Money by the Book - An Introduction

The path to understanding personal finance can be a daunting one. Stories about money fill the media: the indebtedness of the average person; the stock market's latest rise or fall; one financial planning firm or another gunning after your business with their advertising dollars. With so much information out there, it's hard to know where to begin. Sadly, many people just give up there.

A number of people have set themselves up as guides for others to follow, but even that can be overwhelming. A quick look in the rather small branch location of my local library showed at least 50 books on personal finance alone. I didn't even really get to investing, real estate, estate planning, insurance, consumer spending, and all of the other topics that make up how we spend our money.

I started down the path to understanding personal finance as I transitioned from college to work. The more I learned about finance, the more I realize how much I enjoyed it. The complexity and massive amount of often conflicting information is a challenge that suits my personality. While I have interest, I found I don't have a lot of knowledge. As a result, Money by the Book was born.

What I'll do here is review personal finance books as I read them. I'll try to overview them and include my thoughts about how useful they might be, and to whom. Readers who don't have my passion for finance can get some of the better information in five minutes instead of hours. Readers who find particular topics interesting can have some direction on where the best resources might be for their time. If I have no readers, at least I'll get to learn!