madlenka's review

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3.0

I can’t decide on my rating. This book is great, just not exactly what I need. The first half is great- I’d never believe you can be hooked on a book about finances! JL Collins is really gifted in explaining concepts I’d always thought were too complicated. If you know nothing about investing, this is the perfect place to start.

In the second half, however, he starts going into practical matters and that’s when I got lost BECAUSE the context is chiefly American. If you live anywhere outside of the US, the investment options he talks about will be of very little use.

I still think the book is worth reading for the lessons on investments and handling personal finances in general.

abumblebeee's review

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4.0

Great book with a lot of very useful information. A lot of the information I knew or had heard from other sources, but it was a great refresher and I think it would be a great starting place for anyone looking for investing and retirement information.

tessanne's review

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4.0

Lots of good info here, most of which is also available on this author’s blog. A must read if you’re starting (or in the midst of) your financial journey, and let’s face it, most of us are!

eatenbysharks's review

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5.0

Very informative and actually enjoyable to read. I wish my brother gave this book to me years ago.

mikecnorthrup's review

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5.0

Absolutely the best book I have ever read on investing.

blackshirt's review

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3.0

I read this after reading John Bogle's Little Book of Common Sense Investing. Bogle focuses on index funds for 200 pages. They're awesome, put your money there and unless you're going to make investing your full-time job. Here are the basics of this book:

Put your investments in an index fund with minimal management fees. Vanguard has VTSAX with fees at 0.04%.
Minimize your expenses by actually tracking them first. Reduce your spending to true necessities or things that bring you joy or security. Maximize the amount of income earmarked by investment.
In order and if you have them, fund your 401(k), Roth IRA, tradition IRA.
Whatever your annual expenditure is, multiply it by 25 to get your estimated amount to achieve financial independence. If you want to increase your standard of living, then modify what you expect your annual expenditure will be.

Upon retirement, diversify to include bonds, probably about 25% of your portfolio. Maybe set up a charity to give through and shelter some of the money from taxes.

For my part, I plan to move my money to VTSAX, track my expenditures more precisely, and earmark 25% of my income to investment, then increase it to 50% of my income over time.

grahambray's review

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4.0

Introduction to index funds and their advantages. Great listen!

hellasmella's review

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4.0

I’ve been on the FI path for about 5 years so this didn’t have any new information per se, but I still enjoyed reading it and it helped me realize there are still minor mistakes/sub-optimal choices I’m making and need to clean up. Super readable book, approachable and fun tone. This will definitely become the go-to book recommendation for friends who ask me for $ advice.

edbrz's review

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5.0

It is well said that books can be an investment. If the price you pay for the book will give you the knowledge or a set of skills to have the book pay for itself then the job of that book has been done well. That is the case of The Simple Path to Wealth. I'll use the tips in the books to align myself to a better investment strategy and that is why I recommend it.

learn4life's review

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4.0

Good book overall with some useful tips.