Financial Literacy Month: Book Review 3

Happy Easter! I am celebrating the holidays in a coffee shop in St. Paul, fielding calls from the fam (Mom, Dad, sisters), and enjoying a latte and bagel ($5.80). I finally did that research I promised a few days ago on teen lit, which I report on a little farther down this post. I first needed give an update on my dwindling bank account: I allowed myself to take a hit on Friday. A couple-friend invited my GF and I out for drinks and I agreed--it was pricey. I picked up GF's tab and spent a total of $42 (my couple-friends are both wealthy--we ended up at Moscow On The Hill, one of the premier locations for vodka martinis in the Midwest). This isn't a completely bone-headed move. My friend, K, has offered several times to get me a job that would pay roughly twice what I'm currently making. I don't feel like working 60 hour weeks right now, so I haven't taken him up on it, but it's good to go out with him occasionally and keep that door open (am I justifying? I don't think so, but that's a close call).

THIS LEAVES ME WITH ABOUT $20 UNTIL FRIDAY!! (I got some gas earlier this week.)

Anyway.

After some search, I found a great website on About.com for teens. Again, I love About.com, and this was as well-written as I've come to expect. The article was written by Joshua Kennon, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Investing. Take a quick tour of this site--it, again, has a great foundation for teenage saving.

For some hard-copy reading, however, I fianlly settled on The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens, by brothers David & Tom Gardner. The Gardners are the creators of the popular investment website, The Motley Fool, and have developed a large following in the financial world.

This is what I thought most teen investment guides should be like. It's written to a young audience (maybe too-much so, occasionally, but the slang isn't overbearing), it gives sound advice, and it's readable. I'm not certain if I agree with the emphasis on the stock market, but at least it doesn't have an unsavory quality of greed, and it starts with mutual funds instead of stocks. I also like the fact they have a No Smoking plug--it took me years to quit, so, knowing I loose all cred by saying this: just say no, kids! What settled me was their view on the relative worth of money:

Today, 40 percent of the world's population, more than two billion people, struggle to live on less than $2 per day.Viewed from that perspective, you're already stinking rich. In that context, virtually all Americans are.

True dat', Gardners. Thanks for keeping things in perspective. Okay, so here's the breakdown of their book:

Section I: Eight Steps to Wealth
- Set Goals (and Reach Them)
- Make and Save Money
- Be Smart About Your Money
- Avoid Financial Blunders
- Know What to Expect
- Your New Friend: The Mutual Fund
- Actually Invest!
- Learn Together
Section II: The Search for Greatness (Bonus Section)
- Finding Great Companies
- Tracking Your Companies
- Launching an Investment Club
- Understanding the Business
- Crunching the Numbers
- Managing Your Portfolio

That's it for me on kids books. That took entirely too much time. My GF and I have tentatively been talking around the subjects of marriage and kids, so I guess it's just been on my mind of late.

Later skaters.