Money: A User’s Guide – Book Review
Money: A User’s Guide: The Sunday Times bestselling guide to taking control of your personal finances by Laura Whateley
I wrote that a long title might be a negative indicator, but in this case the book is definitely a worthy read. Here’s why:
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The book explains all the question that either you are too shy too ask, don’t know whom to ask, or people simply assumed you have known.
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Highlights debt, tax, pensions, insurances, investing
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Gives all the links, for example investing companies, and also write succinct reviews which one to use.
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Since the books is from a reading column, it contains some real money problems faced and submitted by readers.
The book started with clearing debt, since it makes most sense to plug the hole in your pocket before adding more money into it. Oddly enough the writer recommends on not settling students loan first (which she explained clearly why, and I think is justified). Then all the bad debts and how to clear them. By how, she is not only telling about how you can ‘snowball’ the payments etc, but also useful bodies, loans, and website/apps that you can use.
The book then explored how you can save and make money. For example I learned why I need to pay the National Insurance, how to improve my credits to apply loan, the process of buying a house in the UK and the importance of changing your utilities every few months (ha!). These things can probably read bit by bit over a few websites or forums, but it is so much easier to read it in one go and written in a structured manner.
What I like about the book:
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The advices are relatively short, and has less retrospect/philosophical/personal comment attached to them, where most books of personal improvement tend to do so.
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Jokes are peppered throughout, enough to make you chuckle and avoid the book being too dry.
One thing is the book is UK oriented with most of the advices tailored so. The concepts of saving and managing money can be applied in general anywhere, but the specific valuable advices will be lost to others.
Still, the book is a good read, recommended for students and young professional in the UK.
