-investing-tips" book. In my opinion, it truly delivers on the promise of the title. Smart tips for smart people.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is definitely best for people that are established, have some money and are looking to plan for retirement in the coming years. Very frank advice and easy to read.

[Thaqib Moosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book really interesting. The title is a little bit click-baity and annoyed me but the book is actually really nuanced and detailed.

Many of the points came with very good caveats and why this may not apply to you etc. The book talked about financial health and left me with several very key action points to take away from it, even though I am just an average joe and not really a big-time investor etc.

I also found the points about how important it is to have a will, to have your affairs in order, and how buying a house is sometimes not the most straightforward and logical option, sometimes you are tying yourself down to a liability and unnecessary risk that will impact you later.

I found the chapter on student loans also quite interesting. While it is a US-centric issue primarily, the discussion on thinking of the value of a degree clearly and also not blindly choosing a prestigious university just because of the brand name as often it does not make financial sense was a really good one.

I highly recommend everyone read this book as it really makes you think about whole life (until you're 90+) financially.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should be renamed "The Dumb Things Rich People Do With Their Money"
I felt that the target audience of this book was rich middle aged people, and I am sadly not rich. I liked Jill's writing, she's very conversational and funny. However I don't think any of the advice here is ground breaking, and I truly disagree with the notion that all rich people are smart. This book plays into the idea of "these people are smart, like you, and you too can do dumb things!!" Which I think is a politically correct way of saying that rich people can also be idiots. I get that this will be helpful to some people (and hopefully me one day once I, too, am a middle aged rich person muahaha) but I am currently clearly bitter about how elistest this book felt.

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone has done dumb things with their money, some dumber than others. Here, the author addresses her list of common mistakes and included stories with the financial impact of those mistakes, making what could be a very dry book more interesting. A lot of this is common sense, but as we all know, common sense isn't always so common. This was a fairly quick read with some good reminders.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a captive audience because I really enjoy and admire the author's radio/podcast work. Very enjoyable tone, and I think I will benefit from a lot of the takeaways. The advice here is definitely most useful if you're in a very solid financial position, like the people who call in to Jill's show to fret about whether their millions of dollars are enough.

[Varsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give the book 2 stars and I give myself one :) I steer clear of such books and also of such topics. I understand money, savings etc and am also "involved" in doing my bit for the financial health of the family but I do so grudgingly. Hence, completing this book was an achievement of sorts for me. And I would only do it because of the motivation a very special book club gives me! So first impressions- easy read, well laid out, presents the money issue in a holistic manner- eg. linking it with care-giving issues. However, it is primarily for an American audience (and may I add, the upper middle class, well-to-do American audience). There are many anecdotes and examples of people who have made right and wrong decisions but most seem have millions in their retirement accounts or a holiday home or two to spare!

The 13 things she said we do wrong are:
1) Buy financial products we don't understand - liked the Big five questions she says we should ask anyone selling us a financial product. Wish there had been more such practical tips.
2) Take financial advice from the wrong people - really appreciated how she explained about 'fiduciary"
3) Make money more important than it is - very interesting research study about how the uncertainty of suffering pain made for a more stressful experience than the certainty that they would suffer pain. Financial life is fraught with uncertainty so that adds to the anxieties we have regarding money. Stressed the importance of money related attitudes and behaviors.
4) take on too much college debt - She says fund your retirement fully first before saving for kids college! Quite unthinkable from the culture I come from but I see her point. It is like saying on an airplane first put on your mask and then help others. It feels selfish but it is it is practical (if you can afford to put those savings away!)
5) buy a house when you should rent - this chapter made me feel good about myself! as we rented for ages before finally buying a house and I kept wondering if we had missed an important opportunity!
6) Take on too much risk
7) Fail to protect your identity
8) Indulge yourself too much during your early retirement years - the emphasis on "dream about retirement more" was refreshing. To think about retirement as the start of a new phase and not the end of the 'productive' phase felt very empowering. We plan careers but somehow never plan retirement.
9) Saddle your kids with your own money issues- this was by far my favorite chapter. We all come with our own money-related baggage and how we can transfer that to our kids and perpetuate the cycle was interesting to read. Communicate transparently with kids but also keep your emotions about money problems to yourself. FINANCIAL LITERACY - for all is important.
10) Don't plan for the care of aging parents - the second best chapter and a much needed one.
11) Buy the wrong kinds of insurance or none at all
12) Don't have a will
13) Try to "Time" the Market

These are some of my fav quotes (especially since some pertain to me directly!)
"...fear lurks under the surface when people purport to be "bored" by their finances."

"sometimes you succeed with money, sometimes you don't. when you don't succeed sometimes you might have to work hard to deal with the consequences, but you can do it. My dad didn't get everything right- not as a parent and not as a manager of his own money. but he did model calmness and balance around financial affairs that positioned my sister and me to deal with money more rationally as adults."

