Okay, okay, this is not my usual reading fare. But I am MISERABLE at understanding our finances, and I really do want to know what we're going to be getting ourselves into in the next few years as we eventually graduate and start having real incomes and real financial responsibilities. While we were in Utah over Christmas break, Sarah said this was the textbook for her family finance class she was taking, so I found it at the library.
And it was really helpful! Like the subtitle says, it's meant specifically for young people with small/beginning incomes without a lot of understanding about the world of stocks and accounts and loans. I mostly felt reassured after reading it--although we're relatively poor, we're in pretty good shape according to Kobliner's criteria. We have no debt, we both have IRAs, we have at least three months of money readily accessible, we have health insurance, we have decent credit scores--not too bad. So even though we don't have any investments (and probably won't for a while) we're at least not in a BAD place to be when you're both in grad school. The chapter about the investing, with the differences between stocks and bonds and mutual funds (and whatever, I'm not going to say I'm an expert on the stuff now) was really helpful because no matter how many times Tommy explains it to me, I can't ever remember what the difference is between all of them. I probably should/will re-read the chapters on buying a home and getting the right types of insurance closer to when Tommy graduates and we're moving somewhere else, because right now we're pretty comfortable in our apartment and with our school insurance plans. A very useful book--and I'm also waiting for The Millionaire Next Door at the library, so hopefully that will supplement this information.
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