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310 reviews for:
The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner's Guide to Getting Good with Money
Chelsea Fagan, Lauren Ver Hage
3.35 AVERAGE
310 reviews for:
The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner's Guide to Getting Good with Money
Chelsea Fagan, Lauren Ver Hage
3.35 AVERAGE
This book has more than I expected, including checklists for kitchen basics, essential home repair tools and even some recipes. It’s a great place to start for learning about finances.
Everyone should read this, especially ladies! I loved this book and will definetly be reading it again. I'm so glad I bought it!
I’m not sure this is a fair rating, so I shall explain the thinking behind it.
It turns out I’m not actually the ‘total beginner’ this book is aimed at, which is both a nice surprise and rather unfortunate, considering I had bought the book only to discover this. I am also a) unable to work long-term and b) British, so really I was setting ’The Financial Diet’ an impossible task to ~speak to me~, and must take some of the blame for us not quite hitting it off.
However, it ain’t all me. There was a lot in the book that I - and I assume many other people around my age - am a full-on n00b to, the kind of stuff I bought TFD to learn about, but they weren’t explained in anywhere near sufficient depth. Yet very basic things were covered in far too much detail, often repeatedly. This was a frustrating dichotomy to work with.
I didn’t dig the borderline glorification of ‘the side hustle’, though I of course realise they are simply a necessity of reality for many people. The book did balance this by talking about having more than work in your life, prioritising downtime, knowing your worth etc, and made up for it with some great, very frank words about capitalism and the ideal of ‘following your dreams’ in its later pages.
The design is gorgeous, but involves a lot of unnecessary full-page quotes and other such padding. I felt like there could have been so much more in the book. That, I think, is the crux here.
This book was my introduction to world of TFD, which seems to be the opposite experience of most readers, but I have settled on the same opinion many of them hold - the website and YouTube channel are where it’s at. They are what I was looking for in the book, and so for that I’m glad to have given the book a go. I will definitely be following and utilising TFD online from now on.
For its decent content, which is not at all inconsiderable; for its last couple of chapters especially; for its warmth, humour and approachability; for bringing the wider phenomenon of TFD to my attention; and in recognition of the fact that someone closer to the admirably broad target audience may get more out of it - I went for three stars. :)
It turns out I’m not actually the ‘total beginner’ this book is aimed at, which is both a nice surprise and rather unfortunate, considering I had bought the book only to discover this. I am also a) unable to work long-term and b) British, so really I was setting ’The Financial Diet’ an impossible task to ~speak to me~, and must take some of the blame for us not quite hitting it off.
However, it ain’t all me. There was a lot in the book that I - and I assume many other people around my age - am a full-on n00b to, the kind of stuff I bought TFD to learn about, but they weren’t explained in anywhere near sufficient depth. Yet very basic things were covered in far too much detail, often repeatedly. This was a frustrating dichotomy to work with.
I didn’t dig the borderline glorification of ‘the side hustle’, though I of course realise they are simply a necessity of reality for many people. The book did balance this by talking about having more than work in your life, prioritising downtime, knowing your worth etc, and made up for it with some great, very frank words about capitalism and the ideal of ‘following your dreams’ in its later pages.
The design is gorgeous, but involves a lot of unnecessary full-page quotes and other such padding. I felt like there could have been so much more in the book. That, I think, is the crux here.
This book was my introduction to world of TFD, which seems to be the opposite experience of most readers, but I have settled on the same opinion many of them hold - the website and YouTube channel are where it’s at. They are what I was looking for in the book, and so for that I’m glad to have given the book a go. I will definitely be following and utilising TFD online from now on.
For its decent content, which is not at all inconsiderable; for its last couple of chapters especially; for its warmth, humour and approachability; for bringing the wider phenomenon of TFD to my attention; and in recognition of the fact that someone closer to the admirably broad target audience may get more out of it - I went for three stars. :)
First couple chapters are informative, but overall generic advice without any concrete examples. I can’t remember how this got recommended, and perhaps I’m not the target audience. Maybe there’s a blog with more practical advice.
