Every month on Lake Effect, we partner with the Milwaukee Public Library for our Book of the Month series to bring you new reading recommendations. For this month’s pick, we’ll hear from Matthew Arends, he’s a librarian at the central Milwaukee Public Library branch.
April is financial literacy month and it’s tax season. So to get your financial health in shape, he recommends reading Get Good with Money: Ten Simple Steps to Becoming Financially Whole by Tiffany Aliche.
Arends says that this read is a quintessential budget book that gets personal. Aliche covers topics from monthly budgeting to investments and insurance. And it starts with Aliche's own personal finance story.
"[Aliche] was an educator in the beginning of the 2000s, doing really well financially, but she was still young," Arends describes. "She had a home, saved up money, so she was doing great ... then finally the 2009 financial crisis really knocked her back."
After moving back home, Aliche started to figure out her own finances and wanted to bring other people with her on a healthier financial journey.
Arends says that guiding sentiment comes through in the book. "I feel like she really wants you to succeed that comes across in the book that I think some budget books don't," he says. "Since it has so much content, it can meet you wherever you are."
Throughout April the Milwaukee Public Library is hosting webinars and events to kickstart your financial education in celebration of Financial Literacy Month.
MPL will be hosting events like How to Pay for Higher Education, held on April 11 from 4-5 p.m. and What is Cryptocurrency?, held on April 13 from 6-7 p.m. Arends also recommends checking out virtual events through Money Smart Week.
