Foreword

• Financial management is not simple anymore.
• It is too easy to borrow money – debt trouble has serious, long-term consequences.
• Advertisers have the upper-hand – young people need to develop sales resistance.
• There are too many people trying to sell inappropriate financial products to unsuspecting customers.

I wrote this book to communicate the importance of financial management to my two teenage sons and others like them. The “video” generation is a tough bunch to reach. The schools do not teach basic money management skills. All of the books I found on the subject were boring and covered the wrong subjects. In my practice as an independent CPA, I see first hand just how devastating bad financial decisions can be.

I have attempted to write a different type of money management book - one that will hold a young adult’s attention just long enough to impart essential information. I cover all of the basics and do not go into a lot of detail. There is a companion Teacher’s Guide available for this book with expanded content and activities for use by schools and other organizations.

The objective of this book is to give a young adult basic information they need to protect themselves in a very complicated financial world.