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Meena Cheng Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Meena Cheng

Meena Cheng

Meena Cheng Biography

Meena Cheng is a Chinese immigrant who traveled alone to this country at age 17. Fortune in Your Cookies; Finding Financial Wisdom in Everyday Eating is her only book. It weaves together many of her life's passions (food and money), convictions (set goals, work hard) and experiences (two decades of working in the financial industry).

Asked what inspired her to write the book, she said the biggest reason was her immense need to teach. Writing this book gave her the luxury to teach a wider audience without leaving her home. Cheng received a Bachelor Degree in Accounting from the University of Utah, passed her CPA exam on the first try, and later became a Certified Financial Planner.



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Interview

Meena Cheng discusses what made her write a personal finance book in a fictional form, why she compares food to finance, and what she hopes readers will do once they've read the book.

What made you write a personal finance book?
I have worked as a CPA and Certified Financial Planner for over twenty years. And much of what I do involves educating individuals on the subject of personal finance, so their lives can be empowered and enriched by it. Therefore, writing the book really is a natural extension of what I do every day. The difference is, instead of doing it one on one, now I can reach a larger group of people, more than I would ever have been able to reach in my practice.

Combining food with money is such an unusual concept. Where did you get the idea?
I have always loved to cook and have a passion for food. So when I started teaching financial classes at the University in the mid-nineties, I found myself using food metaphors and cooking principles to make the classes more fun and also to help get the financial points across. And when I did that, you could literally see the lights come on and feel the excitement swirl in the classroom. And over the years, I accumulated quite a stack of those food metaphors and the book is a compilation of that experiences.

What makes your book different from the other personal finance books?
The world does not need another personal finance book...

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Books by this Author

Books by Meena Cheng at BookBrowse
Fortune In Your Cookies jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Meena Cheng but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
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