I didn’t have the best financial education growing up, but this book was a fantastic read!

My aim is to improve, and this book is helping me do just that.

It's straightforward and easy to understand, prompting me to grab my journal and jot down some of the insights for further reflection.

I'll definitely need to revisit it for a reread. ( )

Interesting stories and good advice. We are all human and not always rational this covers a lot of our problems and issues with money. ( )

What a revelation. Mr. Morgan Housel has written a book, The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness, that has almost done the impossible. Mr. Housel seems to me that he has written a title on a complicated subject and produced something that just about any adult can read, understand, and take away something from it.

I am not a business-minded, financial-savvy type of person, I saw this book, picked it up and immediately knew that this was different. This is not a traditional "how-to" or a book that explains the history of investing or the markets. Morgan breaks down personal finance, investing, and your possible business decisions not on the basis of spreadsheets and equations, but of each persons unique history, their family conversations and by the way most people tend to think. There is some history, there are some technical topics and terms, but it is all for perspective purposes. Mr. Housel explains things in such a manner that someone without much knowledge can grasp and understand what he is talking about.

If you are someone beginning to start using your money to start making money, or have been investing and working to improve on your personal finances or have in interest in that field and want to taking in a new perspective, I could not recommend this book enough! Great book! ( )

Very lucid and reasonable, but not very surprising -- but I've read a lot of books about personal finance and investing so YMMV. I liked Housel's essay about the problem with comparing everything to the past, as this is something I do a lot to make sense of the world. I also appreciated the last "bonus" chapter in which he describes the changing attitude towards money in the US between 1930 and 2020. This reminded me of the book [b:Gouden jaren|23204369|Gouden jaren|Annegreet van Bergen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1414768736l/23204369._SY75_.jpg|42748313]. ( )

The book does what it claims to do. It lays out systematic ways to look at money and avoid certain biases. It is a good starting read for anyone stepping into adulthood. As expected, books of these kind culminate into recommending index investing and conservative portfolio, which is of course the best advice for the majority of the people. Though I reckon those people don't need this advice, and those do, won't take from this book. For a book on finance, this is glaringly devoid of any data and charts (sans handful), and is largely full of anecdotes.

Authors lay out very bold (and correct in my view, similar to Nassim Taleb's Randomness at Wall Street book) that luck plays biggest role in successes and failures. However, he immediately forgets that assertion in the rest of book, and starts making inferences on individual instances of successes and failures and draw lessons. If you forgive this flaw, and suppress the inevitable feeling which comes when reading such books is that perhaps examples are being cherry picked, then you will come out some thought provoking ideas. For existing passive investor like me, this was primarily confirmation of what I was already doing. ( )

A concise summary on financial behaviors observed today. This book is not intended to give direct financial advice but instead show how different people spend, save and possible motivations. A good book to share with the lay person. It has made me re-evaluate how I talk with money with other people. It is easy to look within but its also important to look at where other people are coming from. Our historical experiences shape our future decisions with money. ( )

Gave me great insight into the psychology of money. Informative! ( )

I am big fan of Morgan and his writing. This book is a crisp compilation of all his writings and podcast interviews. It is definitely great stuff for anyone interested in money and personal finance. More than the tactics of where to invest or asset allocation strategy, this book will question you to think deep about money.

It made me think about these questions: What is my relationship with money? What do I want from money? When to listen and when not to listen to the experts on money?

So why not five stars? Well, if you are a fan of Morgan’s writing, you already know this from his blogs and podcasts. So it’s nothing new. It’s more of 4.5 stars. ( )

Hands down one of the best books on investing. No science... No gobbledygook... Just plain sense. ( )

Book title and author: The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness by Joesph E. Powell. B08G5625Q6 reviewed 8-27-23

Why I picked this book up: I have been spending more time thinking about money and a psychologist so they go together

Thoughts: Ad. How many times have you thought about starting a diet or quitting smoking without doing anything about it? Or lapsed back into bad habits after hitting a rough spot on the road to recovery? To uncover the secret to successful personal change, three acclaimed psychologists studied more than 1,000 people who were able to positively and permanently alter their lives without psychotherapy. They discovered that change does not depend on luck or willpower. It is a process that can be successfully managed by anyone who understands how it works. Once you determine which stage of change you’re in, you can: create a climate where positive change can occur maintain motivation turn setbacks into progress make your new benefifificial habits a permanent part of your life This groundbreaking book offers simple self-assessments, informative case histories, and concrete examples to help clarify each stage and process. Whether your goal is to start saving money, to stop drinking, or to end other self-defeating or addictive behaviors, this revolutionary program will help you implement positive personal change . . . for life. The National Cancer Institute Found this program more than twice as effective as standard programs in helping smokers quit for 18 months.

