The Psychology of Money

Author:  Morgan Housel

Genre: NonFiction, Economics, SelfHelp

Rating: 2/5

Verdict: The language is simple, but the book fails to spark any excitement or interest.

I like reading non-fiction these days and I am also more willing to keep an open mind on the subjects I'd like to read about. This book was suggested by a dear friend and we agreed that we'd read it together. To begin with, the title is a little misleading - I was expecting and hoping that this will not be one of those innumerable self help finance books that advice on how/where/when to invest money, stocks, funds and so on. From the title, I expected it to be more of a "how does money affect people's behavior and decision making?" and as it states exactly the psychology of money. To be fair it was a mix of both but a lot more of the former and very little, may be one chapter dedicated to the latter that I wanted to understand more about. 

I am glad it was a short book and a fairly quick read mostly because I was determined to finish reading it fully :) At the end of it, I don't think I learnt anything new, it was mostly a bunch of blog-posts kind of topics reiterating  common sense knowledge like savings are supremely important or keep your debt low which are good reminders to yourself at best. I also didn't like the fact that the author tried to over simplify certain things like how Warren Buffet grew his wealth, if only it was that easy! The book definitely started off well and piqued my interest but by the time I got to the mid point, it was just a collection of incoherent random essays without any concrete action items or thoughtful insights that became pretty boring. 

Overall, a very easy and below average read. A few positives about the book - easy to follow, each chapter is a lesson on its own and succinct. There are a few good reminders out there which we most often tend to forget in this peer pressure filled world, they are worth reminding ourselves about how we want to live our lives. I especially liked the chapters on luck and risk and the essence of time!