The Nine Rules of Wealth Checklist
You probably know a few people who are financial train wrecks waiting to happen. You, however, have a choice. You can pass them by as they smash themselves up, or you can teach them a few strategies to empower them to make good financial decisions. This isn't taught in schools, so most people spend far too much money on material things, invest inefficiently, and allow fear and greed to manipulate their wealth levels.
With luck, one day many of the principles outlined in this book will become part of a mandatory high school curriculum. Doing so would go a long way to ensure that people invest responsibly, which in turn will force the financial service industry to limit its gouging of individual investors.
No matter what your age and current level of wealth, you can build financial security by using the nine rules outlined in this book:
- Spend like a millionaire (or less) if you want to become rich.
- Start investing as early as possible—after paying off credit card debt and any other high-interest loans.
- Invest in low-cost index funds instead of actively managed funds. Nobody can consistently pick “winning” actively managed funds ahead of time.
- Understand stock market history and psychology so you don't fall victim to the craziness that infects every investing generation (often more than once). Millionaire Teacher
- Learn to build a complete, balanced portfolio with stock and bond index funds that will easily beat most of the pros.
- Create indexed accounts no matter where you live.
- Learn to fight an adviser's sales rhetoric.
- Avoid investment schemes and scams that tickle your greed button.
- If you must buy common stocks, do it with a small percentage of your portfolio and pick a mentor such as Warren Buffett.
Live long, prosper, and pass on what you have learned.