Description
A financial advisor and educator explains why the classic formula for building personal wealth — school, job, house, save — no longer adds up, and what actually works instead.
In 1985, the median home cost about 3.5 times the median income. Today that figure is 5.8 times. In 1980, you could pay for the average college tuition with a minimum-wage job. Student loan debt now tops $1.7 trillion. Millennials, despite being the most educated generation in American history, are on track to be the first since the 1800s to be worse off than their parents — with Gen Z right behind them on the same path. The advice parents have been giving for generations — go to school, get a stable job, save to buy a house — is not working. It was built for a different economy in a different century.
In Your Parents Were Wrong About Money, Kevin Matthews makes the case that the rules have changed and financial advice needs to change with it. A financial advisor and educator who has managed hundreds of millions of dollars and taught hundreds of thousands of people, Matthews combines analytical rigor and plain-language advice to do two things most personal finance books don’t: explain how we got here and tell readers what actually works in the new economy.
In ten chapters, Matthews covers the terrain where young people feel most stuck:
- Why renting and investing may build more wealth than homeownership in today’s market, and how to do the math to be sure
- How to decide whether a college degree is still worth the cost, and strategies for reducing that cost
- Why multigenerational living is a wealth-building strategy and shouldn’t be a source of shame
- How to balance debt payoff with saving and investing, without feeling constantly broke
- How to identify the growing tsunami of financial scams, from shady financial influencers to junk products
Matthews writes with the authority of someone who has seen these problems up close and the clarity of someone who has spent years explaining complex ideas to people outside the world of finance. Your Parents Were Wrong About Money provides specific, actionable advice for prospering despite a broken system.
