How to Money

May 15, 2022
Grades 9-12 This straightforward book by the staff of HerMoney.com effectively uses infographics to teach teens money management basics. It's intended for anyone to read but does emphasize finances for women, thanks to gender-wage inequities (""A study from the American Association of University Women says the gender wage gap won't actually be closed until 2119"). Five sections cover earning and managing money (budgeting, accounts, financial tracking apps, investing), spending (buying new versus used), the value of an education (traditional and nontraditional), careers, student-loan debt, and the correlation between good health and less financial stress. The book offers helpful interview tips, and Rebecca Cohen, one of the book's contributors, includes her resume and cover letter. Chapters have key takeaway summaries, definitions in sidebars, and exercises to reinforce what was introduced in the book's sections. Interviews with leading women business leaders or influencers, such as Minda Harts, Jazz Jennings, Crystal Echo Hawk, and Athena Valentine, are included. This useful financial guidebook for teens is appealingly illustrated with accurate, accessible, and timely content.

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March 1, 2022
Financial advice and guidelines for young people taking their first hesitant steps into "Adultville." Personal finance experts, including the host of the HerMoney podcast, squire readers through the basics of goal setting, budgeting, banking, choosing credit and debit cards, managing student loans and other debt, health and other insurance, and job hunting. The advice is sensible and presented in positive, upbeat tones, if sometimes imprecise and overly generalized. It includes frank acknowledgment of continuing salary gaps based on gender, race, sexual orientation, and gender identity; cumulative intergenerational inequalities; and the effects on individuals who have more than one marginalized identity. The vital importance of developing a habit of saving as early as possible gets proper stress. The authors give stock market investing an equally hard sell, assuring readers that it's easy money with, over the long term at least, guaranteed profits. The work opens with a quote from Jane Bryant Quinn that "money isn't pink or blue; it's green," explaining that a primary goal of both the book and the HerMoney organization is redressing the long-standing gender gap in the world of finance by centering women while offering advice that readers of all genders can utilize. The work contains interviews with over a dozen individuals, many of them women business owners or leaders of women-centered initiatives, and youth-targeted sample lists of income sources and budget items. Cosford's small, color illustrations break up and brighten the text and portray racially diverse individuals. Encouraging, empowering, and up to date. (glossary, selected sources, index) (Nonfiction. 14-18)

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May 1, 2022

Gr 7 Up-Conversational and contemporary, this engrossing guidebook by Chatzky, Kathryn Tuggle, and the team from the HerMoney website addresses financial issues that women faced in the past, reviews their current opportunities, and projects the possibility for success in their future. Introducing money as a tool for shaping emotional, social, and physical wellbeing, the authors set a tone of achievable tasks and realistic goals. Covering a range of topics from the merit of thrift stores to the possibilities of cryptocurrency, the timely content is informational and entertaining. The standard financial literacy topics of budgeting, employment, education, spending, and investing are interwoven in an interesting manner with an individual's wants, needs, giving, interests, and personal happiness. With an emphasis on earning, saving, and investing at a young age, the attractively illustrated text can be read sequentially, or teens can select a topic of specific interest. The book's well-done format includes sidebars, interviews, and an occasional chart, graph, or sample document. The diversity of the interviewed businesswomen speaks to their successes and failures. Examples include Jazz Jennings, Sandra Lopez, and Ilhan Omar. Vocabulary words are highlighted in blue. The book's back matter includes a 10-page glossary, helpful index, and a selected sources section. A resource for any gender, this engaging guidebook functions as an informational text, supplement to a personal finance course, and research tool. VERDICT Due to the rapid changes in currency trends, investing, and monetary policy, this book will likely not stand the test of time, but it is currently an excellent addition to the school library's self-help collection.-Lynne Stover

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