- Good morning, good life, welcome back to AmyTV,
where we come together
to help you go after the life you want.
First, let me say it has been a minute
since we've done a little bit of AmyTV
Book Club action over here,
so I wanted to bring a little list
in case you were looking for a few options.
The majority of the time
when we talk about AmyTV Book Club
now it's over on Instagram, actually,
so go and check that out @amytvbookclub,
we share recommendations, we share reading tips over there.
So if you've been kind of missing these videos
we're trying to make it more frequently over there.
So a little bit of IGTV, and posts, and a lot of fun stuff.
So check that out.
Before I actually go into the list
of the books I wanna share with you today,
I imagine that if someone clicks on the name of this video
that they're feeling in a negative space.
Certainly if you would be willing to venture
to potentially say, "I'm broke"
or describe yourself as that way,
or to describe yourself as someone
who doesn't have a lot of expendable income,
has a hard time making it to the next paycheck,
and I want you to know that I can sit in that seat,
I have seen that before in my past,
and I don't think that it's something that you fix
and it's perfect forever,
we're constantly getting better at taking care of our money
it is something we have to work on every single day.
I have learned so much as I continue to grow up
and manage my finances responsibly,
but it is never something where you finally hit a moment
where you make enough money and everything's fine.
There is not just going to be this click,
and everything is going to be perfect
in your financial life,
you work at it.
So I hope that you're watching this with an open mind
because when you say those words, "I'm broke,"
there's really nowhere but up to go from there.
And that's what I'm hoping
will be a catalyst for you right now to be more optimistic,
to start thinking about what the potential could be
and I really think these books
are going to help you reach that potential.
If you couldn't tell, I am a huge proponent
of just having this conversation.
I feel like if I could go back
and say that there was something missing in my life
and what I wish I could do to help others,
it was just having people around
who were comfortable talking about money
not just in a negative way, in a realistic way,
but in a positive way, and helping to pave that way.
So I'm on a crusade to have that conversation,
I hope you'll get more comfortable with me,
and so that's what we're going to do today.
Pro tip, okay, I realize that I'm gonna rattle off
a few books for you
that would be excellent reading material,
but if you are the brokest of broke
buying a book might sound like a very far-fetched idea
and not a good use of your money right now,
maybe you need to buy groceries,
maybe you need to go and do something for yourself
that's more important, I get that,
but I'm trying to get you on the path to education here
that's going to change your life,
because I know you're gonna continue to work at it,
you wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case.
And so we've gotta get there, right?
So pro tip, go to the library.
I mean, it's an amazing place that even will help you,
without even, I don't even think you have to go anymore.
You can actually borrow books
from the library in digital form.
So it is not necessarily something
where you have to go see if they have the book in stock
in-person and borrow the book,
you might be able to get it on your device and borrow it
and not have to buy the book at all.
The other tip that I would give you
is if you have an Amazon account,
and if you have a smartphone device,
if you have a Kindle would be amazing as well.
But if not, smartphone is fine with the Kindle app.
Amazon allows you to download books, the samples for free,
and I recommend this to everyone,
it does not matter how much money you have in the bank.
You should always download the free sample.
Even before you buy a hard copy of something
download the sample,
and see if it's even something
you're gonna continue to read.
I do this all the time.
If I get a book recommendation from someone
and I'm like, "That sounds so good,"
I will not spend 9.99 on it,
I won't pay 24.99 for the book to come to me in the mail.
I download the sample, it varies how long it will be
for different authors and different books,
but I can see if this thing is gonna be my jam,
if I can get into the way that the author is teaching me,
and if I'm actually going to read it.
That will be a worthy spend of my money.
So if you're trying to make
this purchase decision very carefully,
these are four amazing investments for you.
You will pull from these books continually
through your financial wellness journey
but you don't have to buy them if you don't want to,
you can borrow, or you can try it before you buy it.
And I highly recommend you do.
My first recommendation is by Robert Kiyosaki
and it is the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad."
What the rich teach their kids about money
that the poor and middle class do not.
