This book might not be totally right for everyone, but having been financially oblivious for a large part of my life, it was perfect for me. It's totally approachable, and despite it clearly being about the basics, I learned a lot of things that I probably should have figured out years ago. I'm thrilled to have this book as resource as I continue getting smarter about money.

As someone NOT from the US, I started this book with quite a large amount of apprehension. Now that I've finished it, I have to say it's not that bad after all. I get some good general advice on budgeting, saving and investing. and the chapters of US specific topics like tax, insurance and military benefits were read lightly for fun and understanding of my fellow r/personalfinance folks.

The style of the writing itself is quite dense and dry. I appreciate the efforts to make it relevant to younger people though. And I can't blame the style. I doubt anyone can make finance fun without having to write 10 books about it. This is a decent attempt, and one that I appreciate.

I bought, but didn't read, a copy of Get a Financial Life a couple of years ago, when I was on a Personal Finance and Financial Independence reading kick (books and blogs). In September, I started using the budgeting software You Need a Budget, which has brought Personal Finance back to the forefront of my mind and I've been thinking about and reevaluating my financial priorities (more on YNAB in a sec). I spotted Get a Financial Life on my bookshelf last week and picked it up just to skim and ended up reading the whole thing. The book covers the basics of Personal Finance and contains sound advice regarding: debt, retirement, investing, banking, buying a home, insurance, and taxes. Even though I already follow, or am aware of, a lot of the recommendations in the book, I still thought it was a worthwhile read. And I'm glad to have a copy so I can refer back to specific chapters or sections in the future. The latest revised edition was published in 2017, so it's not too outdated. Kobliner's tone is matter-of-fact and direct, which I personally appreciated. If you're looking for something more motivational, try Worth It: Your Life, Your Money, Your Terms instead.

If there's one topic I wish Kobliner had discussed in more detail, it's budgeting. In Chapter 2: Taking Stock of Your Financial Life (Figuring Out Where You Are and Where You Want to Go), Kobliner discusses budgeting, goal setting, tracking your spending, some rules of thumb, her recommended filing system, etc. She recommends keeping a spending diary: "If you do this for only one month, you'll have a pretty clear picture of exactly where all your money goes." I've seen similar advice around the internet before, and I take issue with it for two reasons: [1] One month of spending data is just not going to give you a good overall picture of your spending habits and expenses. There are many variable expenses throughout the year that one month won't capture, like high electricity bills, annual subscriptions, car maintenance, etc. [2] Why would you waste a month tracking your spending, when you presumably have reams of spending data already captured in bank statements? I recently sat down with all my checking and credit card statements from 2019, categorized all the transactions (e.g. my dog, gas, groceries, etc.), summed each category to get annual totals, then divided by 12 to get monthly averages. Going through 24 statements took way less time than a 30-day spending diary would, and I got a lot more information to work with. It was also eye-opening because I realized I was spending much more on non-essentials (e.g. fast food, books, TV subscriptions) than I thought I was. Seeing the annual totals for some of those categories made me cringe with regret, because that’s money I could have used for travel or retirement savings. It also reminded me of a few infrequent expenses that I tend to forget about, like my car registration.

Tracking your spending is just Kobliner’s first step in figuring out where your money is going. The second step is creating a budget. Kobliner shares a budget worksheet in the book as well as a link to the budget calculator on her website. She also mentions the apps Mint and HelloWallet. I’ve never used Mint. I’ve read that it’s more helpful as a spending tracker than as a budget tool, but it’s free so it’s popular. I don’t know anything about HelloWallet, but Kobliner says it’s “a great tool that’s free if your employer provides it; otherwise, it will cost you $100 a year.”

For some people, tracking their spending on Mint, or filling out a budget worksheet, or creating their own budget spreadsheet is enough for them to plan and meet their financial goals. I am not one of those people. Due to the pandemic, my spending and expenses have changed drastically. I also have a lot of financial goals that I haven’t planned for or prioritized, and I’ve been increasingly frustrated with my lack of progress on meeting them. This frustration is what led me to try You Need a Budget (YNAB). YNAB is a zero-based budgeting system and I have found it extremely helpful and I highly recommend it. I was a bit surprised that Kobliner doesn’t mention it in her book because it seems to be very popular and have a cult-like following. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but after a couple of weeks, it *clicked* and I am 100% behind their budgeting philosophy now.

