I’ve Read 50 Books on Money…These 5 Will Make You Rich

I've read a lot of finance books in the 20 years since I built my business around a rich life. I even wrote a personal finance book in 2009 and then re updated it in 2019 that became a New York Times bestseller. Today, I want to talk about a few books that made a big impact on the way that I view money. So here are five books that can teach you to build a rich life and the main lessons that each one taught me, starting with book number one, the Boglehead's Guide to Investing. If you ever wanted to learn about investing, this is a great book. John Bogle founded Vanguard. He's a personal hero of mine. He's probably saved Americans hundreds of billions of dollars because he encouraged the widespread adoption of index funds. And this book uses plain language so it's really easy to understand even to people who are new to investing. Three lessons that I learned from this book. First, starting early and investing regularly. That's chapter two. That's important because when you have time on your side, you don't have to make high risk bets. You can just put your money in consistently. Keep going. Lesson number two, the importance of cost. That's in chapter nine. We don't think about costs when it comes to investments, we think about costs. When it comes to our car, think about costs. When it comes to cleaning our carpet, think about. But when it comes to investments, the hidden cost can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. This book does a great job of showing you how important costs are. And lesson three, tuning out the noise. That's chapter 18. That's going to show you when you have your plan, how do you deal with all this white noise from the media and your friends? Just stick to your plan. Next up, a really fascinating book. Book two, we need to Talk A Memoir about Wealth. I love this book be because the author, Jennifer Rischer, talks candidly about how she and her husband worked in tech and ended up with incredible wealth. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars in their 30s. You know, it's easy to demonize the rich, but she's very candid about what this money meant for her, for her children, for her family. And there are three lessons that I took away from Jennifer's book. Lesson number one, just because you have money doesn't mean that you can shake the way you grew up. She shares a story about a vacation she took in Greece where her husband wanted to rent a Jeep and her instinctive reaction was to say, those Jeeps are a ripoff for tourists. He was like who cares? It looks fun. And even when they rented it, she was still worried and anxious. She wrote, a million dollars hadn't changed everything or made my life perfect. All that money didn't seem nearly as powerful as I'd always believed. Lesson 2 Money can change your relationships with people. She shares intimate stories about how her friendships with other moms, for example, were affected by money and how she navigated them. This is the kind of taboo topic that's rarely talked about. I think she does an amazing job sharing her experience and Lesson three You can be incredibly wealthy and you can recognize that our system is unfair, risher says. Money has afforded me incredible freedom and allowed for extravagance and generosity, but it doesn't feel right that some people have more money than they can spend in a lifetime. While nearly 40 million Americans are living in poverty, I should pay more taxes. Minimum wage should be higher. I really appreciate her for sharing her perspective, which I happen to share with her. Most people watching this will never have her level of wealth, but if you follow my material, it's likely that you will have more than you ever dreamed of. And that introduces some difficult questions about who you are and and what you want to do with your wealth. Book 3 the Power of the Past by Jesse Stribe In America Talking about class I'm talking about social class. Blue collar, white collar is extremely taboo, and yet I encounter it all the time. When I'm speaking to couples on my podcast, I encounter it with the way that they describe money. Like we didn't talk about it in our family or My parents taught me how to invest when I was 10. Or I hear it when they describe their aspirations, like I love to shop at Target, or I'd rather buy 10 shirts than two expensive ones. Or how about we want to eat more cleanly or even visible items in their house. One look in someone's family room is extremely revealing. When I get the chance to look at their kitchen and closet, I can tell a huge amount about someone. Now, in Stryb's book three Lessons, I want to highlight Lesson one Class is incredibly influential on the way we see money. The way we manage it, even think about the future, is often determined by our culture and class. Lesson 2 One of my favorite quotes is about how we can't recognize class differences in our partner. Here's what she wrote Dan, Rachel, and other respondents like them, recognized that they grew up in a different class than their partner. Only after meeting their partner's parents, they were able to interpret class signals that came from their in laws, but not from their partners themselves. That is fascinating. And that brings me to lesson three. Class is often invisible to us, and it's something that we often deny. We think we decide what our lives are about, but often our choices are based on what happened to our grandfather during the Great Depression. All right, real quick. If you haven't already subscribed to my channel, make sure you do that right now so you don't miss out on any of my money tips and money psychology videos. Next up, book four, the psychology of money by Morgan Housel. Morgan did an awesome job writing this book and sharing fun, compelling stories to get you to think about money. What I love is that this book will get new people interested in money, and it's also fascinating to people who are way further along their financial journey. Here are a few lessons I learned from this book. Lesson 1. Money and psychology are completely intertwined. Housel shows us how money decisions don't just come down to discipline, but that human psychology plays a huge role. And he encourages readers to identify their human nature and realize how it impacts their financial journey. Lesson two, Our personal history shapes how we view and feel about money. You see this on my podcast all the time, but it's important in this book. Our behavior around money is deep, deeply influenced by our experiences, not just by logic or education. And lesson three, it's important to understand how much enough is for you. Knowing how much enough is is powerful to help you avoid social comparisons and constantly end up chasing some invisible end that never comes. And now I'll finish with book five. I will teach you to be rich. Okay, I gotta put my own book on this list. I have to tell you, a lot of times, people will message me. They'll hear me referring to my book. They'll be like, what book? My book. It's called I will teach you to be rich. There's like 20 different editions in different countries. There are a few lessons in this book that I want to share with you. Lesson number one, Getting started is more important than becoming an expert. Lesson two, it's okay to make mistakes. You don't have to be perfect with your money. You just have to get started. Lesson three, Spend extravagantly on the things you love and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don't. It's okay to spend money on beautiful clothes or a wedding or travel or nice food or a massage. It's okay. You decide what your rich life is. Lesson four, There's a difference between being sexy and being rich. Don't get caught up in buying and selling stocks just because everyone else is. Or even buying real estate just because everyone else is. Buy and hold. Investing wins over the long term every time. Lesson 5 Don't live in the spreadsheet. You nerds. Sitting there running your analyses every single day of your life. Ooh, this calculation will really make it work. See? Stop it. Get your plan, dial it in. Move on with your life. Lesson 6 Play offense, not defense with your money. So many people play defense their entire lives. They simply wait to see what bill comes in. They wait to get in a fight with their partner about money. They wait. They feel anxious. They feel guilty. What kind of way is that to live? Why don't you go on offense? Why don't you say, what's my rich life? Where's my money going? Let me break it down. 50 to 60% on fixed costs. Where we want to go on vacation this year. Let's set some money aside automatically. Just go. Go on offense. It's not that hard, but it takes a total mental shift to say, instead of money controls me, I'm going to be in control of my money. And lesson 7 use your money to design your rich life. It's not just there like Scrooge McDuck to hoard and swim in. It's there to be spent on your rich life as well as saved and invested. All right, that covers my top five recommendations for finance books that will help you on your path to getting rich. Let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this video and if you want to see more of my book recommendations and check out this video to watch more.