A&B #108

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👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

• 20 Books that will 20x your productivity.

• 20 Books that will help you start & grow a business.

• 12 FREE newsletters that will help you make more money.

• 12 Key takeaways from the "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" journal.

PS: Thank you to everyone who gave feedback on last week's newsletter. I think I'll stay with the 3 short lessons but every now and then I'll do a 1 lesson deep dive to switch things up.

📚 Book Summary:

This week's book is I Will Teach You To Be Rich journal by Ramit Sethi.This is a workbook/journal that takes the best lessons from IWTYTBR and makes them interactive and actionable.  Here are 3 lessons from it:1) Focus on $30,000 Questions NOT $3 QuestionsOne of the biggest personal finance mistakes people make is obsessing over $3 questions instead of $30,000 questions.$3 questions are questions such as "Should I make coffee at home today or go to Starbucks?" or "Should I buy organic tomatoes or non-organic?" These tiny expenses have almost no impact on one's financial status yet it's the thing people focus on the most.Instead, Ramit advises people to focus on $30,000 questions. Questions such as "What's the interest rate on this 30-year mortgage?" or "How much more can I earn by negotiating a raise or switching jobs?" These are the truly important money decisions worth spending time on.If you focus on investing early, minimizing investment fees, negotiating your salary, and finding a home you can afford, you'll never have to worry about if you can afford to buy that latte or not.2) 5 Things To Consider Before Buying A HomeMost financial gurus advise people to buy a home because it's a great investment and you don't want to "throw away money on rent," but Ramit has a different perspective.He argues that owning a home has high phantom costs such as closing fees, property taxes, maintenance, interest, and other expenses and that you might be able to make more money by renting and investing the difference into the stock market.And that's exactly what he does. He rents by choice, invests the rest of the money, and enjoys not having to do any maintenance. However, if you DO want to buy a home, here are 5 tips: Put 20% down. Plan to live there for 10 or more years. Total housing expenses should be less than 28% of your gross pay. Run the numbers on renting vs. buying. Ask yourself: Am I excited to buy this home? 3) Play More Offense With Your MoneyWhen it comes to money, there are two sides you can play: Offense or Defense.The majority of people focus on defense and try to think of ways to cut spending. People with a defensive mindset will ask themselves: How can I save $1,000? What if I lose money by investing? What if my business idea doesn't work?However, it's much more powerful to focus on offense and try to think of ways to increase your income. People with an offensive mindset will ask: How can I negotiate a raise? What if my business idea does work? What books or courses can I buy to increase my skills and earn more?To be successful you need to play both sides, but you should be playing offense most of the time. That's because there's a limit to how much cut, but there's no limit to how much you can earn.Bonus Lesson: Ramit's Book-Buying RuleRamit has a rule that if he's ever considering a book, he'll just buy it."The result is that I buy tons of books every year. Some of them, I love. Others are still sitting in my queue. And a few I hate within the first thirty pages. Did I 'waste' my money on them? Yes, I guess you could say so. But I also discovered twenty other books that changed my life."

✅ Actionable Advice: 1) Focus on $30,000 questions:

• Start investing early.

• Negotiate your salary.

• Minimize investment fees.

• Create a debt-payoff plan.

• Find a home you can afford.

• Invest consistently and automatically.

2) Only buy a home if you can do this:

• Put 20% down.

• Plan to live there for 10 or more years.

• Total housing expenses should be less than 28% of your gross pay.

• Run the numbers on renting vs. buying.

• Ask yourself: Am I excited to buy this home?

3) Play Offense with money:

• There's a limit to how much you can cut but no limit to how much you can make.

🎧 Podcast/YouTube Update:

📖 Reading Lesson:Tap here for the ultimate reading hack.

⭐️ Weekly Quote:Buy books that will be useful to you in the future.Read books that are useful to you in the present.Recommend books that were useful to you in the past.(share here)

Thank you for your support everyone, I'll see you next Sunday!Read on,Alex W.