Book Review > 30-Minute Money Solutions

Money is intrinsic to our lives, and aspects of personal investment can inspire emotions ranging from delight to fear to greed and indeed for some, around November 2008, grief.

As the forward to this book states, “You’d think that managing your own money would be the most elemental of life skills, one we would all master at an early age.”

Curiously, that’s not the case. This book by American personal finance guru Christine Benz offers a perceptive handbook of money management for every stage of life.

Benz is Director of Personal Finance for global investment firm Morningstar and edits the monthly newsletter Morningstar Practical Finance, as well as writing a weekly column on Morningstar.com.

The book is divided into 11 sections that cover all aspects of getting your finances into manageable shape and is designed to offer the reader 30-minute ‘grabs’ to tackle the various issues covered.

The first three sections deal with the basics of establishing your net worth, seeing where the money goes, setting goals and budgets, achieving these goals and budgets by establishing appropriate payment and record-keeping systems.

These first sections are a great primer for young people at the start of their earnings careers, and also a good review checkpoint for those wanting to get their financial house in order prior to a life change such as marriage, having children or retirement.

Although Morningstar is a global firm, this book is pitched at the American market and all examples are for American taxation and superannuation conditions so the reader may become lost among the IRA and 401(k) acronyms.

This becomes even more of an issue as the book progresses to discussions on investment advantages relative to tax, superannuation and education. Again, all the examples relate to the American market.

Readers will find some value in the discussions of retirement strategy for managing portfolios – including sections on building the portfolio during retirement, determining withdrawal rates, and conducting a portfolio ‘check-up’.

The book concludes with a section on estate planning which has practical and useful advice that can be adapted for the Australian circumstance.

30-Minute Money Solutions is informative and written in a user-friendly accessible style for ‘everyman’ investors and has a useful index.

However, its scope is severely limited by the emphasis on the American financial environment.
 
On that score, it is not recommended for individual purchase for home libraries. It is recommended for collection by finance & economic libraries in Australia so that it can be accessible to individual users via the public library inter-library loan network. And it would make a great gift if you know of a young person heading off to America to start university or a career.

At the book’s end one is left with the thought… it would be great if we had a comprehensive up to date book like this for all aspects of Australian personal investment.

Graham Smith is a member of the AIA.