A Spunky Book Review of The Simple Path to Wealth

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As recently as 4 months ago I didn’t know much about investing. I made the same moves a lot of people make when following the baby steps.

• Pay off debt
• Build an emergency fund
• Find someone to handle your investments

The extra edge I had while trying to figure out where to invest was that I was plugged into a network of personal finance experts and I listen to a lot of podcasts about money.

So long story short I reached out to my network and to my surprise, even with all the varying opinions and styles, everyone came back to me with a unanimous suggestion: “Read The Simple Path to Wealth.”

So I added it to my list of books to read in 2018 and decided it had to be #1.

I took it out from the library.

I devoured it in several weeks.

I couldn’t wait to share what I’d found with the world.

The Simple Path to Wealth is really simple. It even made complex ideas simpler. Though I admit I did skip through most of the chapter on bonds.

It covers all the things I was clueless about:

• The (relevant) history of the market
• The purpose of a 401K, IRA, Roth, etc
• The order in which I should save in those accounts
• Which funds to buy within those accounts and why.

I now find myself talking to people all the time about this stuff. Everyone is as clueless as I was. But after reading the 288 pages of this book, you too can be a quasi-sorta-investing-master.

The book is written by JL Collins, a normal guy who wanted to teach his daughter about money. But she’s not into money. He succeeded in teaching her its importance but not in getting her to geek out about it.

So Collins wrote all the things he wanted to tell his daughter on a blog. That blog and that series of posts became really popular with other personal finance nerds, and soon, non-nerds too.

It took me from clueless and nervous to an empowered investor in a matter of weeks. I mean yes, I geek out about money, but even if I didn’t I could’ve easily gotten through this book. He’s a funny guy.

This book speaks to people who want to build wealth without thinking about it. The spoiler is that you have to save a lot to do so.

But would you rather work your whole life for vacations that last two weeks and a boat you never have time to take out or save that money and buy yourself freedom 15-25 years earlier than everyone else!?!?!?

I’ll take the freedom.

I think everyone should read this book. If you want to understand your 401K, IRA, where to put your money, and how much of it to save, you NEED to read this book.

Putting into practice the basic strategies of this book will change your future. I guarantee it. And if you read it and start doing this stuff let me know, we can geek out about it together. Or not, we can just hang out.

You can get The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins from the library (or request your library carry it) and on Amazon. You can also read it all on Collins’ site under Stock Series.

Jen Smith

Jen Smith is a personal finance expert, founder of Modern Frugality and co-host of the Frugal Friends Podcast. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Lifehacker, Money Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, Business Insider, and more. She’s passionate about helping people gain control of their spending.