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    Not Your Parents' Money Book: Making, Saving, and Spending Your Money
    Not Your Parents' Money Book: Making, Saving, and Spending Your Money
    Not Your Parents' Money Book: Making, Saving, and Spending Your Money
    Ebook188 pages1 hour

    Not Your Parents' Money Book: Making, Saving, and Spending Your Money

    By Jean Chatzky and Erwin Haya

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    For the first time, financial guru and TODAY Show regular Jean Chatzky brings her expertise to a young audience. Chatzky provides her unique, savvy perspective on money with advice and insight on managing finances, even on a small scale. This book will reach kids before bad spending habits can get out of control. With answers and ideas from real kids, this grounded approach to spending and saving will be a welcome change for kids who are inundated by a consumer driven culture. This book talks about money through the ages, how money is actually made and spent, and the best ways for tweens to earn and save money.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
    Release dateAug 10, 2010
    ISBN9781416994732
    Not Your Parents' Money Book: Making, Saving, and Spending Your Money
    Author

    Jean Chatzky

    Jean Chatzky is CEO and co-founder of HerMoney, the author of over a dozen books (including Money Rules, Women with Money, and Not Your Parents' Money Book), an award-winning magazine columnist and host of the HerMoney podcast. After decades of reporting on personal finance — including 25 years on the Today show — she knows that now more than ever, a successful financial life is within every woman’s grasp — and with the HerMoney team, she’s on a mission to help you get it. In her free time, Jean loves running, finding new ways to use her sourdough starter, and cooking for friends. Raised in the midwest, she now lives in Philadelphia with her family and new pup. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

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    Reviews for Not Your Parents' Money Book

    3.5/5

    7 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      While I enjoyed the the approach to introducing the subject of finance to young children, I think the book fails to put the topic in easy to understand language for most students. Chatzky is well qualified to write about this subject and her insights on the various saving vehicles in today's economy are extensive. I do feel that the book could have done a better job of connecting with the reader and showing more emotion while talking about these financial topics. Overall I believe the book is a decent introduction for students who have little background in economics.
    • 4/5
      I have never been great with money. In fact, I tend to spend it as soon as I get it. Looking back, Jean Chatzky’s book would have been immensely helpful during my adolescent years. Her explanations of even the most common financial terms and concepts are informative and enlightening.Throughout the book, Chatzky successfully makes the information more engaging with bits of trivia and fun facts. Like many people, I dread even thinking about money, the economy, or any financial topics; so I really appreciated this fun potpourri sprinkled over her explanations. Her efforts in doing this were probably to relate the topics to adolescents or simply to uninformed readers—such as myself. Needless to say, the book is an easy read for readers who wish to become more knowledgeable in economics and finance. If read early enough, adolescents will be enable to curb bad spending habits before they have a chance to develop. Since it is geared for younger readers, I can easily see this book being used in an early high school Math course. There are indeed some complex ideas introduced, but this does not by any means make the book worthless to high school teachers.
    • 3/5
      When reading this book, I was surprised to discover my own personal lack of knowledge of money and money management. I found the book to be highly informative, and full of quite a few tips that I could use in regards to saving money. The only point of contention that i need to address is the fact that some of the book, specifically that which addresses GDP and other money factoids, may be a little too complex for some of the younger readers. I did enjoy the "fun facts" section, and the sections that answered student questions, but having them placed in the middle of chapters almost made the work seem disjointed and unorganized. In the end, there were informative facts, but the work could have been organized a little more efficiently.
    • 4/5
      This book is very informative about money in general, but also provides how-to's for spending and saving money. As an adult, I found the book embarrassingly useful and will keep it as a personal reference for future use. I would not share it with my fourth graders, but certainly see the potential for middle school or even high school.
    • 4/5
      The author uses this book as a way to teach adolescents about money. She surveyed students about their thoughts and perceptions on money and finances and then taught them the truth about the issues. The book is very comprehensive and discusses topics ranging from the stock market to allowances. The book included a glossary in the back of the book as well as additional references. This would be a book I would recommend to my students as well as my own children. Every year, my school participates in Finance Park. This year I may copy chapters from this book and use it a supplementary material to the lesson.
    • 4/5
      Teaching children how to save and spend money wisely is very important in the world today. With the economy the way it is, it is very beneficial for children to learn about the value of saving their money. In the book NOT YOUR PARENTS’ MONEY BOOK the author does an excellent job of teaching students how to make, spend, and save their own money. The author, Jean Chatzky, is in the world of finance everyday. She knows what she is talking about when it comes to money. Thus, the information in this book is very helpful and accurate for children to read. The use of sidebars, quick quizzes, and cartoons, helps to make the book more attractive for students. A book like this would be good to use in a social studies class. It could help introduce the concept of economics. Overall, I think this book is very well presented for students who want to learn more about money.
    • 2/5
      Chatzky's book explains why and how children/teenagers should save money. It explains how the Federal Reserves, FDIC, money markets, and stocks work. It explains to children why they need to save money and how to make goals for themselves to do this. I think this book would be good for a social studies class at the middle or high school level. It would help for students to understand why saving is so much more important than just random impulse buying. This book would also be useful to open a unit on the stock market and how that works in our country. Useful, but I found it rather boring.

    Book preview

    Not Your Parents' Money Book - Jean Chatzky

    INTRODUCTION

    WHY YOU

    SHOULD CARE

    ENOUGH to READ

    THIS BOOK

    What do you think of when you

    think of money?

    Money is everything because without it you can’t do the things you want. Money kind of does buy happiness, because everything depends on it.

    —Erin, 12

    Whenever I make money from a job, my mom makes me record what the job was, the time, and how much I made in a notebook, but she won’t explain to me why. Why do I have to do this?

