Books worth Reading

For The Total Money Makeover, the big takeaway for me was discipline. Everyone starts from a different place and has a different story, but the consistent theme was learning how to tell yourself no so you can get out of debt and set yourself on a path to freedom.

Keep in mind that it’s a temporary sacrifice. You’re not saying no forever. You’re saying no long enough to change the trajectory. It also reinforces something this community already understands. Your income is your single biggest source of wealth, and discipline is what allows you to actually leverage it.

With Minimalism, what stuck was the idea that everything carries a cognitive load. A pile of DVDs quietly tells me I should watch them. Stacks of photo albums suggest I should be looking through them. Even good things create mental noise.

Reducing the excess isn’t about getting rid of stuff I like. It’s about reducing the background stress so my attention and energy can go where I actually want it to go.

Die With Zero had a huge impact on me. It reframes money as something meant to be used to create meaningful experiences while you still have the health and time to enjoy them. It also argues that giving earlier—when loved ones are building their lives—has far greater impact than leaving money later, when they’re already established. The core idea is to maximize life’s return, not just financial return.

I read 'Your Money or Your Life' back in the late 80s and i was blown away with the concept that we are trading our life energy for money. Last year, I read 'Die with Zero' and it had similar themes along with a timeline to remind us that there are things we'll enjoy at 30 that we might not enjoy or be able to do at 65, so it's important to invest in the experiences at the stage when you can truly enjoy them.

For me it was "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. I've read it first as a teenager. I had always been well organized, but this book taught me a specific methodology to organize my "TODO lists". I live by this method since then, both in my work life and my personal life. I've re-read the book some time ago and I was surprised to discover I didn't find anything new there - decades have passed but I still remember everything and I keep following this method quite closely.

The ideas that stuck with me are:

1. If there is something to do, write it down - to a simple notes app, on a piece of paper, wherever. Simply having it written down makes a huge difference. Not only you won't forget about it (assuming you go back to your TODO list frequently), but you will also feel much better than keeping all these things to do in your head.
2. Not every new information is a task for you to do. Have a separate place for such things incoming randomly, and only later sort them whether it's really something you should do, or maybe something that needs to wait for a specific date, person, or event to happen, or a more extensive project that needs to be broken down into smaller tasks, or just an information to keep for future reference, or maybe even something worthless that you can just delete.
3. Thinking big and planning your high-level goals is good to do occasionally, but going back to them often can be intimidating. In the everyday life, it's better to just focus on the next simple task to do next.

I don't hear this one mentioned often, but Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam really got two messages across to me in a way no other book did:

1. The importance of asset allocation and how periodic rebalancing of a stock/bond portfolio forces you to buy low and sell high in a systematic way.
2. The mountain of evidence that actively managed mutual funds hardly ever outperform simple broad-based index funds.

The Physcology of Money by Morgan Housel. He places a heavy emphasis on the Sleep at Night test, which can be just as important as maximizing returns. I now factor in my previous, current and projected behavior response when making financial decisions.

Pretty much anything by Morgan Housel. The Psychology of Money, The Art of Spending Money, and Same As Ever.

Also, the Tax Planning to and Through Early Retirement that has been mentioned in the podcast is super helpful.

Besides the Bible which is my foundation. I would say 3 books. One is Outlive, Simple Path to Wealth, YNAB.

The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter. I’ve recommended it to so many folks because the premise makes so much sense. Human beings aren’t built for all the convenience and comfort we have (speaking to us in first world areas), and our bodies and minds totally light up when we get out of our cushy bubbles- especially when we’re doing hard stuff outdoors. To me this has encouraged more backpacking, longer day hikes or dog walks in the hills, getting outside for hours in windy/cold/rainy/etc days, and rucking.

The dream manager, atomic habits, who not how and the 5am club are a few of my favorites over the past few years.

I'm currently listening to Better than Before (audiobook), by Gretchen Rubin. It is helping me already to recognize my tendencies, so I can create better habits for myself.

For example, I now understand that:

1. I do things if they make sense to me, so if I want to create a habit then I should research its benefits more deeply to really rationalize for myself why it's important I do this.
2. I like to finish things, tick things off a list, etc, so I will probably do best at a daily or X/week times kind of habit, that I'd get a boost out of finishing.
3. I like predictable over novelty, so a repeating routine will work better for me than something that changes every time and trying new things.
4. Setting some kind of accountability feeling would do me well, but I think rather than another person I might prefer another external accountability. For example, if I buy healthy food I am more likely to cook and eat it because I don't want to waste food/money.
5. Tracking my habits will make me more likely to stick to them- I actually already knew that, and started a color-coded monthly tracking journal for the habits I want to maintain. I've also been doing a monthly recap and rethinking the habits every time :)

I'm still listening to the book, but it's really great so far!

Atomic Habits by James Clear is one of the most influential books I've read over the past several years. Key concepts: reducing friction for habits you want to form and adding friction for habits you want to break; also habit stacking (grouping activities together so one habitually leads to the next). Just finished Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. A lot of great ideas but perhaps less tactical than I would have liked. Still recommend it, though.

Frugalwoods started my wife and I on our FI journey, one book that I simply love and vividly remember is the richest man in babylon, such a great FI book in parables !

Common Sense by A. L. Williams. Broke. Divorced. 18k/year. Started saving 10% of my income as per the book. That's what started me down this rabbit hole

Designing Your LIfe by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, and distilling what you really want. My six-word ideal life vision was "Financially Independent, I Move to [my hometown in Tennessee]." Done with the first part, working on the second.

It's a bit of an older book, but definitely the book of Proverbs from The Bible. The whole thing is a wise father's advice to his young son on how to live well.

The one idea that sticks out the most to me (finance-related, as it happens) is from Proverbs 16:8: "Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice."

Basically, that honesty and integrity are more important than money. And if you think about it, honesty and integrity are things that can never be taken from you, unlike fame and fortune.

Millionaire Next Door - an older book but packed with wisdom. Dispelled myths about the Millionaires in the US. Most did not go to ivy league schools, most were not born into wealth, they drive nonluxury vehicles. They exercise consistently, avoid addiction, emphasize famiky, make purchase decisions based on quality and servicability.

The Five Love Languages. My wife and I read it while we were engaged, and while the "love languages" part wasn't too impactful for us directly (we're already very aligned in how we show and receive love), the recommendation for regular "love tank" discussions and relationship audits has formed the foundation for open, healthy communication for our marriage. That has impacted everything; career progression, family planning, finances, and so forth.

Just finished 5 types of wealth was a good and easy read.

The Simple Path to Wealth (a classic in this community) shifted my investment mindset for me

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. “Your attitude towards to your circumstances are ultimately whether you’ll experience happiness and meaning”