Book Review: The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke
When it comes to personal finance authors, Suze Orman is a staple. She has her own television show on CNBC and has written numerous books on the subject. So I was excited to read her latest book to see what advice she had for me and my generation. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed by this book. To me the tone of this book is very condescending, which made it tough to read at times. In addition to the tone, some of the advice makes me feel wary of suggesting this book.
My first issue is Suze Orman’s emphasis on your FICO score. While I believe it’s important to have credit history, and it is absolutely important to make sure there are no errors on your report, I don’t think it’s important to worry about things like having the right “credit mix” on your account. There are far more important things to worry about than the ratio of revolving credit to fixed installment loans. Also worrisome is Suze Orman’s involvement with the Fair Isaac Corporation. If she is being paid by Fair Isaac, is her advice really unbiased?
Another piece of advice that really made me take notice was that it is okay to use your credit card to cover living expenses when you are starting off in your career, since your future earnings potential will help you pay off that debt. She suggests pouring yourself into your work to get ahead. Looking back on how I racked up my credit card debt, using it to cover living expenses was how my card got so high. I probably bought a few things in there I shouldn’t have, but the majority of the balance came from using it to pay for groceries. So to me, suggesting that you should use a credit card to cover your living expenses is a slippery slope that you shouldn’t tread on. And I believe in working hard to get ahead in your career, but telling people to go into debt for their careers is a good way to keep them working for years trying to pay off that debt.
To her credit, Suze Orman does cover a lot of ground in this book. Her range of topics includes, your career, your credit, student debt, retirement, investing, buying a home, and money in a personal relationship. For someone just starting out this book might be a very handy if they don’t get annoyed by the lecture-style writing. Which is why I’m torn recommending this book. There is a ton of great information, and honestly a lot of good advice.
I would recommend picking this book up and thinking of it as a list of tools and ideas for you to use when you need them. Read another personal finance book, like Your Money Or Your Life to build up a proper attitude towards money and philosophy on financial living.
“The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke” (Suze Orman) is available for purchase from Amazon.com
