Bobbi reveals her favorite new money related books for financial grownups, and how to decide if they are right for you. This episode's picks include Undaunted, Overcoming doubts and doubters by Hint Founder and CEO Kara Goldin, The Rocket Years, How your Twenties Launch the Rest of Your Life, by Elizabeth Segran, The Money Tree, A story about Finding the Fortune in Your Own Backyard by Chris Guillebeau and The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live by William Hirsch. Plus a bonus fiction pick; They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman

Book 1: Undaunted. Overcoming doubts and doubters by Kara Goldin.

Here’s what I liked about the book: 

Kara is the founder of Hint and while I have yet to meet her in person we’ve got a lot of friends in common and have spoken many times- I thought I knew her pretty well before I read her book. And certainly from all the articles that have been written about her success. I had no idea. Kara reveals a lot in this book -and it is interesting because it’s really the candid and not so pretty personal side of a business launch. Things we just assume ‘get done’ she was actually, often with her family in tow, just doing herself. And even when it looks like - oh - she made it-there she is on the cover of a magazine being lauded for her achievements- behind the scenes- the business hit another HUGE challenge- and all that work could just go “poof’. The book also has a lot of “what would I have done given those choices- all of which were bad choices?” - something we can probably all relate to during the pandemic. I was on the edge of my seat reading this- not typical for a business book. Highly recommend.  

Who is this book for? 

It’s pretty obvious this book is going to be a home run for entrepreneurs who are bootstrapping it- Kara and her family literally put in their own money - and not always by choice- when there was no other funding option. 

But it is also for anyone dealing with tough career choices in this pandemic. As much as Kara has done well with this venture- she wonders along the way- would it have been easier- and frankly MORE lucrative- to have stayed on the corporate track. The books also has great lessons about balancing your business and your family- when it is not always realistic to separate them- we can all relate to the blending of work and family - and not by choice- and Kara has great lessons on how to deal with it all. 

Book #2:  The Rocket Years, How your Twenties Launch the Rest of Your Life, by Elizabeth Segran

Here’s what I liked about the book

I loved seeing the choices of a twenty something through her unique vantage point. Liz clarifies the impact of the decisions we make in a way that really has not been presented before - and that’s not easy to do. I also like the way she outlined the different aspects of the Rocket Years - meaning your 20’s. Its not all financial-it’s a whole ecosystem that works together to form who you are and to a larger extent than many of us consciously realize, the life we will lead. 

Who is this book for?

The book is written for twenty somethings figuring out their lives- but it is telling that the author wrote it in her thirties.. so it is also something anyone out of their twenties can use to reflect on the choices they have made, and the impact they have had. That’s why I love it. 

And you can learn more about Liz and have her answer your questions by listening to my other podcast Money with Friends- where she is a regular co-host this season- it’s in all the places podcasts are- and also we record the episodes live on the money with friends tube channel so please subscribe to the money with friends youtube channel as well.

Book #3: The Money Tree, A story about Finding the Fortune in Your Own Backyard by Chris Guillebeau

Here’s what I liked about the book 

This book is super creative in that it uses a fictional storyline to share a unique perspective on the money decisions we all make. At first I thought it would be pretty predictable but it wasn’t. There are unexpected plot twists and an ending I did not see coming. I didn’t know Chris at all when I did his interview for the Financial Grownup podcast but I was so wowed by him that I asked him to be part of Money with Friends. He was so great on that podcast as well. 

Chris is a wonderful story teller- which is a true credit to him because his previous six books - including Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days were non-fiction.

Who is this book right for: 

I love this for anyone trying to figure out who they are- from a money perspective. By that I mean- what are your actual priorities? What are you willing to do to achieve your goals? Are you willing to stop being a victim and start taking action? Are you willing to put in the work? This book will be incredibly motivating. I love it as a book heading not just into a New Year in general - but heading into 2021- a time when many of us are ready- really ready- to re-start whatever we put on hold or get started with new goals that have formed during 2020. And on that note- it is also an awesome gift for your friends that need a little more motivation when it comes to generating income and taking charge of their own financial life. Kind of a perfect book to help someone become a financial grownup. 

Book #4: The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live by William Hirsch.

Here’s what I liked about the book

This is the perfect book for the pandemic and for trying to find new ways to have your  work and personal lives co-exist in your home as you never imagined. Our homes were not set up for us to work at this level- and frankly for the vast majority  they weren’t set up for us to spend pretty much 24-7 there with our family. I know when I set up my business, I set up to have places to work in my home when my kids were all at school and my husband was at work- often traveling days at a time. The pandemic ended all that. 

This is not a book I would have picked up had it not been suggested to me by a friend I really trust- and even though it is not technically a money book- Bill even codes the cost of this tips by cost- so you can prioritize based on your budget. 