[Lisa Bircham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe a 2.5. Definitley American focus but I expected that. Didn’t learn anything new but it may be helpful to people who have no idea about finances.
What annoyed me was the examples and the way she gave herself compliments yet tried to make it look like that wasn’t the case. I don’t recall the examples exactly but saying things like ‘due to my being overly conservative, I only made 18% when I could have made 22%’ doesn’t exactly categorize itself as an example of ‘here’s places where I too really screwed up’. It’s like a 20 year old promoting a wrinkle cream and how it’s worked so well for her 🙄
She also talked about her father and how he made mistakes but then clawed his way back due to better decisions. Maybe it’s just me but I think it’s so much easier to share your mistakes when you follow that with ‘but here’s how I recovered.’ It’s like giving yourself a back handed compliment as opposed to just admitting the mistake.
I was also put off by examples that were so obvious after the fact. For example the dumb things people do example of a couple that built their dream home prior to selling their current home in retirement and then the housing crisis hit. Or the man that worked for Lehman brothers and decided to sell some the the stock he had in the company when he retired but he waited to long. He believed in the company but when they filed for bankruptcy in 2008, he lost everything. How was he to know that? But as with life in general, hindsight is 20/20. If the stock would have gone through the roof or if the couple would have got a great price for their house, these examples wouldn’t be in the book.
I get that lots of people liked this book, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. More of a ‘look what I told people to do and look what happened to them when they didn’t do it’ kind of a self promotion. How about sharing some real stories about when your personal advice was really wrong and there was no recovery. I’d respect true humility vs self promotion.

[Shubhra · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I would typically steer clear of these sorts of books, this wasn’t as bad as I feared. There isn’t much substance, but it’s an easy read. I do have a bone to pick with the anecdotal style though, it's all "hey I know this one person and guess what happened to him…". It’s easy in retrospect to know where one went wrong and what one should have done differently, so that adds limited value. There are tips that you will flag as things to work out / fix for your financial health while you read – which given that it’s almost entirely written for an American audience and suitable simplistic, aren’t as useful as they could be. It isn’t what I would pick up a book for but maybe that’s your thing.

[Thomas Edmund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Similar to my last review - this book mostly just made me wish I had something to actually invest so I could even have a chance to do dumb things with money - nonethless Schlesinger presents a pretty sensible and straightforward guide to some of the money traps that people fall into.

Contains within isn't rocket science, but it is sound and useful advice, for those more looking for investment advice the section on trying to time the market is probably the most down to earth accessible caution I've read so far.

[Greg Kopstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was probably the best personal finance book I've read in a while and certainly one of the most helpful. It clarifies a lot about some things to consider and mistakes that a lot of people typically make. I'd recommend this to anyone in their 30's or older who may be making some of the very same mistakes Schlesinger warns about.

Other Books in Personal Finance:
Why the Rich are Getting Richer, Kiyosaki
Psychology of Money, Housel
Meet the Frugalwoods, Thames
Broke Millenial, Lowry
Mad Money, Cramer
Confessions of a Street Addict, Cramer
Rise and Grind, John
Automatic Millionaire, Bach
Smart Couples Finish Rich, Bach
The Latte Factor, Bach
Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Kiyosaki
Getting Back to Even, Cramer
Side Hustle, Guillebeau
Real Money, Cramer
$100 Startup, Guillebeau

[Aja Marsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this different approach to a personal finance-- instead of going topic by topic, through a string of 13 cautionary tales, you learn many of the ins and outs of personal finance--and in this book that primarily covers investments, insurance, financial planning, and real estate. This is a great and funny book for those who have their basics covered-- emergency fund, retirement contributions, and no debt-- and are ready to learn more about the dos and do nots of the next steps.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars plus. An entertaining and informative primer on the best general principles of money management. I enjoy reading personal finance and investment books, so I enjoyed this overview, which felt a bit like a refresher course to me. If you don't enjoy such books, this might not be for you. However, if you seriously don't like to think about such things, this might well be a book you really ought to read!

[Sriram Jaju · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books on Personal Finance. This is must read for everyone. Jill had done great job of summarizing 13 dumb mistakes we do with money and how we can correct overself be better managers of money. She shares various anecdotes from her career as well as personal life on various mistakes smart people make when it comes to money. Read it, now.

[Katie Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of these things I already knew but I really loved the detailed explanation on why each thing is a mistake and how to avoid or correct it. Jillian is so funny and it was great to listen to this as an audio book because a lot of her sass and sarcasm came out and it was really funny. But fair warning - there’s a decent amount of swearing which I wasn’t prepared for! Haha

[Tracy S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good general advice/reminders, but not a lot surprises here if you have even a very basic understanding of personal finance. I liked her conversational writing style and I appreciated her advice about talking to your parents about their financial future (long term care, etc). I also think it was good for me to hear that I’m probably underinsured—I think I already knew this, but now I will take steps to get adequate insurance.

[anklecemetery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now I’m even more worried about retirement! Also, I make much less than most of her advice assumes, though the chapters on life insurance and planning for parental care were illuminating.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical and necessary.