define personal finance warren buffet

3 Books that Define Personal Finance

Another four or five artists last week asked me how I schedule my own personal finance. Truth is, I read a lot and try to implement what I read. For me, there are at least three books that define personal finance:

The Millionaire Mind

The average millionaire isn’t who you think he is. He’s very unlikely to show up on MTV Cribs (is Cribs even still a thing?). He’s incredibly frugal. He’s monogamous. He has worked in one industry that people didn’t take advantage of at a time when it worked. He’s an immigrant, likely. But he definitely has some habits, first outlined in The Millionaire Next Door (if you need a shorter version for your commute).

The Intelligent Investor

Warren Buffett says this book by Benjamin Graham is still the best book ever written on investing, mainly because it’s made up of simple principles that anyone can follow. If you’re seriously looking at buying individual stocks, you need this one and the one below.

The New Buffettology

This book summarizes Buffett’s own strategy for picking a stock. To be used in conjunction with the one above as you define personal finance for your own household.

•••

If you want to implement some of those things quickly, I recommend Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace. Dave, honestly, is a jerk on the air. He also encourages his kids to exercise extreme privilege: his daughter Rachel has no business speaking at conferences and she knows it and he knows it deep down and everyone at any given conference knows it to a cringe-worthy degree. He also tends to encourage greed over generousity like the books above, which I don’t like. All of those caveats aside, he still knows his stuff when it comes to personal finance and getting a cheap, old copy of his kit is an easy way to get started.

BONUS: THE SNOWBALL

If you’re more into narrative, you can learn a whole heck of a lot from the general integrity that Warren Buffett exercised in his life (at least by comparison to other billionaires).  Alice Schroeder’s bio is top-notch.

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Quick note from Lance about this post: when you choose to comment (or share this post with your friends) you help other readers just like you.

How?

Well, see, your comments & sharing whisper a few things to those who come after you:

The first is that this site is a safe place to speak up & stay curious. That it's civil. That discussion is encouraged. That there's no such thing as a stupid question (being a student of Socrates, I really and truly believe this). That talking to one another and growing together is more important than anything we could possibly publish. That the point is growing in virtue and growing together and growing wise. That discovery is invention, deference is originality, that we all can rise together. The only folks I'm going to take comments down from are obvious jerks who argue in bad faith, don't stay curious, or actively make personal attacks. And, frankly, I'd rather we talk here than on some social media farm — I will never show ads and the only thing I'm selling anywhere on the site or my mailing list is just the stuff I make.

You're also helping folks realize that anything you & they build together is far more important than anything you come to me to read. I take the things I write about seriously, but I don't take myself seriously: I play the fool, I hate cults of personality, and I also don't really like being the center of attention (believe it or not). I would much rather folks connect because of an introduction I've made or because they commented with one another back and forth and then build something beautiful together. My favorite contributions have been lifelong business and love partnerships from two people who have forgotten I introduced them. Some of my closest friends NOW I literally met on another blog's comment section fifteen years ago. I would love for that to happen here — let two of you meet and let me fade into the background.

Last, you help me revise. I'm wrong. Often. I'm not embarrassed to admit it or worried about being cancelled or publicly shamed. I make a fool out of myself (that's sort of the point). So as I get feedback, I can say, "I was wrong about that" and set a model for curious, consistent learning, and growing in wisdom. I'm blind to what I don't know and as grows the island of my knowledge so grows the shoreline of my ignorance. It's the recovery of innocence on the far end of experience: a child is in a permanent state of wonder. So are the wise: they aren't afraid of saying, "I don't know. That's new: please teach me." That's my goal, comments help. And I read all reviews: my skin's tough, but that's not license to be needlessly cruel. We teach one another our habits and there's a way to civilly demolish an idea without demolishing another person: just because I personally can take the world's meanest 1-star review doesn't mean we should teach one another how to be crueler on the internet.

For three magical reasons — your brave curiosity, your community, & my ignorance:

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