A big-hearted, no-bullshit memoir from TikTok superstar Madeline Pendleton about her journey from living paycheck to paycheck to creating a multi-million-dollar business that offers a compassionate alternative to capitalism. Imagine a job where you work four days a week and earn as much as the CEO. You also get full benefits, a gym membership, free lunch, and unlimited time off, including mental health days, no questions asked. Hard-won profits don't just end up in the CEO's pocket-they're distributed equally among all employees. The company even buys you your very own car. It sounds too good to be true, but this is the reality at Tunnel Vision, the clothing company that Madeline Pendleton Hansen built from the ground up. Like so many Americans, Madeline used to struggle to make ends meet. Raised by a punk dad and a goth mom in Fresno, California, she spent her teens on the brink of homelessness, relying on the kindness and spare couches of the local punk community to get by. By her twenties, she was drowning in student loans and credit card debt, with no relief in sight. Madeline felt the intense toll that financial stress was taking on her and her loved ones, and she was sick of her bosses treating her as disposable-she knew there must be a better way. After years of living broke, Madeline decided to study the rules of capitalism, the game everyone is forced to play. She used what she learned to build a new kind of business, one rooted in an ethos of community care. Now, Madeline is paying it forward by sharing her path to success on her terms, plus no-nonsense life and money advice: How do you build credit? How do you negotiate higher pay? How do you build a better world? Millennials and Gen Zers like Madeline are facing an unprecedented financial reality: Stagnant wages, skyrocketing housing costs, a student debt crisis. I Survived Capitalism is essential reading for anyone searching for hope and stability in an unjust world.
Financial Literacy Book Club
Past Selections
When the author first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world's youngest billionaire and crypto's Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side? This book sets out to answer this question, taking readers into the mind of Bankman-Fried, whose rise and fall offers an education in high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, philanthropy, bankruptcy, and the justice system. Both psychological portrait and financial roller-coaster ride, this book finds the author at the top of his game, tracing the mind-bending trajectory of a character who never liked the rules and was allowed to live by his own - until it all came undone.
This month we will be discussing our favorite financial podcasts! We will comply a list for the members of the book club to be sent out after our discussion. Come ready to talk about which episodes or podcasts you've found particularly helpful.
If you haven't found a podcast that you like or you'd like to try one more, check out Net Worth and Chill by Vivian Tu a.k.a Your Rich BFF.
There's no getting around it. You need to know how to manage money to know how to manage life - but most of us don't! This illustrated guidebook from New York Times bestselling author and financial expert Jean Chatzky, Kathryn Tuggle, and their team at HerMoney breaks down the basics of money-how to earn it, manage it, and use it- giving you all the tools you need to take charge and be fearless with personal finance. How to Money will teach you the basics of: -creating a budget (and sticking to it) -scoring that first job (and what that paystub means) - navigating student loans (and avoiding student debt) - getting that first credit card (and what "credit" is) - investing like a pro (and why it's important!) All so you can earn more, save smart, invest wisely, borrow only when you have to, and enjoy everything you've got!
Introducing the powerful idea of striving for financial wholeness instead of early retirement or millionaire status: learn the ten short-term steps that lead to long-term security. From the simple (best practices for budgeting and saving) to the more sophisticated (investing, taking charge of your credit score, and calculating your insurance needs), use memorable stories, actionable lists and worksheets, and a you-got-this attitude, to build a solid foundation for a life that's rich in every way.
It is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper--and cousin by marriage--of a once-famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years. Mrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also skeptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems. Andrew Bogle, meanwhile, grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story. The "Tichborne Trial"--wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title--captivates Mrs. Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs. Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr. Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task.
Farnoosh Torabi is familiar with fear. Growing up in the 1980s as the daughter of Iranian immigrants, she was warned to proceed with caution and play it safe. She spent her childhood immersed in fear—of rejection, loneliness, missed opportunities, and falling short of her potential. Of course, now her mother says, “It all worked out, didn’t it?” Funnily enough, it did. Farnoosh came to the realization that fear never limited her. Instead, it has become a friend, opening her world and equipping her with the tools and street smarts to navigate life’s trials and thrive on her own terms.
