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Reviewed by Si Ning Yeoh for Readers' Favorite
Before You Start Banking by Ronald E. Williams is a concise how-to guide for people desiring to learn and improve upon their basic financial literacy knowledge. This guide takes us through many important personal banking topics, ranging from the different types of loans you can apply for to how banks earn revenue off their customers to the perils of mismanaging your credit and negatively affecting your credit history. That last point is particularly focused upon, and justifiably so; as Williams notes, “You can have one overdraft, one bad month, and it could take years for you to regain your once perfect credit rating.”
Ronald E. Williams’ Before You Start Banking felt a little dry at times, but on the whole it is a good, easily digestible and sensible guide to keep by one’s side when making simple, everyday financial decisions. The book is ostensibly aimed at younger people who are as yet inexperienced and ignorant about the proper ways to handle their money management issues; I was pleasantly surprised, however, to pick up a significant amount of useful new information as well, despite not quite being a part of the aforementioned target audience. Its brevity makes it a quick read. I further appreciated how Williams’ honest and self-deprecating personal anecdotes served to set a more approachable tone to the reading. In short, I think that Before You Start Banking would be a highly appropriate book to use as an introductory guide in a personal finance class for any age group.
