A Car, Some Cash and a Place to Crash: The Only Post-College Survival Guide You'll Ever Need

I just bought 4 copies of this book for my brother and his roommates who are graduating in 3 weeks. It's tough to enter the "real world" and recent grads don't always want to take advice from parents or older siblings. (I know I didn't - thought I knew everything!) I read a review for this book in USA Today and then looked through a copy that someone in my office had ordered and thought it would be a great gift.This book has a ton of useful advice and you can tell that it is written by someone who really wants to pass on the information. A family friend gave me a book about life after graduation a few years ago and despite the book's boring approach I did find it to be useful. Rebecca Knight's book blows that one away and I would really suggest buying this for any college student or recent grad that you know.

I recently read Ms. Knight's book and, although I am a few years out of college, I still found her thoughtful advice to be extremely useful. Now that my brother and two cousins will be graduating from college in a few short weeks, I am buying a copy for each of them. In fact, I'm hoping that my sister hastens her graduation plans so I can buy her one too!Had this book existed when I first graduated, I suspect that I would actually have money in my 401K, a roommate whose company I enjoy and I might be in a career with enormous potential instead of back in grad school.

My wise sister-in-law, remarking on the deficiencies of college students confronting the real world outside of home and school, recently said that "Twenty-one is a lot younger and a lot dumber than it used to be." I'm not sure the precise reasons why so many of our youth appear to have postponed adulthood, but I think she's right. First alerted to the publication of "A Car, Some Cash" by a review in USA Today, I sought out this book as a prospective gift for a couple of soon to be graduates. I'm delighted to have found it, crammed as it is with practical advice I suspect will be taken more seriously,coming as it does from another twenty-something,rather than from a hopeless old crank like my sister-in-law or me. Ms. Knight, drawing on her own post-graduate experience as well as that of many others she's interviewed, engagingly, sometimes amusingly, offers a tour of the real world horizon confronting the recent graduate: how to find an apartment, how to buy a car, how to get--and keep--that first, full-time job. Experienced enough to know most of the difficulties and young enough to remember the pain, Knight is wise enough to seek out answers, not just from callow youth, but also from gray haired experts who understand the fine print on a lease, the arcane terms of an employment contract, or the intricacies of health insurance coverage. She's careful to ration the doses of hard headed advice. The tone is informational, never hectoring or condescending. Whatever castor oil this book contains (remember, mother said it was good for you!)is cleverly disguised within an anecdotal style that never fails to go down easily. I highly recommend this book to my sister-in-law as evidence that all is not lost and to recent graduates who may have gotten too used to parents and schools smoothing away real world complications. It's time for them to start buttering their own toast. "A Car, Some Cash, and a Place to Crash" will show them how it's done.

There's college, and then there is the real world. College is great, very important and fun. The real world, particularly the months after graduation, can be less so. Reality can smack you in the face.This book, which I'm buying for twin cousins who are graduating next spring, is a real world guide. There were so many things that we need to address once officially off on our own. Many I thought I had covered, only to realize that I could have at the time (and still today) been a beneficiary of author Knight's advice (read 401k). I also like the advice on taking some risks. Though many of us are a little timid just out of college, don't we all look back and say "if I only took that chance"? There are many how-to books. This one is fundamentally important as the course we chart post-college can determine what we do many years thereafter. A smart, real world, how-to guide that I could have used a decade ago.

I saw a review in the USA Today for this book and could not resist picking up a copy:"Most college seniors are trying desperately to not think about what comes next: the big belly-flop into REAL LIFE. And, speaking from experience, 99% of their parents are biting their tongues trying to find a non-verbal but effective way to get their near-graduates off their dime.Enter Rebecca Knight with her almost platitude-free guide for the Class of 2003 (and their parents), A Car, Some Cash and a Place to Crash."This book strikes a wonderful balance between funny, anecdotal stories and practical, expert advice. It's fun for the 'not-so-recent' graduate and it's invaluable for the new entrants to the real world. I highly recommend it.