Some golden nuggets:
Psycholology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed and Happiness by Morgan Housel is a timeless work about how our feelings, emotions and interactions with money often results in different outcomes for different people – because people are different. So, insights into how to think and behave about money is instructive.

This book is full of great insights written to possibly guide us

Quotes that hit home from various chapters are presented below. There are many more quotes possible to review but then you’d miss the message between each quote. I strongly suggest getting the book to see how these below snippets string together into a powerful story about how we think and behave towards money.

Quote:
• Your personal experiences with money make up maybe 0.00000001% of what’s happened in the world, but maybe 80% of how you think the world works.
• Luck and risk are siblings.
• Yes, but I have something he will never have … enough.
• There is no reason to risk what you have and need for what you don’t have and don’t need.
• The hardest financial skill is getting the nuggets goalpost to stop moving.
• $81.5 billion of Warren Buffett’s $84.5 billion net worth came after his 65th birthday.
• Buffett began serious investing when he was 10 years old.
• His skill is investing, but his secret is time. That’s how compounding works.
• But good investing isn’t necessarily about earning the highest returns, because the highest returns tend to be one-off hits that can’t be repeated. It’s about earning pretty good returns that you can stick with and which can be repeated for the longest period of time. That’s when compounding runs wild.
• Getting wealthy vs. staying wealthy.
• Getting money is one thing. Keeping it is another.
• Planning is important, but the most important part of every plan is to plan on the plan not going according to plan.
• No one is impressed with your possessions as much as you are.
• When you see someone driving a nice car, you rarely think, “Wow, the guy driving that car is cool.” Instead, you think, “Wow, if I had that car people would think I’m cool.”
• Humility, kindness, and empathy will bring you more respect than horsepower ever will.
• Spending money to show people how much money you have is the fastest way to have less money.
• Money has many ironies. Here’s an important one: Wealth is what you don’t see.
• Past a certain level of income people fall into three groups: Those who save, those who don’t think they can save, and those who don’t think they need to save.
• Building wealth has little to do with your income or investment returns, and lots to do with your savings rate.
• The value of wealth is relative to what you need.
• Past a certain level of income, what you need is just what sits below your ego.
• People’s ability to save is more in their control than they might think.
• Things that have never happened before happen all the time.
• The thing that makes tail events easy to underappreciate is how easy it is to underestimate how things compound. How, for example, 9/11 prompted the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, which helped drive the housing bubble, which led to the financial crisis, which led to a poor jobs market, which led to tens of millions to seek a college education, which led to [over a trillion dollars] in student loans with [a high percentage of default rates].
• The correct lesson to learn from surprises is that the world is surprising.
• The most important part of every plan is planning on your plan not going according to plan.
• The purpose of the margin of safety is to render the forecast unnecessary.
• The End of History Illusion is what psychologists call the tendency for people to be keenly aware of how much they’ve changed in the past, but to underestimate how much their personalities, desires and goals are likely to change in the future. [Thus, their history of change won’t change anymore into their future].
• Every job looks easy when you’re not the one doing it.
• Successful investing looks easy when you’re not the one doing it. Hold stocks for the long run … but do you know how hard it is to maintain a long-term outlook when stocks are collapsing?
• Price … not dollars and cents … it’s volatility, fear, doubt, uncertainty … all of which are easy to overlook until you’re dealing with them in real time.
• Beware of taking financial cues from people playing a different game than you are.
• When investors have different goals and time horizons – and they do in every asset class – prices that look ridiculous to one person can make sense to another, because the factors those investors pay attention to are different.
• The interesting thing about [absolutely pessimistic] stories is that their polar opposite – forecasts of outrageous optimism – are rarely taken as seriously as prophets of doom.
• Pessimism just sounds smarter and more plausible than optimism.
• …progress happens too slowly to notice, but setbacks happen too quickly to ignore.
• The more you want something to be true, the more likely you are to believe a story that overestimates the odds of it being true.
• We don’t know what we don’t know.
• Coming to terms with how much you don’t know means coming to terms with how much of what happens in the world is out of your control. And that can be hard to accept.
• Less ego, more wealth.
• If you want to to do better as an investor, the single most powerful thing you can do is increase your time horizon.
Unquote.

There’s a lot of wisdom alone in the various quotes above. There’s even more wisdom reading how they string together to see the larger story line to understand your psychology of money applied in your own life.

Why I finished this read: Good, short book that was interesting

Stars rating: 4.5 of 5 stars ( )

In the Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel teaches you how to have a better relationship with money and to make smarter financial decisions. Instead of pretending that humans are ROI-optimizing machines, he shows you how your psychology can work for and against you.

