Jill Schlesinger

This read definitely felt geared toward those in a white-collar industry (which is fine, for me ... because I am in a white-collar job, lol--it just means it didn't always translate well to other non-white-collar roles, and a number of the examples were from those well above my pay grade--so even those seemed out of reach). A few other examples illustrated just how polar opposite the author and I are politically and socially, lol; this can be good, but also challenging.

I appreciated the show more fresh, post(ish)-COVID take on finances; it's always good to check out new-to-me voices and their approach to money. I don't feel I learned a ton of truly _new_ things, but the read certainly got the wheels turning as I look at making my own changes in a post-pandemic world.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. show less

This was a quick afternoon read, and I jotted down a few notes and tips that will be helpful. However, my main issue with her book was “smart” seems to equal rich. She mentioned multiple times that the majority of Americans headed to retirement in the next 10-15 years have less than $200k set aside, yet her “real-life examples” were always of clients making 6-7 figure incomes. In the chapter about how to talk about money with children her real-life examples were a couple making $700k show more who were jealous of their friends making a lot more, a woman earning a $1 million yearly bonus and a friend who married a billionaire but raised down-to-earth kids. The advice was relatively good, but these examples made it feel like in no way could it pertain to me. These are the types of examples through the entire book. I’d be a lot more impressed if she shared some success stories of Americans with average salaries, but I’m guessing in her financial consulting work that isn’t her clientele show less

This surprised me. I was recommended the book by several people and blogs but was turned off by the author being part of the mainstream media machine which usually spews dumbed down bad advice. Jill Schlesinger did a great job of hitting the main points of personal finance that should apply to most people. Sadly for my poor behind, all of the examples were of professionals who make $100k or more per year and have $1 million in savings or assets. So it takes some creative and objective show more thinking to see the main points from each chapter and learn how they can be applied to poverty financing.
I also really enjoyed that she brought a sense of humor and curse words to the topic. It's easy to zone out when trying to digest this stuff. I look forward to checking out her podcast. show less