The Psychology of Money - hardback: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness by Morgan Housel

The Psychology of Money - hardback: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness Reviews

• 
  Delta D.

  Contained within are some useful tips and insights for those who are naive about finance. However, these could (and should) have been condensed into a newpaper or magazine article. It's hard to imagine anyone who needs such elementary guidance being allured by a book with 'psychology' in its title.
  
  In any event, the title is an abuse of the word. The descriptions of occasionally observed behaviours are no 'psychology' than the Mungo Jerry line of 'Life's for living yeah! that's our philosophy' is philosophy.
  
  These useful tips and insights are padded out to book length with platitudes and excessive self reference from the author.
  
  I'm tempted towards 1*, but there is at least some value in the tips and insights given.
• 
  Dr. Smoker

  There is just no end to books about money, finance, how rich famous people got rich and famous, and how you can become rich or at least wiser with money yourself. This is a saturated market for financial self help styled books. What makes this one different? In some ways, absolutely nothing and other ways it is unique.
  
  Cons:
  The author does give cliche advice about being frugal and saving your money and not spending like a child on the latest and fanciest new toys. The author also gives no real insight into how any of the people he mentions in the book became rich. If you are looking for that kind of book, then do not buy this one. I also despised he only mentioned men in the book who were rich and well known and not a single woman. This is horrible for two reasons: A. Society has produced wealthy women than ever before in the past; (2) Some of the men who got rich were able to use their gender privilege as leverage to get ahead in the corporate world. At least the author addressed some men of color and was not exclusive to white men bc in these days, there are people of color with wealth than there was in the past. The author also does not do case studies of why some people hold on to their assets in their lifetime. He fails to even mention at all families who pass on their assets for generations as well. He does not mention privilege or inherited wealth at all. The author has cliche commentary about people who had funds once and lost it all bc they spent childishly and did not prepare for an economic downturn.
  The author also gives lackluster historical information about how economies change over time. I am a huge history buff and nothing he said was new to me or even particularly insightful.
  
  Pros:
  
  I have long known that most people who drive luxury cars are not rich. Most of these people are wretched financial situations or they bought the car when the markets were good and had no foresight times would get rough one day soon and they would regret buying that car. However, the other does package and explain a trite concept in an interesting way. Also, there may be less sophisticated readers buying this book who never considered it before that the person they always envied with the expensive car was actually on the brink of bankruptcy. One of my favorite parts was the part about how when you see someone roll up in a fancy car, they had a mediocre success and spent half their paycheck on that car.
  I give this book 4 stars and not less despite the annoyances in my cons section bc it is a good reminder that you can not be a fool with your gold. Esp. these days where there is no end to fools try to one up each other with fancy cars and private schools they can not actually afford. The word for this on the street is 'flossing'.
  The book started off riveting at first and served as a cautionary tale but wow did it disappoint towards the end and wow was the sexism ever so apparent.
• 
  Brian Portnoy

  The Psychology of Money is an important book. Housel's easy writing style might give some the impression that this is a casual take on the intersection of psychology and finance, but what's really going on here is a master class in storytelling. Through the lens of history and personal tales, the author teaches us the most profound insights on the psychology of money what it means to us, how we spend and save and invest, how we connect who we are today to who we might be tomorrow. In the tradition of Charlie Munger, Howard Marks, and Richard Thaler, Housel forces us to think about the word 'risk' from many perspectives, revealing that the tinny and narrow treatments of risk by traditional economists are insufficient to informing how we make decisions about money. On top of it all, the book is short, in the best possible way. It's a quick read with a big payoff.
• 
  John J. Maxfield

  It's no exaggeration to say that this is the most anticipated book in finance in 2020. People who've read Morgan Housel's work through the years know that he is probably the most lucid and insightful writer in finance today. His writing has influenced anyone and everyone who's paying attention in the world of finance.
  
  This book shows why.
  
  Each chapter is filled with stories about why we do silly things with money. They're funny, thought provoking, and told in the pure, minimalist style that Housel has helped to pioneer in financial literature. You learn a lot from this book AND enjoy reading it. Another reviewer called it an instant classic. I agree. It's shelved in my library next to Peter Lynch's books.
  
