Get a Financial Life.

• Author: Holtzman, Henry

You can't start too early learning the financial ABCs. And for a young grad starting out, starting early is the best thing you can do.

If you thought that "Saturday Night Fever" was a great date movie, this isn't the book for you. The publisher touts it as a book for those in their 20s and 30s, though it seems more appropriate for 20-somethings.

The financial advice is gut-basic, but good. In fact, it's everything you wish your folks had told you, but never did. Perhaps that's because they were still learning it while you were growing up.

The topics covered might chill the soul of a die-hard Generation Xer, but the information is solid. Topics covered include insurance (all types), banking, loans (also all types), investing and (shudder) retirement planning. Best of all, the advice is realistic, with no phony pie-in-the-sky optimism. It confronts the realities of today's economy and incomes. To the gray-headed among us, it seems impossible to believe that real average income has deteriorated by 20 percent since the mid-70s. It's a hard fact to those about to break through the 30s barrier.

Among some of the innovative ideas that help tailor the book to its audience are highly focused how-to tips in each chapter, key summaries at the end of each chapter, and the equivalent of Cliff's Notes for the whole book located in the first chapter.

Unfortunately, one of the most important chapters will likely be ignored - the chapter on retirement planning. In view of the questionable future of Social Security as we know it, this section of the book is doubly important. The author drives home her point with this example:

"Get this: Suppose you set aside $1,000 a year from age 25 to 34 in a retirement account earning 8 percent a year, and never invest a penny more. By the time you turn 65, your $10,000 investment will have grown to $168,627. But if you don't start saving until you're 35 and then invest $1,000 a year for the next 30 years - a total investment of $30,000 - you'll have only $125,228 by age 65. You may want to read this example over again, slowly ...

The moral of this story ... if you don't start saving in a tax-favored retirement account while you're young...