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Main Character Money
Paperback
Publisher Price: $15.99
Publisher: Maxim Publishing
Published: Mar 2 2026
Pages: 238
Weight: 0.71
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
You weren't supposed to figure this out alone.
But here you are - staring at a paycheck that's smaller than you expected, a credit card balance that somehow grew, and a retirement account you're not even sure you have.
Nobody sat you down after graduation and said: Here's how money actually works. Here's what your paycheck really means. Here's why your credit score matters. Here's how to start investing when you're making $14 an hour and everyone says you can't afford it yet.
Main Character Money is that conversation.
Follow five young adults - ages 18 to 26, earning $16,800 to $68,000 - as they navigate every financial decision that hits in your twenties. Their stories teach what textbooks never do: how money works when you're young, broke, overwhelmed, or all three.
Tyler is 18, starting from zero on $14 an hour.
Jordan is 23, buried in student loans she was told were an investment.
Mia is 21, freelancing with no safety net and no tax strategy.
Michael is 26, $8,000 in debt and wondering what happened.
Emma is 24, a federal employee doing fine on paper - and quietly terrified she's doing it wrong.
Inside, you'll learn how to:
- Build a budget that survives contact with your actual life
- Dig out of credit card debt without pretending it didn't happen
- Decode credit scores, insurance, and taxes - the stuff that blindsides you
- Start investing with $50 and no idea what you're doing
- Navigate money with a partner who spends differently than you
- Stop social media from draining your bank account one scroll at a time
Every chapter includes Your Move - three action items you can do today - and When It Goes Sideways - real scenarios where things go wrong and exactly what to do about it. Because nobody's financial life goes according to plan.
Covers budgeting, debt, credit scores, investing (including TSP for federal employees and military), insurance, taxes, big purchases, estate basics, and the social media machine designed to make you spend.
No jargon. No judgment. No just stop buying lattes.
Just the money talk nobody gave you - until now.
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