I read this on my Kindle so I didn't get all the "pink, overly Pinterest-y" design that many reviews complain about. I did appreciate a book on personal finance that was from another young woman who learned from her own mistakes and experiences, instead of an overly preachy book that promotes some extreme lifestyle that is unattainable for most of us. Also, I love Chelsea's and TFD's YouTube videos!
Chapter one- good basics for budgeting, nothing terribly groundbreaking, but good beginning info.
The rest... not useful. One chapter is a bunch of recipes and ingredients to keep on hand if you want to cook a lot of Italian food. I'm not sure exactly what this book is trying to be, possibly just a very specific example of how this person budgeted.
The rest... not useful. One chapter is a bunch of recipes and ingredients to keep on hand if you want to cook a lot of Italian food. I'm not sure exactly what this book is trying to be, possibly just a very specific example of how this person budgeted.
First off, this book was not written for me. At least, not the me that exists today with my gray hair and over 20 years of very stable work experience. However, that does not mean it was not worth a listen and that it didn't reinforce some important points. In the end, it was worth the listen entirely for the last chapter, though. In that chapter, Chelsea skewers the Pinterest mantra, "Follow your dreams" in a way that was so spot on that I just have to share a couple of lengthy quotes:
She concludes by encouraging everyone, no matter their background or opportunities, to simply believe that they deserve the right to try.
The whole book is about how it is critical for everyone to work to achieve financial security (ideally financial freedom). It may start very small. Heck, it may start by simply not ignoring the issue of money. This is the financial diet and it is the key to living a life where dreams are medium, not big, and are enjoyable daily.
Note: Chelsea loves some good swear words. The first sentence is evidence of that. It doesn't bother me, but may keep others from hearing what she is saying at all.
In the absence of religion...we have created this new kind of pseudo-spirituality that revolves vaguely around capitalism and a narrow idea of creative expression. It's the spirituality that treats pretentious essays from CEO's about waking up at 4 a.m. to answer all their e-mails on a stationary bike as gospel, instead of slightly insane. It's the spirituality that will forgive almost every life choice made in pursuit of the capital "c" career, no matter how unbalanced or unsustainable, as inherently good because it means you are following your dreams.
We treat everyone the same in this Pinterest version of libertarianism where we all have the same abilities and obstacles and our success or failure is entirely based on how hard we do or don't work. We pretend that following your dreams is the same call to action for the single mother with two part time jobs and $40,000 in debt as it is for the trustfunder who wants to start an app while studying at Princeton. ... We pretend that the risks are the same for everyone, usually by not talking about the risks at all. ... Following your dreams costs a lot of money and the reason why most successful entrepreneurs are white guys with wealthy parents isn't that they are somehow more passionate or talented or eager to work. It's that taking risks is about 10,000 times easier for those people. Period.
She concludes by encouraging everyone, no matter their background or opportunities, to simply believe that they deserve the right to try.
The whole book is about how it is critical for everyone to work to achieve financial security (ideally financial freedom). It may start very small. Heck, it may start by simply not ignoring the issue of money. This is the financial diet and it is the key to living a life where dreams are medium, not big, and are enjoyable daily.
Note: Chelsea loves some good swear words. The first sentence is evidence of that. It doesn't bother me, but may keep others from hearing what she is saying at all.
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
A good beginner's book to financial philosophy by two women who have been in the financial education game for a while. This is not a 'don't buy a latte' to be financially educated book.
So, I accidentally stole this book from a former client and now it just lives in my house, begging me to read it so I can at least make the inadvertent theft useful - and thankfully, it taught me that I know a little more than I thought I did about money.
For the past year, I've consistently been saying to people "It's just money, we all have some of it, we might as well feel comfortable discussing it" - and so I LOVED seeing those sentiments echoed in this book. It plainly lays out things that have always been in the back of my mind, but have never brought out into conversation before. It's cute and fun, and an easy way to get started on real budgets and financial decisions.
For the past year, I've consistently been saying to people "It's just money, we all have some of it, we might as well feel comfortable discussing it" - and so I LOVED seeing those sentiments echoed in this book. It plainly lays out things that have always been in the back of my mind, but have never brought out into conversation before. It's cute and fun, and an easy way to get started on real budgets and financial decisions.
Beautiful formatting and graphic design; Real Talk; thoughtful and useful advice.