Personal freedom and money are closely connected. The trick is that most of us are slaves to the money and an idea that they could work to our advantage seems nearly unreachable. We dream that one day we will become rich, all our problems will be gone and we will live the lives of celebrities spending money on big mansions, fancy holidays and expensive supercars. This is what mainstream media taught most of us about how “being rich” should look like. But at least from my point of view that is far from the truth. Being rich is about being able to spend money on things you like, spending time with people you love and about long term investing into yourself, your loved ones and into self-education.
When it comes to money management and investing, it seems to me that people are mostly divided into two categories: one category just spends their money without thinking one minute about how it might impact their future and they don’t know what their financial goals are, the second category realized that they might be spending too much money and their solution is to cut spending altogether and they just save their money all the time without realizing that our lives and time on this planet is limited. “Get rich quick gurus” hunt online for our attention with a promise to provide us with “proven tactics” on how to invest in the stock market, buy bitcoin, bonds, gold, real estate or whatever the current mania wave provides. We are flooded with information and with stories of 30 year old millionaires who retired after they invested into this “special” fund or the new crypto coin which went to the moon. The reality is that real investing is a long term automated non-emotional process which should not involve any gambling, get rich quick schemes or stupidities like cryptocurrencies.
I wanted to do an article about money for a while now, but I couldn’t find a one simple book to recommend which would cover all the important topics: when to invest, into what, how to spend money, how to save them, how to avoid/get rid of the debt, what to do when you’re going to get married and you need to have those unpleasant conversations with your partner about your spending, future plans, savings, investment goals and what actually money means to you. Luckily I found out about the book called: “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” by Sethi, Ramit. At first I thought to myself: “The name of the book sounds like a perfect get rich quick scheme to me”. But I gave it a try and it was a good decision. Although I’ve been investing and managing my money for years, I still found many new ideas which I will use and did not know about. I love his ideas about spending on things you love, but cut all your other expenses as much as you can. As I heard once someone say: “You can have anything, but you can’t have everything”!. Why I like this approach is that you cannot simply free yourself from debt and stress associated with it and do things you like if you follow every trend and buy everything the “age of consumerism” provides us with. Although I must say this book is more valuable for US based audience as it talks a lot about credit cards, their 401k and some other topics which are mostly US specific as here in Europe our systems works different and credit card usage and debt are not that bit of a thing as in the US, still 70 % of the book can be applied by everyone no matter where you live.
Be aware ! The book will teach you how to truly invest and become rich slowly over time, not how to gamble and rely on “money experts” and their predictions which will in the end make you miserable and poor, not rich. There are no magic formulas that will make you rich quick, it all requires dedication, a lot of studying of your spending and psychology why you do it, it requires planning and facing the idea that you and only you are responsible for managing your money and wealth. But that’s what I love about it and books alike. The “self discipline” part. Even if you’ve been an investor for a longer time and you might have already a portfolio and you are invested in a low cost index fund, there are still many great ideas in the book about how to negotiate a better salary at work, how to get a great deal while buying a car, about the importance of pre-naps and more. As always, simply click on the picture below and get the book for yourself.
CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW TO GET THE BOOK FOR YORSELF
Take care, talk to you soon.
