Money is broken in many ways, including how we learn about it.

For more than a decade, Michael Schramm, CFA, has written about money, personal finance, and investing. Along the way, he noticed a problem: traditional financial education rarely reaches the people who need it most, especially those who lack financial confidence because they grew up without wealth.

So he wrote a new kind of beginner-friendly investing book. Emotional Finance makes investment advice more accessible and engaging by using finance concepts to tell the personal stories of Schramm's working-class upbringing:

• Stocks describe the uncertainty after his mother's death.
• Target-date funds show how he went on autopilot to achieve economic mobility.
• Volatility explains how childhood instability can linger into adult life.

Part personal finance guide and part memoir, Emotional Finance explores what financial literacy often overlooks: class, complicated families, scarcity, trauma, and how they all shape our relationship with money. It also teaches essential investment concepts-stocks, bonds, compound interest, indexes, and cryptocurrency-that will leave you ready to invest in your future.

Perfect for readers intimidated by investing, anyone seeking a more human approach to money management, and fans of the financial storytelling in The Psychology of Money or The Big Short. The book will also resonate with readers drawn to memoirs about class, family dysfunction, and resilience, such as Educated, Maid, and I'm Glad My Mom Died.

Money may be broken, but repair starts with the stories we tell about it.