Rich Girl, Broke Girl: Save Better, Invest Smarter, and Earn Financial Freedom

by Kelley Keehn

The bestselling author of Talk Money to Me teaches women how to feel confident about their money, save and spend wisely, and advocate for themselves.

Do you want to know how to pay off that debt and start saving?
Ready to negotiate a salary raise or better benefits?
Do financial terms and options make your head spin?

Here’s the good we as women have more financial freedom and money now than ever before. Here’s the bad when it comes to money, many women become paralyzed by financial management and sometimes even defer big decisions to other people, much to their detriment.

What’s the solution? Financial empowerment.

In this handy guide, you will learn how
-Discuss money with your partner
-Determine realistic and attainable goals
-Negotiate for the salaries and benefits you deserve
-Splurge occasionally while still saving money
-Understand financial risks and make good investments
-Gain control of your financial destiny

With years of experience as a personal finance educator, bestselling author Kelley Keehn will give you the tools you need to keep and grow your wealth, even if you don’t have much to start from—yet. This unique book brings to life the most common financial conundrums women face, teaching you how to save, spend, invest, and plan for a strong financial future.

Genres: Nonfiction, Finance, Self Help, Canada

240 pages, Paperback

Published December 14, 2021

Reviews

[Lyenne Dunlop · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick, but excellent financial read for Canadian Women. It's like sitting down to have a coffee with one of your girlfriends, to get their perspective on your financial well-being, and also getting a kick in the ass, to get out of your own way. Very "get your shit together", with every single step, on how to do so.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone should read this book! Financial literacy is so important. Too many people blindly walk into debilitating debt and then struggle. I enjoy watching Kelley Keehn when she appears on the Marilyn Dennis Show. She has written a straight forward, no nonsense book that reads easily. Rich Girl, Broke Girl should be on a required reading list for students and a book club selection so that people get the conversation going.
…..a great Christmas/holiday gift!
Thank You to Simon & Schuster Canada,, Kelley Keehn and NetGalley for the opportunity to peruse this ARC.

[Zoe Bellini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t wait 2 b rich 🤑


Okay but this provided good insight and easy explanations into finances. I think I have pretty good financial literacy but some things like mutual funds and stocks and bonds make no sense to me so this provided a simpler explanation. Defs something I should’ve read when I was younger

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

good intro book into financial planning and management. If you already have this, this book may not be for you.
I liked how this was focused on Canadian options and context as so many of these are USA based!

[Galina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. The book has useful information and decent financial strategy, but it suffers from weak presentation. Still a worthy read for folks who’d like to gain some grasp on financial services in Canada.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for Canadian women! This goes beyond the bare-bones basics of financial literacy; introducing some more intricate concepts in a digestible way.

[Micah Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Not to exaggerate but I had close to zero financial knowledge before starting this book and it really helped me gain some financial confidence. She’s in her financial literacy journey era y’all lmao 😋

[Rowan Galbraith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always good to start the year off with a personal finance read. This book was a bit of a mixed bag and was overall good, but had some pretty glaring drawbacks for me.

Pros:
- Canadian author and uses terms that Canadians should be familiar with (TFSA, RRSP, RESP, etc.) as most personal finance books are often geared towards Americans.
- Portrayed how complicated tax planning is and how beneficial hiring a fee-based financial planner can be depending on your situation
- Took a deep dive into investment vehicles and tax shelters in Canada
- Explained clearly different aspects of the stock market

Cons:
- Scenarios were a little baffling and many of the women portrayed dug themselves out of a financial hole because they had generational wealth to fall back on (ie. parents gifted them a condo, able to move back in with parents)
- Doesn't acknowledge how increasing cost of living and wage-stagnation makes it harder to pay off debt in a reasonable time frame. Most of the scenarios had the women paying off their debt faster than expected.

It was overall a good read and its given me lots to ponder in regards to my own finances. I would also say that this book may not be the best introductory personal finance novel but is a good one to read once you have a basic understanding down.

[Vinci · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was gifted this book about a year ago. It’s always nice to have a personal finance book in an approachable and Canadian context. Thankfully, many of the principles already seem familiar to me. This book serves as a useful reminder to be more on top of my own finances and to optimize growth.

Between this book and “The Wealthy Barber”, I would definitely recommend the latter. Perhaps I would feel differently if I had read this book first, but I felt David Chilton’s book was more in depth and relatable—even though this book is specifically written for a female audience. This is why I only gave it two stars…

I did find some stats in Keehn’s book really interesting—especially with respect to how women understand and handle financial matters! Keehn tells us that “more than 50% of millennial women let their spouse handle long-term financial decisions, compared to 39 percent of boomers.”

[Rachelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rich Girl, Broke Girl... a very simplistic approach to types of debt, lessons learned when dealing with relationships and money, and finding differences between stock market terms and accounts. Too basic for my needs, but is a useful guide for young men and women. These concepts should be shared with students in high school so they are financially literate before they are out in the real world. Based in Canada, the concepts are relevant for American and global investors and people with a checking account.

[Hilary Pittman · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first every book on financial topics and I throughly enjoyed it! I am just starting to learn how to be better with the money I have and how to move forward. A few things I loved about this book was it was written by a Canadian and it was recently published so the information was up to date. The reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was because they wasn’t enough talk about people who don’t start off terribly bad, or without families to help, or without an amazing career. I did want to read more about people who started worse off. Other then that, loved it!!

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to basic finance principles, but not super useful to me. I was hoping for more detailed strategies on saving and investing, but the chapters had very broad advice. Look at your credit card statements and highlight what you an cut, make sure you know your interest rates, don't use one credit card to pay off another credit card, and so on.

I'm not a big spender and it seemed to be geared towards people like that! Still an informative book for people looking to gain a bit more control over their credit cards.

[Christy Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated Keehn's writing style. She uses a lot of examples for clarity to help introduce complex concepts of investing but she doesn't "talk down" to her audience.
I also appreciated her book's insistence that that women should be fully aware of how to manage their money instead of deferring to others on the topic. As someone who doesn't find "financial literacy" a hugely compelling topic, it was a good kick in the butt to remind me that I need to at least sometimes give managing my money my full attention.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book because I had nothing else nearby and went into this book not knowing what to expect. Came out of it glad it crossed my path! I've read other financial books and found them all full of jargon with complicated, lengthy sentences and written for people with at least a basic knowledge of finance (even when they state it's for everyone). Rich girl, broke girl thankfully was one of the most readable books I've read. Although not every chapter fit my current circumstances, I found all the information incredibly useful and digestible.

[Charlotte Chan]

This casts a broad net across a lot of different financial topics - budgeting, mortgages, investing, negotiating salaries, paying off debt. I think it would be a great book to get started with if you feel clueless about personal finance.

Personally, I'm more interested in specific topics, so this book wasn't as relevant. But I think it would come in handy in the future, so I'm still glad I read it!

Bonus points because it focuses on finance from a Canadian POV.

If you do read this, note that it was published in 2021 and some things are slightly out of date.

[Vanita Maharaj · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this book! Most financial literacy books are targeted for Americans so it was refreshing to read one that was relevant to Canadians and our financial market and products. Even though I have my Canadian Securities Course License I still learnt a lot from this book and it was easy to digest. Definitely recommend for Canadians who want to save better, invest smarter and earn financial freedom!

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall has some really helpful tips. Some of it, though, is a bit farfetched, like talking about finances on a first date.

Also wish they had mentioned or made reference to the glossary more often.

Calculations should have also been done in tables instead of paragraphs, so it would be easier to compare results of one method vs. the method learned from the book.

[Sydney Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would recommend this to any Canadian women interested in learning about money and personal finance- I like to think I am well versed in this area thanks to other resources, however I did learn a lot and I did appreciate the Canadian examples over the American ones that most books/videos/articles have.

[Becky Davison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelley Keehn breaks this book down in easily digestible chapters based on financial challenges faced by women at different stages of their lives, so many relatable stories! Situation - risk - solutions for every chapter and I loved that it is Canadian and easily readable. Planning on buy a number of copies for my women friends!

[Eveliene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Practical, solid financial advice that gets you thinking, asking questions and excited about taking charge of your finances. Presented in a fun format to make it easy to read and not a snooze fest

[Emily Pilon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jam packed with useful information - I think anyone interest in taking control of their personal finances would benefit. 3 stars because I personally found most of the information to be pretty basic and geared towards true beginners.

[Jevah Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a good introduction to adults who grew up with no financial guidance. I could understand and relate to most of the scenarios. This is a big step becoming more responsible for their finance.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read!

[Misty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely recommend, if you want to learn how to save some money and understand financial terms better. Plus it's a quick and understandable read.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I needed or expected it to be. None of the scenarios applied to my finance situation, and I already know the basics of RRSPs, etc. Oh well. Would be great for a novice!

[Bernadette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved actually being able to hear from a Canadian perspective. But I didn't find the story format super helpful

[Olena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful regardless of where you are at financially.

[Iymaan · Rating 5 out of 5]

She puts you in check and it helps you to understand the Canadian system in dept

[Sophie V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty basic advice, but it was a good exercise to read this book and reflect on my finances and how I manage my money.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A super informative and approachable book about taking control of your personal finances! I’m definitely taking away a number of tips to implement in my own life and I’m very glad I picked up this book!