How To Build Your Personal Wealth Library

• Tweet

• Tweet

You are what you read. If garbage goes in, garbage comes out.

What you focus on will expand. If you read fashion magazines, your wardrobe expands. Read a book on building wealth and your wealth expands.

Building a personal library is a fundamental place to start if you want to build wealth. Great books contain ideas. Ideas plus action, will make you rich. It’s that simple.

I read about two books and a lot of cliff notes up until the age of 21. My net worth didn’t change.

I have read at least a book a week since. My net worth has increased just about every month. More importantly my mindset, my self-esteem, my knowledge, my productivity, my philosophy towards life, etc… has also improved. All thanks to reading.

I suggest you give it a try. Here are a couple of tips on how to start…

How To Find Cheap Books

Unless it’s a new book from one of my favorite authors, very rarely will I spend the money to buy a book new.  Here’s a few ways I have built my personal wealth library for little cost.

• Library – There is this place in my town, with stacks and stacks of classic books. Get this, you can rent these books for free. Even better, almost every town has one of these places. It’s a great place to start. If the book is good enough and deserves to be reread, I will then buy it somehow.
• Paper Back Swap – I’m at this website once a week. It’s a site that lets me post my old books and lets others post their old books. As soon as my book becomes available off my wish list, I’m sent an email and the book is sent to my house from another member.
• Amazon - It’s the cheapest place I know of to get a physical copy of a new book.
• Kindle or other eBook Reader – The easiest and most cost-effective way to get new books, if you’re willing to make an upfront investment and don’t mind reading the book electronically.
• Friends – If you’re willing to lend books out to friends, ask your friends to return the favor.

Titles To Start Out With

1. Think & Grow Rich – A classic. A book meant to be read at least once a year.
2. How To Win Friends and Influence People – Another classic. Meant to be read twice a year.
3. The Boglehead’s Guide to Investing – The best book on investing I have read to date. First investment book that really explained the fundamentals.
4. Ready, Fire, Aim – Great lessons on how to start a business.
5. The Success Principles – Doesn’t go into great detail on any one topic, but does a great job of laying out the path you need to follow to become successful.
6. Master Your Workday Now – A great book on goal setting and managing your time.
7. The 4 Hour Workweek – A book about thinking big.
8. Linchpin – How and why you need to become indispensable.
9. The Power of Full Engagement – A book that will change the way you think about productivity.
10. Unlimited Power - Another personal development classic.
11. Your Money or Your Life – Learn to transform your relationship with money.
12. I Will Teach You To Be Rich – A book on money management that every member of Gen Y should read.
13. How to Read a Book – How to get the most out of the time you spend reading.

6 Tips to Becoming an Effective Reader

1. Read with a Journal or Evernote - A book is only worth the ideas you get from it write down. While reading, ideas come and go instantly. If you don’t write down your ideas, you’re wasting your time. Always read with a journal or use the free web service Evernote that lets you record anything.
2. Ask Yourself, “How Would Your Past Change If You Had This Information Before?” – A great way to learn what actions you can take in the future.
3. Read Variety – Read the easy and the hard. Read fiction and non-fiction. Read biographies and auto-biographies of those who succeeded and those who failed (Hitler vs. Mandela and Gandhi).
4. Attend Automobile University – If you don’t have a lot of time to read at home, you can always get a quality education on your commute.
5. Read A Little Everyday – Thinking of reading as food for the brain. You want to maintain a constant dose of great food. Never starve nor  or gorge yourself. With just 30-45 minutes a day, you can get through a book a week.
6. Start a Book Club – In my mastermind group (read Think & Grow Rich to learn more about mastermind groups), we’re required to bring a resource each meeting. Each member will usually bring a book or CD, which we than discusst and exchange.

In the comments, let me know if you have any book recommendations for myself. The books above and in the required reading section of this site,  are some of the more valuable books on building wealth that I have read. There are many classics out there, that I haven’t read and I don’t even know about. What are they?

Good Luck!
If you enjoyed this article, the easiest way you can help me out is to take a second and retweet or share this post on Facebook. Thank you for your help!

Tagged as: books, wealth