5 Lessons from Millionaires (in 5 famous books)

^{Read time - 4 minutes / Disclosure} 

Today, let's review 5 lessons from millionaires (in 5 famous books).

Learning from successful people can:

- Boost your knowledge.

- Transform your finances.

- Help you build wealth faster.

Unfortunately, many people struggle with money.

The Truth

According to Ramsey Solutions:

- 51% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

- 37% can't cover a $400 emergency expense.

- 32% have $0 saved for retirement.

A harsh reality.

Especially when living in one of the richest countries in the world.

So how exactly is this possible?

And how do you avoid becoming one of the statistics?

Like most young people, I wanted to become a millionaire.

And watching my single mom struggle to raise my brother and I was eye-opening.

It taught me that not having enough money is dang stressful.

And often means working a 9-5 job for 40+ years.

And always having to ask for time off.

And always being told what to do.

And hoping that someday there's finally enough money saved to leave 9-5 life for good.

It's the default path most people follow.

It's the path I followed too at first.

But as time passed, I eventually realized creating a freer life means taking the uncommon path.

The Game of Money

Becoming a millionaire from scratch means learning to think like one.

At least, that's what I believed near the beginning of my money journey.

And since I didn't know any millionaires in real life.

The next best thing I could think of was to read lots of books written by millioniares.

To learn what they knew that I didn't yet know.

To build better money habits into my life.

So here's 5 of my favorite best-selling books on money that helped me on my journey from $80k in debt in my 20s to $1M of investments in my 30s.

Hope they're useful.

Let's dive in:

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad

Build a rich mindset.

 

Here's 3 big takeaways:

Pay Yourself First: Make saving and investing part of your income an automatic thing before paying the rest of the monthly bills. Otherwise, if paying yourself last you leave no room to build wealth.

Understand Assets and Liabilities: Assets put money in your pocket like rental properties and stocks. Liabilities take money out of your pocket like credit cards and personal loans.

The Rich Make Money Work for Them: The poor and middle class work long-term for a paycheck. The rich build and buy things that go up in value to make money work for them.

Pay Yourself First + Understand the Difference Between Assets and Liabilities + The Rich Make Money Work for Them

2. Think and Grow Rich

Use the power of the mind.

 

Here's 3 big takeaways:

Thoughts Affect Reality: What you consistently think about, believe in and constantly feed into your mind affects the outcome of your life.

Have Deep Faith: Deeply believe in your goals and reinforce them through daily action with a positive mental attitude.

Be Persistent: Keep moving forward through temporary defeat and inevitable setbacks. Remember- It's part of the process.

Thoughts Affect Reality + Have Deep Faith + Be Persistent and Remain Focused

3. The Psychology of Money

How to think about money.

 

Here's 3 big takeaways:

Behavior Beats Intelligence: Being good with money has less to do with how smart you are and everything to do with how you behave.

Wealth is Invisible: Being rich means having a lot of income or flashy things like a fancy car. While having wealth means owning a lot of investments or having a lot of money saved.

Time is the Ultimate Currency: The biggest benefit of money is the ability to do what you want, when you want, with whomever you want. Having total time freedom.

Behavior Beats Intelligence + Wealth is Invisible + Time is the Ultimate Currency

4. The Millionaire Next Door

Become an everyday millionaire.

 

Here's 3 big takeaways:

High Earnings Do Not Equal Wealth: High paying careers like doctors and lawyers often fall into a trap of high spending for social status. Self-made millionaires focus on building wealth over displaying high status.

Play Financial Defense: Building wealth means choosing to drive a practical car while living in a modest home. Choose to be wealthy over just looking like you're wealthy.

Track Your Net Worth: Use a system to keep track of your wealth building progress. Paying attention to your wealth helps you grow it faster.

High Earnings Do Not Equal Wealth + Play Financial Defense + Track Your Net Worth

5. The Simple Path to Wealth

How to build wealth (and keeping it simple).

 

Here's 3 big takeaways:

Spend Less than You Earn: Building wealth means spending less than you earn while investing the difference in assets that go up in value.

Avoid Bad Debt Like the Plague: Debt is a destroyer of wealth. Avoid high-interest debt or pay if off as quickly as possible.

Aim for "F-You" Money: The big benefit of building wealth is not luxury or status, but having time freedom to live your ideal life.

Spend Less than You Earn + Avoid Bad Debt Like the Plague + Aim for F-You Money

The bottom line

One of the hardest parts of building wealth from scratch is not knowing what to do.

Or being afraid of doing the wrong things.

Which is something I worried about near the beginning of my journey.

But worrying about doing the wrong things can also lead to doing nothing at all.

And doing nothing means remaining on the default path.

And for most people that means having to work 9-5 for 40 years.

If you're anything like me, you want to create a freer life sooner than age 60+.

And books like these can be great tools to get there faster (or so I've found).

To learn things about money they don't teach in school.

To help build a freer life this decade.

To help stay motivated.

Which one are you going to read this week?

That's all for today.

See you next Saturday.