Broke Not Broken: Personal Finance for the Creative, Confused, Underpaid, and Overwhelmed

by Anna Jo Beck

A compassionate, friendly, and even fun book about personal finance for the overwhelmed. In a world with fewer and fewer economic guarantees, every bit of knowledge is powerful: We can build the life we dream of, meet our basic needs, and develop a healthy relationship with money. For many of us, salaried work and even hourly wages aren’t part of our financial picture; this book is for the self-employed, the entrepreneur, the creative, or the gig worker whose relationship with money isn’t well covered by other books.

Genres: Nonfiction, Money

192 pages, Paperback

Published June 8, 2021

Reviews

[Jason Pettus · Rating 5 out of 5]

2023 reads, #71. I wish this book would've existed when I was 18 years old, and that some well-meaning relative had bought it for me as a high-school graduation gift; for it's not only a very well-done Personal Finance 101 primer, full of practical advice you can start doing right this second even if you have almost no money and no income, but author Anna Jo Beck spends an equal amount of time explaining why you should care about personal finance, even if you're an 18-year-old art major and anti-consumerist social activist, which was exactly what I could've used back in my young "my credit score doesn't matter because I'm never going to buy one of your bougeoise fucking McMansions in the first place" phase. It's best to think of this short, well-written guide in this way, as a gift to the young antifa in your own life, to help explain to them why they should be starting a Roth IRA as soon as possible anyway.

[Zanny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick and informative read on personal finance that's realistic and not condescending. I tend to avoid books like this because the lofty priorities and bootstraps ideology feel so out of sync with my own, but this book acknowledged the harm in that kind of presentation and instead made no effort to sugarcoat the reality of our very imbalanced world. Instead, Beck empathizes with difficult situations that stem from systematic injustices, while also offering tips to deal with them to the best of your ability. Some stuff I already knew, but there was quite a bit I learned that honestly was very helpful and I took notes for future reference. I took this out from the library but it's definitely one of those books that's better suited to being owned, so you can go back to it for reference.

[Vicky]

Congratulations, Anna, for publishing this book based on your zine with a cool, neon green mylar cover. I remember we were both reading up on personal finance around the same time, so for me, this book is familiar territory, but I like and would have liked to read more personal anecdotes, even some super specific social examples alongside the how-to. The target audience for this book is not for someone who has already looked into personal finance resources but for someone who is completely avoidant to the stressful, uncomfortable subject of money and needs a general 101.

[sadie · Rating 5 out of 5]

lowkey humiliating to put this on my goodreads but money is important and knowing about your money is important (especially for folks like me who are young and about to enter a workforce with a job that is a hell of a choice) so yeah. 4.8/5

[B.B. · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author assumes everyone who reads the book is a socialist like herself. Her dislike of older people is quite clear though she tries to make it subtle. Waste of money.

[Kaeli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provided a really sturdy foundation for tackling money and budgeting issues. It doesn't ever talk down to the reader, in fact, I would say most of the time the author level's with the audience and comes from a place of understanding. While I found that I knew some of the concepts that were touched upon it was great to have a template on how to break down my own finances and feel empowered instead of trapped by my financial choices.