Why Didn't They Teach Me This in School?: 99 Personal Money Management Principles to Live By

I think I can speak authoritatively on this subject. I have raised five children just like the author, and I am a CFP® Professional with an MBA in Personal Financial Planning. This book could be a good choice for a young adult who doesn't have the patience or reading comprehension to read a much more complete and better book, like "Get a Financial Life" by Beth Kobliner. Still, this book deserves a single star because of one piece of advice which is criminally bad, to stiff your landlord on your last months rent (#62). Following this advice would set up a young person for a bad credit reference right at the moment he or she needs it most, when applying to rent the next place or buying a first home. It's also dishonest. Why would a father of five give a young person such bad advice? Probably because he banged this book out and got it published before thinking it though completely.

I gave this book to both of our boys as a HS graduation gift. One child is a reader and a saver, the other is a spender who hates to read. Surprisingly, the reader didn't read it but my spender did and now is asking questions about credit cards, car loans and paying interest. He is all about "living within your means" now, though I reminded him that you need to live BELOW your means to be able to save money. He has several hundred in savings now whereas before he would blow it as fast as possible. Now he tells me stories of how he sees his friends making not so wise choices with their money. I never thought this day would come!So many people giving low reviews say "it's just common sense" but yet millions of adults are in debt up to their eyeballs, foreclosing on their mortgage or are under water, or not saving an emergency fund or having enough for retirement. So obviously there are millions out there that never learned this so called "common sense". I hope this book prevents my kids from being 2 of those millions.As someone else mentioned, if my husband and I had read this book 30 years ago, we would now be financially better off but we both learned the hard way.Thank you for writing this in a format that is not long chapters but little quickie sections so that my even my son who dislikes reading doesn't mind reading it. :)

I was optimistic about this book. However, it should be straight forward on the cover that the target audience is high school students. I bought this to potentially serve as complementary reading in a college course I teach. My students would be insulted if I assigned reading from this book. First of all, the font of the principal titles are ridiculously large. Even the font of the main text is a bit large. This seems like a cheap ploy to increase the size of the book. Second, you could get a summary of the book by simply reading the table of content - I guess this was probably intentional, but it makes buying (and reading) the book a bit unnecessary. A lot of the principals in this book are common sense. Third, I found the writing style to be very distracting. The book reads like a father giving generalized advice to a teenager, and much of the "advice" is personal opinion based on specific personal experiences. There are a lot of instances in which the author should have gone into much more detail on a subject. Finally, openly recommending that you refuse to pay your last month's rent is TERRIBLE advice. There is always a chance that your landlord will try to keep your security deposit. This actually happened to me, and I argued with the landlord and threatened to take him to court (and also turn him into the city for various reasons). Telling a landlord to simply keep your security deposit as the last month's rent could affect your credit history. What if the landlord claims damages to the apartment, you don't pay, and then he/she sends it to a collection agency??? When I move, my new landlord usually wants the name and number of my past 1-2 landlords... good luck getting a good reference if you didn't act in good faith with a previous landlord. Also, at least where I've lived, it's becoming more common for landlords to ask for 1.5 month's rent as a security deposit (and/ or ask for a separate pet deposit). The much better advice is to look for reviews of your landlord or his/her properties. Ask him/her for references from previous tenants in exchange for information on your previous landlords. Stay away from a landlord that seems insulted or put off by this.

This is the perfect book for someone just starting to earn and learn about money. I bought it as a high school graduation gift and promised a check AFTER my granddaughter had read it and discussed it with me. I wrote personal experiences on post-a-notes and stuck them in appropriate chapters. She amazed me when she announced she had opened a savings account and was putting 15% of her earnings into the account. She definitely received her check! Great book!

I teach Financial Literacy to high school kids and this book has been hugely beneficial. The content is relatable, brief and detailed with just enough information to keep them off their phones for 90 minutes at a time (block schedule)... 😎👍

I got this book because I heard such wonderful reviews on it. But when I got it and was flipping through this was the “chapter” list. I was really disappointed. I haven’t read the whole book yet but so far haven’t found any of the actual book like this.

I was taught some of this in school. My parents and in-laws taught me some of it. No one taught me all of it, nor put it together as well as Mr. Siegel does in this book. Thank you, Mr. Siegel.

I bought this for my high school senior. Love it! Easy read, to the point, and a great conversation starter; especially in the area of money and personal finance. Our kids don't learn how to budget or balance checkbooks in school. This is a non-threatening way to touch the subject and share some knowledge.

Easy to follow and apply. Probably the most concise approach to making incremental improvements to the way you handle money.

Great great book. So interesting and informative. Would recommend

Love the monthly budget, actual budget idea. Good points and easy to read. Must buy nook if you want to sort your money situation out

I bought 2 of these as stocking stuffers for my 20-something year old kids. I have read through it and it looks excellent, I wish I'd had this info when I was younger. Would definitely buy again and recommend to anyone who is looking for this info. It is written in a way that each section is short, quick and to the point so it isn't difficult or time-consuming to read.

Too simple mostly common sense knowledge, regretted buying this book, would have returned it if there is no return shipping fees from Amazon. Bad choice.