Aaron Clarey Book Review: “The Black Man’s Guide Out of Poverty” and “Bachelor Pad Economics”

Reading through The Black Man’s Guide Out of Poverty in preparation for this review reminded me of why I’m such a fan of Aaron Clarey; you can tell from his writing that he’s the sort of man who keeps his eyes wide open all the time.

When he was working his way through College, he was watching his peers, seeing them take student loans, and listening to what their long-term plans in life were – and ultimately noticing how well they worked out.  When he was working in banking and finance, approving every idiotic loan that he was directed to approve, he was looking at the particulars and comparing clients to one another, noticing the patterns.  And even today, he looks at the world, takes all the facts and figures that come across his computer screen, and susses out all the hidden trends and patterns, with a particular focus on how it affects individuals.

In summation, he’s what we all wish our high school guidance counsellors had been.  In practice, they were nothing but bureaucrats who helped us fill out the forms for the pre-approved list of colleges that the system wanted us to attend; the equivalent of a medical doctor who prescribes whatever overpriced medication the Big Pharma rep is pushing.  Clarey’s the man who actually understands the process, understands the realities on the ground, and explains to you what’s actually going on; neither a middle-man nor sales agent, he tells you it like it is.

The Black Man’s Guide Out of Poverty and Bachelor Pad Economics cover the same topic – personal finance – without falling into redundancy.  The former explains how you get out of poverty; the realities of the working world – and the wider world – which few in the lower-class have been raised to understand.  The attitudes that success demands, and the self-limiting beliefs which help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.  And it exposes the many traps which promise wealth, while pulling you back down.  Despite its title, it applies to anybody who’s lived a lower-class life; if you’ve ever had to skip school so that you could work to support your mom and siblings, if you’ve been bouncing from one dead-end job to another, if you’ve been living a life of one step forward, two steps back – it’s the manual that’ll give you the slap in the head you need to get out of that rat cage.

Bachelor Pad Economics, meanwhile, is a financial advice Bible.  It’s the generalized work that every man should own, be they fifteen or fifty.  It explains mortgages, estate planning, forming your own corporation, and the myriad other life skills that we all need, but few of us have.  Where Black Man’s Guide replaces the high school counsellor (with a particular emphasis on those raised in poverty), BPE replaces the ‘Life Planning’ classes that grew popular high schools as literacy in Latin fell out of vogue (with the added benefit of filling up the gym teacher’s schedule); unlike those classes, it actually does teach you practical life skills so that you won’t be left unarmed and armourless when some financial shyster tries to sell you their latest package.

I don’t just recommend these books; I’m straight-up telling you that you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t buy at least one of them.

The Black Man’s Guide Out of Poverty applies particularly to the impoverished young, anybody in their twenties who sees nothing but low-wage work around them and in their future.  Bachelor Pad Economics is for those who are safely out of the poverty trap, but risk getting caught up in credit cards, auto loans, and the various other financial devices which leech wealth out of the middle class.

As a final note: Clarey’s probably done more to lessen the impact of the upcoming crash with these books than all of the financial planners in Washington and Wallstreet combined – but only if you yourself put it into practice.

Aaron Clarey writes at CaptainCapitalism.blogspot.com.