Book Review: Money Lessons For My Younger Self
06 Dec, 2020
It’s been a while since I have done a book review, but when Nick Carr who is the author of the New Zealand blog www.yourmoneyblueprint.co.nz got in touch to tell me he had written a book and then asked if I would be keen to have a read it was a fast YES from me.
A bit about Nick:
He works a day job
He is also a part-time independent financial advisor
He is gearing up to be financially free in his 40’s
He exudes that trait I absolutely love, common freaking sense!
This is a self-published book which can mean one of two things:
It’s poorly laid out and riddled with spelling mistakes or
It’s the frank and useful musings of the writer
This book is the latter. Thank goodness. Otherwise, I would have had to be insincerely polite about it!
It took me about a week and a half to read his book, it’s made up of short paragraphs, he likens them to diary entries. Armed with my sharp pencil I took ten minutes here and there to read a few chapters, making observations and notes for my own future reference along the way. There is a shed load of common sense about money shared within this book so I have underlined many key points and scribbled lots of notes throughout. Things like:
Heck yes!
Hell no!
Crikey!
I disagree!
Nailed it!
It’s just common sense advice…
With many other Kiwi personal finance books that I have read, there is a lot of sitting on the fence, or not saying quite what you mean and of pandering to the people who try to be the exception to any rule. This book is pretty blunt which might be a surprise to a young 18-year-old, but to anyone over the age of 60, they will just be nodding along with the practical thoughts he shares. Dave Ramsey says of his own advice “common sense advice that God or your grandma would give” and by and large that is what Nick has written, it’s just common sense advice and it strips away all the confusion that having so many options in life can create. For someone starting out or for that person who says “why didn’t anyone ever tell me these simple facts about money”, then this book would be useful to them.
Nick is more straight to the point than other Kiwi personal finance writers, which is refreshing to say the least and which I 100% relate to because I’m pretty much the same.
Here is an example:
He has one chapter 6.9 with a heading of “Hands off your Kiwisaver” where, in one short page, he concisely lays out an argument saying KiwiSaver is for retirement, by draining that account you short change your future self by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Instead, save your house deposit elsewhere. This page flies in the face of so many others who are advising us to “save for your first house in KiwiSaver”.
Chapter 6.9 Hands Off Your KiwiSaver (my margin note says “Agreed”!)
Chapter 3.13 is equally to the point when it comes to credit cards, starting out with “There is no reason for you to ever own a credit card”. He goes on to explain why.
Or chapter 3.14 where the first sentence is “Most loans are bad. If you don’t have the cash then you shouldn’t buy it” (page 73). That’s gold. Your grandma would give the same advice.
Or chapter 3.16 with the line “The worst purchase of all is buying a car with borrowed money”
On just page 4 I wrote a note “Finally, a book with practical advice”!
On page 23 my note about landing a job said: “good old school advice here”.
Or chapter 8.4 “Banks are not experts” (my margin note says “Heck No!”) so you should “never take financial advice from a bank” because “they are not specialists, and they are far from independent”. This has been obvious to me for many years but will come as a revelation to some I’m sure.
He covers the following areas:
Education and learning
Earning money
Debt and spending
Saving and compound interest
Investing
Housing
Your own worst enemy
Protect your wealth
A refreshing read…
It is a refreshing read and because it’s written by a Kiwi, it’s all the better, plus I think that whether young or old, you will be able to relate to it, you never feel like you are being lectured. He weaves some of his own personal life into each chapter which is necessary as he is then giving advice from the experience of someone who has stuffed things up but then put things to rights. In his early 30’s he had his own wake-up call when a back injury forced him “out of work and out of money”, with no savings and a significant mortgage to pay. Whilst laid up he learned about financial independence. It was this event that really made him wake up to where he was going wrong with money and from that point on he vowed to never have such a close call with money again.
He uses just a few words to make a strong point (I, on the other hand, would blather on) and because of that, I think this book is perfect for the young adult, the person who does not like to read but is still open to learning and also to any busy person. Short and concise such as this point:
“If you are eating out for the variety, then learn to cook different things” (page 60). It’s kinda obvious when you think about it!
When it’s necessary to illustrate a point he uses practical and simple to understand math such as this example:
“A $5,000 per year reduction in recurring expenses means $125,000 less needed for your retirement. Small changes for big results. My favourite type of changes. Minimum fuss, big impact.” (pg 57)
He makes some astute observations of human behaviour, like this one:
“I have found that a lot of people spend a disproportionate amount of time on making the wrong decisions”.
He talks about the constant need and pressure for “more” and our constant fight to avoid giving in to our whims. He says “instead of having a constant battle with yourself, it is much better to try to change your overall mindset so that you don’t want so many things in the first place” (page 65). He has worked out that a bit of deprivation will do you no harm on your path to learning to be content. Wise words.
He provides a couple of resources throughout the book but by and large, he is giving practical advice, not specific products or services to use (I suspect he is avoiding annoying the FMA). This has bugged me in the past, the writer explains why they do what they do, but doesn’t tell you WHAT they actually do. But in this book, he gets away with it and via his blog, or blogs like my own “seek and you shall find” would be my thoughts on this.
Refreshing reading
For me, he was preaching to the converted and I’m already on the same path as him, but if personal finance is new to you, you will come away from his book with actionable tips and most of them just boil down to the ‘simplicity’ of your life and financial plan. I think this makes refreshing reading because I see many people make their financial lives unnecessarily complicated. Simplicity is key.
I have been thinking hard about who would benefit from reading this book and have concluded that its:
Anyone over the age of 16
Anyone who has been struggling with money due to lack of knowledge or being taught the wrong stuff throughout life
Anyone with a waiting room - this would be THE perfect coffee table book because you don’t have to read it start to finish, you can dive in and out of it and pick up some quick knowledge.
If I had a dollar for every person who said to me “Ruth, why did I not know this stuff earlier in life” or “no one wants to talk about money”, well, this book should cover most of that ‘stuff’ off! I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this is probably the most practical, common sense and useful Kiwi personal finance book I have read in some time.
BOOK GIVEAWAY:
Money Lessons For My Younger Self
The BOOK GIVEAWAY of Money Lessons For My Younger Self by Nick Carr was a great success and congratulations to our winners who won a copy of the book. Thank you to all my subscribers who entered.
If you would like to read it you can purchase it here: Money Lessons For My Younger Self: A guide for young adults
As always, if you live locally you are welcome to borrow my own copy, just get in touch with me.