Sounds very sexy.
It was initially not one that I gravitated toward,
just the title in general "Rich Dad Poor Dad"
sounded very separating,
and it just didn't feel like the right vibe
but I had heard so many recommendations of this book
I had to pick it up.
After a period of time
when all the smart people in your life
that you come into contact with
keep recommending something to you,
you have to give it a chance.
And what I realized was, you know what?
It is very separating,
it is breaking up the rich from the poor, why?
Because that is just a fundamental thing.
People have money, people don't,
people have a little, people have a lot.
What does that look like?
Why does it look like that?
And how does an abundant mindset versus a scarcity mindset
play a role when that's the case?
Especially when you're being brought up by someone
who thinks about money in a very specific way,
whether it's extremely negative or extremely positive.
I don't think that a lot of us would go back
and say to our parents like, "Wow, you were really negative
about money growing up."
Until you realized later what positive would sound like,
and vice versa.
We may not even really know we have an opinion on that
based on where we come from,
but seeing what the other side is,
and I think that's one of the most powerful things
about reading, is hearing someone else's perspective,
seeing what the other side is saying
so that we can understand it better,
not judge somebody for rich or poor,
but be able to understand how they came to those conclusions
that made them take certain actions,
or made the people around them take certain actions
to get to that point,
that was the biggest thing that I picked up from this book.
Highly, highly recommend it.
And Robert Kiyosaki also has a podcast.
So if that's more your speed,
definitely take a listen to that
because he is talking about some very important stuff
that we all really need to get educated on,
and that's understanding what the difference
between a scarcity mindset versus an abundant mindset
will do for our financial wellness.
The next one, and you know I don't like to swear
on this channel very often,
I don't, you know, I don't do it,
but I have to in this case, because it's worth it.
Jen Sincero's "You Are A Badass At Making Money."
This book, initially, I'm not a prude, okay?
I swear in real life.
But when I saw the series of books
called "You Are A Badass"
I just was like, "I know that already,
I don't need to read these books."
So I just never gravitated toward them (laughs),
really just not interested at all.
But again, heard amazing things about this one
and I thought if there was one I could grab on to
I wanna see what she has to say about money.
And I have actually been so impacted by this book.
I only picked it up last year
specifically in the area of visualization.
Visualization is something
that always sounded so woo-woo'ey to me,
I didn't get very much on board with it,
but when Jen talks about it in this book
I really started to understand.
Like I said about "Rich Dad Poor Dad"
you know, understanding scarcity versus abundance,
Jen got me thinking
about how do I start talking to myself that way?
Not in a weird way, right?
We gotta talk to ourselves though.
How do I start talking to myself
like this is already the case
that I am already going in a positive direction
with my financial wellness.
And also the female side of things.
We as women have a very, very hard time talking about money
because we were trained
that that is not something that we talk about
in everyday life.
And that is part of the reason why I'm broke
and having that with yourself is such a lonely one to have,
because it feels like there's really nobody
that can help you.
And when you feel that way, you don't have the conversation,
and then we do not have the conversation.
I think it's extremely important
that women in general talk about money more,
talk about what it means for us to make more,
talk about what it means for us
to make the same as a man in our position.
And the only way for us to do that
is to hear us talking about it more,
here women like, people we look like, talking about it more.
So there was a lot of that in this one
and she is just such a fun writer
if you couldn't tell from the title.
PS, somebody tweet her and tell her to come on my podcast
'cause she is cool.
This book only read it last year,
but has left a huge impact on me
and how I think about going in a better direction
with my money every single day.
Next is "Think And Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.
This is just one of the classics
that you absolutely cannot skip reading.
You've got to dig into this one,
if you think about any famous successful person
that you've ever known, there is a strong likelihood
they have been impacted by this book
if they're handling their finances well,
if they're going in the right direction, right?
The biggest thing here is being able to go in
and look at key stories about real people,
and how did Andrew Carnegie get to the point where he is,
and what happened for that to take place,
and what are the actionable things for that to take place,
and what can you learn for yourself?
This book is old, okay?
