UNMARRIED AND DEBT-FREE

A debut money management guide targets singles.

Kelly packs an extraordinary amount of hard-won wisdom into fewer than 60 pages in her personal finance manual. The author, a flight attendant for many years, made an array of standard fiscal mistakes early in her career. The errors included neglecting her savings, ignoring the importance of long-term planning, and assuming she had all the leeway in the world, particularly on the question of retirement: “Planning for retirement is not a high priority for many people because it’s easy to procrastinate when you feel you have time on your side and when you have other financial demands.” She puts forward these collected pieces of strategy to help others to save time by avoiding some basic blunders, with a particular emphasis on single people of all ages. She stresses the importance of making budgets and sticking to them, and she deftly lays out the benefits of investing incrementally in a variety of insurance policies: “For just a few dollars a month, you can make sure that should the worst happen to you, your family members will be provided for.” She produces a proposal for creating an emergency savings fund (and points out the rare instances when it’s OK to raid it); she writes about the methods of checking and possibly improving personal credit ratings; and she looks ahead to future economic realities like Medicare and estate planning. And through it all, she not only maintains an upbeat, cheerful tone, but also reminds her fellow Christians that their faith can aid their efforts—and should shape their approaches as well. “Happiness comes from service,” she writes, “and God designed each of us to serve through our giving.” The underlying ethos of the book is that it’s never too late for readers to take control of their finances and devise clear plans for a secure future. Younger audiences especially will find this advice immensely encouraging.

A short but surprisingly thorough and engaging overview on achieving financial freedom.