    —Michael, 13

    One thing I’d really like to know: How much money does an average American adult really spend in a year?

    —Tamika, 14

    THOSE ARE JUST SOME OF the things kids around the country think about—or wonder—when they think of money. How do I know? I asked.

    I’m an expert on personal finances—which is a term for how real people (your parents, your teachers, and yes, you) handle their own money. You may have seen me on television talking about money (I’m on the Today show a lot, but I’ve also been on everything from Larry King Live to Sesame Street to Oprah!), and I’ve written six very popular books for adult audiences on topics from saving more money and making more money to getting out of debt.* But this is my first book for kids.

    So I figured that before I sat down at my computer, it might be helpful to understand a few things. Such as, what do you already know about money? What don’t you already know about money? And maybe most importantly, what do you actually want to know about money? I have two kids of my own—13 and 16—and so I am aware of what happens to books that contain a lot of information they’re not at all interested in. They gather dust under the bed.

    That’s why I decided to do some homework. For about three months last year I met with groups of kids at middle schools across the country. I asked questions about where the money that kids like you have tends to come from (jobs, gifts, allowance?), whether or not you have bank accounts, what you think of credit and debit cards, how much you understand about the cost of various things (from groceries to a brand-new car) and the earning power of various professions (actors, doctors, athletes, the president), how much it takes to be rich, and how the economy works. Most importantly, I listened as those kids asked many, many questions of me.

    This book is the result. It’s written for you, with the help of your peers, and contains both the questions you asked most often (as well as the ones I thought were the most fun) and the answers to those questions. I hope you like it. For that reason, I’ve made sure there are many of the specific things you told me you’d need in order to read a book like this: fun facts, trivia, real information about how you can make money (and not just babysitting, as Zoe warned me), and how much it costs to raise a kid like you. There are even quizzes and brainteasers. But I have to tell you: Even more than I want you to like this book, I want you to find it helpful. If making money is at the top of your list, then I want you to put this book down knowing how to make more money.

    Why? Because Erin had a point when she said, Money is everything because without it you can’t do the things you want. Money kind of does buy happiness, because everything depends on it.

    I don’t agree with her word for word. I don’t believe money is everything (the people in your life matter more). And I know for a fact that more money does not necessarily make you happier. Once you have enough to live comfortably, not like a pro athlete or a rap star, more riches do not put a smile on your face. But Erin is correct that money is a very important tool. You need money to get the other things that you need in life—food, a place to live, transportation back and forth to school or work, decent clothes, medical care. You need even more to get the many, many things you want. And if you don’t have money, at least enough to buy the things you need, then chances are you will be pretty unhappy, because life will be difficult. You might not be able to see the doctor if you get sick or injured. You might be forced to live somewhere that’s not convenient to your work or your school because it’s cheaper. And things like nights out, trips to the mall, or vacations will be few and far between.

    That’s why being smart about money—making it, saving it, investing it, spending it, giving it away, and understanding why it sometimes drives people to be so emotional or do crazy things—is so important. It’s also why having a basic understanding of how this country’s financial systems work is key.

    See, your great-grandparents and some of your grandparents grew up in a world where other people took care of their basic wants and needs. They worked for the same companies for many years (often many decades), and when they retired, they received a pension—a lifetime income—from that company. They got Social Security, another income stream from the government, to supplement that pension. And they got Medicare, health insurance paid for by the government, so that if they got sick, they didn’t have to worry about who would foot the bill from the doctor or hospital.

    Unfortunately, you (and your parents) don’t live in the same world. You live in a world where you are responsible for your own financial wants and needs. Chances are, over the course of your career, you won’t work for one or two companies like your grandparents. You’ll work for twelve. You’ll have four different careers. You may be able to afford going to the doctor, thanks to the changes in health care that have now been passed by Congress as I write this book, but you won’t have a pension. Instead you’ll have a retirement account, and in it will be only as much money as you manage to stash away during your working life. Will you have Social Security to tide you over? Maybe. But chances are it won’t be enough to provide you with that comfortable life that we talked about before. That’s why, if you’re smart, you’ll learn to save and invest your own money, so that you can take care of yourself.

    I’m not telling you all of this to frighten you. Actually, maybe I am. Just as you may have gone through DARE programs at school that warn you off drugs, and you may go through a driver’s ed course that teaches you how insane it is to text behind the wheel, you need to understand the implications of being able—or not being able—to manage your own money.

    Besides, what people who are smart about money soon realize is that while having money may not translate into the utmost happiness or bliss, having money means having choices. When you have money of your own, you get to make the decisions. Not only about what sort of sneakers or blue jeans or smartphone you want to buy, but about what car you want to drive and what neighborhood you want to live in. When you have money, you can decide how much time you want to work and how much time you want to take off from work.

    Most importantly, having money gives you independence and freedom. When you have money in the bank, you can decide you don’t want to live with your parents anymore (no offense, Mom and Dad). When you have money in the bank, you always have an automatic escape out of a bad situation. When my mother was a teenager, her parents made her take mad money on dates. In case she got mad, they told her, she could tell that boy she was leaving and call a taxi or hop on the bus. It works similarly today. Your mad money—your personal savings stash—can enable you to quit a truly bad job or get out of a bad relationship. Without it, you may not only feel stuck, you may actually be stuck.

    And the truth is that no one—not your parents, your future spouse, your employer, or your government—cares as much about your financial well-being as you do. So even though this may not be information that you’re learning through school, what you’ll get in the next hundred-plus pages is vital for you to have.

    As you read this book, please let me know what you think by writing to me at www.jeanchatzky.com. And while you’re there, let me know what questions I didn’t answer. I’ll put up a special section on the site and answer as many as I can.

    *Bold words are words that appear in the glossary.

    CHAPTER

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