When I first started studying financial freedom, I stumbled upon one of the most popular books in personal finance—Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. That’s when I realised how much I’d missed in terms of the fundamentals of building wealth. Since then, I haven’t stopped looking for what’s out there to help me get out of a 9-5 job and become financially free.
At the start, I read everything I could, looking for the one magic book that I thought would tell me exactly how to achieve financial freedom step by step. My primary method of consuming books is audiobooks, and I now listen to an average of 2-3 audiobooks per month. This is probably fewer than most people, but it’s a good rate for someone like me, as I hadn’t read a book for a long time when I began.
So. The magic book.
At the outset, I definitely learned a lot from my new reading habit, but I quickly ran into two big problems:
- There are a lot of contradicting opinions about the best ways to achieve financial freedom.
- As I read more and more books, I started to see a lot of recycled and repeated information, which dampened my reading enthusiasm.
Here’s my take on how you can deal with these and other problems when reading about financial freedom
Problem 1: Contradicting ideas
When you read a lot of books around the same topic, it’s easy to come across contradicting opinions from different authors.
For example, one author might tell you that the stock market is the best investment for financial freedom, while another will say that real estate or internet business is the number one strategy. The truth is that these are all great investments, but each business has its own pros and cons. In the same way, some people will tell you that years of a frugal lifestyle and delayed gratification are essential for building wealth, while others think that a decade of sacrifice is unnecessary.
So who should you believe?
My advice is to accept that most of these books are based on personal experience, and hence they present a biased opinion. This is why, as a reader, you shouldn’t follow just one author—you should broaden your knowledge by reading about different ideas. Don’t worry too much about contradicting opinions: they can actually sharpen your critical thinking and help you make better financial decisions.
As you extend your knowledge through a broader range of books and topics, you’ll gradually develop a sense of what might work best for you. There’s no single investment that will suit everybody, which is why thorough research is vital before you risk a lot of money. It’s obviously better to consider all the available options before you rush into a decision.
Problem 2: Repetitive information
Another annoying thing about reading lots of the same kinds of books is that you start to come across a lot of repetitive information, such as about why working for someone else won’t make you wealthy. Many books dedicate their first few chapters to explaining why your current situation is so bad and how you got into it before they start handing out any practical advice. This can be useful for beginners, but it gets boring if you’ve already read similar introductions in dozens of other books.
If skipping chapters is something you often do, I challenge you to rethink your habit.
For me, although many book introductions feel all too familiar, I still usually find some valuable information in them. Sometimes there are new ideas, and sometimes there are reminders and a reinforcement of what I’ve already learnt. As a result, I aim to never skip any part of a book, regardless of how repetitive its content feels. My rationale is that I never know what knowledge gap it might fill.
- If skipping chapters is something you often do, I challenge you to rethink your habit. You may be missing out on something useful.
For me, although many book introductions feel all too familiar, I still usually find some valuable information in them. Sometimes there are new ideas, and sometimes there are reminders and a reinforcement of what I’ve already learnt. As a result, I aim to never skip any part of a book, regardless of how repetitive its content feels. My rationale is that I never know what knowledge gap it might fill.
If skipping chapters is something you often do, I challenge you to rethink your habit. You may be missing out on something useful.
Problem 3: Too much information
It goes without saying that as you read more and more books, you risk becoming overwhelmed by too much information. Typically, books based on research tend to include a lot of data. If you’re someone who tries to remember all the facts, you’ll soon get frustrated.
My advice is to try to focus on the underlying message that an author wants to convey instead of getting lost in the numbers and charts. This will help you make the best use of your time.
Problem 4: Too many concepts (or too much to do)
There are two main types of personal development books: concept-oriented books and action-oriented books. The problem is that reading too much of one or the other gives you only half the picture.
If a book explains a concept rather than giving much detailed, practical advice on doing something, it can be called a concept-oriented book. Sometimes these books are based on historical knowledge or on the long-term study of a particular subject. These books tend to be timeless.
The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason is one of my favourite concept-oriented books. It’s an evergreen book that explains the fundamentals and psychology of building wealth. Another good book in this category is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, which outlines the broad concepts behind personal development.
The famous research-based book The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham explains the fundamentals of stock market investments. I put research-based books like this in the conceptual category because the goal of the research is to build a theory by analysing a large amount of information.
Concept-oriented books are obviously great for understanding principles, but they can become boring if you want to get moving and do something. Action-oriented books, in contrast, are full of practical and detailed actionable advice. They provide guidelines on how to solve a particular problem.
Some action-oriented books are only relevant to certain economic and social trends, and some are based on the author’s personal experience. The infamous The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris provides resources and actionable methods for building online businesses in the information age. Some of the advice this book provides may well end up outdated in the future unless the author decides to revise it.
But action-oriented books can also convey a broader message and still be inspirational.
The only problem with reading too many action-oriented books is that you obviously can’t do everything that everyone recommends without contradicting yourself. Sometimes it’s better to understand the concepts behind someone’s advice before you buy into it.
In summary, I’ve found that it’s best to read both kinds of books in order to develop a sharp mind. When you’ve grasped the fundamentals in concept-oriented books, you can verify the things you learn in modern-day action-oriented books before you make any decisions. The best advice is basically evergreen anyway, i.e. relevant to the fundamental concepts of building wealth regardless of when it was written.
Problem 5: Different realities
I’ve seen many book reviews that have condemned the author because the content of the book didn’t match the reviewer’s personal experience. Yet it’s unrealistic to expect that someone else’s opinion or experience will be exactly the same as yours.
Agreeing or disagreeing with an author doesn’t change what they’ve achieved and what they think is right. All you can constructively do is think how the author’s experience relates to yours and decide if it’s worth following up on their ideas.
And the magic book?
I said at the start that my reading habit was fuelled by my search for a magic book that would outline the exact steps I needed to take to reach financial freedom. Unfortunately, I learned early on that there’s no single book that will lead me to success. My knowledge had to come from multiple sources and it still does.
If you start to follow just one author by ignoring others then first, you miss out on a lot of knowledge out there, and second, you lose the opportunity to compare different ideas and find out what works best for you. The reality is that every book is incomplete. Each one is based either on one author’s experience, or on research that’s necessarily limited.
My advice for fellow travellers on the path to financial freedom is basically to read as much as you can. The more books you read, the more you’ll get a feel for the common fundamentals of building wealth described by most authors, and see how they could apply to you.
Happy reading!