Overview
I am a Tony Robbins fan. I’ve listened to some of his audios and I am always trying to learn more from him.
I got this book soon after having moved to the USA. As I was starting my career I wanted to understand how to own my finances and put money to work for me and not the other way around. This book didn’t disappoint. It is full with clear tips and resources and it has an awesome section full with interviews to the best of the best in finance.
Notes and Highlights
V2MOM (from Marc Benioff): Vision, values, methods, obstacles and measurement.
- What do I really want? (Vision)
- What is important about it? (Values)
- How will I get it? (Methods)
- What is preventing me from having it? (Obstacles)
- How will I know I am successful? (Measurements)
What matters is that you master the money and it doesn’t master you. Then you are free to live life on your own terms.
…the best way to change your life is to find people who’ve already achieve what you want and then model their behavior
“An expert is an ordinary man away from home giving advice” — Oscar Wilde
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. — Mark Twain
The best investors know they’re going to be wron, no matter how smart they are.
“What has been very successful for me through my whole life is to not be arrogant about knowing, but to embrace the fact that I have weaknesses; that I don’t know a lot about this, that, and the other thing. The more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know” — Ray Dalio
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. — Lao-Tzu
If you know your limitations, you can adapt and succeed. If you don’t know them, you’re going to get hurt.
Information without execution is poverty. Remember: we’re drowning in information, but we’re starving for wisdom.
Repetition is the mother of skill
My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest. — Warren Buffet
…if you work for a living, you’re trading your time for money. Frankly, it’s just about the worst trade you can ake. Why? You can always get more money but you can’t get more time.
Saving sounds like you’re giving something up, you’re losing something today. But you’re not. It’s giving yourself a gift today of peace of mind, of certainty, of the large fortune in your future.
Earn more, spend less, and automate it.
Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. — Aesop
Find a way each day to appreciate more and expect less
The goal of the nonprofessional should not be to pick winners – neither he nor his “helpers” can do that – but should rather be to own a cross section of businesses that in aggregate are bound to do well. A low-cost S&P 500 index fund will achieve this goal. — Warren Buffet
Superficially, I think it looks like entrepreneurs have a high tolerance for risk. But one of the most important phrases in my life is “protect the downside”. — Richard Branson
I’ve always believed the best way to get a result, the fastest way, is to find someone who has already accomplished what you’re after, and model his or her behavior.
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” — Winston Churchill
80% of success in life is psychology and 20% is mechanics. How else do you explain how someone can know what he needs to do, wants to do it, has the right strategy to get it done, and still not take action?
If it’s a “must” and not just a “should,” you’ll find a way.
The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday. — Anonymous
“What you get will never make you happy; who you become will make you very happy or very sad.” If each day you make just a little progress, you will feel the joy that comes with personal growth. And that leads to perhaps one of the most important lessons I have learned about big goals and achievement.
If you truly develop skills that are needed in the current marketplace —if you constantly improve and become more valuable—someone will employ you or you’ll employ yourself, regardless of the economy. And if you employ yourself, your raise becomes effective when you are!
Diversification is the only free lunch. Why? Because spreading money across different investments decreases your risk, increases your upside returns over time, and doesn’t cost you anything.
I don’t gamble because winning a hundred dollars doesn’t give me great pleasure. But losing a hundred dollars pisses me off. — Alex Trebek (Host of Jeopardy)
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing and the worst thing you can do is nothing
Theodore Roosevelt
- Asset allocation is everything! So you want to diversify between your Security Bucket and your Risk/Growth Bucket…
- You don’t want to hesitate to get in the market trying to have perfect timing; instead, use dollar-cost averaging and know that volatility can be your friend, providing opportunities to buy investments cheaply when the market is down.
- Have a Dream Bucket that gives you emotional juice and excitement so you can experience the benefits of your investing prowess in the short term and mid term instead of just someday far in the future.
- Use rebalancing and tax harvesting to maximize your returns and minimize losses.
“The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the nonobvious.” — Marcus Aurelius