It’s Time to Get a Financial Life
It’s tough to be a young adult today. Student debt remains at near-record highs, just as the repayment options have gotten worse. Gen Z is looking at credit card balances $500 higher, on average, than millennials had at the same age. Housing prices are higher than ever, pushing the average age of a first-time homebuyer to the oldest it’s ever been: 40. The job market is tough, even for college grads—who are terrified that AI is about to pull the rug out from under their careers.
So, what’s a Gen Zer or millennial to do? The answer, in part, is to start with proven money strategies that will help you build a strong financial life.
I wrote the first edition of Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties & Thirties for my own generation, Gen X. Back in the 1990s, everyone assumed that these slackers didn’t care about their finances. I knew they were wrong. My money guide hit the New York Times bestseller list because it was filled with the jargon-free basics young people were lacking, and it turns out, desperate for.
With a new generation looking at their own uncertain financial future, I knew it was time for a fully updated and revised fifth edition of Get a Financial Life (pre-order today!). And while some things have changed the core advice remains the same. Because it works.
In this new edition, you’ll learn how to:
- Pay off your high-rate credit card debt
- Boost your credit score—and track your progress for free
- Spend smarter and implement a reasonable budget
- Choose among the new federal student loan repayment plans.
- Start saving—even small amounts—in tax-favored retirement plans like 401(k)s and IRAs
- Avoid the risks of crypto
- Make the rent vs. buy calculation when it comes to where to live
- Understand the real winners of online gambling (hint: it’s not you)
- Skip (expensive) Buy Now, Pay Later schemes
- Analyze the costs and benefits of grad school
- Invest in the right index funds and ETFs
- Get health insurance coverage through work, the government exchange, or your parents’ plan
And unlike the scores of social media “finfluencers” out there, I don’t earn commissions on my advice—I go where the research and my three decades of knowledge take me. That’s why my essential advice has stood the test of time, from booms and busts, recessions, and even a pandemic. With more than 500,000 copies sold, Get a Financial Life is the only money guide you need, whether you earn $30,000 or $300,000 a year.
Get a Financial Life is available everywhere books are sold. Learn more here.
