IT’S NOT COMMON CENT$

A guerrilla guide focuses on money management for young adults.

Financial consultant–turned-entrepreneur Amin has crafted a debut that adopts just the right tone for the intended primary audience of college students. Rather than convey fundamental information about personal finances in a typically dry fashion, the author injects the would-be boring topic with breezy, wisecracking prose. This immediately signals to youthful readers that Amin can relate to them—­­­and she does so in a noncondescending yet very basic way. The objective of the book is to help a young adult develop a “30-day plan” for financial enlightenment. The work starts out with wonderfully chatty definitions of 10 key financial terms (principal, interest, down payment, etc.) followed by the useful “9 Golden Rules of Personal Finance.” These two chapters lay the groundwork for the more substantive discussions to come, including such things as conducting a “personal spending analysis,” creating a budget, devising saving strategies, dealing with debt, understanding insurance, and examining the basics of investing. In each chapter, Amin makes no assumptions, clearly explaining financial terms and concepts using simple language. She often employs relevant, amusing analogies, such as “Budgeting is the ‘eat your veggies’ of the personal finance world.” Her use of colloquialisms is appropriate and engaging as well; for example, “Damn, youngster! I know you’re thinking, Retirement? Are you kidding me? That’s for old people.” Hidden beneath the informal language and humorous wink-winks is solid financial advice about important issues such as the risks and rewards of debt, the meaning of credit scores, the psychology of spending, and a lucid explanation of paying taxes. A particularly helpful chapter addresses “multiple income streams,” providing numerous creative ideas for generating secondary sources of revenue. Also useful is the book’s bulleted lists of pros and cons for a variety of investment vehicles. While Amin writes from Britain, she does an excellent job of dividing portions of the guide into sections specifically targeting United States versus British readers, right down to suggested American and British financial apps. Each chapter ends with day-by-day action plan reminders.

A refreshingly lighthearted, youthful approach to an oft-dreaded financial topic.