over the last few years I have read almost every book that exists on money and investing from the classic books that cover the fundamentals like Rich Dad Poor Dad to the psychology focused ones like Think and Grow Rich to the books that go into investing like one up on Wall Street so in this video I'm going to break down the key things I have learned and taken away from all the books I've read some of them really surprised me because they contradicted to what I learned from my day job in Investment Banking and I'm curious
to know if you shared the same perspective so let's start off with the basics and the most popular one and that is Rich Dad Poor Dad this is the classic of Classics and I can definitely see why it's so popular it covers the foundations for finance and money that isn't taught to us in school the premise of this book is based around the author's Two Dads his biological father who recommends getting a secure job taking the traditional path and retiring with the pension and then there's a second dad who is his best friend's father and
he was a high school dropout he built a business Empire and was all about independent thinking and buying assets that make money for you and this book is what introduced me to the concept of assets and liabilities assets as it explains are things that put money into your pocket this could be anything from Investments like stocks and shares real estate side hustles or businesses that bring in extra income on the other hand liabilities are things that take money out of your pocket and they lose value over time and these are the things you want to
avoid especially in the years that you're trying to build yourself up he says that when you think of your home as a primary investment you end up paying more for it and buying more house than you need and that sucks up a lot of your money in monthly installments that could have been used more profitably somewhere else so this is a really good book to begin your personal finance Journey explains the Core Concepts in a very digestible way and emphasizes the importance of giving each pound or each dollar a purpose and viewing it as an
employee that is constantly working for you so this mindset clarifies the trade-off between in present expenses and future income because every dollar or every pound spent today is one that ultimately won't be able to work for you later down the road then he has a follow-up book which is the cash flow quadrant so there are hundreds of ways to earn money beyond the conventional nine-to-five job most people think that a stable job is the only legit and realistic way to Financial Security but this book will paint a whole new picture it makes you really understand
the limitations of an I25 job and how you don't have to be tied to a desk for the rest of your life in order to make money and be financially free in fact it takes that one step further and says how relying purely on your job might just be the worst thing you do when it comes to making money and seeking Financial Freedom the cash flow quadrant that he discusses represents the four ways to earn money it's being an employee so working a nine-to-five job being self-employed or having a small business so for example if
you're a dentist a freelancer and then there's being a big business owner and then finally being an investor and in this book he talks about how you can use this concept to Achieve Financial Freedom and which of these paths are most likely going to lead you down that road it's a good book to get your mind ticking with ideas but when it comes to actionable takeaways and things you can Implement I would recommend this book and that is the four hour work week by Tim Ferriss so when I read this or even when I saw
the title I was initially quite skeptical I mean a four hour work week sounded too good to be true but as I got deeper into the book I realized it wasn't at all about working less it was purely about working smarter he talks about how anyone can live a retired millionaire Lifestyle by building their own business automating it and then collecting their income as they go and live their best life or the life that they would usually wait for years and years and years to live when they retire when you read the book it illustrates
how something that is initially very far-fetched and seems like it's completely out of reach is actually a lot more achievable than you think so these two books go hand in hand cash flow quadrant opens your eyes to the possibilities of earning money outside the traditional job setup and then the four hour work week week gives you the tools to make that happen then we have the millionaire fast lane the point that the author makes in this book is that there is no such thing as get rich easy but there is such thing as get rich
quick which is really interesting because you don't hear that very often he talks about the three paths in financial life the first path is the sidewalk and it is one where you spend more than you earn repeatedly which keeps you trapped in a cycle of being paycheck to paycheck the second part that he talks about is the slow lane and it's about taking the safer apart in life getting good grades getting a good job saving a portion of your paycheck every month and then putting that into Investments and eventually being able to retire at 65
plus years old and the issue with this is that it is the slow game and you're ultimately trading your time for money and then there's path three and that is the fast lane and that is leveraging your time to create passive income so in other words investing your time in work that generates passive income by creating a product or a system that's capable of earning an income long after you original time investment has been put into it and it expands your income potential so what I really like about this book is that MJ the author
while saying there is such thing as getting rich quick which can sound a bit scammy he keeps it very real in that it isn't possible without a lot of hustle a lot of hard work and a lot of discipline you need to be incredibly committed and even though it might be or might look like that you get rich really quick it's actually accumulation of years and experience and knowledge that gets you to that point next we have Think and Grow Rich this is one of the books that tends to have different opinions you either love
it or you hate it there's hardly a middle ground with this book I've come across people who felt that this book was all fluff and didn't really deliver on what I promised they expected a clear actionable road map to wealth and so they were quite disappointed when they didn't find that and on the other hand there are people who credit this book with transforming their mindset and their financial lives for them it was like this light bulb moment that helped them unlock their limiting money believes and figure out what was holding them back so what's
my take on it when it comes to success I believe mindset is everything if you approach life with a scarcity mindset thinking that there's never enough and that money is hard to come by then that is what you'll experience whereas on the other hand if you believe in abundance and that you're capable of achieving wealth your actions will align to those beliefs and Lead You towards success but and there is a big but mindset alone is not enough you can have the most positive abundance orientated mindset in the world but if you're not taking any
