Become Wealthy by Reading

Here's a great piece that lists some statistics about how reading impacts your finances. 

The highlights:

• Individuals who read for self-education earned 21% more, as adults, than those who did not.
• Individuals who developed the habit of reading to learn earned more income, had more assets and had better finances by age 38 then their peers.
• 86% of the rich loved reading vs. 26% of the poor.
• 63% of the rich listened to audio books during their commute to work vs. 5% of the poor.
• 85% of the rich read two or more self-improvement books every month vs. 15% of the poor.
• 88% of the rich read 30 minutes or more each day vs. 2% of the poor.

A few thoughts on this:

• There's an old saying in business that, "Readers lead and leaders read." Almost all of the best executives I ever worked with consistently read for self-improvement.
• I love to read -- using "read" in a broad sense. I do still read books (more on that later), but as much of my "reading" these days is consumed in audio form, either audio books or podcasts. I "read" in my car, while doing lawn work, while taking early morning walks, etc. -- anytime I can do one thing and still listen to what's being said. I can't listen where my mind needs to be engaged in other things (like while writing an article, working out, etc.) so in those times I choose music.
• I subscribe to about 200 blogs (scouring the globe for great stuff to write on) in addition to the above.
• I do read a few magazines. I subscribe to Money, Kiplinger's, Business Week, and This Old House. Magazines are great for passing the time in a sauna. If you sweat and drip on them it's no issue (versus who wants to read a book after someone has perspired all over it?)
• I'm not sure when I developed the love of reading. I read comic books as a kid, then youth fiction, then teen fiction, then classic fiction. Eventually I moved to mostly non-fiction (after grad school) and haven't looked back since.
• I'm one of those people who buys a book before he's done with the previous book. Then he starts reading two books at once. Then he finds a third book and buys it and is now reading three books. Anyway, I have several books on my bookshelf now in some state of being read or being read again (that's another issue -- I re-read books I loved the first time, many of them being read 4 or 5 times).
• I visit the library often to see what's new, read what I want, and buy stuff I like and want to keep in my library.

The link between reading and earning is fascinating to me. It's not surprising as I'm sure most of us can see how the two would be related. But to have such a large impact as noted above is amazing.

For the curious, here are the books I have on my shelf right now that are in the "to be read", "reading", or "to be re-read" category:

• The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) -- Finished not that long ago. Awesome book about how to achieve your life dreams by getting up earlier. Will be posting on it sometime.
• The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business -- Is it better to get an MBA or just read and apply key books? This book argues for the latter.
• Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto -- I'm the family grillmaster and want to get even better. I hope this book will help. :)
• Nightwing Vol. 1: Bludhaven -- Don't judge me! I LOVE Batman and all things Batman!
• Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition -- Got it to try and reason with an unreasonable boss, then didn't read it. Then I retired, but still plan to read it.
• The Bulletproof Diet: Lose up to a Pound a Day, Reclaim Energy and Focus, Upgrade Your Life -- Half way through it. Not sure if it's legit or a bunch of bull (I've seen articles saying both). I am on a health kick so I'm interested in different viewpoints. Not sure what to think here yet.
• The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing -- I've read this one a couple times, so this is a re-read. I'll read it mostly for nuggets I want to pull out and post about.
• Stop Acting Rich: ...And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire -- Another re-read for the blog but this one I've only read once. GREAT book by the author of The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy, one of my all-time favorite books.
• How Much Money Do I Need to Retire? -- Re-read. best book on retirement planning I've ever read.
• How to Make Your Money Last: The Indispensable Retirement Guide -- I've read this book and will be posting on it some. I agree with 50% of it and am still thinking over the other 50%. Should make for some great blog conversations! :)
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change -- After all these years, Amazon still lists this book as #64 out of all books in sales. There's a good reason for it. It's worth reading and re-reading over and over again. I've read it several times, listened to it, and been through the classes back in the day. AWESOME content.
• Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Ind ependence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century -- Read this a long time ago and kind of blew it off. Then re-read it recently and saw how great of a book it is. I'll be posting more on it sometime in the future.
• Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want -- I bought this during the pre-release so I got the audio free, which I listened to. LOVED it. Great book on setting and achieving life goals. Hope to read it again.
• The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations -- Was recommended by a friend of mine who has experience in executive leadership. Listened to the audio book, loved it, then bought the book. I planned to listen to the audio and take notes in the book at the same time. Then I retired, so we'll see if I get around to it. :)

I know, it's a long list!

