Product Reviews

Money at 30: “The Great Money Reset” Audiobook Review

During the past three years, you didn’t have to look far to see headlines about Americans leaving their jobs en masse or otherwise making major life changes after growing introspective during the pandemic. Zooming out, this period in history has also been dubbed “The Great Reset” as the world and its economies look to recover after being upended. Playing off of that, a new book from CBS analyst Jill Schlesinger is dubbed The Great Money Reset: Change Your Work, Change Your Wealth, Change Your Life. Released last month, I came across the audiobook version of the title on Audible and decided to dive in.

Over the past couple of years, there have definitely been at least a few COVID mentions in the books I’ve reviewed. Yet, I’m pretty sure that The Great Money Reset is the first one to make the topic a central focus. Although the topicality isn’t exclusive to our current age, it certainly is relevant to it.

With that said, throughout the book, Schlesinger covers a lot of the same things you’d expect from a personal finance book. In The Great Money Reset, you’ll hear about cutting back on spending, how to maximize your retirement savings, tax strategies, the importance of planning for the future (including after you’re gone), and more. Still, these basics aren’t just laid out for good measure and are, instead, perfectly incorporated into the main lesson at hand.

While you might assume that, given the “Money Reset” premise and emphasis on making big changes, the book would be all about why you should quit your job and live your dream. That’s true to some extent — but, more than anything, Schlesinger preaches patience and offers several steps that those considering a major life change should take before doing something rash. For example, she advises that individuals take a closer look at their ultimate goals and ensure that they’re actually what they seem. This isn’t to say that the author is dissuading folks from pursuing their dream. On the contrary, she simply provides or at least helps them devise a better blueprint for achieving their goals.

Something I really enjoyed about The Great Money Reset is that it was chock full of anecdotes that applied to Schlesinger’s teachings. Some of these came from the author herself but the majority came from listeners/viewers, friends, and — as she calls them — her faux nieces and nephews. Hearing these different perspectives and stories really helped emphasize the book’s points while also inspiring some additional thoughts on the part of this reader (well, listener, as it were).

Another section of the book that stood out to me as a member of the personal finance blogging community was one that presented the idea of FINE — a take-off of the FIRE movement. Instead of “Financial Independence, Retire Early,” FINE replaces the latter half with “New Endeavor.” As it turns out, this portion of the book was actually fairly short but I appreciated the concept and apt acronym.

In the end, although the subjects covered in The Great Money Reset aren’t far from what you’d find in other personal finance books, it’s the framing of these matters that makes the book unique and especially pertinent for these times. That’s why I found the book to be an interesting listen and one I think that a lot of people can benefit from in today’s post(ish)-COVID world. So, whether you’re actively considering a major life change or want to be armed with financial knowledge should your dreams change in the future, I’d recommend checking out The Great Money Reset: Change Your Work, Change Your Wealth, Change Your Life.

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