Some other apps that may be helpful, but Kobliner doesn’t mention, are Dave Ramsey’s EveryDollar, another zero-based budgeting app which is based on his cash envelope system; Personal Capital for retirement planning, tracking investments, etc.; and Undebt.it for paying off debt. There really are a multitude of budgeting systems and philosophies out there. I think that’s why I was disappointed with how little Kobliner discusses it. Her focus is more on tracking your spending (looking back) rather than actively budgeting (looking forward). Budget is a verb, not a noun - it should be an active and flexible process. I think for people in their 20’s and 30’s, understanding the importance of budgeting and finding a budgeting system that works for them should be a priority when setting up a "Financial Life."

Kobliner's lack of emphasis on budgeting was a bit disappointing, but the book as a whole and the advice in it are still valuable.

Excellent coverage of the basic financial topics any young person needs to be familiar with including investing, debt management, taxes, insurance, and homeownership.

I'm probably a little smarter having read this. Still can't afford my student loan payments though.

Straight-forward and approachable, I found Kobliner's book to be much less intimidating than the "required reading" posed by my well-meaning father. I read the 2009 publication, and as it's targeted at a novice such as myself, most of it still seems very relevant and up-to-date. In her section about healthcare, though, I had to smile at her observation (from 2009) that while there's "huge political will to make sure everyone has coverage, [...] don't hold your breath[...as] it could take several years for universal health care to become a reality." To her credit, as we are now in the initial throes the Affordable Healthcare Act, I still found her explanation of different types of healthcare very informative.

A very helpful guide written for young people - the younger you are when you read AND IMPLEMENT these financial strategies the easier and better.

It covers all the basics for a good start to handle your personal finances but even if you are reading this later in life it is great advice to turn things around and get control over your debt and how to save and invest.

Easy to read and understand - a must read for every young person. The sooner the better!!!

A friend’s dad gave me this two years ago because I wanted to learn about investing. (Never mind that I could have gained more from his own wisdom!) While this was not, of course, a thrilling read, it’s useful. The chapters are organized well, and I appreciated the “cramming” notes at the end of each chapter that gave the essentials. I learned more about investing in stocks/bonds and for retirement, but I’ll have to come back to the pages to properly understand what I learned. I do think this book, with its bite-sized morsels of info, is better than trying to google things on your own. Naturally, it’s geared toward an American audience - health insurance and tax foibles and all.

No, no, no. I made it halfway through and then literally threw this book away (and I consider books to be semi-sacred). The advice in this book was severely outdated. I think it was last updated in 2000, although the edition I was reading was printed in 2007. Clearly terrible timing. The book spends a great deal of time explaining ATMs and how to balance your checkbook. Literally, a checkbook. Most places won't even take a check now. And then the advise on different sorts of savings accounts is also clearly outdated, as the most recommended kind is little used these days. The advise on home buying is based on easy-to-get loans, because, you know, the home market is booming. Poor book. Perhaps it was useful at one point, and maybe it recovered itself in the 2009 edition, but this one should not be in circulation anymore. It is outdated in the extreme.

I'll admit, I'm 50. A lot of the content Kobliner covers is pretty basic common sense material. I was intrigued by the book as something to possibly give my 18 year old daughter. It's an easy read and if you already own a car, a house and have a retirement account, you most likely know most of this stuff anyway.

The tricky thing with trying to get up to speed on personal finances is that you don't know what you don't know: Without some kind of pre- existing financial knowledge, it's hard to determine what you should research further. This book helps remedy the situation, as Kobliner gives a brief overview of financial topics you should know in your 20s and 30s.

I don't see this book as a comprehensive, turnkey guide, but rather a broad survey that will help you figure out where you need to do some deeper research independently. Because of the broad subject matter, some sections (and even whole chapters) may be remedial or simply not applicable to certain readers; for example, the chapter on military financial concerns was totally irrelevant to me personally.

Unlike many other popular financial guides, which are written by personality cult "experts" using the book to sell their other products, Kobliner keeps things objective and to the point. In fact, this book can be a little heavy on the dry tone and hypothetical calculations, and it can be hard to get through the longer chapters in one sitting due to the sheer amount of information she crams in. But I much prefer that to the breathy tone and fluffy content of other popular finance guides.

I would definitely recommend this book to any young people trying to get a handle on their finances, and it makes a great graduation gift. I'll likely buy a cheap copy for myself so I can use it to jog my memory on topics to look into. However, I will end this review by saying that you should get your hands on the most recent edition of this book possible — I read the 2017 version, and even that wasn't 100% up-to-date because of the tax bill that passed so recently.

The book covers a wide range of topics in a lot of detail providing links which at a first glance appear to be quite useful.
Downside is that the book is USA (as usually) I focussed. Would propose it to US citizens.