I have literally put so many ideas from the book to work: I now have greenery outside my window- and feel good knowing that Bill said it is perfectly fine if that greenery is fake. It actually makes me feel calmer to look out at my fake green hedge. I also use his pebbles technique- where you get rid of little distractions around your home- yes- change the lightbulb- and make sure it is warm color! Pick up the clutter, fix that squeeky door. You get the idea. He has tips on how to arrange your furniture, how to use specific ways of using art on the walls- even things like putting framed windows in your homes to serve as surrogate windows. I did some eye rolls- until I realized- this stuff really works. 

Who is this book right for?

Everyone whose home life has been impacted by the pandemic. Read it and take notes. And of course listen to Bill’s episode of the podcast. You can also read the show notes on my website bobbirebell.com- just search for his name in the search bar at the top of the website. 

Bonus Fiction Book: They With They Were Us by Jessica Goodman

This was a total page turner and I’m going to have an interview with the author, Cosmo editor Jessica Goodman early in 2021. I could not put this down.  Not a surprise it is being turned into a TV series called The Players Table- which will make total sense after you read the book. It is going to star Sydney Sweeney from the series Euphoria- as well as Halsey. It has been described as quote “Gossip Girl meets One of Us Is Lying with a dash of The Secret History in this slick, taut murder mystery set against the backdrop of an exclusive prep school on Long Island”

Episode Links:

• My Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/lists/financial-grownup-authors

• Undaunted, Overcoming doubts and doubters by Hint Founder and CEO Kara Goldin

• The Rocket Years, How your Twenties Launch the Rest of Your Life by Elizabeth Segran

• The Money Tree, A story about Finding the Fortune in Your Own Backyard by Chris Guillebeau

• The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live by William Hirsch

• They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Getting a PhD was an expensive, and time consuming investment for Elizabeth Segran. So the decision to leave academia did not come lightly. We discuss the season of her life when she came to the realization that it was time to pivot, and the financial grownup moment that clarified what she really wanted to be doing. 

Elizabeth’s Money Story:

Elizabeth Segran:
Absolutely. When I was 25, I took myself to a small village in India called Pondicherry as part of my research. I spent six weeks, the whole summer, walking through this tiny town, learning the language, floating on little boats in the water, exploring the food. And all of this was part of the research that I was doing. And it was one of the most remarkable experiences of my life. But what I'll tell you is that I had very little money in my bank account, and I was spending my 20s gathering all of these experiences, trying to figure out what I really wanted from life, and throughout that process, I wasn't making any money.

Bobbi Rebell:
And how did you feel about it at the time versus how you feel about it now?

Elizabeth Segran:
People often ask me, was it valuable for you to go do a PhD? Especially since, as I explained in my book, I entered the job market in the middle of the great recession. There were no jobs in my field. And so I had to rethink what I wanted to do, and I eventually became a fashion journalist for a business magazine called Fast Company. And I also am now a writer of books. And people are like what were you doing? Did you feel like it was a waste of time? And my answer is always, absolutely not.

Elizabeth Segran:
For those of us who are in our 20s and 30s, millennials and Gen Z, it is far more important for us to find work that aligns with our values, passions, and identity, than to think purely about compensation. And that sets us apart from our parents' generation, who were primarily interested in work that would pay the bills, and that would give us some sort of social status in life. For those of us who are in our 20s and 30s, we know that we're going to be working for 40, 50 years. And we know that that work is going to take so much from us. And so it is so important for us to spend our 20s figuring out what that path is.

Elizabeth Segran:
And for me, that was being in this tiny village in India. I didn't make a lot of money in those years, but I did get a very clear sense of what I value and what I want to be doing with my life. It took being away from the United States, being in this country, spending a lot of time reading and doing all this research about India and my culture and all of these different things that gave me a sense of what I really want to do in life. And so I would not trade that for the world.

Bobbi Rebell:
I want to know your opinion then on this pushback we're getting during the coronavirus pandemic. So many colleges are conducting classes virtually, and it's not the same experience for all the obvious reasons, but then there's this idea of what are we really paying for with an education? And the value of that four year traditional bachelor degree and we can extrapolate that to go all the way forward to a PhD when there's now a case being made for people just learning a trade. Is there still value in this whole idea of this extended period of higher education? What do you think about that whole idea that's being discussed now?

Elizabeth Segran:
I'm really sad to hear that many colleges are not just thinking about transitioning to remote learning during this period, but potentially make that part of their coursework going forward. And I'm really sad as well that the higher education is on the brink of collapse, and many people are not going to be able to get PhDs and other degrees going forward.

Elizabeth Segran:
Because there's lots of things that you can learn on the job. For me, I left with my PhD and then I became a journalist. I learned so much while I was practicing the work that I'm doing. And I think that that's true of many jobs. You learn on the job. But what you can't replace in higher that broadening of the mind, reading a lot. I'm spending time with other people asking really difficult questions about what life is about. All of that.

