Jean Chatzky

I did not like this book very much for a few reasons. Chief among them was the assertion that mismanagement of personal finances is the primary reason that many families were struggling during the Great Recession. The book fails to address the wider social, financial, and political forces that drive economic inequality, even though it is written for an adolescent audience. Adolescents are beginning to have the capacity for abstract thinking and often are motivated by a sense of fairness or conscience to learn about the world around them. The book did talk about important topics such as interest, debt, the Federal Reserve, and investing, which are essential to understand for successful personal financial literacy. Unfortunately, the book addressed these topics in a manner that was frequently patronizing.… (más)

Age-proof living longer without running out of money or breaking a hip.The title says it all. The premise of this book is that diet aging and finance are all intertwined. The idea makes a certain level of sense, but like most of the diet books I have read its the doing that's the hard part. The book is divded into five sections each elaborating on a different aspect of Jean Chatzky a TV financial guru and Dr Michael Roizen a well known doctor at the Cleveland Clinic's idea.Most of what is in the book is the same advice that they have given on their various TV appearances. The strength of the book is in its 1st part titled System Checks. This part gives the reader guideposts as to where they should be physically and financially. This book is full of self tests that force self examination. Fortunately the tests require no extra tech than a tape measure, a pencil and an active mind. The physical test will such things as how many push ups can you do in one minute, given your age, how many curls can you do. One test that surprised me was the simplest. Can you stand up from a chair without using your arms ? The financial self tests are a little harder requiring the reader to know their income and expenditures. The point of part one is to collect data so you can know where you stand and have the ability to measure progress. The weakest parts of the book is its definite bias toward married people. It assumes that the reader has a spouse as a key part of their support system. When it addresses insurance and financial needs there is no mention or thought of the peculiar needs of the single person. This is a good book and might be worth buying and is definitely worth getting from your library for test drive. It is available in both audiobook form and e-book form.… (más)