{"id":235235,"date":"2017-12-13T15:15:11","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T23:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/?p=235235"},"modified":"2020-12-12T22:25:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T06:25:23","slug":"simple-path-to-wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/simple-path-to-wealth\/","title":{"rendered":"Book review: The Simple Path to Wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, my pal Jim Collins dropped me a line. “The audio version of my book<\/a> just came out,” he told me. “Audible<\/a> is letting me give away some free copies. Do you think your readers would be interested?” I do think so! Plus, this is a perfect opportunity to migrate my review of The Simple Path to Wealth<\/em> from Money Boss to Get Rich Slowly. At the end of this article, I’ll explain how you can get a copy of Jim’s audiobook, if you’re interested (and lucky).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"HangingIn 2015 and 2016, Kim and I took a 15-month RV trip across the United States<\/a> in an RV. It was awesome<\/em>.<\/p>\n

During late July 2015, we stopped for a few days on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan. My friend Jim Collins had invited us to spend some time at Shamba, the waterfront vacation home that belongs to his sister-in-law. For several days, we sipped wine and walked in the surf with Collins and his wife. We also talked about work. (I had just begun formulating plans for Money Boss<\/a>; Jim was writing a book.)<\/p>\n

“What do you do?” Kim asked Collins on our first afternoon at Shamba.<\/p>\n

“I retired early,” he explained. “I saved up and got out of the rat race. Now I write a blog about money<\/a>. It started as notes I wanted to share with my daughter, but it’s become something bigger. I guess most people know me because of my series of articles on stock-market investing<\/a>. Now I’m turning the blog into a book.”<\/p>\n

“Ugh,” Kim said. “Investing frustrates me. J.D. has tried to explain his investment philosophy<\/a> a couple of times since we started dating. He says it’s simple, but it still seems overwhelming.”<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t have to be,” Collins said. “You should read my articles. Maybe they’ll help.” Kim read his articles. They helped.<\/p>\n

By the time we’d driven around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and made our way to Indiana’s Amish country, Collins’ blog had spurred Kim to action. As I sat in the RV outlining my early vision for Money Boss, Kim was opening Vanguard<\/a> accounts and moving her retirement savings into index funds.<\/p>\n

During four years together, I couldn’t persuade Kim to manage her own retirement savings. Collins convinced her in two weeks. His advice is that<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Since that weekend in Wisconsin, Collins published the book he was working on. The Simple Path to Wealth<\/strong><\/em><\/a> presents the advice from his blog in a coherent, unified package. It’s an easy-to-understand primer on stock-market investing \u2014 and<\/em> financial independence. <\/p>\n

<\/span>The Simple Path to Wealth<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"The<\/a>Collins advocates a self-directed approach to investing (and money management, in general). His philosophy is mostly Money Boss-ish:<\/p>\n