Rich by Thirty: A Young Adult's Guide to Financial Success

by Lesley Scorgie

Counsels readers entering their adult years on how to take advantage of an early financial start, sharing practical advice on a range of topics, from saving and investing to avoiding debt and learning how to budget.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Professional Development

176 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

Reviews

[Karen JEC · Rating 3 out of 5]

A substantial introduction to young adults regarding their money matters. Scorgie provides enough information to whip up interest in her readers and unleash them into the investing world! Unfortunately, the 2007 version that I read was full of errors in the tables -- hopefully these have been fixed or else a lot of people are going to get confused. I introduced some of the stories to students a few years ago, and they seemed to really connect with the perspective.

Favourite quotes:

"It comes down to this: money enables us to have choices."

"The 'invest in what you know' approach: With this strategy, you simply invest in companies that you know a lot about... Doing research on things that interest you is never difficult or boring!"

[JeffJefferson53 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m older than 30 but I read this book about money.
This book will not help you be rich by thirty for a few reasons.
First, the author supports leverage as a way to build wealth. This is building wealth through debt essentially. I do not support this and I think a few considerations were overlooked that should have been discussed to not ever support this method of building wealth. The author did not include inflation in this consideration so the 3% return that was an example would only be a 1% return. The market is risky and the more risky it is, the higher the return (or loss). Why would anyone take this risk for only 1% return after inflation. And lest please suddenly not forget that inflation is not a factor here. Also, most MF investments do not meet or beat the market or even come close to that. Check the stats (likely around 80%) and use that over the theory of just math. Rather than investing through debt for a 1% return, avoid that risk and drop smaller money to lock away in CD until you can invest.
The essential concept of building wealth is monitoring your spending and avoiding debt so I’m surprised the author suggests debt to get rich.
I don’t think she explained ETF to index clearly. The both are described as the same thing essentially.
Also, she doesn’t hound harder about the student loan pandemic. When you present good debt and bad debt, people with ‘good’ debt stay in that debt longer. They retire with student loans or have multiple home loans because it’s good debt. It misses the fact that they are trapped as ‘mortgage renters’.
Someone truly about money principles needs to drop this knowledge stricter.
Lastly, she did not describe how to invest in retirement accounts. She did not describe how a TFSA is better than a RRSP (Roth better than 401k). Match beats after tax beats before tax. You want to grow the account that will not be taxed later regardless of ‘having a smaller tax bracket later’. Plain and simple, would you rather $200,000.00 of growth that is going to get taxed or was already taxed. With the RRSP or 401k you want to invest the annual amount that drops your taxes but no more unless you have the maxed out TFSA or Roth.
I agree with part of the get out of debt strategy that the author suggests but she also says to invest even with debt and I cannot agree with this. If you have debt (besides a mortgage) you are not ready to invest. What you do is you save money to have one to three months of expenses. This will essentially be the start of an emergency fund that you will use to avoid going into more debt. At the same time you build that and learn to save, you make debt payments, budget and plan so that your debt drops. Once you have 3 months of savings you kill your debt and from there you can invest. Some MM will suggest $1000 to one month cash fund then hammer the debt. Please don’t invest money for a 8% return when you have credit cards that are 19-22% interest. This will lengthen the time and interest you pay in debt. Get out of debt fast and invest. But to invest wisely and comfortable you’ll need a different book to gain that knowledge to use.

[Bobbie McLeod · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is now obviously very outdated but it was an incredibly easy read and it still teaches you the basics of finance. I do everything possible to avoid paying interest so reading her take on investing that extra income rather than paying off debt if you have the potential to make more money was enlightening.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very very basic. I dont really find I learned all that much from reading this book. I understand that its target audience is youth in early 20s but still...the tone of this book seems very dull and at certain points, almost as if its talking down to you

[Jahn Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid advice, but deffinetly meant for people who are JUST starting out on their financial journey. Give this one pass if you already know what Mutual/Index Funds are, related terminology and how they work.
It you don't, this is a great book to start out with

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s just not very original

[C-chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It's full of good advice for under 30s from a financial perspective. While (as is said elsewhere) one will want to look beyond this to get more information, it's a good starting point, and suggests venues to research in order to create a good financial picture for any individual.

I'd definitely recommend other twenty-somethings and teens to read this book and get an idea of where to start looking in the grand financial picture of their lives.

[Rbarfuss · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hopeful this would be a good book for my 20-something children. While the advice is generally pretty good (I do take some issue on the debt-reduction strategy she advocates, as while good from a financial perspective, most people won't get through it.)

Her writing is easy and conversational, and maybe that will be the difference in my kids actually reading the book.

Over-all, decent book, but not one that I'd rave about.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great starter book in personal finance. Scorgie does an excellent job dishing out financial advice, but also explains clearly different financial concepts that don't crop up in other personal finance books (even though they should). "Rich by Thirty" is easy to understand and I'd recommend it to anybody and everybody.

[Car · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is targeted for an audience of 18 - 25 year old, but reading it at 39 years old, I received lots of great advice for how to take control of my finances.

For my full book review, click here:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/arti...

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some good tips in this book, a lot of the same stuff I remember reading in the other books for young investors my father would get for me when I was younger. However, I don't feel like this is information you need to buy a book to get. Most of this information is likely available online. There are sure to be blogs devoted to this and the information really isn't that complicated.

[CJ Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you've never read a personal finance book before then you'll probably get something out of this. Otherwise don't expect anything new. Her introduction has hashtags (because I guess that's what women want?). I couldn't take anything seriously after that - and am disappointed an intelligent woman would resort to such stereotypical "valley girl" tactics.

[Kharah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I totally recommend this, whether it's too late to be rich by thirty or not. It's a really good foundation for those that want to budget, save, get debt under control or invest but have no idea where to start.

[Sheryl Winczura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Rich by Thirty after hearing Lesley Scorgie address financial literacy at a WOI event in Calgary. An eye opener for strategic debt reduction, investing and saving. A must read for anyone under 30!

[Marysia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not surprisingly, the title of this book is a "hook" more than anything else. While the book contains some good advice about investing for beginners, budgeting, etc, it was published in 2007 -- pre-recession -- and feels accordingly out of date.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good to read while you're young (before 30, hahaha). Excellent financial advice, easy to read.

[Athena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of very good, helpful tips!

[Sarah Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

very helpful for young people trying to live financially responsible lives.