Rare is the book that is at once wise and entertaining. The Psychology of Money is such a book. It is full of new perspectives about the modern world of finance. Its essays add greatly to our understanding of how to successfully negotiate our relationship with money. Housel writes in a clear and accessible style offering many fascinating stories to illustrate his points.
The book consists of 20 brief chapters about a range of topics such as:
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- Getting Wealthy vs. Staying Wealthy
- Freedom: Controlling Your Time is The Highest Dividend Money Pays
- Save Money: The Only Factor You Can Control Generates One of The Only Things that Matters.
- You & Me: Beware Taking Financial Cues from People Who Play a Different Game than You.
There is much distilled wisdom here to help address the widespread financial illiteracy in our culture. We do take exception to one conclusion from the book – universally recommending the use of index funds for investing. While they have their place, many index funds are not appropriate for the current investment environment.
Overall, this is a delightful book to read and to learn how money really works. It would be an excellent gift to help young people get started in the world on the right track.