BOOK REVIEW: “HOW TO BE A RICH OLD LADY” BY AMANDA HOLDEN

“I will be asking you to summon your inner Rich Old Lady,” writes Amanda Holden in her book, “How to Be a Rich Old Lady: Your Guide to Easy Investing, Building Wealth, and Creating the Wild, Beautiful Life You Want.” “What I’m talking about is the freedom to imagine a future that is wild, weird, and uniquely you.”

And Holden does that in this book, which focus on financial independence and is focused on investments.

The book starts with foundations, such as setting up an emergency fund and establishing a budget. But Holden goes deep on investing, describing the purpose of Roth IRAs and 401Ks and the origin of terms such as the stock market “index.”

This book sounds like it would be dry, but it’s not. Holden, who works in investment management and runs the Invested Development website, knows how to describe complex terms in simple ways.

“I am going to break down investment accounts like we’re in the eleventh-grade personal finance class we all wish we had,” she says.

But, best of all, she’s very witty. “Think of credit unions as Well Fargo’s bra-burning, llama-owning hippie aunt from Portland,” she writes.

Another chapter starts with this: “If you’ve never heard about asset allocation and its supreme reign over your financial future, that’s probably because it’s, well, boring as hell.” She then spends that chapter comparing investment diversification to dating.

Throughout the book, Holden has “10-minute missions” and worksheets so readers can implement strategies for their lives. Although this book isn’t explicitly for single women, it is for independent women who want power over their future. Her purpose should be everyone’s purpose: “I am investing – my time, my energy, my money – because I want to improve the quality of my life and the lives of those around me.”

This book is, obviously, a great investment.