Make Your Own Luck: Practical Money Advice For Kids (Signed Copy)

Make Your Own Luck: Practical Money Advice For Kids... Financial Wisdom From People Who Clearly Got Lucky

Your mom says money doesn't grow on trees, because she works hard for her money and trees would undermine her position considerably. This book offers the practical financial guidance that nobody wanted to frame as honestly as this. It covers what money is, where money comes from, and the specific gap between what adults tell children about money and what adults actually do with money, which are two different educations and this book provides the second one. The advice is practical. Some of it is cynical. The cynicism is the practical part.

This illustrated adult parody book takes the genre of children's financial literacy and removes the aspirational varnish to find what's underneath. What's underneath is funny, recognizable, and considerably more useful than "work hard and save!" delivered by someone who is demonstrably not doing either of those things with visible success. The cartoons are cheerful. The money advice is real. The combination is one of the more honest financial guides for any age group currently in print.

This Book IS For:

• Adults who received optimistic money advice as children and have since encountered the actual economy
• Parents who want to give their children a realistic financial education that the school system is not providing
• Fans of humor that has a second function as genuinely useful perspective on a subject most content oversimplifies
• Gift-givers looking for something that works for a recent graduate who is about to learn about money the hard way anyway

This Book Is NOT For:

• Certified financial planners who have liability concerns about endorsing the specific advice contained herein
• Parents who have told their children the optimistic version of money and need them to believe it for a few more years
• Readers who want their financial guidance to end with a five-step plan that does not mention luck as a variable
• Anyone who believes that working hard is sufficient and luck plays no meaningful role in financial outcomes

Appropriate For:

• Graduation gifts... the most honest graduation gift you can give to someone entering the real economy
• White elephant exchanges where at least one person in the group has made a questionable financial decision recently
• Gifts for new employees who are about to learn that the salary negotiation conversation was more important than anyone told them
• Anyone who just checked their bank account and needs something to laugh about while they process

Why Buy This

Financial advice books cost forty dollars and tell you to make a budget, invest early, and avoid debt, which is all correct and also does not account for the specific circumstances that make all of that advice harder than it sounds in a forty-dollar book. This book costs considerably less, covers the parts the expensive books leave out, and does it with cartoon art and the resigned humor of someone who has done the math.

Money doesn't grow on trees. Trees would help. In the absence of trees, this book costs roughly what a coffee habit costs per day, produces no such habit, and provides information that the coffee habit has been preventing you from engaging with. Make your own luck. The book explains what that means in practice. The practice is funnier than the phrase suggests. Buy it. Budget for it. That's step one.