THERE ARE THOSE WHO
THINK
the goal is to
beat the market and amass as much wealth as possible, that street smarts and
hard work ensure investment success, and that the road to happiness is paved
with more of everything. And then there are
those who get it. Want a more
prosperous, less stressful financial life? How to Think About
Money is here to help. The book is available as a $13.99 paperback, as well as a $9.99 Kindle edition and $9.99 Nook edition.
(If you purchase the book using these links, HumbleDollar earns a small fee.)
An international edition, available outside the U.S. and Canada, was published
in October 2018 and can be ordered from Amazon in the U.K. and directly from the
publisher, Harriman House.
An international edition was published
The book’s goal: to
provide readers with a coherent way to think about their finances, so they
worry less about money, make smarter financial choices and squeeze more
happiness out of the dollars that they have. How to Think About
Money, which was named 2017’s adult book of the year by the Institute
for Financial Literacy, focuses on five key steps:
Step No. 1: Buy More
Happiness. There is a
connection between money and happiness, but the relationship is far messier
than most people imagine. If we want to get the most out of our dollars, we
need to think much harder about how we spend and which goals we pursue.
Step No. 2: Bet on a
Long Life. Most of us will
enjoy an amazingly long life that will often see us pursue more than one career
and spend perhaps 20 or 30 years in retirement. That has big implications for
how we handle our money.
Step No. 3: Rewire
Your Brain. Thanks to the
instincts we inherited from our hunter-gatherer ancestors, we are hardwired to
fail both as savers and as investors. Result: It takes great self-discipline—or,
in the absence of self-discipline, a certain amount of self-deception—to manage
money successfully.
Step No. 4: Think
(Really, Really) Big. We divvy up our
financial life into a series of buckets, thinking of our insurance policies as separate
from our bank accounts, and our stock-bond investment mix as unrelated to our
debts. But to manage money prudently and make the right tradeoffs, we need to
bring together all of these financial pieces—and the central organizing
principle should be our paycheck, or lack thereof.
Step No. 5: To Win,
Don’t Lose. To get ahead
financially, we should think less about making our money grow and more about
the dangers that could derail our financial future. This doesn’t mean we
shouldn’t take risk by, say, investing heavily in the stock market or taking on
a hefty mortgage to buy our first home. But even as we save and invest for the
future, we should also aim to minimize potential subtractions from our wealth.
Those subtractions might appear modest, like mutual fund expenses and stock
trading costs, or they can be huge, such as selling shares at a market bottom
or becoming disabled and yet not having disability insurance. Either way,
there’s the potential for great financial damage.
“How to Think About
Money might be the best financial book I’ve read in the last five
years. If I had written a book as good as this one, I would consider my
life’s work complete.”
“A refreshing
take on the philosophical side of how we save, spend and enjoy our money.”—BigLawInvestor.com
“Now why didn’t I
think of that? That’s what you’ll ask yourself after you read Jonathan
Clements’s fine new book. Its beauty lies in the commonsense and wisdom that is
summed up in just five simple steps that will help you to earn your financial
independence. Easy to understand, essential to follow.”—John C. Bogle, founder,
The Vanguard Group
“Jonathan Clements
brings his intelligence, insight and commonsense to How to Think About
Money, which is packed with wisdom and great guidance. Read it and
reap the rewards in the years and decades ahead.”—Eric Tyson, author of Personal
Finance for Dummies and Investing for Dummies
“How to Think About
Money is financial feng shui —a blueprint for
harmonizing all the aspects of personal finance into a balanced way of
approaching and managing money. I found myself measuring my own attitudes and
beliefs against the yardsticks in Jonathan Clements’s book, and was pleased to
find that we’re on the same page. As someone who has written extensively about
young people and money, I’d especially recommend the book to generations Y and
Z. But anyone who feels overwhelmed by the challenges of today’s world can
benefit from Clements’s advice on how to make smart financial choices, as well
as how to develop, in his words, a ‘coherent way to think about their financial
life’.”—Janet Bodnar, editor, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine
“Jonathan Clements is
one of the greatest financial consumer advocates of our time, not only because
of his emphasis on a practical and commonsense approach to personal finance,
but because his message is delivered in a welcoming, easy-to-understand manner.
That approach moves his readers to take the most important step toward winning
in the personal finance world—taking ownership of one’s financial life and
following that with action.” Peter Mallouk, president of Creative Planning and
author of The 5 Mistakes Every Investor Makes and How to Avoid Them
“Concise, important
and true. Jonathan Clements provides you a path not just to better finances,
but to a better life.” Terry Burnham, finance professor, Chapman University,
and author of Mean Markets and Lizard Brains
“Jonathan Clements
writes so well and thinks so clearly that even financial planning, saving, and
wise decisions are almost fun to think through with him as our guide.”—Charles
Ellis, author of Winning the Loser’s Game
“In How to
Think About Money, Jonathan Clements, one of the premier financial writers
of our times, provides readers with a road map for a successful financial life.
It’s an easy read that can result in changing the way readers look at investing
and life. Read it and reap.”—Mel Lindbergh, Forbes.com columnist and co-author
of The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing and The
Bogle heads’ Guide to Retirement Planning
