A Book That Actually Gets Students Talking About Money
A Comedic Guide to Money
A Comedic Guide to Money is Colin Ryan’s painless guide to finances if you’ve ever wondered “Why did I do THAT with my money?!”
“I highly recommend this fun read: a financial literacy book that has it all, plus makes you laugh!
An excellent book for young adults, but also opportunities for adults to learn something new. And it gave me ways to improve my teaching practice!”
“I am teaching personal finance at MLC and wanted to let you know that your book is the text that I’ve assigned my students. You did a great job of breaking down scary topics to students and I can’t wait to discuss the book with them this semester.”
A big thanks to The Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College!
The Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College is best known for producing the Financial Literacy National Report Card. Each participant of their Teacher’s Summer Institute left with their own copy of A Comedic Guide to Money to share with their students.
Why I wrote “A Comedic Guide to Money”
I never thought of myself as a finance person. But as I started designing a fulfilling life for myself, I realized that your ability to manage your money directly affects your ability to life the life you want.
That changed everything.
Pulling from my personal experience and teaching thousands of students, A Comedic Guide to Money is filled with tangible advice and inspiration. It’s a fun introduction to money that will help you increase knowledge and confidence and build a roadmap to the life you want most. I aimed to be:
OPEN AND HONEST
Everyone secretly wants to talk about money, but we don’t know if it’s acceptable so we don’t have much practice. This book obliterates the taboo of talking about money.
NOT BORING
Finances don’t have to be boring, and let’s face it, thinking they are is one of the biggest reasons we avoid opportunities to learn more. This book uses personal stories and funny examples to bring money to life. And ideally bring money to your life!
CLEAR
The biggest barrier to financial knowledge is feeling like we’re supposed to know this already. (Spoiler: most people are pretending a good chunk of the time.) This book will help get you over that speedbump and teach you what you need to know (in words normal people use). It’ll also build your confidence and shamelessly imply that you’re probably already doing better than you think!
ACTIONABLE
The key to changing your entire story is to choose your next chapter you know you can accomplish. This book identifies the smallest possible behavior changes you can implement. Because even one small win can create a new sense of self and hopefulness for what else is possible.
POSITIVE
We hear a lot about the negative sides of money. The truth is, positivity is a powerful mindset shift we all are able to make. And once you do this, you begin to change your situation for the better on a scale that will surprise you.
A success story! 🎉
A professor reached out to me and said she’d be teaching her students this semester using my book “A Comedic Guide to Money.”
I was honored, and asked that at the end of the semester she ask them “If you could give any feedback directly to the author, what would it be?” In hindsight maybe a dangerous question to ask a whole group of people
I forgot about it until the professor emailed me to say: “It was a successful semester and I really enjoyed using your book and plan to repeat again next semester.” Good start!
And then I read all these comments from students, and they are so powerful to read because they remind me why I spent a couple of years writing this book for anyone who needs a chance to grow their confidence and skills around managing money.
Check these out! ⤵️⤵️
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“Reading the book helped me to learn more about my finances and figure out ways that I can best manage my money in order to reach financial success myself.”
“I think he gave lots of good advice and things that were very practical in my own life.”
“I thought the book was so good.”
“I enjoyed how it is written in easier terms so those who have little to no experience thinking about finances are able to understand and learn a lot.”
“This book created a comfortable environment to talk about personal finance, which was amazing.”
“I appreciate your honesty and ability to be entertaining while teaching a usually stressful topic.”
“I hope he continues writing books like these.”
“Your book gave a very easy-going vibe that made it a more comfortable read. Financial literacy is an incredibly uninteresting topic and can lead to some anxiety. This book somehow made it easy and comfortable which I feel would be incredibly difficult to make this topic interesting.”
“I loved the way that he made it almost fun to learn about these concepts. When I learned with the Dave Ramsey high school program it was pretty boring, but this book had fun moments that kept me engaged.”
“He did a very nice job of explaining what topics were about. I like how he brought up so many stories or real-life situations.”
“I enjoyed the personal stories that were included because they helped me to visualize personal finance in my own life.”
“I like how you talked about finances in a very simple and practical way.”
“I enjoy how you make it easy to read. When you add a comedic side to financial topics, it engages me a lot more.”
“I would thank him for making learning about finances fun. We could have been given a book by Dave Ramsey (I don’t hate Dave, I love the guy). Thing is Dave the majority of the time is serious and sticks strictly to what he believes the best way to handle money. Colin Ryan actually understands that no one’s financial status is the same. He gives steps rich people or poor people can follow while keeping it interesting and fun.”
“Thank you for helping me understand more about Personal Finance. I love all the little jokes you incorporate and I admire that you wrote a book that made it easier to understand money.”
“This book was very easy to read. I enjoyed how simple it was to understand.”
“I think the author did a great job about making it interesting to read and very engaging. Thank you!”
“I just really appreciate the humor involved with the finance stories and suggestions because it made the book more relatable and easier to read.”
“I would just say thank you for making it an enjoyable book rather than a boring finance book filled with numbers and analyzations.”
“You combined your life experience with your knowledge and you use these two materials wrote a good book.”
“This book helped me learn much more about finance. It was an easy read so I did not struggle to understand the concepts.”
“He explained things thoroughly and gave great examples about the different topics.”
“I like the way you are able to incorporate your humor into finance and still make it easy to understand.”
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I’m blown away. Thank you Joelyn and thank you to your students!
Each one of you is deserving of, and destined for, great things!
This reminds me why I wrote the book – to resonate and to unlock financial confidence in anyone who doesn’t quite get it *YET* when it comes to better understanding and managing money.