Book Review: Broke Millennial Takes On Investing
Broke Millennial Takes On Investing: A Beginner's Guide to Leveling Up Your Money

Money at 30: “Broke Millennial Takes on Investing” Book Review

Broke Millennial Takes On Investing: A Beginner's Guide to Leveling Up Your MoneyThere’s a common belief that, having come of age during the Great Recession, most Millennials have been turned off to investing. Well, until relatively recently, you could count me among those of my generation that were either too afraid, too uninformed,  or just too broke to invest. Perhaps that’s why the second entry in Erin Lowry’s aptly titled Broke Millennial book series is dedicated to the topic. The result is Broke Millennial Takes On Investing: A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up Your Money.

First, as I’ve chronicled both here and on my Money@30 site, I have been dabbling in investing more and more over the past year or two. This includes buying a handful of stocks on Robinhood, making an effort to max out our Roth IRA, and most recently, researching index funds. So while I may not exactly be a “broke Millennial,” this book seemed right up my alley, leading me to pre-order it when I saw its existence.

Keeping in line with one of the unique elements of its predecessor, Broke Millennial Takes on Investing once again presents itself as a “Choose Your Own Adventure” of sorts, with Lowry devoting early chapters to diagnosing readers’ needs and prescribing them to chapters to read. In a slight deviation, however, there’s also the chance that this might not be for you just yet. That’s due to the reality that not everyone is in a financial situation where investing makes sense. Likely pleasing her publisher, Lowry stops short of suggesting those who aren’t financially ready to invest should put the book down as it’s never too early to learn about investing even if you can’t quite participate. Of course Lowry also refers readers looking to get their money on point toward her first book, Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together. On the other side of coin, Lowry does point out that the word “beginner” is in the title of this book. This is to say that, if you’re already actively investing and know your way around a brokerage account and diversified portfolio, you might not get a ton of value from her insight.

Speaking of that first book, on the whole, I’d have to say that this follow-up is far denser. Just flipping through the two titles you can see that this book features far fewer bullets and breaks in the page, instead featuring many more blocks of straight text. That said each chapter is still divided into subsections and concludes with a handy checklist, highlighting the biggest takeaways. This represents a slight change in style, but I still think it worked well. Of course it helps that Lowry’s humor and anecdotes are still intact, making even the technical talk easy to embrace.

Despite Lowry’s permission to skip a few chapters, there was only one that left me flipping. The penultimate chapter (not including the conclusion) is titled “Tactics the Wealthy Use to Make and Preserve Wealth.” Given the subject matter and the fact that its mostly made up of block quotes from various experts, you’d think this would be a home run. Unfortunately I found that I vastly preferred Lowry’s writing style to reading these transcriptions, leaving me to lose interest after a few entries. Instead, I skipped ahead to the checklist at the end for the distilled version. Aside from this, my only other minor critique is that Lowry frequently feels the need to reintroduce a person she quotes throughout and reuses the same quotes a time or two. These are surely symptoms of the “Choose Your Own Adventure” concept and really aren’t that big of a deal unless you’re reading the book cover to cover over the course of a weekend like yours truly.

As I mentioned in my review of her previous title, I was really looking forward to reading Broke Millennial Takes On Investing: A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up Your Money. Luckily that excitement was not misplaced as I truly enjoyed Lowry’s look at different financial options and her insights into investment. Although it may not leave you with an exact idea of what brokerage account to open or what funds to invest in, it will certainly give the resources and knowledge you need to make those important decisions for yourself (or at least start your due diligence). For that reason, whether you’re an actual “broke Millennial” or ready to take the next big step in your financial journey, I’d recommend checking out this one out.

