CONTENTS Chapter Five PAGE 53 HEY SMART SPENDER Why do I buy what I buy Could it have something to do with my brain Chapter Six PAGE 71 THIS PLASTIC LIFE From credit cards to cash crash spending shenanigans to keep us up at night Chapter Seven PAGE 85 BANG FOR YOUR BUCK Find ways to save your cash and turn it into BIG money woo-hoo Chapter Eight PAGE 97 MAKE MONEY GROW Don’t think of it as compound interest think of it as magic moneymaking vi
Chapter Nine PAGE 113 CAN YOU SPARE A DIME Or a dollar Or a hundred bucks How does poverty affect the world Chapter Ten PAGE 131 RAISE A LITTLE FUN Want to donate your time and money to a good cause Do your homework avoid the scammers and make a difference PAGE 143 THE END What we here in the biz call a conclusion PAGE 148 GLOSSARY PAGE 150 INDEX vii
viii Money will buy you a pretty good dog but it won’t buy the wag of his tail HENRY WHEELER SHAW
INTRODUCTION People like you THE BEGINNING What’s pie got to do with it MONEY IT’S A LOT LIKE AN APPLE PIE Seriously I’m not making it up Okay maybe I am a little A pie starts with a bunch of random ingredients flour shortening eggs sugar cinnamon butter and apples But then you throw them together in a super-precise way stick the whole lot in a hot oven give it some time and voilà It’s just you a fork and a half-empty pie plate Money’s like that too A single nickel in your pocket doesn’t have much of an impact on your life Neither does a dime a quarter or even a 1
