Tina Hay has an MBA from Havard and a knack of making complex and complicated financial concepts easily understood. Tina Hay uses doodles on napkins to illustrate financial topics like compound interest and how credit cards work. The doodles look like flow charts (check out the one on Bitcoin below). Napkin Finance covers all the basic financial topics and offers plenty of examples how you can improve your monetary position with a little tweaking. I especially enjoyed the “Chapter Quizzes” that help to make sure readers understand what they’ve been reading.
Most of the commentators on this blog would find much to ponder in Chapter 5: INTO THE SUNSET. Paying for retirement, dealing with Social Security, and the fundamentals of estate planning are all topics that concern us. Tina Hay lays it all out in an understandable fashion. And, for those of you who are about to do your taxes, Chapter 7: EZ Does It, provides some insights that might put more money in your pocket. Napkin Finance is one of the best personal finance books I’ve encountered. Highly recommended! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Money 101 — 1
Compound interest 2
Savings 4
Budget 7
Debt 10
Interest 14
Banks 17
Emergency Fund 20
Insurance 23
Chapter Quiz 26
2. Credit where it’s due — 30
Credit 31
Credit Cards 34
Improving Credit 37
FICO Credit Score 41
Chapter Quiz 44
3. Buy low, sell high — 48
Investing 49
Asset Classes 53
Diversification 56
Risk vs. Reward 59
Asset Allocation 63
Robo-Advisor 67
Chapter Quiz 70
4. Paying your dues — 74
Paying for College 75
Student Loans 78
FAFSA 82
529 Plan 85
Paying Off Student Loans 88
Chapter Quiz 92
5. Into the sunset — 96
Paying for Retirement 97
IRA vs. 401(k) 101
Social Security 104
Estate Planning 107
Chapter Quiz 110
6. A wild ride — 114
Stocks 115
Stock Market 118
Bull or Bear Market 122
Mutual Funds 126
ETFs 130
Bonds 134
What is an IPO? 137
Chapter Quiz 140
7. EZ does it — 144
Taxes 145
Tax Returns 148
1099 vs. W-2 Employee 152
Tax Deductions 156
Chapter Quiz 160
8. Go big — 164
Entrepreneurship 165
How to Start a Start-Up 168
Business Plan 172
Financing a Start-Up 175
Chapter Quiz 179
9. Voodoo economics — 182
GDP 183
Inflation 186
Recession 190
The Fed 193
Chapter Quiz 197
10. The bottom line — 200
Financial Statements 201
Profit & Loss 204
Balance Sheet 207
Liability 210
Chapter Quiz 213
11. The future of money — 216
Cryptocurrency 217
Bitcoin 221
Initial Coin Offering 224
Blockchain 227
Chapter Quiz 231
12. Wow your friends — 234
Rule of 72 235
Crowdfunding 238
Philanthropy 242
Hedge Funds 246
Invisible Hand 250
Game Theory 254
Chapter Quiz 257
Conclusion — 261
Acknowledgements — 263
Bibliography — 265
It does sound useful, though to be honest, that chart did not explain bitcoin at all to me. Does the “Voodoo economics” chapter talk about Reaganomics and the ongoing Republican “tax cuts for the wealthy” scam?
Jeff, yes. The Voodoo Economics chapter deals with all the disinformation about the Economy. Bitcoin is confusing under all conditions. This is about the best description of the cryptocurrency that I’ve encountered. Obvious, I don’t own any bitcoin.
A few years ago I became aware of bitcoin and 3-D printers around the same time. I still don’t understand either of them and have decided I don’t care.
Michael, I think 3-D printers have a big potential to impact the Economy. Bitcoin…not so much.
Three-D printers could be the future of model kit manufacturing since molds are so expensive! But this book holds no interest for me! The best financial advise I can give is don’t buy books about financial advise, or finance in general!
Bob, learning more about money always pays off!
This is an interesting book. I’ll see if my library has it.
I do manage my money very well, and am sorry to see interest rates going down. The smartest thing I did was buy my house in 1975 (the dumbest thing was not to have spent $40K (versus $25K) and get a house at the beach – inland not right on the boardwalk)
I’m not a whiz like you are at the stock market, though. My first purchase was either Pixar (my friend scott recommended it as he is an animation fan. I bought it at 19.63. It’s now Disney.) or Qualcomm – our paper’s former financial guy recommended it. I bought it right before it quadruple split (6.15) I sold enough of it that I have none of my own money in the stock market, it’s all profit.
I hope the chapter on seniors had the caution against reverse mortgages. I know 2 elderly ladies that got taken in my that (IMHO) scam. One was in a skilled nursing facility and died about a month and a half before she would have lost her house. She had no chlldren, so the only loss would have been to her creditors. I can’t believe people fall for that.
Maggie, I shudder when I see those Reverse Mortgages advertised on TV. The gullible will fall for the scheme and end up losing their home for a pittance and find themselves stuck with the taxes and expenses. Pixar (aka, DISNEY) and Qualcomm (QCOM) made you a lot of money. But the coronavirus will hurt those two stocks in the short-run.