Looking to ‘master’ money? This book could show you the way

At FundsIndia Marketplace, we always aim to provide our readers with useful investment news and advice. While most of this comes from our own team, we know that there are third-party sources that can be equally relevant. Anthony ‘Tony’ Robbins’ book – ‘Money: Master the Game’, is one such source.

Intrigued by its promise of teaching the reader how to ‘master’ money in just ‘7 Simple Steps’, we decided to give it a read. Here’s what we found:

‘Money: Master the Game’ is not just another self-help book full of bogus advice that will ‘fix your financial problems’ in a jiffy. Instead, it is a comprehensive guide aimed at helping you achieve financial freedom. The catch? The finer details are all USA-centric.

Its title itself is quite bold for a book. However, the author’s lack of professional financial training notwithstanding, this book manages to live up to its name. This is because Robbins has concocted this guide from the combined knowledge and experience of 50 of the world’s top investors. He’s blended all of it together into a simple, easy-to-consume cocktail for the average investor.

However, easy-to-consume as it may be, this book is not for the casual reader looking to while away time. It requires your full attention and commitment for it constantly makes you question your goals, your financial status, and what you’re doing with your money now. It demands that you take charge of your finances, and then shows you how.

With his ‘7 Simple Steps’, Robbins has demystified the ‘arcane’ art of generating wealth. He has created a simple system that helps quantify the goals of financial freedom. While the lessons in the book are not new, it provides a practical guide, helping readers arrive at tangible and achievable financial goals.

While this system is tailored to fit the American markets, readers in India need not dismiss it offhand as the logic behind each bit of financial advice is valid in markets all over the world.

Key lessons

Seeing the comprehensive details offered inside in the book, it won’t be possible, or fair, to completely explain all the seven steps here. Instead, we’ve briefly mentioned five key lessons from the book. Be sure to read the book to get in-depth knowledge on all the seven steps.

1. The most important financial decision of your life: The most important financial decision you will ever make in your life is the decision to set aside money to save and invest. While difficult – as it makes us feel like we’re depriving ourselves of money we could otherwise enjoy – setting aside money to save is the first, and most important step on the path to financial freedom.

2. Make the game winnable: Sit down with a paper, a pen, and a calculator and find out exactly how much you’ll need to enjoy the kind of retirement you want to have. Write the numbers down. Make them real. If you break these numbers down as shown in the book you’ll find you goals are not that far off after all.

3. The most important investment decision of your life: Don’t put all your eggs in the same basket – this is common enough investment advice that many financial experts have been doling out for years. However, while proper asset allocation is one of the key ingredients for financial success, it is not the only one. Rebalancing – splitting the gains from one asset among all the others – is equally important. It helps optimise your returns and reduces the volatility of your investments.

4. Minimise your losses: The most important lesson to take away from Robbins’ interviews is this: never lose money. It is, of course, impossible to never lose money. What you can do, however, is minimise your potential losses by using a low volatile, well-diversified approach to investing. Of course, you may miss out on the fantastic growth offered by chart-topping but highly volatile investments. But as explained in the book and our article here, the problem with highly volatile options is that the more your investments fall, the more they have to earn just to break even.

5. The secret to living: Another very important lesson is to enjoy your wealth. After all, the aim of the journey is to create happiness through your wealth, and not to just make money for money’s sake. Also, don’t just keep your wealth to yourself, use it to give back to the world, and to enrich other people’s lives. As Robbins says “the secret to living is giving”.

All in all, this book is a veritable treasure trove of information, and can be of great use to both amateur and veteran investors at any life stage. Of course, remember to tweak the advice Robbins shares in this book to fit the Indian markets.