Now, Farnoosh pairs stories from her immigrant upbringing with hard-won industry knowledge and data to show how leaning into your fears can help you take control of your financial future. With clear-eyed advice and an engaging, heartfelt voice, she lays out the nine most common fears that hold us back—both personally and in our financial decisions—and shows how these fears can be pivoted into strengths and mined for wisdom to help us achieve richer, more meaningful lives:
1. The Fear of Rejection and how it leads to self-discovery and where we are loved.
2. The Fear of Loneliness and how it promotes strength, resilience, and empathy.
3. The Fear of Missing Out and how it begs for self-reflection and promotes individuality and boundaries.
4. The Fear of Being Exposed and how it heightens awareness and draws comedy and connection.
5. The Fear of Uncertainty and how it accelerates our goals and finds order in the disorder.
6. The Fear of Money and how it encourages landing on your (true) money story and pursuing financial freedom.
7. The Fear of Failure and how it helps us to embrace red flags and the next right thing.
8. The Fear of Endings and how it sparks action, deepens an appreciation for what endures and unveils the beauty in regret.
9. The Fear of Losing Your Freedom and how it fuels self-advocacy and inspires a legacy.
Discover how to become more self-reliant and financially resilient, how to invite more calm and control into your daily routine, and how to stop hiding from fear and instead invite it into your living room, where it can serve you in building your best life.
The Financial Director for a democratic super PAC behind a frontrunner presidential candidate investigates donations uncovering a conspiracy.
This month we are meeting on the 4th Wednesday instead of the 3rd Wednesday.
This is the definitive, shocking account of the highest-profile corruption case of recent years, spearheaded by U.S. investigators, involving dozens of countries, and implicating nearly every aspect of the world's most popular sport, soccer, including its biggest event, the World Cup. The case began small, boosted by an IRS agent's review of an American soccer official's tax returns. But that humble investigation soon developed into a huge international corruption scandal that crossed continents and reached the highest levels of soccer's world governing body, FIFA. In Red Card, Ken Bensinger examines the case, and the personalities behind it, in vivid detail. There's Chuck Blazer, a high-living soccer dad who ascended to the highest ranks of the sport while creaming millions from its coffers; Jack Warner, a Trinidadian soccer official whose lust for power was matched only by his boundless greed; and the sport's most powerful man, FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who held on to his position at any cost even as international soccer rotted from the inside out. Remarkably, this corruption existed for decades before a determined team of American law enforcement officials began to secretly dig, finally revealing that nearly every aspect of the planet's favorite sport was corrupted by bribes, kickbacks, fraud, and money laundering. Not even the World Cup, the most-watched sporting event in history, was safe from the thick web of corruption, as powerful FIFA officials extracted their bribes at every turn. Bensinger has spent nearly three years researching and writing Red Card. He has pored over documents and interviewed key figures in the U.S. and abroad. This is the only book that tells the full story from inception to conviction, and reveals, for the first time, how the biggest scandal in sports came about.
In these uncertain times, the basics matter more than ever. But for most of us, concepts such as investing, budgeting, and getting out of debt just don't float our boats (or 150-foot yachts)--and so we put them off longer than we should. Joe Saul-Sehy and Emily Guy Birken are here to tell you that personal finance can be a lot more fun than you think. (No haberdashery, maritime knowledge, or specialized flatware required.) Learn about everything from side hustles, to hiring a legit financial adviser, to planning for emergencies, to what's new and exciting--and actually worth your time--in financial apps and software. If you're looking for the same old get-rich-quick clichés, avocado toast shaming, or alphabet soup of incomprehensible financial terms, you won't find them here. Instead, Saul-Sehy and Birken take you step by step along the way to financial success, with their signature blend of shrewd financial information and wacky humor.