Author

Kyle Burbank

Head Writer ~ Fioney
Kyle is the head writer for Fioney. He is a personal finance nerd, constantly looking for new apps and services to test and incorporate into his own financial game plan. In addition to his role at Fioney, he's written for other publications including Born2Invest, Lifehack, and Laughing Place, as well as his own site Money@30. He also creates personal finance and travel-related videos for Money@30's YouTube channel, which has garnered more than 2 million views. Currently, Kyle resides in Springfield, Missouri with his wife of 10 years. Together, they enjoy traveling (including visiting Disney Parks around the world), dining, and playing with their dog Rigby.

Other Articles by Kyle Burbank

Bilt and Alaska Airlines logos and app and ticket

Alaska Airlines Becomes Latest Bilt Rewards Transfer Partner

Bilt Rewards is bringing in a new travel partner — along with some unique options for members. About the partnership: Bilt has announced a new partnership with Alaska Airlines. As a result, Bilt members will now be able to transfer their points to Alaska's Mileage Plan at a rate of 1:1. Alaska joins a slate of numerous other airlines and hotel brands that customers can transfer points to, including Air...
Chase Freedom Flex card

Chase Reveals Q2 2024 Freedom 5%(+) Bonus Categories

Chase has announced its bonus category picks for the second quarter of 2024 — including some interesting twists. About the categories: As April approaches, Chase has revealed what categories Freedom and Freedom Flex cardholders can earn bonuses on. From April 1st through June 30th, customers can earn 5% (or more) in three categories: Amazon.com, Hotels, and Restaurants. Similar to how Chase embraced a "New Year, New Me" theme last quarter,...
Experian Boost on phone

Experian Boost Review: How Does it Work? Is it Worth it?

Building credit has long been a Catch-22 as getting approved for credit often means already having credit established. Luckily for consumers, in recent years there have been a few innovations that have addressed this issue in different ways. One such option is Experian Boost, which comes from Experian — one of the three major credit bureaus in the United States. While you may have seen the ads for the service...
The "Email" field is empty, you must enter some text to proceed.The text you entered in the "Email" field appears to be invalid, please edit it and try again
Get the Latest News Delivered to Your Inbox

A Guide to Building Credit and Increasing Your Credit Scores

When it comes to credit, there’s some good news. The average credit score in the United States has been steadily rising in recent years, coming in at 715 in 2023. That may be because, today, consumers not only have more ways to access their credit reports and scores than ever before but also because there are an increasing number of options that Americans have for building credit in the first...
Chase Freedom Flex card

Chase Reveals Q2 2024 Freedom 5%(+) Bonus Categories

Chase has announced its bonus category picks for the second quarter of 2024 — including some interesting twists. About the categories: As April approaches, Chase has revealed what categories Freedom and Freedom Flex cardholders can earn bonuses on. From April 1st through June 30th, customers can earn 5% (or more) in three categories: Amazon.com, Hotels, and Restaurants. Similar to how Chase embraced a "New Year, New Me" theme last quarter,...

FedEx Announces Winners of 11th Annual 2023 Small Business Grant Contest

Nearly three months after the entry period ended, FedEx has announced the winners of its 11th annual Small Business Grant Content. This year's event saw more than $300,000 in funds going to a variety of small businesses across the nation. Last month, the company revealed 100 finalists, with that list now being narrowed down to just 10 winners. This year's grand prize winners included KindVR, The Cupcake Collection, Up In...
H-E-B and Central Market  credit cards

Imprint Launches Credit Cards from H-E-B and Central Market 

The FinTech Imprint is partnering with the popular Texas-based grocery chain H-E-B for a pair of new rewards credit cards. This week saw the launch of the H-E-B Visa Signature Credit Card as well as the Central Market Visa Signature Credit Card. With these two (nearly identical) options, customers will be able to earn rewards on groceries and beyond. First, both versions of the card earn up to 5% back on select...

2024 SoFi Checking and Savings Review

Ever since I started taking an interest in the FinTech sector, one company whose name I’ve seen pop up over and over again is SoFi. Lately it seems as though that theme has been sent into overdrive as the company has not only become a household name thanks to its stadium naming rights deal but also because of the company’s continued product expansions. The most interesting development in my mind...