Money School by Lacey Filipich: An Honest Review

📖 What is Money School about?🔗

Money School: Become Financially Independent and Reclaim Your Life was published by Penguin in 2020. Its core argument is simple: most Australians are "time poor" by choice, not necessity. Filipich's alternative is what she calls FITR (Financially Independent, Time Rich). Rather than grinding until 65 and retiring worn out, you build passive income through shares and property, spend less than you earn, avoid lifestyle inflation, and reach a point where paid work becomes optional. It's the FIRE concept, adapted thoughtfully for the Australian context, including super, the ASX and the Age Pension.

Filipich knows what she's talking about because she's done it. She trained and worked as a chemical engineer in the Western Australian resources sector before founding Money School in 2010 and reaching financial independence young. Rather than a single "big retirement," she took multiple mini-retirements along the way, a concept she champions throughout. The book is structured in four parts, moving from foundational money principles through to investing in assets, managing the unexpected, and designing your post-FI life. It's a choose-your-own-adventure format, so you can skip sections that don't apply without losing the thread.

⚖️ Strengths and weaknesses🔗

👤 Who should read it, and who should skip it?🔗

🔍 What do critics say?🔗

Mainstream Australian media welcomed the book on release, with the Sydney Morning Herald covering it as teaching Australians to buy time, not things, a neat framing of its "time poverty" argument, and Filipich has featured in financial-literacy segments as a credible mainstream voice on money. FIRE-focused reviewers made a useful, honest observation that recurs: the early foundations cover familiar ground for seasoned FIRE readers, but the later parts offer genuine value, especially the section on what to do when income stops unexpectedly, which is rarely covered in other FI books. It also picked up a reader-voted Best Book award, which says something about how useful its actual audience found it.

💬 What do readers say? Goodreads and Reddit🔗

On Goodreads it holds around 3.9 out of 5, a solid, credible spread with the large majority in the four and five-star range. Common praise: accessible explanations of complicated concepts, a relatable and non-judgmental tone, and the practical step-by-step structure. Several readers specifically call out the treatment of ethics in investing as a welcome surprise.

🇦🇺 The Australian angle🔗

This is where Money School genuinely stands apart. The global personal finance canon was written for American readers, with a different tax system, different investment vehicles and a completely different retirement system. Money School treats superannuation as the central retirement vehicle it is for Australians, and discusses franking credits in the context of Australian dividend investing, something that makes a material difference to after-tax returns for ASX investors.

Crucially, it addresses a genuinely tricky Australian problem: you generally can't access your super until preservation age (now 60 for most people), which means FIRE in Australia requires building a bridge of non-super assets to cover the years between financial independence and super access. Filipich tackles this directly, which most overseas FIRE books simply can't. For a classic on the philosophy behind trading money for life energy, our Your Money or Your Life review pairs nicely with it.

💰 The verdict🔗

Money School is one of the strongest personal finance books Australia has produced. It's practical, honest, and written by someone who actually did what she's teaching. The FITR framework is a sensible evolution of FIRE for an Australian context, and the coverage of super, ASX investing and property is genuinely useful. The caveats are real but manageable: some specific 2020 figures need updating, so treat the ATO and ASIC MoneySmart as your sources of truth for current caps and thresholds, and if you're already deep in the FIRE world, the later parts are where you'll find the most value. For beginners and those early in their financial independence journey, it's a clear recommendation, the book we'd hand to a friend who just asked "where do I even start with money?" Our rating: 3.9 out of 5.

❓ Frequently asked questions🔗