A Simple Book of Financial Wisdom: What I’ve learned

I took two trips to my local library to read this book. I walked to it the first time in mild weather and the second time it was so cold my legs started to burn, but I think it was worth it.

I already have plenty of books at home that I need to read so I figured if I wanted to read something else I should just go to the library instead so I didn’t spend any money.

I was amazed when I learned that the author of this book made a 40k salary and was able to support his wife and his two kids. It made me think about how much money was really nesscary to live a good life.

My whole life I’ve never made anything above 10 dollars an hour. I look at my paycheck and think that it will be impossible for me to leave my parents’ house. However, I’m sure I’ll get paid more as long as I stick to the job have now. Reading through this book gave me hope, if he could take care of his family with only one source of income, then maybe someday I would be able to too.

 

 

Two things I learned from this book:

Number 1:

I learned about the emotional aspect of money as well. I’ve learned that sometimes we think we need something that we don’t actually need. We’ll buy new stuff first instead of paying for stuff we need to pay for like bills and insurance. This hasn’t really been too hard for me, however, I do spend money on books, crafts or clothes every once in a while. I’ve slowly started to go to the library first and I’ll only go to half price books if there’s book I really really want to have. However, I’ve learned that with most books I usually just read through it once and then  just leave it on the shelf, so I’m probably going to try to stop buying books and just go to the library instead. That is unless I think the book could be highly educational and would be something I pick up more than once.

Number 2:

Compound interest is probably one of the most important things I’ve learned about in this book. I didn’t realize how important it would be to invest into retirement now rather than wait in tell I made more money. I’m hoping I’ll be able to take all the money I’ve saved up soon and put it into a retirement fund with compound interest so I don’t have to worry about getting a job with a 401k.

Why I think other people should read this book:

I think one of the most valuable lessons this book teaches is being happy with what you already have. I know that sometimes material things can make someone feel happier momently, but buying something doesn’t really give you happiness long term. What will give someone happiness long term -I believe- is making sure you are taken care of throughout your lifetime and investing time trying to take care of others. As well as opening up to new experiences and just learning that happiness is still a choice. Which is something that has been hard for me to get through, but its true. Even some people in the worst situations imaginable still find a way to make themselves smile. If we can’t do this for ourselves, then no material object will.