This is the Year I Put My Financial Life in Order

By: John Schwartz

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith

A New York Times correspondent shares his financial successes and mishaps, offering an everyman's guide to straightening out your money once and for all.

Money management is one of our most practical survival skills—and also one we've convinced ourselves we're either born with or not. In reality, financial planning can be learned, like anything else. Part financial memoir and part research-based guide to attaining lifelong security, This Is the Year I Put My Financial Life in Order is the book that everyone who has never wanted to read a preachy financial guide has been waiting for.

John Schwartz and his wife, Jeanne, are pre-retirement workers of an economic class well above the poverty line, but well below the one percent. Sharing his own alternately harrowing and hilarious stories—from his brush with financial ruin and bankruptcy in his thirties to his short-lived budgeted diet of cafeteria french fries and gravy—John will walk you through his own journey to financial literacy, which he admittedly started a bit late. He covers everything from investments to retirement and insurance to wills (at fifty-eight, he didn't have one!), medical directives and more. Whether you're a college grad wanting to start out on the right foot or you're approaching retirement age and still wondering what a 401(K) is, This Is the Year I Put My Financial Life in Order will help you become your own best financial adviser.

quick review

pretty liberal-leaning, but good information from his standpoint. and I appreciate at least mentioning God at the end :-)

Spot On

Thorough, enjoyable and spot on. I've been in the finance service industry for over 30 years and have read many books on personal finances for the general public. This is by far one of the very best. It's holistic, realistic and practical. I strongly recommend.

Excellent Information for the Newbie

Great book with lots of very important information. I've been reading a lot of financial books lately that give good information but are a little confusing at times. This book gave me a ton of real life information in a way that I fully understood through real world experiences. The authors sense of humor kept me totally interested too and never wanting me to skip over any chapters. Definite must read if you are just starting to get serious about your finances.

Entertaining & Informative!

Information to build on and get on a solid path. Well worth the investment of recources and time

Is this about finance or politics?

I got about 3/4 of the way through this book. The first half of the book was very informative and I found it valuable. However, the last half of the book incorporated too much political leaning and became a mouthpiece for his love and adoration for Barack Obama and Elizabeth Warren. This was largely during his discussions about the Affordable Care Act and how his opinion is that it is great and that the Republicans are hurting people. After a while I just had to stop. It's his book and he can talk about what he wants, but I'm trying to better my finances not listen to partisan political leanings.