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

 There are many great insights to take from this book. I heard about it for the first time from one Instagram blogger. In his video, he mentioned 3 books to must read - The Atomic Habits by James Clear, The Subtle Art of Not Giving Fuck by Mark Manson and this book The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.

I already read The Atomic Habits and The Subtle Art of Not Giving Fuck. These are my personal favorites and also the must read self-help books available out there. The Subtle Art of Not Giving Fuck have a huge impact on me and trust me it helped me a lot! 

When I started this book, I thought the writer must be a psychologist or any PhD scholar but after digging into it, I found that he is a former columnist at the Wall Street Journal. He also wrote many other amazing books. I recently finished this book The Psychology of Money and I would like to share about it. Some where I felt that this book analyzed every aspect about money like emotional, psychological, luck factor, greedy one and almost everything. This book includes 19 short stories that are explaining strange but common things about money. 

Some of my favorite insights are -

1. Behavior > Intelligence w.r.t. Money.

No matter how smart or highly educated or graduate from a top B-school in the world or working on the wall street, your behavior with money defines everything. 

Writer of this book said that  Financial Science is a Soft Skill and I think if it's a soft skill then everyone should learn it. I personally learnt this one late in life!

2. Like many other books out there this one also revolves around stock market. The concept of Opportunity Cost is explained nicely! Not everyone can pay the cost to stick to the market in the ups & down. There is a factor of luck involved and also the price to pay for the volatility of the market. 

3. This is one is my personal favorite, "It's Never Enough." The effects of Capitalism are - Envy Generation & to Create more & more Wealth. Social comparison will be always there and it makes us feel that it's not enough. I can put this, "There is always a bigger fish," or simply "There is always someone above you." This envy costs many people their everything (For example, Harshad Mehta, Rajat Gupta, Rengan Rajaratnam and the list is big!)

4. Money is very powerful thing (I don't need to emphasized it!). 

5. Understanding your own self is the best management with the money.

6. Black Swans like Covid-19, 2008 crises, and  World Wars can disturb or destroy our economy. Also such events can create big fear in the investment world and nobody can control it, NOBODY. 

This book is a true gem in field of finance and money related books with many great insights.