[...] gentle tool to introduce the ideas of financial responsibility. Last year, I created a list of personal-finance books that make great gifts. If you can find a way to incorporate one of these (or a personal-finance magazine) naturally into [...]

[...] To encourage smart money behavior, I sent him a book for his birthday. While compiling my guide to personal finance books as gifts, I was intrigued by Growing Money: A Complete Investing Guide for Kids. This book by Gail Karlitz [...]

[...] Ask the Readers: Personal Finance Books as Gifts? [...]

Janice is a wonderfully enthusiastic writer and the book is just the right length (92 pages)for a young person without the patience to slog through a tome.

The one book that helped me learn to feel good about my income number, as well as how to work properly with it, was All Your Worth, by the Warrens (mother and daughter team).

AYW provides a straight-forward formula any person on any income size and learn from. They help you find balance within what you already spend on Must-Haves, Income, and Savings.

Key word is balance.

[...] Get Rich Slowly briefly discusses some issues with giving personal finance books as gifts, then lists some good ones for a number of age groups. [...]

Speaking of Jason Zweig, I’ve been meaning to check out Your Money and Your Brain. Might make a good gift for the more scientific-minded.

The Motley Fool book is a good suggestion for my 16 year old nephew he just got his first job and I would like him to be better off than his parents.

[...] finance book ever written gets mentioned, reviewed, recommended or discarded in the comments. (Read it at Get Rich [...]

http://www.braunmincher.com/en/Financial-Literacy-Quiz.html

Here is a link to the book on Amazon (I think it is also available in the book stores?):

http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Money-Everyone-Practical-Financial/dp/0979700302/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195565256&sr=8-1

Less of a focus on finances but more about the issues facing college grads as they head into the real world. I feel like it gave me a heads up when I finished school.

I don’t care for Suze’s shame and blame thing for women either. The problem is — while I know that sort of thing does go on, it’s far too easy to misappropriate those feelings where they aren’t needed.

Just give us women the same info as the men get and let us get on with it. Haven’t we had enough of the “poor women, band together and throw off your shackles of poor esteem.” I certainly don’t need to work on giving myself permission to have a financial life — I just need more of the finances!

For someone young, I would only give a book that advised on how to manage money — not invest it. If someone doesn’t have a handle on basic money management, they probably shouldn’t be investing at that point.

I avoid the Suze Orman books because I don’t like her attitudes toward her readers — especially her new tack of “Shame” and “Blame” targeted at women (UGH! repulsive!).

Credit card debt isn’t exclusive to young people, in all fairness. I know several college-aged students who actually are worried about their parents’ finances, knowing they might have to become responsible for them later, and it’s a big worry to them. But I really would like to see information getting out to Seniors and college-ages because having to repay student loans is enough pressure, but to be in heavy debt due to charge cards is just too much. I was thinking that Dr. Phil should do a show about this. I know he’s done shows, and so has Oprah, with couples in their 30′s and 40′s, and bring in financial planners for them to set them up on a budget, but to my knowledge neither has done a show about college students in heavy debt. And it has to be a big problem, not just in our country, but other ones too.

I have to disagree with Nicole, above, though I’m sure my disagreement stems from being in a different life circumstance. I just recently got Suze Orman’s book (Young, Fabulous, and Broke) and I really like it. I think it’s a great resource for me, as a single twentysomething in her first career-oriented job, trying to pay off old credit card debt and get things sorted out. Probably half of the things in the book don’t apply to me yet — I’m not in the market to buy a house, for example, nor am I getting married — but I think that I’ll get my $12 worth in the end. If I had been able to blow through the book and finish all the action steps immediately, it wouldn’t have been a very good resource, IMO.
Maybe my edition of the book is more current than the one the person above was reading, but the recommended website for getting my FICO score (which I got) only charged me $15. And I’m pretty sure Orman also mentioned that you can get your credit report for free. She does get a little too hip with the lingo sometimes, but I found the book to be quite clear and not confusing; also the resources on her website ARE pretty helpful. I suppose I like having someone tell me exactly what steps to take, in exactly what order, to get my financial life moving in the right direction.

I’m looking forward to checking out some of these other books!

My mom gave it to me last year for Christmas. I was 21 and wanted to learn about credit and mortgages and what not. Anyways, I followed her advice and went to check my credit and FICO scores at the website she suggested, paying 50 dollars to do so. It was about two weeks later I found out a) you can find out your credit score for free and b) cheaper places to get your FICO score, which isn’t that necessary to know esp if you’re young and haven’t really applied for much credit anyways.

Anyways, the link was to some affiliate of hers which really pissed me off because I don’t think she should be trying to make money off broke young people. We bought the book, take it easy Suze.

It just didn’t seem like she knew who the audience she was writing for was: Most of her recommendations take a lot of money (investments, mortgages) and there are too many “fun blurbs” and “check this out on my website” text boxes that are really distracting.

Stay Cheap!
Jeff Yeager, The Ultimate Cheapskate (AKA The Commander-in-Cheap)