Great read for any level as it stays away from extensive economic science. It relates with stories, quotes, and personal experiences to bring it to life. Short on time? Skip to chapter 20 for a recap. ( )

Excellent, easy read that is probably the best book I've read on personal finance. I highly recommend it, esp. for young people. For me, the top 5 nuggets of wisdom are:
- the ability to control your time is the biggest dividend you get from money and wealth
- live below your means and save/invest that money every month, every chance you get.
- no one is as impressed by your stuff (house, car, etc.) as you are
- keep a buffer for contingencies and the unexpected so that you don't have to dip into your investments, which lets them keep compounding
- compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.

Each chapter has a nugget like those above, and it was hard to choose just five. ( )

Good information on how our attitudes influence our dealings with money. But, not as good as Sarah Newcomb's Loaded: Money, Psychology, and How to Get Ahead without Leaving Your Values behind. ( )

An excellent book about money and investing. What trips people up, what people get wrong, and how to do it right. ( )

This is not a typical investment book that talks about how to identify the best stocks, when to buy them and when to sell. This book talks about your behavior with money - that's where they 'Psychology' plays in. Quoting a line from the book - "Doing well with money has a little to do with how smart you are and a lot to do with how you behave." - specifically how you behave during times of panic.

Before you begin investing, the author requires you to put a considerable amount of effort in defining the kind of investor you want to be. It's this persona that helps you stay composed even when things go helter-skelter. In short, you define your game and play by those rules till you achieve your goals.

I appreciate the subtle but important distinction between being rational vs reasonable that's explained in the book. Being reasonable provides psychologically invulnerable to the ups-and-downs that happen in the stock market, and I concur with the author on this, but have to see how I behave in my own journey with money. ( )

This was better than I expected. I've read quite a few personal finance books over past 30 years. Many are either far too American or repetitive or talking a lot of old cobblers! There are some gems though.
This is American but it mostly doesn't matter as it is about psychology & humanity is not that different, even where culture has its effects.
I think this is a gem. It mostly reflects the way I think anyway so am not sure how someone with a different attitude would feel. But I found it sensible and readable. Excellent. ( )

The expectations from this book were sky high. And, does it deliver. The key lessons on optimism and pessimism and long term aside - the two things that states with me:
1. Expectations change even slower than reality. Everyone sees the world they have seen it before.
2. Everyone plays the game of investment differently. You need to define your game.

This is a fantastic book. It's not a book about investments. It is a book about your mind, and mine and how it thinks about money, savings, expenditure and investments. And, it is brilliant. Pick it up now. ( )

EVERY ONE SEES THE WORLD THEY HAVE SEEN IT BEFORE. EVERY ONE PLAYS THE GAME OF INVESTMENT DIFFERENTLY. THIS IS A FANTASTIC BOOK ( )

This book isn't about how to play the market, stock pick or get rich quick. Instead it gets the reader to closely consider how they think about money and how they behave with it. We all come to money with individual perspectives and personal histories so it's basically impossible that everyone will build wealth in the same ways. By understanding how we respond to money we can find a level of financial ease that isn't about trying to keep up with the Joneses. At least that's the message I got. It's accessible and informal reading, worth taking a look if you're hoping to build wealth for yourself and not sure how to start. ( )

Sometimes, a book comes along that knocks your socks off. This book knocked off my socks, and shoes and even may hat. I like this quirky, personal writing style. No surprise he did a lot of writing for the Motley Fool.

Luck and risk are siblings. His story about Kent Evans particularly grabbed, no seized, my attention.
His "Never Enough" chapter got my brain whirling. And "Reasonable, not Rational" made so much sense. And also his investing (and living) style. Invest your money in ways that lets you sleep well at night.

I'm labeling this book as a "pillar" shelf books, something more than Goodreads 5 stars. ( )

An excellent discussion of how people react to money, how to plan one's life cycle of saving and wealth creation, personal financial health, and so on. Has a number of examples from the world of high finance, as well as an honest confession of the author's own approach, which has been to save more than necessary, with no particular object, in order to have financial independence and a generous cushion against unexpected (and unpredictable) contingencies. ( )

This is an excellent book. As Morgan said, it is a short book, and you can go through it in a breeze. This will be a mistake. The book is divided into twenty short chapters, each with its own lesson.

Don't let the easy style fool you. There are enough things to consider in the book that must make you pause and read slowly.

Read two chapters a day, no more. Read, think, decide on what you want to do, move on. ( )

Felt like reading a good article, not a book. ( )

This book contains a lot of sound principles for personal finance, but the explanations for those principles are all over the place. Some chapters are offer little depth, some others go on from one short barely related anecdote to the next, and so on. ( )