How much ever you know about investing, its good to keep reviewing your financial knowledge, take stock of your assets, liabilities, your investing approach and adjust as needed. Financial literacy has become more important than ever with inflation. This book is a good and accessible introduction as well as a long time companion as you have many stages and flavors of investing that will hange with your age, income profile.

With her empowering new book "Invest Like a Girl," Dr. Jessica Spangler provides women everywhere with an accessible entry point into the wealth-building power of investing. Blending sound financial advice with supportive encouragement, Spangler delivers a comprehensive guide tailored to helping women overcome common obstacles and take control of their financial futures.

Spangler, an experienced finance professional, packs the book with key definitions and practical tools for investment success while still maintaining an engaging voice. From clearly outlining how to calculate net worth to providing personalized quizzes and worksheets, Spangler creates a judgment-free zone where readers can safely enrich their financial literacy. Vital topics like managing risk, diversification through assets like stocks and bonds, and goal planning allow women to create fully customized strategies matching their needs and risk profiles.

While market volatility and the gender pay gap unfortunately still hinder some women from investing, Spangler provides a patient hand to help even novice readers confidently leap in. Through her simple yet profound guidance on concepts like starting small and taking advantage of company matches, she makes attaining investment returns feel wholly within reach. "Invest Like a Girl" inspires by revealing the transformative compounding effects consistent investing can bring over time.

Approachable yet packed with expertise, "Invest Like a Girl" belongs on the shelf of any woman seeking to shore up her financial foundations or anyone assisting them. Spangler has gifted women everywhere with the perfect primer for unlocking better futures through wiser money management. This book earns 5 stars for already impacting many fortunes for the better.

This book introduces readers to investment terminology and strategies. I wish I had this years ago. I do not think this book is specific to women; anyone beginning or refining their portfolio can benefit from this. The content is comprehensive and there are options for actionable steps depending on the reader’s financial goals.

Thank you NetGalley and Rodale for this advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Introduction

Dr. Jessica Spangler is an award-winning money educator, emergency medicine clinical pharmacist and online business owner. With more than a million followers across social media platforms, Jessica aims to make personal finance easy to understand and accessible to all. Her work has been featured on CNBC and Yahoo! and in Finance and Insider, among other publications and websites. Invest Like A Girl: Jump Into the Stock, Reach Your Money Goals and Build Wealth (March 2024, Penguin Random House) is Jessica’s first book and it is all about getting your finances in order and how to invest smartly, or like a girl.

Plot Summary and Key Takeaways

Summary

Jessica Spangler first explains how she got into the finance world for women, it’s the story of her mom unexpectedly being thrown into the work world after the death of her father. She also explains some of her own financial journeys, including her own adult journey. She also goes over the difference between men and women, not only in the investment world but also the employment standard world.

The book is then broken down into two sections Building A Solid Foundation and Building Experience and Wealth. The book also includes worksheets, quizzes and a glossary.

In Building a Solid Foundation you go over:

Investing prep work

How to get out of debt and into the game

Explaining Investing vs Saving

Explaining all of the types of investments

Your Financial Goals, Management Style and Risk Tolerance

How to Create an Investment Portfolio

In Building Experience and Wealth, you are given 6 different types of investment profiles and who they work for. They are:

The Full Autopilot

The Lazy Luxury

The Fun Money

The 50/50 Split

The Dividend Queen

The Mega Mix

The Custom-Made

Key Takeaways

Having a handle on your basic finances is a prerequisite before starting the investment game

Being educated about the risks allows you to play the investment game smartly

Always take inflation into account when planning your financial goals

Pros and Cons

Pro
Formatting of the book
The book is formatted to cover the theory before the practical. Spangler makes sure that you have a firm foundation before going into more practical applications.

Language
The language used in the book is everyday language with large financial terms broken down into everyday use.

Connections
Spangler uses her own real-life examples throughout the book to help us connect with the topics we are discussing

Cons
American Context only
Spangler is American so the context and so not all of the topics apply to those outside of the country, alternate examples could have been mentioned.

Overall Assessment

Jessica Spanglers’s Invest Like A Girl: Jump Into the Stock, Reach Your Money Goals and Build Wealth was well put together in formatting, language and connections from life to the overall topics. The only drawback was the American context only, with no international examples given, though understandable. The book would be good for anyone who is really looking to get in on the ground floor of investing, regardless of gender. I would recommend this book to anyone who may be interested in getting started with investments or are looking to brush up their skills on it.