Read what our parent and teen reviewers have to say about Money Matters, a new book for teens by author Susan Hayes Culleton aka ‘The Positive Economist’.
Money Matters is tailored for young people so that they can navigate topics such as tax relief, investments and more. It also gives a real flavour of the types of careers that are available in finance for people.
Read these honest family reviews from parents and teens and discover how Money Matters could help your teen become more financially savvy.
What Is Money Matters?

Money Matters is a financial literacy textbook created with the support of CFA Society Ireland. It is written as menu of personal finance, investing and entrepreneurship life skills.
The book is tailored for young people in the following ways:
- It is story-focused whereby students can learn about pensions through characters like Sarah who starts her first job and is wondering what “tax relief” means for her.
- It is full of relevant modernity including ESG, fintech, online brokers, differentiating between trading and investing as well as using technology for active learning.
- It gives a real taste of the diversity of careers available today and tomorrow in finance. Each chapter contains a case study of a CFA Institute charterholder and highlights how the the theory learned in subjects like accounting, business, maths and economics connect with the practicality of everyday life and life-changing decisions.
Find out more and buy your copy here so you can start your teen on their way to financial literacy.
What Did Our Reviewers Think Of Money Matters

“Money Matters is a comprehensive and essential textbook for students of all ages. It covers all areas of finance from personal budgets to business and stocks. It is presented in a thorough yet fully understandable manner for everyone”. – Jaclyn Gurulé, mother of 5 children
“This book provides very good introductions to the basic principles of managing a budget and seeing how you can break down your monthly costs to different categories”. – Lucas Browne, 4th Year, Age 15
“I found Money Matters to be a great book. As a family we found it very to-the-point and we found some very useful information in it. A scaled down version of this (without the activities) would have been very useful for us (as adults) when planning for savings/mortgages etc. The book is very well laid out and is written in really nice short paragraphs or bullet points. The graphs and the pictures in the book make it very visually appealing. It holds the reader’s attention and doesn’t have many pages that contain text that is too long (apart from Chapter 7)”. – Mary
“I found Money Matters very interesting. I like the layout and the examples in the book are very practical. The activities were not too daunting and I really liked the interviews with the various business people.” – Mark aged 15
Would You Recommend Money Matters To Other Parents?
“I would highly recommend this book for parents to buy and go through with their teenagers. It has useful information for both groups and could be highly insightful to their own personal finances. I would give it a 9 out of 10.” – Jaclyn
“I would definitely recommend this book to other parents and families and I would give it an 8 out of 10”.- Mary
Final Verdict On Money Matters
“This should be a mandatory learning tool for all secondary schools as it deals with not only earning money in the now but saving money and investing it for the future”. – Jaclyn
“I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has entered Secondary School as it will be useful to gain that knowledge at a young age to get the most out of it”. – Lucas
“As a parent, I would love to see this in schools and even a simpler version for primary students.”- Mary
“I like that the book was modern and made references to modern technology and companies that I am familiar with.” Mark
What to Expect From And Where To Buy Money Matters
Check out these bonus tips from Susan on helping your teen become more financial literate.
Buy your copy of Money Matters here, priced €12.50 (with free shipping), so you can start your teen on their way to financial literacy.
