Book Review – Strong Money Australia
I was more than keen to get my hands on Dave from Strong Money Australia’s new book. Even though I was familiar with his story and situation from listening to his own podcast and his guest appearances on others, I was still interested to see what financial wisdom he had been working on for the past 2 or so years.
If you’re not familiar with Dave’s story, at 18 years old he moved from country Victoria to Perth, Western Australia for better employment prospects. After having a bit of a rough trot at his first job and being let go, and glimpsing his first taste of retirement and the power of financial independence in what he calls his “summer of freedom”, he set off on his journey to financial independence. Over the course of the next 8 or so years, using simple saving and investing techniques discussed in the book, Dave manages to retire at the spritely young age of 28.
Who is this booked aimed at?
Going into this book, I realised there probably wasn’t going to be any earth shattering financial revelations like when you first discover compound interest. If you’ve been in the financial independence community for any length of time it’s likely you already know the bulk of what is discussed in this book, but I still think this book is worth a read, even if it wasn’t aimed at people already in the space. This is the kind of book you recommend to people who ask you why you don’t work, who ask you how you manage to live a lifestyle of freedom and how they can too. I think it’s perfect not only for the unique aspect in which Dave manages to discuss certain topics in the book, but the fact you can tell that this guy really does live and breath this shit and the fact he talks about everything in layman’s terms, skipping the jargon that crams most financial how to books. From someone who loves all things money, finance and saving, you can really resonate with him when he talks about personal finance and how it “gets me all warm and fuzzy inside like a giddy child on Christmas morning”.
What I loved about this book
Relatability
Too often in financial self help books, the author is already in finance or some other professional field. What I love about this book is that Dave’s story is that he’s not on some big fat cat corporate suit salary, he’s just your every day Aussie battler working your average job earning an average wage, which helps reinforce that really anyone can achieve financial independence if you follow the steps in this book. His story sounds so familiar to a lot of people like myself who first started off in property only to then realise passive shares are where the true freedom is, which serves as either a beacon of which way forward, or a reminder of not to stray too far from the path.
The numbers
I’ll confess, I’m a finance nerd, and when someone gives me good financial examples, it gets my imagination going. One of the key takeaways I got from this book, was a change of mindset in my spending. Dave talks about how he looks at expenses, multiplies it by 25 to then see how much he would then need extra in retirement income to afford this.
That new shirt may feel like a random purchase, and the car only needs repairs every now and then. But we tend to always spend a certain amount on these seemingly random things every single year. In fact, when we zoom out, they’re quite predictable. Lets flesh this out further. If we need 25x our annual spending in investments to produce enough passive income to live off, a $50 weekly expense – $2,600 per year – has a true cost of $65,000. Because to produce $2,600 per year, we need $65,000 in investments. Looked at this way, some of your spending may terrify you, which might be a good thing!
Gow, Dave – Strong Money Australia
It’s not all about money
What do you mean it’s not all about money, this is a finance book?! I actually think this is more of a lifestyle book. Over the course of the chapters talking about investments, saving and spending, there are loads of great little snippets which cover super important topics such as consumerism, minimalism and how our spending habits can impact our environment. While not super fleshy chapters or topics in the book, these often short little snippets can open up a whole internal dialogue in our own lives as we reassess our own habits both financially and not.
The quotes
This was hands down the first thing I noticed about the book. I’ve literally got a note on my desk reading “Gold mine of quotes – man does not miss!”, and it’s true, I don’t know where he came across all these quotes or how long he has been collecting them, but the book is riddled with absolute bangers. Here are some of my favourites.
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” – Epictetus
“People who live far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyle can’t fathom.” Naval Ravikant
“Spending money to show people how much money you have is the fastest way to have less money.” – Morgan Housel
The middle ground and life after FI
One of the most left out parts in any financial independence book, but in reality we spend the bulk of our time here! You’ve seen them on twitter, finfluencers pumping real estate and telling how great their cash flow is and how wealthy they are, leaving out all the gruesome expenses they put up with to earn it. It’s the same with finance books, giving you all the examples in the world how compounding interest work and how easy it is to achieve FI, leaving out that hardest and most important part which is waiting! Not only that, the big question of, what the hell do I do now that I am financially independent! Some people will have a full blown life crisis when they hit that mark that they’ve been working so hard to to get to, and this part of the book takes some of the uncertainty of that away from someone who’s been there and done that.
What I think could be improved
As someone who was a terrible learner at school, I love having visual aids and illustrations. I really appreciated some of the graphs and tables provided in the book, but really felt there could be more to help break up some of the text, as some times it felt like I was consuming more of a text book than anything. I also think this might really help people who aren’t necessarily good with money, as often images and illustrations are easier to grasp than sentences when learning about new topics.
Final thoughts, should you buy this book?
The short answer is yes. Regardless if you are a complete newcomer or are well on your way to financial independence, I still think this book is worth a read. It serves not only as a bible or how to guide for the uninitiated, but as a gentle reminder of the basic principles that this whole lifestyle is based upon. A reminder of how little things can grow into big, how small changes now can buy freedom later and how less really is more.
Do yourself a favour and help save the turtles in the process and go buy Dave’s book!
