Your Money or Your Life is my favorite personal finance book. If I would have just followed it when I first read it I could be retired by now.

I hated Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It is completely lacking in compassion. Financial security is a means to an end, not the end all by itself.
I think YMorYL makes a good point, simplifying the connection between labor and material goods. However, it doesn’t have much to say to people who love their work and feel like it is a source of satisfaction, challenge, fulfillment, and meaning and in some cases power and influence to make things happen.
Once you retire, you still need meaningful work. Unpaid work is generally lacking in a lot of the characteristics I listed above, especially power to make the things you want to see in the world happen.

RDPD is also my number 1.

I have read many bloggers talk bad about this book, but it was for me, a real eye opener. Like BB said, I found that the book gave me new concepts to thinking and living, not a “how to” guide.

The other book I really like is The Richest Man in Babylon.

RDPD is unequivocally the worst finance/business book I have ever read. Kiyosaki is a snake oil salesman. I have never seen anyone present any evidence he has made any money off of anything but his books/seminars. Which is fine, but he claims to have other business ventures. His idea that money should make you more money is good, but not exactly revolutionary. He reminds of a guy selling Amway every time I see him hawking his products.

@antishay – I got a bunch of “frivolous/unnecessary” things as well. I don’t think that is a problem as long as they are acquired with some consideration. It’s when we buy things just to buy (retail therapy) or because the novelty wears out too quickly that there is a problem. In terms of enjoying things, I have a (mechanical) watch fetish. Now these babies typically retail (used) for more than $2000, so so far I have just gotten my enjoyment from window shopping and books and from buying a simple manual 30mm omega seamaster from 1961 and having that. I would like to get an IWC Mark XII or XV some day .. or the 1969 Speedmaster. Someday … I’m kinda like Wayne and the Fender in Wayne’s World that way. It shall be mine … oh yes … it shall be mine.

‘Work Less, Play More” by Steve Caiden

and if you can find it “How to Retire at 35”
by Paul Terhorst were the two that hit home for me.

Also agree on ‘YMYL’ but don’t like RDPD

Also Tom Hodgkinson’s “How to be Idle” and
‘Freedom Manifesto’ for humor and contrarian thought.

I’ve read YMOYL and loved it. I haven’t read RDPD.

Betsy said: “However, it doesn’t have much to say to people who love their work and feel like it is a source of satisfaction, challenge, fulfillment, and meaning and in some cases power and influence to make things happen.
Once you retire, you still need meaningful work. Unpaid work is generally lacking in a lot of the characteristics I listed above, especially power to make the things you want to see in the world happen.”

I disagree. The list of things that one can do is vastly larger than the list of things that one can do FOR MONEY. And considering how the powers that be do NOT want things to change, paid employment rarely does much good in the area of making great changes. Think about a person working for a government assistance program. The goal is not to get people weaned off assistance, b/c then the government worker would be out of a job. Someone who does not need the money to survive is more inclined to actually help someone b/c their continued dependence does not benefit them.

And even if you do happen to love your job, that’s no reason to NOT be frugal. It’s also environmentally sound.

The “power” part is tricky. I think I have more “power” or influence with this blog than I could easily find in any kind of paid employment. My reach with is certainly orders of magnitude (about 2 orders to be precise 😀 ) larger than the reach available in my previous (paid) career. I have more traffic going to this site than many city/regional newspapers with their paid journalists, paid editors, paid etc.

Just to add a book to the INTJ list: The Millionaire Next Door. If you’re reading this blog, you probably won’t learn any life lessons you don’t already know. But it was the eye opener for me. It is actually a relatively dry book composed almost entirely of statistics on millionaires…. and they are not the people that Hollywood or Park Avenue would have you think they are. They are every day people making sensible choices and saving their money in sensible ways.

@ H_Roarke — “He reminds of a guy selling Amway every time I see him hawking his products.” — Amway actually had quite a lot to do with his books taking off, actually. Google his name + Amway for plenty of stories.

Reading RDPD gave me a new perspective on the meaning of the word “asset”, but it isn’t useful as any sort of a “how to” book.

YMoYL is still on my “to read when I get a hold of copy” list. I have been trying to get all my books from the library & it has not been available.

Personally I loved YMoYL and it’s still on my flick through list (actually it’s the only book it’ve read twice) I’ve never actually read RDPD, I always thought it sounded well a little gimicky. I think you gave a quote from it though a couple of posts ago, something like “an asset generates income, a liability takes income” you were using it to talk about Houses? and how they can be a liability, kinda changed the way i think about them

For those interested, here is a site annihilating Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

http://johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html

@Jacob — I totally agree. Fact or fiction, the general concept of RDPD made a difference to me too. That was the first frugal living book I read and set me on a course for better things.

So the cult was a stepping stone to the religion, big deal.

Btw, Ive not read Your Money or Your Life – but meditating on the title alone has changed my way of thinking drastically.

Jacob, I have wanted to say hi for sometime now and this is a good opportunity. RDPD is where I started and, interestingly, got two things out: poor is forever and passive income streams are the way to go. It did not make me buy into capitalism; in fact I think it imlicitly shows a way to couteract neo-liberalism.

Your Money or Your Life is interesting because of the hidden Marxian assumption: we sell out life (labour) for money and capital pays enough for labour to reproduce. The only control we have is how we reproduce our labour and the way our is to be efficient in it.

BTW, I am ENTJ (but sometimes the E goes into I).

I will have to read both books now for free. Tonight i will track them down. I prefer PDFs though, because i can bring them to work on a thumbdrive, funny how everything the opposite of work is better for you financially. My home computer is 200x faster then the one my boss allows me to use? Which one is more productive to humanity? (The only work that is good is Teamwork, gather your friends and followers if you need teamwork!) YOU are more Productive to humanity when financially freed than anyone else controlling you in a limited “JOB”. Jacob is right. How is digging a grave and refilling it for a low n taxed hourly/rate helping humanity at all?!?!?!!!!!! Then how is spending any money on unneeded products and services helping your cause? I shall read the books to strengthen my Financial Independence and Retired Early (FIRE) beliefs!

Also a great side idea, make sure to copy and paste every post you make anywhere daily! Then with ease, one day you can organize your posts into a book for extra income, and to help you refocus your beliefs on Young FIRE.

I think both the cook book approach and then more abstract approach are useful. The cookbook approach can often work as a bridge to understanding how and why something works. For instance I am currently learning to brew beer. Why I am doing a particular task is still a bit foggy however while following a recipe it starts to fall into place and soon enough I will be able to dispense with the recipes.

Another example would be math. There is a reason one learns math by working problems. For most people the mechanics of various techniques are learned before a deeper understanding of how and why they work is obtained. Like many things for the overwhelming majority a deeper understanding will never come and applying formulas is as deep as it will get.

There was a fantastic book published recently from Chip Mendez, called ‘The Millionaire In The Next Cubicle’. Definitely one which I would describe as a potential life changer and one of the finest book on personal finance that I have ever read.
http://www.chipmendez.com