by Dave Ramsey
Update on May 27, 2019: I've picked a different book.
The Mater Amabilis™high school beta plans, available in the facebook group, recommend an economics book each year for a full credit of economics. We started the ninth grade recommendation, Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?, but I didn't like it so we stopped a few weeks in. Since then, I've spent some time reading from various books on economics and still haven't found the perfect book. I think we're going to read two or three books next year that together will give First Son a half credit of economics.
Our Personal Finance component will be this book by Dave Ramsey. If you've read anything by Dave Ramsey, it's in this book. In it, he has gathered and organized his Financial Peace University course material. It's written to adults, but that includes young adults just starting out so I think First Son (and the other kids) but a high schooler can read it and just tuck information away for later.
The book covers: savings and compound interest, budgeting, debt elimination (and avoidance), the credit and finance industry, insurance, and investing. Simple skills like how to balance a checkbook are not covered, but there are lots of sites and videos online with that kind of information.
There are constant references to Dave Ramsey's other books, Financial Peace University, their website, and the events they host. While it's understandable, given that it's the textbook for the course, it can seem tedious.
I intend to ask for narrations for each chapter, but not to give tests based on the book.
I don't agree with everything Dave Ramsey says, but it's pretty good. I'm still looking around for a book that will cover economics at the community level (city, state, national, international) and something that will introduce and explain the Catholic idea of subsidiarity. Basically I think Ramsey has started on the right path in pulling out of the debt economy of our nation, but I'm more radical and want to expose the flaws in the system itself. I'm currently considering Economics for Helen and Small Is Still Beautiful.
I have received nothing for this post and it contains my honest opinion. I check this book out of the library. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.