How about you -- are you a reader? If not, why? If so, what are you reading now (or planning on reading)?

Comments

[Memories]

First, I didn't read the link, so I don't know if it's covered there. That said, I would think it's correlation, but not causation. Though I did pick up the "they're related". Those who are already predisposed toward leading are also great learners, and of course one of the best ways to learn is by reading.

I'm a reader, but I wasn't always. It was when we gave up cable TV 4 years ago that I really got into it. I was much more a casual reader before. I mostly read fiction and theological books, while my financial, sports and political reading is on the web - no magazines anymore.

[freebird]

Memories, that's my take too. My guess is the die is cast in childhood-- those who developed a love for reading in grammar school likely excelled as students who grew up to rule the world and mostly continued their reading habits as adults. I don't know how much incremental earning power accrued to those who only started to read seriously in adulthood. Also I imagine that more is not better-- those who spend their lives buried in literature probably are not the best-heeled. Still I think it's a strong hint to those who are rearing children!

I was a book learner who absorbed written material much more effectively than lectures. I like reading simple elegant prose, but not so much fiction, I prefer long form narratives that explain how a system works or the occasional historical archive. In finance my favorites are periodicals-- Economist, Bloomberg, and Barron's. I almost never read books, and I especially avoid those proffering self-improvement. I've never listened to an audio book. I don't watch television or movies, so I easily spend more than an hour a day reading.

If the movers and shakers are avid readers, this would suggest that it's the writers who shape the world. And yet in recent times it seems to have gotten harder to earn a living in journalism or arts & letters. Perhaps technology has driven this split between a shrinking pool of "top talent" vs all the rest? If so, I think this is making the world a more rigid and less dynamic place. Perhaps more efficient, but growth may be stunted.

[Kenny]

I have never gotten into Podcasts mainly cause I do not know of a single good place that provides it. Is this mainly done through the smart phone and, instead of going through many areas, are there good Podcasts that can be listed here on Finance, Self-Improvement, Wealth, Investing and Health that can be provided by someone? Thanks much in advance.

[Sam]

Similar question to Kenny. Are there any good audio CDs or books that I can pick from the library? I used to read a lot, but the nature of my work (in installed base) is not allowing me to spend more time doing these activities. But I can listen.

[FMF]

@Kenny and @ Sam

Check this link out (and the comments) for some podcast suggestions:

https://esimoney.com/lessons-from-a-real-estate-expert/

[FMF]

@Sam --

Look for the books above on CD at Amazon or at your library. My library has tons of audio books but I still have to buy some as they don't have everything I want.

[Abandoned Cubicle]

Books, especially non-fiction, but also fiction, have really helped me grow over the years. If nothing else, you enhance your critical thinking skills, your ability to focus, and your ability to communicate effectively. I just need to find time to read with twin toddlers now in the picture. We're resigned to watching The Office reruns on Netflix these days.

[Free to Pursue]

Read more, want less. There's truth to this in that reading anything that's not mandated by some form of structured lower or higher education is intrinsically motivated for the most part.

Further, when we value our abilities and knowledge (and their growth), we become more valuable to ourselves and to others. We also get increasingly clear about what matters to us and we tend to pursue it, rather than restricting ourselves to a long list of "shoulds". We do what feels right, because we know better, literally (or literarily?). This is the "stuff" of success.

I absolutely loved YMOYL and would also recommend Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning.