More Money for Beer and Textbooks

“Failure to Launch?  Not if you read this book.  It’s full of good suggestions for young adults trying to make it through college and university without getting crushed by debt.”

-Rob Carrick, personal finance columnist for the Globe and Mail, and author of How Not To Move Back In With Your Parents.

More Money for Beer and Textbooks: What is it all about

More Money for Beer and Textbooks is a common sense guide to student finances that won’t put you to sleep or bore you to death.  We deal with issues that are relevant to REAL Canadian students today, and not some “ideal student” that no one knows or has ever met.  If you are about to begin your post-secondary journey, are currently trying to navigate those bumpy waters, or know someone that is, More Money for Beer and Textbooks is the cure for massive student debt, credit card bills that grow larger by the month, and the stress that accompanies financial worries.

There is no doubt that Canadian students today face a steeper uphill climb that any before them.  Tuition costs, compulsory fees, and textbook prices have all risen faster than the rate of general inflation over the last few decades.  Despite all the “Kids these days!” headlines you might be reading, the basic math of the situation tells us that today’s student is financially stretched in ways their parents and grandparents never were.  Putting your head in the sand and hopping for the best (also commonly referred to as the default student position) is NOT a reasonable strategy going forward!  The average university graduate in Canada today leave school with almost $30,000 in debt.  If you want to be on the right side of that statistic there are a few simple and straightforward things you can do without sacrificing the activities that make it fun to be a young person!

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More Money for Beer and Textbooks includes updated information on:

• How Much Post-Secondary Education Will Cost
• Student Housing Options
• Applying for and Repaying Student Loans
• Partying without an Empty-Bank-Account Hangover
• Getting Great Part-Time and Summer Jobs
• Preparing Student Tax Returns
• What a Student Budget Should Look Like
• Saving Money on Textbooks
• Responsibly Using Credit Cards
• Transportation Options
• Student Travel and Much More!

Justin and I are a couple of professionals that work in the world of education, yet are still young enough to understand what being a young adult in post-secondary study is all about!  My name is Kyle Prevost and I’m a high school teacher at Birtle Collegiate school in Southwest Manitoba.  Justin Bouchard is the Dean of Residence at St. John’s College on the University of Manitoba campus.  Together we witness daily the financial struggles that young adults go through at schools across Canada every day, and the lack of knowledge they have to draw on when facing new financial decisions.  Because we are so familiar with these problems, and found that there was no all-encompassing modern resource to recommend, we decided to create our own!  We each got through school without any debt, yet we don’t have any stories of “super-frugality” or monk-like living.  In fact, we had a pretty good time and our local student bar definitely knew us by name!

More Money for Beer and Textbooks is an entertaining look at student finances written by two young professionals for the young professionals of tomorrow.  If we had each read this book before attending post-secondary studies we would have saved ourselves thousands of dollars that were spent learning things the hard way.  If you’re a student today head on over to Amazon and get it shipped to your doorstep!  We promise you that for $15.95 and an hour or two of your reading time, it is well worth it and a great investment!

Now the problem is that most students quit reading this post several paragraphs ago.  This is the conundrum we ran into when we started discussing a personal-finance book for Canadian students.  Students generally don’t want to spend a penny more on books or a minute more reading than they have to for their courses.  People told us this would be a waste of time because young people simply wouldn’t be interested in a book about money.  We beg to differ.  Justin and I believe that students won’t read a boring book about finance written by 60-year old chartered accountants.  An entertaining and humorous look at easy ways to save cash on the other hand is another story completely!   We wrote this book because we want to help young people, and we like to think our “tone” is pretty youth-friendly, but the problem is how do we get this book into students’ hands?

That’s where you come in.  If you have a grandchild, niece, nephew, little cousin, or even a younger sibling, tell me what sort of grad gift beats a guide that will save your loved one thousands of dollars as they go through school regardless of if they are going to university, college, or another credential program?  After all, how many fancy pens or “The Places We Will Go” books does an 18-year old need?  For a grad gift or birthday present that will keep on giving, look no further than More Money for Beer and Textbooks.