  This book isn't only written for investors; it's also written for readers. It will entertain and, over time, enrich you.
• 
  Drew Dickson, CIO Albert Bridge Capital

  Morgan has crafted an incredibly relevant, enjoyable, and helpful book about the interplay between money and emotion, and how we all are affected by both. He tells an important story about the stories we tell; offering Kipling esque advice about imposters like luck and skill, winning and losing, and of course, triumph and disaster.
  
  There is just no way you can finish this quick read and not be a better spouse, parent, or provider for it.
  
  If you are 20, read this and embrace every bit of it. When you are over 50, you will be so glad you did.
  
  If you are 30, read this and markedly improve your perspective on the what and why of success and failure, and how you can minimize regret.
  
  If you are 40, read this and make the tweaks that you can, there is still plenty of time.
  
  Even if you are over 50 (which I now am) read this, learn what you could have done better, what you still can do better, and then buy a copy for your 20 year old (as I am doing right now).
• 
  BKP Herndon

  I’m in my mid 50s and just retired. While I have been a very successful investor over my 35 years of savings, I probably pushed a little too hard for gains I didn’t need, with the money that I did need. Reading this book will help me change a few of my overly aggressive investment strategies. It helped me recognize the most important lesson during your accumulation years. Knowing when you have “enough”.
• 
  Vikrama D.

  The expectations from this book were sky high. And, does it deliver. The key lessons on optimism and pessimism and long term aside the two things that states with me:
  1. Expectations change even slower than reality. Everyone sees the world they have seen it before.
  2. Everyone plays the game of investment differently. You need to define your game.
  
  This is a fantastic book. It's not a book about investments. It is a book about your mind, and mine and how it thinks about money, savings, expenditure and investments. And, it is brilliant. Pick it up now.
• 
  Sandeep Bhasin

  This is a must read for the youngsters of today or anyone who has still not started saving for the future. Morgan Housel beautifully communicates the idea of saving the money and how! Me, at 48, get inspired to the core to save and spend less. He has the knack of explaining difficult stuff in such a simple language. 5 Stars from me. Take my word for it: you’ll love it!
• 
  Raissouni

  In less than 200 pages Morgan Housel succeeded through several short stories about money and business management to provide learned lessons.
  The book uses plain English, easy to read and to understand.
  He exposed many myths and fake assumptions in the business world, especially the dilemma of luck vs. talent.
  It is fascinating to know for example that Bill Gates studied in the only high school in the US that by luck had a computer in 1968, one in a million chance.
  The chapter 19 is like a summary of major ideas but there are some interesting ideas to think about and we may agree or disagree with it:
  1. 'You are one person in a game with 7 billion other people and infinite moving part', so we underestimate significantly the role of luck and world complexity.
  2. 'Saving is income minus ego' so be careful with your ego spending!
  3 'Happiness is results minus expectations', so be careful with your expectations!
  3. 'Individual wealth is what you don't see, hidden' so big house, fancy car or Instagram photos are spends or debts of Individual, the visible part you see, not their wealth.
  4. 'Customer is always right' and 'customers don't know what they want', both accepted business wisdom.
  5. Napoleon’s definition of a military genius was, “The man who can do the average thing when all those around him are going crazy.”
• 
  L. Ryan

  Nothing new here that Daniel Kahneman hasn’t said. And Clearly @morgan housel doesn’t realise 50% of the population is female. Not a single quote, case study, name or reference to women here. (Apart from snow white!) Amazing a publishing house lets this through
• 
  Okenna

  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. If you've been in or around finance, the wisdom contained in this book may not exactly be new to you but its still great to re learn some of these things or at least to hear it from someone else. I'll definitely read the book again.
  
  I've rated the book 4* and not 5* because I found a lot of the examples to be US/American focused. The world has changed. Morgan has not written with a global audience in mind or even a global perspective. This is not necessarily a bad thing if that's the intended audience, however I am not American and have only visited the country once, so I found that examples or cases from other countries might have helped a bit. Either way, a great read written in straight forward language.