Today on the podcast I’m talking with Sam Beckbessinger.

Sam is the bestselling author of Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup – a guide to help you take control of your money so you can take control of your life. 

As her website says “You’re going to earn plenty of money over your lifetime. Are you going to waste it on stupid crap that doesn’t make you happy, or let it buy your freedom and your most audacious dreams?” 

In 2020, Sam produced a second version of the book – Manage your Money Like a Grownup – a guide for teens.

But writing about money is not the only writing that Sam does.

She was one of the writers on Serial Box’s and Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire serialized novel. She's also written several episodes for animated kids’ TV show, Team Jay, commissioned by the Juventus Soccer Club and produced and animated by Sunrise Productions, and the family-friendly comedy series Jungle Beat, which has been broadcast in over 180 countries on channels including Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

She is co-writing Magpies, a mystery-suspense novel about missing girls who come back, changed, together with Dale Halvorsen (who listeners may know as the extremely talented designer – Joey Hifi).

Sam was a Mandela Washington Fellow for Young African Leaders at Yale University in 2014, and is a partner and co-founder of two financial technology businesses. She also helps people learn to adult better via her website – LikeaFuckingGrownUp.com

In the intro to Manage Your Money Like A Fucking Grownup Sam says:

“We never get an instruction manual about how money work. We never have to pass a test to get our Money License before we can take a new credit card for a drive. Most of what we learn about money comes from advertising or from other people who know as little as we do. No wonder we make such basic mistakes. No wonder we feel disempowered and scared. No wonder so many of us just decide to stick our heads in the damn sand and never deal with it….

You gain control by being more conscious of your choices …Being in control of your money is about making those choices more deliberately because, if you don’t, you’ll end up spending it all on the advertisers’ ideas about what makes a good life.”