Book number two! This marks the second fortnight in a row of sticking to my new goal of one book per fortnight. This time, the focus shifts towards building my financial literacy.
Prior to reading this book, I had already set up a budgeting system that automatically separates my money into a few buckets: rent, non-food expenses (subscriptions, bills and the like), holidays, gifts and shopping, date nights (and flowers!), investing, and an emergency fund.
I was relieved to find that, after starting this book, I had been embracing the correct approach.
Ben Nash's Replace Your Salary by Investing is an excellent, entry level, natural language education on how to approach personal finances. He highlights the importance of investing (notably in shares and property), taking greater care of our superannuation, and the risks around cryptocurrency and investing more broadly.
This was a real eye opener for me. I make weekly contributions to my share portfolio, but Nash presented the compounding potential that is unlocked through a consistent investing interval. I found this genuinely exciting, and it challenged me to rethink how I am currently distributing my income.
The way he takes the complexity of financial advice and translates it into an easy to read guide for the average person is brilliant. He seems like the sort of person you want in your corner, and reading his book, but more importantly applying his principles, has made me feel more secure in my finances even after only one to two months of application.
If you are seeking greater ownership over your finances, I would highly recommend this as the starting point of your own journey to financial literacy. It is a great read. Hard to believe I bought this at the airport nearly two years ago and only read it two weeks ago. It is funny how certain things find you when you are ready to receive them :)
Next up, The Defining Decade by Meg Jay. I am super pumped about this one, as a 22 year old who could always use some advice!!!