Reviews - The Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money: Thirteen Ways to Right Your Financial Wrongs

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55 reviews for:

The Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money: Thirteen Ways to Right Your Financial Wrongs

Jill Schlesinger

3.65 AVERAGE

burntends's review

5.0

A woman after my own heart. Stop complaining and do the damn thing!

buliabart's review

3.0

Best of use to people who are 40+ and make 300k. Skip this as a young person who already knows not to try and time the market.

This is a great read if you are a first- time learner about financial literacy. Part of the book is common sense, and then I there were some terms I looked up that I did not understand. The author explains the 13 mistakes people do with their money using stories and easy examples. I definitely got a lot of financial re- balancing to do after reading this book. A very helpful read if you want a piece of mind in terms of money.

maidstone96's review

3.0

What I Loved: I enjoyed Schlesinger's candid writing style, the stories she weaved in throughout the text, and her direct approach to explaining somewhat complex finance topics.

What I Didn't Love: If you know a decent amount in terms of personal finance (e.g. have read any personal finance book or keep up with personal finance blogs) then the information in this book will not be new. Most of the information is anecdotal and so it feels like reading one long narrative - I wish she had concluded each chapter with a bulleted list or with text boxes throughout the chapters that provided more technical knowledge.

Who's It For: If you are someone who enjoys reading about personal finance, have a base knowledge when it comes to the topic, and are looking for a light read which provides some great reminders and good insight into making some of the bigger financial decisions - it's a solid choice.

meaghunt's review against another edition

1.0

I thought this would be a good broad-based financial advice book, but it's really limited in scope to readers of a certain age, privilege, and generation. Boomers who are now both sending kids through college and caring for their aging parents may see a benefit from reading this; however, anyone else will find the information largely irrelevant (or at least irrelevant by the time they reach the target reading age).

antiauk's review

3.0

This seems to be primarily for people who make twice as much as I do annually (I make 36k). There are some good general rules, but there _has_ to be another book for those of us struggling on a different level...or maybe there's no money in publishing books for people who can't really afford to buy any book they want.

thomas_edmund's review

5.0

Similar to my last review - this book mostly just made me wish I had something to actually invest so I could even have a chance to do dumb things with money - nonethless Schlesinger presents a pretty sensible and straightforward guide to some of the money traps that people fall into.

Contains within isn't rocket science, but it is sound and useful advice, for those more looking for investment advice the section on trying to time the market is probably the most down to earth accessible caution I've read so far.