Sign-In
Cart
How to Look Like Money (On Credit): A Comically Annotated Guide to Installment Plans, Buying on Margin, and The Illusion of Wealth
Paperback
Series: The Jazz Age Guide to Bad Decisions
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 3 2026
Pages: 94
Weight: 0.22
Height: 0.23 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Stop worrying about your bank balance and start worrying about your neighbors' opinions.
Welcome to the 1920s-a decade where your value isn't determined by your savings, but by the impressive weight of your debt. In this comically annotated guide, The Department Store Manager pulls back the velvet curtain on the Installment Plan, the magical financial tool that allows you to buy a tuxedo, a car, and a washing machine before your first paycheck even clears.
Using 100% real public-domain advice from genuine Jazz Age sales brochures and credit manuals, this volume teaches you the essential art of the Appearance Audit. Learn why you should display your vacuum cleaner in the parlor like a trophy, how to lie to your wife about the radio you can't afford, and the proper etiquette for being evicted from your home with minimal fuss.
Inside this guide to financial reckless abandon:
The Illusion of Wealth: Why cash is for peasants and credit is a public declaration of trust.
The Debt Lifestyle: How to ignore interest rates and focus on the affordable weekly payment.
The Art of Evasion: Pro-tips for hiding your car at your cousin's house when the repo man comes knocking.
The Manager's Verdict: Snarky, modern-day translations for every reckless rule of the Roaring Twenties.
Consumption is a moral duty. The economy runs on your delusion. Sign on the dotted line, ignore the fine print, and look like money-at least until the music stops.
Also from
Smith, Barnaby
How to Be a Lady: A Comically Annotated Guide to Invisible Ankles, Strategic Fainting, and the Art of Decorative Atrophy
Smith, Barnaby
Paperback
Don't Marry!: A Comically Annotated Guide to 19th-Century Matrimonial Mistakes
Smith, Barnaby
Paperback
How to Drive a Car: A Comically Annotated Guide to Hand-Cranks, Backseat Scandals, and the Art of the 45-MPH Death Wish
Smith, Barnaby
Paperback
How to Practise Modern Medicine: A Comically Annotated Guide to Leeches, Laudanum, and Calling Everything Hysteria
Smith, Barnaby
Paperback
How to Play the Market: A Comically Annotated Guide to Margin Calls, Ticker Tape Psychosis, and Black Tuesday
Smith, Barnaby
Paperback
Also in
Humor
I Can't Believe I Did That: The Game That Gives You Points for Sharing Awkward, Awesome, and Unforgettable Memories: Card Games
Nadelberg, David
Katcher, Neil
Other
The Science Magpie: Fascinating Facts, Stories, Poems, Diagrams and Jokes Plucked from Science
Flynn, Simon
Paperback
Fixing Flamingos: And Other Solutions to the World's Least Pressing Problems
Brown, Lucienne
Rea, Brian
Paperback
How to Be a Cat: (Cat Books for Kids, Cat Gifts for Kids, Cat Picture Book)
Lazar, Ralph
Swerling, Lisa
Hardcover
The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts, and Reason
Chapo Trap House
Hardcover
Peculiar Questions and Practical Answers: A Little Book of Whimsy and Wisdom from the Files of the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Bake It Off: An Unofficial Taylor Swift-Inspired Cookbook for Every Era, from Breakfast to Midnights
Smith, Lindsey
Hardcover
Big Fan: Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love
Schur, Michael
Posnanski, Joe
Hardcover
Pardon My Book: Ten Years of the Best (and Worst) in Sports from Pardon My Take
Commenter, Pft
Big Cat
Hardcover
Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to '90s Sitcoms
Bennett, Geoff
Hardcover
We Are the World (Cup): A Personal History of the World's Greatest Sporting Event
Bennett, Roger
Hardcover
How to Grow Up Without Becoming a Grown-Up: Big Lessons from Little Kids
Shapiro-Barnum, Julian
Hardcover
Wtf America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy
Meiselas, Jordy
Meiselas, Ben
Meiselas, Brett
Hardcover
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Five Novels in One Outrageous Volume
Adams, Douglas
Paperback
The New Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Expert Advice for Extreme Situations
Borgenicht, David
Piven, Joshua
Hardcover
There Are Moms Way Worse Than You: Irrefutable Proof That You Are Indeed a Fantastic Parent
Boozan, Glenn
Hardcover
Not Today, Fascists: The Lies That Got Us Here, and the Truths That Will Reunite Us
Welch, Jennifer
Hardcover
How to Talk to Your Cat about Gun Safety: And Abstinence, Drugs, Satanism, and Other Dangers That Threaten Their Nine Lives
Auburn, Zachary
Paperback
Nobody Wants Your Sh*t: The Art of Decluttering Before You Die (New York Times Bestseller)
Condo, Messie
Hardcover