First Week Reading Assignments

First Readings for Fall 2024

This may not be an exclusive listing of all faculty members’ first assignment and class meeting notices. If you do not see a class that you are in listed below, it may be necessary to check with the faculty member.

Dates for Fall 2024

  •  The form for submitting assignments will be activated on Thursday, August 1, 2024.
    • Assignments will begin to be posted Thursday, August 1, 2024.
  • The form for submitting assignments will be deactivated on Wednesday, September 11, 2024.
    • Assignments will be removed on Wednesday, September 11, 2024.

Personal Finance Literacy for Young Lawyers (LAWS 899 §003)

Instructor Name(s)

Brackmann

Textbook Information

  • Anne Kates Smith, Everyone Has a Money Hang-up, Kiplinger’s Pers. Fin., Aug. 2012, at 43 – 47. You can download the article here: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=bth&AN=77409331&authtype=sso&custid=s3604775&site=ehost-live&scope=site&custid=s3604775. If you find this article interesting, you may want to check out the Klontz article in the recommended reading section.
  • Beth Kobliner, Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties (2017). ISBN-13: 978-1-4767-8238-6. This is technically the fourth edition of an older book, although it says this nowhere in the title. It is a general personal finance book specifically targeted to audiences in the typical law student and young lawyer age range, but without the deliberate hashtags and “hip-ness” of tone. I recommend buying this book and hanging on to it, because I think you are likely to find it a useful reference in the future.  This book is on reserve at the circulation desk.
  • Chris Smith, Securing Your Financial Future: Complete Personal Finance for Beginners (2012). ISBN-13: 978-6-61363-507-5. NOTE: You can check out this book for free as an e-book through university libraries – see https://pascal-usc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01PASCAL_USCCOL/13vp3u0/alma991026119300605618.
  • Helaine Olen, Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of Personal Finance (2013). ISBN-13: 978-1-59184-489-1. Olen is a journalist who writes about finance and had a column called “Money Makeover” in the Los Angeles Times for a while. This book is a wholesale attack on the personal finance industry that raises points worth considering regardless of whether you agree or disagree with them. A library copy of this is fine if you can get one.
  • Jonathan Clements, How to Think About Money (2016). ISBN-13: 978-1-52377-081-3. As a journalist turned personal finance educator, Clements’s book deals with the relationship between money and happiness, suggesting that how we think about money matters a great deal in how, and how well, we live with it. A library copy of this is fine if you can get one.
  • Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money (2020). ISBN-13: 978-0-85719-768-9. Housel is journalist turned venture capitalist with an interest in behavioral finance, or the study of how people make (often poor or illogical) money decisions. A library copy of this is fine if you can get one.
  • Mel Lindauer et al., The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing (2d ed. 2006). ISBN-13: 978-1-118-92128-9. Much more jargon-tastic and technical than any of the other books, I still recommend you buy this one due to its potential for being useful to you after this class is over. This will probably be your least favorite of all the books, but I haven’t found a better alternative.
  • Thomas J. Stanley & William D. Danko, The Millionaire Next Door (1996). ISBN-13: 978-0-58979-547-1. This book is a classic that opened a lot of eyes and triggered an entire movement. Stanley and his daughter revisited this book in their 2015 sequel called The Next Millionaire Next Door, but the original is still the best. A library copy of this book is fine for this class, although it’s worth having for your library.
  • Tiffany Aliche “The Bugetnista”, Get Good with Money (2021). ISBN-13: 978-0-593-23274-3. This is an excellent broad look at personal finance, highly accessible, easy to read, and written for readers in their 20’s and 30’s. I recommend buying this book and hanging on to it, because I think you are likely to find it a useful reference in the future. This book is on reserve at the circulation desk.

General Assignment Information

Aliche: Intro, Ch. 1, 5

Fernando: webpage

Holt: webpage

inDebted, Ep. 7. (podcast – substitute lawyer for doctor)

Klontz: webpage (read after Smith, A.)

Kobliner: Ch.1

Perhach: webpage

Smith, A.: article

Smith, C.: Ch. 1-4, 8