The index card

The index card: why personal finance doesn't have to be complicated / Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack, 245 pages

Encouraging words for people who need to get their personal finances in order.  The idea that it is overwhelming prevents many from thinking about it or doing anything about it.  These simple rules fit on an index card.  The rest of the pages give you hints on how to get the rule to work for you and personal stories, many about the authors.  It doesn't help to put it off.  I makes sense to start ASAP.  Good solid suggestions for the beginner that may never move past the beginner stage...and that is just fine.  I imagine this would be a great graduation gift.

The nest

The nest / Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney 353 pgs.

What can you say about the Plumb family?  They are a group of extremely flawed individuals who don't make much of a family until one of them taps into a inheritance promised to all.  Each of the Plumb kids was counting on the money from "the nest" to make something right in their lives but now oldest brother Leo has been bailed out of a drunken driving wreck where his young passenger lost a foot.  This means the remaining money is about 10% of what was originally promised.  Everyone is a little peeved, to say the least. But then Leo steps up, tells them he will pay the back and charms everyone so they believe him.  He is rebooting his life and going to get it all together!  But what are the chances?  As much as you want to dislike many of these characters, you just can't.  They are all so very human and real.  First time author Sweeney does such a fabulous job here with so many of life's mysteries.  How many bad choices can one make?  Why does money mess with everything?  How does a bad childhood start you out on the wrong foot?  I can't say enough good about this book. One of my favorites of the year.

The Richest Woman in America

The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach  304 pp.

I don't think I ever heard of Hetty Green until I read a review of this book. Henrietta Howland Robinson was born to a Quaker family who earned their money owning whaling ships. She learned about business from her father but he did not allow her to participate in his business ventures. She inherited several million dollars from her father and an aunt and, by her death in 1916, had increased her worth to about $200 million dollars (over $3 billion by today's equivalent). She married Edward Green, the son of a wealthy Vermont family, with a prenuptial agreement that he renounce all rights to her money. Hetty was careful about her investments and after bailing out her husband's bad business deals on more than one occasion, she separated from him but they never divorced. Through her shrewd and careful business dealings, Hetty weathered several of the serious economic panics in the late 19th and early 20th century. In spite of her wealth, she lived an extremely frugal life, moving frequently between boarding house and residential hotels to avoid paying taxes in any one location. She was often ridiculed in the press for her penchant for dowdy clothing, her frequent appearances in the courts for an abundance of lawsuits against others, and her restrictions on her daughter who did not marry until she was in her late thirties. Green was an interesting character.

This is a book worth reading but not because of the biographical information on Hetty Green. I found the most fascinating parts to be about the causes of the various "panics" and financial crises the country faced during her lifetime. Every one of them can be traced to situations similar to what caused our current financial troubles. Proof that Santayana was correct when he said "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

I listened to the audiobook version and was rather disappointed in some of the mispronunciations and stumbles in the reading that were not corrected in editing.