The Problem With Personal Finance Books
When Matthew Paulson was first starting to learn about personal finance, the first book Paulson picked up was George Clason’s The Richest Man in Babylon. It was really a great book that taught fundamental truths about handling money well, such as living on less than you make, saving money, and making your money earn money. Paulson just ate up what he read, because it was such good stuff. The next book he picked up was The Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey. It taught a lot of the same principles that The Richest Man in Babylon did, but offered it in a very practical series of “baby steps” for readers to follow to become financially independent. He continued reading, picking up Rich Dad Poor Dad, then the Millionaire Next Door, and then a few others. By the time he was on the Millionaire Next Door, it became quite clear that they were all offering generally the same advice.
It seems that whenever a new personal finance books comes out, it’s just a rehash of something that we’ve previously read. All the advice in the books have been in numerous other personal finance books before, and offer very little new unique and insightful advice. The same is true for a slue of other personal finance books that come out. If you’ve read one of Robert Kiyosaki’s books, you’ve pretty much read them all. The reason for this is simple, it doesn’t take a chapter to explain simple principles such as “You should pay off debt” and “live on less than you make.” The principles are certainly fundamental, but don’t necessarily translate well into 200+ page books. Usually they offer all of the good advice they have to offer in their first book, and after that, they are more than likely just looking for money.
The moral of this story is that if you’ve already read a few good personal finance books, be sure to read some reviews of the book before going and picking it up. You can’t blame an author for trying to make money, but we need to be a bit more selective in our personal finance reading.