Elizabeth Segran:
It seems so frivolous, especially at a time when the economy is on the brink of collapse, but that is what we need in order to figure out what we want to be as individuals and as a society. It's in those conversations that we figure out what we want the world to be like. If we're closing off the spaces where we can have those conversations, those in-person discussions, the ability to travel to different locations and study abroad and explore other cultures, all of this stuff, if this goes away, I think that we're going to lose something very important.

“There has been this ideal of finding your dream job throughout history but for most of time people didn’t have the ability to actually do that kind of work.”

Elizabeth’s Money Lesson:

Elizabeth Segran:
Here's the main thing that I would like to communicate. I think that we're really lucky because we are among the first generations in the history of mankind who can find work that is an extension of our identity and ourselves. There's been this ideal of finding your dream job throughout history, but for most of time, people didn't have the ability to actually do that kind of work. For most of history, you had to be a farmer because that was the only work available to you. Or you had to learn a trade among a very small number of options that was out there. And even for our parents' generation, this notion was crystallizing, but the data shows that most people were still mostly interested in finding work that paid the bills.

Elizabeth Segran:
That is not true for us. We have the opportunity to find work and pursue work that aligns with who we are. And that is a huge gift. I think our 20s should really be spent trying to figure out what that work is for us and being patient with ourselves and going on these winding journeys to find it.

Elizabeth Segran:
Now, the data shows that 50% of people will eventually find work that is not just merely satisfying to them, but that exceeds their expectations. This is amazing news. Most of us will eventually find work that really makes us happy and really aligns with our identity.

Elizabeth Segran:
Now, the flip side to that is that it is really easy for employers to exploit workers who are working primarily out of a sense of purpose and out of a sense of passion, rather than trying to find good compensation. If we as workers are pursuing our work because we're passionate about it, it's really easy for employer to say that is compensation in itself. We're not going to pay you that much. Or, you're enjoying being part of the culture at this company, as a result, we're going to not compensate you enough. That is the downside to this new philosophy of work. And so the advice that I would give to people is once you figured out your path and you found work that is really engaging and passionate and that you will be able to do for the next 40 years, and it'll keep you happy. Once you've found that, you need to be really cautious about ensuring that you are properly compensated and that you have a good insurance and that you have good benefits because it's really easy to be exploited in this new way that we work.

“It is really easy for employers to exploit workers who are working primarily out of a sense of purpose and out of a sense of passion rather than trying to find good compensation.”

Elizabeth’s Money Tip:

Elizabeth Segran:
When you are considering taking a job, I would really caution you not to get distracted by shiny things that an employer puts in front of you like, "We have unlimited cold brew coffee on tap," or, "We have an amazing foosball table that our employees use," or "We have nap pods." I think it's really easy to get sold that this is a company that really wants to create an amazing culture and make you feel at home and all of that, because what you really need to be focused on is what is the salary that they're paying you? Is it on par with the market? Are you going to negotiate to make sure that you're getting paid appropriately? What is the benefits package like?

Elizabeth Segran:
I think it's really easy for brands to try and convince you that the work that you're so passionate about and the culture of the workplace that you're looking at is more important than your salary. And so you just need to not take the bait.

“It is really easy for brands to try and convince you that the work that you are so passionate about and the culture of the workplace that you are looking at is more important than your salary so you just need to not take the bait.”

Bobbi’s Financial Grownup Tips:

Financial Grownup Tip #1:

Elizabeth is adamant that we not allow ourselves to get exploited, and she is so right. But she also makes sure that we know that you have to be deliberate in the industry that you choose to join, because we can only control what we can control, which is our own choices for the most part. We can't change an entire industry's pay scale or the number of jobs that there are in the industry. She learned that pretty quickly about the academic world. You can read more about this in her book, but she goes into her decision to leave academia where only a small fraction of PhDs, and yes, she spent years getting one, actually work their making a grownup salary. Rather than just keep fighting, what is a harsh reality, but is reality, she went into a field that she also loved and where she was able to negotiate the right compensation for the work. And so she is doing something she's passionate about and she is getting paid.

Financial Grownup Tip #2:

Cut your losses. Whether it's a PhD, a law degree or whatever, if you spent money for an expensive education, the money has gone, regardless. The time has gone, regardless. When we were talking before the interview, I asked Elizabeth how she felt about spending so much time and money on a degree that she wasn't really using. PhDs, honestly, I'm intimidated by the whole idea. It is a lot of time. It is a big chunk of your life. But she still feels it was super valuable. And that education has a lot of value in and of itself. Yes, it is ridiculously too expensive right now, but that kind of education is not the same as a quick online course that teaches you job specific skills.

Episode Links:

• Elizabeth’s website - www.elizabethsegran.com

Follow Elizabeth!

• Instagram - @lizsegran

• Twitter - @LizSegran

• Facebook - @elizabeth.segran

• LinkedIn - @elizabethsegran

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.