action you're not going to get very far it's like having the best tools in the world but never using them to build anything you need both the right mindset and then also consistent focused action so if you're looking to improve the former and you're open to exploring your beliefs and digging deep into your mindset then this book is for you if you're not a fan of the philosophical approach and you're looking for a step-by-step guide to Building Wealth then you might want to skip it and go for some of the other ones that I mentioned
in this video when it comes to the getting rich part next we have another classic which is the psychology of money so I have a whole video dedicated to this book and the lessons I've learned so I'll link that over here ultimately money is as much about psychology as it is about maths it's about how our minds perceive and interact with money our feelings towards money our past experiences with money and these things often overshadow the raw Financial knowledge that we have the most interesting part of this book for me is in relation to the
fact of how often we misattribute the role of chance or luck in our financial lives so how's all the author talks about how most of us learn what to do and what not to do about money by studying the most exceptional financial success stories like the Bill Gates of the world and we think that we can replicate her but the more exceptional the story The more likely it is that luck played a bigger role in the outcome and so the fewer lessons you can actually take from it and Implement into your own life so he
actually recommends paying attention to the patterns and not to the people so if one person took root a to get success but 10 people took root B to get success chances are root B is what's going to work for you because it's more likely that chance or luck played a role for the person that took Route a when it comes to money there are some key patterns and fundamentals that can apply to absolutely everyone and it doesn't require a whole amount of chance or luck and I've got a free guide that goes into this and
on page 32 of that guide it goes through the most likely things that will guarantee your success when it comes to investing these are the things that have been proven Time and Time Again by investing experts that have trodden the path before us and things you need to consider again that guide is completely free if you want to check it out it's in the description box below there are also some fundamentals that I think most of the money books fail to mention and I'll go into that in a second but firstly now that we've covered
the basics about how to manage your money what about the getting rich part how do we do that where do we put our money where should our money be channeled into to multiply its value Alex formosi introduced this concept of ignorance it's debt when it comes to Gathering knowledge he explains that the difference between your current level and earning 100 million is just the information that you haven't yet learned it's the fact that you don't know how to make 100 million and we can use this ignorance debt concept when it comes to investing as beginner
as we tend to think we understand the topic a lot better than we actually do you may think that we have grasped all the intricacies and we're prepared to make really big decisions when it comes to money investing but this premature level of confidence can mislead us if we don't have a strong enough Foundation when it comes to our understanding so what are some of the books that can help us tackle this ignorance debt and that can start you on your investing journey two books the intelligent investor and girls that invest are great places to
start the intelligent investor is a book Warren Buffett read when he was 19 and he still calls this the best book on investing that has ever been written the principles of this book are Timeless and it illustrates how investing over the long term does not require any specialist knowledge it doesn't require being super intelligent or having really deep Insight on anything it just requires two things and that is one a rational framework to make a decision and secondly not letting your emotions override your rational framework he covers how the market behaves the basic fundamentals of
finance and how to maintain control of your psychology then the girls that invest is written by a friend of mine sem another really good book for the ultimate beginner who wants to understand why they should invest the basics and the terminology of investing and how to find your investing personality type and create a portfolio that matches that then there's a little book of Common Sense investing written by John Bogle who is the CEO of Vanguard and he invented index fans so naturally he argues how the winning strategy for beginner investors is simple invest in index
funds and do it indefinitely he talks about why index funds outperform primary Alternatives and talks about the ideal asset allocation of stocks to bonds depending on your age I personally think this book is a little bit outdated for a number of reasons and I think that BOGO who is a bit conservative when it comes to asset allocation so a good follow-up to this book is the dandor investor and one up on Wall Street they both follow similar principles when it comes to the best investments and it's that the best investments are often right under your
nose in the sense that they align with what we already know and engage with in our daily lives and based on this we actually have a huge advantage over Wall Street Pros I do agree with this to some extent so for instance I had inverted line treatment done on my teeth about five years ago and at the time I was super impressed with the product I was able to straighten my teeth without needing to wear silver braces the treatment was discreet and I was really happy with the results so I decided to look into the
company further and I found that it was publicly listed I looked at the company's reports and I decided to buy the stock that investment turned out to be the investment that I've made the biggest return on out of everything that I've invested in and it was purely from me being a customer and seeing the impact first hand so I do somewhat agree that the average investor has the potential to one-up professionals but it isn't as simple as just okay be a customer it requires a lot more research to do before investing in that stock one
common thread amongst all of these books and across all legit genuine Finance advice is that there is no shortcut to success and that there are no shortcuts to getting rich it requires discipline it requires persistence and the ability to control your emotions when it comes to money or when it comes to those things in life what I have found that at least from the money Focus books very few touch on the importance of putting money towards yourself before investing in the stock market and I guess those are two very different topics but the truth is
investing in most cases is a very long and very slow game whereas investing in yourself whether that's your ability to manage money your ability to make more money through a business through a side hustle that is more important when it comes to the short term although it does require a lot more work and discipline and knowledge if you want to go down this route I have plenty more videos that can get you started and I've made a playlist that I'll link up over here that you can look at and I'll leave you with that but
before I close this video off can you do me a favor over 75 of people who watch my videos haven't subscribed to the channel and that is abnormally high so
