No es facil hablar de dinero.

In English this means, it's not easy to talk about money.

For many people, the language of money is like trying to learn a foreign language. It can be frustrating. For this month's Color of Money Book Club pick, I'm recommending a book that literally translates the language of money.

Lynn Jimenez, an award-winning business reporter for KGO Radio 810 in San Francisco, has written Se Habla Dinero? The Everyday Guide to Financial Success (Wiley, $19.95). What's so fabulous about this book, which was published last year, is from the table of contents to the index, Jimenez provides side-by-side Spanish and English translation. On the left-side pages is the Spanish, and on the right, the English. Although anyone will benefit from this basic personal finance guide, Jimenez wrote this bilingual book to appeal specifically to multigenerational Hispanic families.

``Like the U.S. population as a whole, Latinos are feeling the sting of the economic downturn,'' reports the Pew Hispanic Center. A January survey found that Latinos hold a more negative view of their own current personal financial situation than does the general U.S. population. Seventy-six percent of those polled said their current personal finances are in either fair or poor shape. That was compared with 63 percent of the general U.S. population.

Despite their financial challenges and concerns, Hispanics are moving into this nation's middle class at a rapid pace, Jimenez writes.

Jimenez sticks with the fundamentals. She starts with the mechanics of opening and using bank accounts, then moves on to how to save, use credit and get out of credit card trouble, pay for college, borrow to buy a home or start a business, purchase insurance and set up a will.

There are tips aimed specifically at Latinos. For example, she reminds some that unlike in their native countries, a notario (notary public in the U.S.) is not an attorney (``Un notario no es un abogado''). Law enforcement officials say some schemers call themselves notarios to take advantage of immigrants who are unaware of the distinction.

Jimenez said she envisions the book being passed along from Latino grandparents who don't speak English to their adult children who may speak some English to adult or young grandchildren, born in the U.S., who may not speak or read any Spanish.

``Se Habla Dinero? can be used as a quick reference as your family climbs the financial ladder,'' she writes. ``It is designed to encourage conversations about money between generations.''

As Jimenez says in the introduction: ``El Dinero tiene su propio lenguaje, su propio vocabulario, su propio codigo de palabras. Es fundamental que comprenda el lenguaje del dinero, cualquiera sea el idioma que usted hable.''

Or, as she advises in English: ``You must speak the language of money to understand how to use it to your own advantage.''

If you're looking for a basic money guide for yourself or a young person, Se Habla Dinero? is a good choice in both English and Spanish.

Hear Michelle Singletary's personal finance reports on www.npr.org. Readers may write to her c/o The Washington Post, 1150 15th St., NW, Washington DC 20081.

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