Book: Happy Go Money: Spend Smart, Save Right and Enjoy Life

Authors & Backgrounds: Originally a journalist, Melissa Leong, has taken up various entrepreneurial pursuits and has experienced her own share of financial difficulties.

Published: 2018

Length: Medium 150-200 pages

Genre: Personal Finance, Motivational

How to Access: Penn State Libraries provides access digital copies via PDF.

Personal Finance is a Mindset

Happy Go Money is the most introductory personal finance reading of the Book Review series so far. Often taking a humorous approach, Happy Go Money, provides anecdotes and general tips to make the most out of your life financially. Author, Melissa Leong, spends the majority of the book providing tips to spend safely and be happy, rather than provide wealth and income avenues like some of the other books in the Book Review series. I would recommend this book to anyone that has issues with spending and finding happiness (relative to financials). However, there is little to be gained for someone with intermediate knowledge of personal finance.

I have broken down this reading into three sections that highlight what Leong tries to reach:

How to Control Spending

Leong delivers the most important message of the book in one of the first chapters: money cannot buy you happiness. She notes the high costs of lifestyle inflation, when an individual buys more things they do not need after reaching a higher income level. Leong makes the conversation introspective to suggest reasons why we may be buying more expensive things, including jealousy or a search for inner happiness. People tend to buy lots of goods, but they should be buying more experiences with friends because they make people happier.

Leong also provides a positive mindset to accompany better spending habits. Instead of not being able to afford something, think of it as spending the money more efficiently elsewhere. She also breaks down spending personalities into five types which I found to be less helpful. Personally, I identified with all groups of saver, spender, risk-taker, etc. Coupling a strong mindset with smart purchases made for a very strong section in Happy Go Money.

Throughout the book, Leong provides somewhat helpful checklists for readers to implement theory in practice. The spending section has the strongest checklists. My favorite one is a list of questions someone should ask themselves before making a purchase to potentially steer them away from buying something that they did not really need.

How to Maintain Happiness

A major point of Happy Go Money is to find happiness outside of money. Leong suggests positive ways to do this, such as surround yourself with positive people, spending on good experiences, and realizing what you are grateful for. Leong really stresses that if financial success is your goal, you will never truly be happy. I like that she emphasizes to focus on the things that accompany financial success that may make you happy.

Happy Go Money takes somewhat of a turn for the generic in this section. Leong stresses the importance of exercise and diet. However, she also provides a brief background on meditation that I will practice in my life.

How to Make and Keep Money

The last section is all about how to make money, keep it, and protect yourself in the event of disaster. The Book Review series has covered most of the introductory topics here in more detail.

Leong recommends doing a deep dive of your personal spending and calculating your net worth. Net worth does not have to be exact, it just has to be consistent so you can make sure you are increasing your value over time. Leong leaves very great advice in that we should make sure our top five spending categories has a pretty substantial overlap with our top five interests.

Happy Go Money’s retirement section comes with the standard dialogue on automatic savings, an asset walkthrough, and some general guidelines to plan for retirement. Once again, I found the checklist/to-do list to be really helpful in making sure that I have considered everything I need to do. Leong also has some very sound advice in selecting a financial advisor, but some of the information on ETFs are a little outdated already. The section includes information on how best to pay off debt and the different types of insurance an individual can buy.

The section wraps up with tips on how to actually make money ranging from side hustles to asking for a raise. I believe Leong excels in the human side of finance through her realistic explanations on how to ask for a raise. She has example conversations, and provides backups in the event of rejection.

There is never an ending

Leong leaves us with the statement that there is no happily ever after, just after that, and after that… She recommends that we try our best to remain happy and financially safe.

Overall, I found Happy Go Money to excel in its human elements of finding happiness and communicating with others. Leong maintains a positive (happy) tone, and loads the book with jokes and anecdotes for a fast read. For tangible financial knowledge, I would look toward other entries in the Book Review list.