Original edition, 1937.
This is old.
The biggest thing I want you to learn from that
this old, old book that I'm asking you to read
is that we're not reinventing the wheel here.
Getting rich, making money, being financially well,
having wealth, that actually means something for your life
is no different today than it was in 1937.
I know that sounds crazy.
Sure, we can make money in different ways
because of technology and the advancements of humankind,
but the concepts for how we best manage, how we best grow,
how we best save,
they're pretty much the same as they've always been
and that is why the fundamental difference
between someone who's been able to kind of find their way
into a positive financial situation
versus someone who hasn't
is simply education, acquiring the information you need
that you actually believe that you can no longer unknow
so that you can do something about it.
And that is why I recommend Think And Grow Rich."
The last book that I'll recommend
is probably going to sound like it's only for people
who are in business, but I actually think
that this has helped me tremendously take real action
with even my personal finances
so I recommend it for everyone.
Certainly somebody who's in business,
freelancing or taking it more seriously
it's their full-time thing,
you have to read this book, it is a non-negotiable,
and that is "Profit First" by Mike Michalowicz.
This is real advice.
Not make sure your spreadsheets are updated,
not make sure you log your expenses,
this is real advice for managing cashflow.
The majority of the time
when we end up in a difficult financial situation
it's because there's no cash, okay?
We just need the cash, we need to be able to buy something,
we need to be able to take care of an emergency,
we need to be able to see
that our savings has something in it
in case something happens, in case we're out of work,
in case a pandemic puts us out completely,
what are we gonna do in that situation?
In order to be able to do that
you have to have an action plan
for what to do with your cashflow.
We always hear pay yourself first,
that is pretty much the concept of "Profit First"
the company profits first
so that we make sure we handle expenses
and everything else accordingly,
but also in your own personal life profit first, save first,
of course we live paycheck to paycheck,
and we've gotta make that bill,
and we have to make sure the lights stay on,
that way the rent gets paid,
but if we're only ever doing that,
we can't really get out of a situation
where that isn't always the case.
Being able to save now
means being able to save going forward.
We can get more creative,
we don't always need a lot of the things
that we're paying for.
How many subscriptions do you have right now?
You really start to see those things much more clearly
when you pay yourself first
and say, "Oh well actually we only have
this budget for food,
we only have this budget for streaming services.
We only have this budget because we paid ourselves first
meaning we're saving for our future,
we have something we can rely on if things go wrong,"
and that's really important.
That's definitely the case in a business.
You can't continue to grow
if you don't figure out what growing really looks like.
Just because you made X amount of revenue
doesn't mean it's all yours,
you gotta pay your taxes, okay?
Make sure you pay your taxes.
And also make sure you're profiting,
and paying yourself as the person
that took the risk on the business.
Why would we take all this risk, work more hours,
to not have to go clock in at a nine to five job
if we're not going to get paid well?
I highly recommend this book
for figuring out what does that actually look like,
do you have the ability to take your side hustle full-time
based on what's happening?
This is a real cashflow advice book
that will change the game.
Change the game.
Your spreadsheets are meaningless,
your P&L statement at the end of the year is meaningless
unless you see where that cash is going
and this book will teach you that.
Like I said, I'm on a crusade
when it comes to talking about financial wellness,
what does that look like for you,
what does that look like for all of us,
and the best way we can do this is to help each other.
So if you have any recommendations
of books that have helped you tremendously,
whether it was real actionable advice for money,
or it was just a mindset thing
that changed the game for you,
please leave those book recommendations
in the comments below so that we can make it a resource
for everyone watching here today.
Don't forget way more updates
for AmyTV Book Club over on Instagram,
make sure you follow and turn on notifications
@amytvbookclub.
That's all for today, thank you so much for tuning in,
I appreciate it as always.
Remember, subscribe for good vibes,
kiss the ones you love, and go after the life you want.
Cheers.
(laughs)
This book is old, okay?
I don't even know how old it is, let me find out.
2017, but that can not be accurate.
No, original edition 1937.
This is old.
(light music)