I just finished reading ‘Money Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom’ by Tony Robbins. I am not a fast reader. At over 600 pages, this book took me over two months to get through. I stuck with the book because I want to be financially free and I’m trying to figure out how to get there. While I was a bit disappointed in the main premise of the book – that investing in the Stock Market (bonds, stocks, treasuries, REITs, etc) was the main way to achieve financial freedom (which I hope I have stated correctly) – I loved Mr. Robbins positive admonishments throughout the book as well as his interviews with billionaire investors and his polite insistence that they share their secrets to investing success with everyone who has ears to listen.
I started this book from the fundamental belief that the U.S. Stock Market is corrupt and rigged. I have cooled on the value of participating in the US Stock Market as an ‘average Joe’ investor – from too much manipulation by the Federal Government through Corporate bail-outs and Quantitative Easing (QE1-3) policies, to the Federal Reserve Bank and possible involvement in equity purchases, to High Frequency Traders (HFT) manipulating stock prices, etc.. Mr. Robbins book, however, is mostly about portfolio balance and diversification in equities. While reading this book, I realized that the Stock Market cannot be ignored as at least part of an overall financial freedom strategy.
All-in-all I thought this book was extremely well researched and very good – well worth the investment of time to study and money to purchase. It seems to be a heart-felt attempt on Mr. Robbins’ behalf to help the average investor prepare for retirement in the face of a growing retirement crisis (most Americans are not saving nearly enough money for their retirement – myself included). While many of his recommendations for getting started toward some hope of retirement are mostly common sense steps you’d no doubt hear from any personal finance guru (i.e., save more than you spend, get out of debt and invest your savings), Mr. Robbins goes into great depth into how successful institutional investors, like Ray Dalio, Jack Bogle (Vanguard) and Charles Schwab, invest and make money (and rarely ever lose it). I found great value in this book from the interviews Mr. Robbins shares near the end of the book with several billionaire investors, and that, I believe, is the true genius shared in this book: that we should study and emulate the behaviours, mentalities and money management practices of the truly wealthy in order to increase one’s chances of realizing financial freedom.
To that end, I realize the Stock Market cannot be ignored; however, I intend to tread cautiously in regard to these types of digital investments. I choose to remain largely in cash right now (perhaps even in nickels, a la Kyle Bass (mostly joking)), with limited monthly investments in my 401k, and some small physical real estate investments (sorry James Altucher).
Tony Robbins, thank you for your hard work in writing this book, sharing interviews with such highly successful people, and for encouraging all people to improve their (financial) lives! Here’s to a better (financial) future!