A Book Review of "Why Didn't They Teach Me This in School?"
A book review usually analyses a literary work by explaining key textual points. The summary is succinct and precise, highlighting the literary work's strengths and limitations. A book review, in this sense, aims to offer the intended audience a sneak peek of the book's contents. As a result, this article is a book analysis of Cary Scott Siegel's "Why Didn't They Teach Me This in School?"
The Purpose of the Book
"Why Didn't They Teach Me This in School?" by Cary Scott Siegel is a financial and money management book that Siegel wrote about his five children when they developed into adults. The intention was to share his vast knowledge on money and financial management acquired through experience in the management and financial sector. However, along with the process of development, Siegel realized that the institutions including high schools, colleges, and universities were not offering personal money management skills. Driven by the notion that the books that hinted on the subject tended to be complicated besides being lengthy, he found it necessary to write the book while targeting high school students, college students, university students and the general public members with an interest in personal money and financial management.
The Content of the Book
The book comprises eight key lessons that focused on 99 personal money and management principles to live by. The language used is simple, easy to understand hence the concepts are quickly conceptualized and mastered, thus enhances the target's money and management abilities. Comparing and contrasting Siegel’s book with many other personal money and management principles, it is exemplary due to the fact that it is not complicated and uses a language that the audience finds to be a quick, easily digested read that intensively delves into the qualitative aspects as opposed to the quantitative aspects of personal money and management techniques. Nonetheless, the informative personal money and management principles are not drawn from other secondary sources but entirely from his walks of financial life and the many financial sectors he had an opportunity to work with before his retirement. Notable from the readings is that the author employs an orthodox means for the benefit of the reader where his style provokes the audience mind and engages them in sensible, critical and logical reasoning while conceptualizing the messages.
The Structure of the Book
The author through book achieves its goals by categorizing the lessons into their respective segments. Under the segments, each topic is discussed in its entirety through simple language and real life example for illustrative purposes. The segments that enable the audience to identify with what to expect addresses key personal money and management principles encompassing life lessons, budgeting and saving lessons, spending lessons, debit and credit lessons, investing lessons, housing lessons, insurance lessons, and finally quick tips that kind of refreshes the reader of the other seven major lessons.
Key Takeaways
In life lessons, the author achieves his goal by managing to inform the audience that effective personal money management begins choosing the right partner in marriage and by all means live below your financial income in order to spend less and save more. Nonetheless, he manages to enable the reader to understand the worth of setting realistic and long-term objectives. Budgeting is another key lesson that the audience is able to learn from the book whereby an individual is informed of the best approaches and principles of initiating working budgets that encourage opportunities for personal saving. Housing lessons achieve the objective of informing the audience on what to do and how to manage personal finances in terms of residential choices. Spending lessons achieve the objective of enabling the audience to learn how to spend within their limits and avoid spending thrift whereby people get to understand that it is only useful to buy what you need and take care of it. Lessons learned from the credit and debt segment enable the author to achieve his objectives by letting the audience be informed of the effects of getting into debts and how to get out of them. In reference to credit, the author informs that the audience use them as limited as possible and not under any circumstance be in possession of more than one credit card since more than one encourages unnecessary spending. Investment lessons, as of the information provided by the author, achieve the purpose by advising the audience on what places and how to invest their hard-earned and saved money. Finally, through the insurance lessons, the author manages to achieve his objective by managing to share and inform the audience on how to buy as well as manage insurance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the book is integral for persons who have the interest of being good at managing their personal money and general financial aspects. For instance, the seven major lessons address the significant aspects of personal money management that for a long time have not been taught at our institutions. In this view, I would confidently recommend the book to any person with challenges in financial management for it exhausts the personal money management from angles that leave you informed but above all, desire for implementation of the learned lessons.
