What It Is
Most money books jump straight to budgets and tips. This one starts with a better question: what is money, really? Once that clicks, the paycheck, the credit card, the index fund, and the mortgage all begin to make sense.
Every claim is shown with the math, so you never have to take a number on faith. And the book is careful never to oversell. It shows the full retirement number, then walks it back to what it is really worth in today's dollars. That kind of honesty runs through every chapter.
What's Inside
The book builds real understanding one plain-English chapter at a time:
- How money gets its value, and why prices and the money supply keep rising
- The three ways to make money, and which one builds lasting wealth
- Budgeting, taxes, and the difference between what you earn and what you keep
- Assets, debt, net worth, and how banks actually create money
- Bitcoin, explained honestly: what it is, how it works, and what to make of it
- Inflation, interest, and the most powerful force in finance: time
- Whether college is worth its cost, run as real numbers
- How to start investing, choose funds, avoid fees, and use retirement accounts
- A step-by-step business-plan project that puts the whole book to work
- And the whole plan on one page, small enough to copy onto an index card
About the Author
Petros Koumantaros has spent his career helping working people build secure retirements. He has testified before the United States Senate on improving retirement savings, serves as a Governor-appointed member of Washington State's Washington Saves Governing Board, and teaches financial literacy to teenagers as Mr. 401(k). He wrote the book he wishes someone had handed him at fourteen.