Finance Book

As I was arranging the numerous personal finance books I’ve accumulated over the years, I couldn’t help but wonder how I can put everything together in such a tiny little space. Then I asked myself, if I had a very small book shelf that can accommodate only 10 of these books, which books would I choose? I had to think really hard because I love reading books and I’ve learned a great deal about life and money through ALL of them. These 10 books are special in that they have completely altered the way I view money and life! They have inspired me to learn more about money and pursue financial freedom! May these same books help you achieve your financial dreams!

Here are Rich Money Habits’ top 10 best personal finance books of all time!

#10. 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich by Bo Sanchez

This one is special because it’s written by a preacher – and a famous Filipino preacher at that! Bo Sanchez is a best-selling author of inspirational books in the Philippines. This is his first book that openly talks about money, business and investing.

What I particularly like about this book, is that it tackles one of the most critical obstacles in making money – that is, how to reconcile money and religion. Living in the only predominantly Catholic country in Asia, it is very important for me to align what I believe in whether it be on religion or money. Otherwise, I’ll just be confused and end up going nowhere.

The book is full of stories on how daily money habits make you rich or poor. It describes the most common perceptions we have about money. We were taught that money is the root of all evil. When we watch our favorite TV shows, rich people are often portrayed as greedy. They only got rich through “drug” dealing or some other “illegal” means. Due to this stereotyping, some us unconsciously don’t want to be rich! Who would want to be the “bad” guy in our own soap opera called life?!

As a result, there is conflict inside of us. Some of our internal dialogs are

“I want to be rich…BUT not so rich that my friends would hate me and I would no longer have friends.” err…who wants to be loner?!

Or the most common,

“I want to be rich…and I’m so desperate the only way for me to get rich is by winning a million dollars through lottery.”

The great tragedy is never realizing that you don’t have to be a crook, or be greedy, or become unfriendly, or win a lotto ticket to be rich – you only need to build rich money habits! Read more »

As I was arranging the numerous personal finance books I’ve accumulated over the years, I couldn’t help but wonder how I can put everything together in such a tiny little space. Then I asked myself, if I had a very small book shelf that can accommodate only 10 of these books, which books would I choose? I had to think really hard because I love reading books and I’ve learned a great deal about life and money through ALL of them. These 10 books are special in that they have completely altered the way I view money and life! They have inspired me to learn more about money and pursue financial freedom! May these same books help you achieve your financial dreams!

Here are Rich Money Habits’ top 10 best personal finance books of all time!

#10. 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich by Bo Sanchez

This one is special because it’s written by a preacher – and a famous Filipino preacher at that! Bo Sanchez is a best-selling author of inspirational books in the Philippines. This is his first book that openly talks about money, business and investing.

What I particularly like about this book, is that it tackles one of the most critical obstacles in making money – that is, how to reconcile money and religion. Living in the only predominantly Catholic country in Asia, it is very important for me to align what I believe in whether it be on religion or money. Otherwise, I’ll just be confused and end up going nowhere.

The book is full of stories on how daily money habits make you rich or poor. It describes the most common perceptions we have about money. We were taught that money is the root of all evil. When we watch our favorite TV shows, rich people are often portrayed as greedy. They only got rich through “drug” dealing or some other “illegal” means. Due to this stereotyping, some us unconsciously don’t want to be rich! Who would want to be the “bad” guy in our own soap opera called life?!

As a result, there is conflict inside of us. Some of our internal dialogs are

“I want to be rich…BUT not so rich that my friends would hate me and I would no longer have friends.” err…who wants to be loner?!

Or the most common,

“I want to be rich…and I’m so desperate the only way for me to get rich is by winning a million dollars through lottery.”

The great tragedy is never realizing that you don’t have to be a crook, or be greedy, or become unfriendly, or win a lotto ticket to be rich – you only need to build rich money habits!

#9. Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen

This is one of the books I bought when I was in the US. Since I love reading personal finance books, I ordered a bunch of them online. I was able to get them cheaper because I looked under the “used” books section. Surprisingly, most of them are in relatively good condition and look almost new!

The book was my first exposure to having multiple streams of income. For someone who worked as an employee most of his life, I thought I could only earn from one stream of income – my job! I realized having only one stream of income is not a very good idea because there’s also only one way money can come to me – through my paycheck!

Having multiple streams of income is NOT necessarily having a second job, or even a third! Multiple streams of income building systems so that money can flow through your life. It means, investing both your time and money to learn how to build those systems. Read more »

Assets and Liabilities

I recently finished reading Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing, the follow-up to Rich Dad Poor Dad that provides an in depth look into the worlds of business and investing. The book provides substantial and valuable insight into not only the philosophies of the rich, but specific practices and tools to use as well. I highly recommend this book to those who wish to change their way of thinking and move toward a life of financial freedom and independence.

One of the greatest lessons I learned from Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing is that you do not have to acquire assets through purchasing them. You should, in fact, learn how to create your own assets. This got me thinking of my own assets and liabilities on my own personal financial statement. My assets column doesn’t really have anything in it, and while I stared at that blank column, I felt absolutely worthless.

So, I decided to start thinking about the potential assets I could create and how I could turn the ideas into realities, no matter how crazy or outlandish they seemed. I also found during this process that I do have assets now that I should list. I started filling my assets column and it now looks like this:

Education – knowledge of international relations, conflict resolution, and development
Passion
Work ethic
Perseverance
Creativity
PSNM (Poor Student No More)

The first five are not putting money into my pocket as of now, but I always want to remember what my REAL assets are. Those characteristics will be the driving force behind my financial success.

My suggestion is to look at your personal financial statement at least once per month and each time, have a short brainstorming session in which you write down ideas for creating assets. Most importantly, you do not need an already existing amount of money to transfer ideas into tangible assets. Use your intellect, experience, creativity and character to find a way to make it happen.

My liabilities column heavily outweighs my assets column in terms of monetary value, but I know that this is only temporary. Don’t sell yourself short and realize what your true assets are – then take it and run with it.

My goal by May 2010 – grow my assets column bigger than my liabilities.

By: Jess Shorland