The Quiet Millionaire – What is Important about Money to You?

What is a Quiet Millionaire?  I’m not exactly sure yet but I imagine I’ll figure it out as I read the book the Quiet Millionaire – A Guide for Accumulating and Keeping Your Wealth by Brett Wilder. The publisher sent me a copy of the book to review and I broke it open this weekend. I’d like to be a millionaire of any type; loud, quiet, or any volume so we’ll see if this book is helpful for reaching that goal. I did particularly like one paragraph in the book intro:

“Financial miracles do happen, but the quiet millionaire does not wait for a miracle in order to become financially successful. Depending on what and how much you want, you need to commit to taking action and to making some well-thought-out, informed choices, regarding what is really important to you and your financial life. This may require you to throw in some willing sacrifices, steadfast perseverance, and rolled-up sleeves hard work.”

The Importance of Money
The first chapter, “What is Important about Money to You”, is really about defining who you are, what your goals are, and what you want out of life.  This is a pretty standard intro for many personal finance books and for good reason.  In the end it’s not really about the money, it’s about what the money does for you.  As Wilder says, “Money is the fuel for achieving your life goals and objectives.”

Personal Self Discovery
The book offers two interesting methods for personal self-discovery that can help us reflect and perhaps re-evaluate our thoughts about money. 

The first is “Listening to Yourself”.  It’s pretty simple really, just setup a microphone and start talking out loud to yourself about your financial situation and what changes you want to make.  Wilder suggests that as you play back your recording you’ll notice places where either you’re not being honest with yourself in your answers or you’re not really sure of what you want.  These are the areas you need to clear up before making financial plans.

The second method is “Writing to Yourself” a daily diary.  Basically, a daily diary of your thoughts; he recommends doing it first thing in the morning with a fresh mind.  The approach he likes to take is to “let it all out” as you write then go back and review it later on.  The goal here is to learn more about your about your inner self and later build your financial goals around your hopes and dreams.

So far, a good start to the book.  I’ll write more in the future when I find time to progress on to the next chapters.

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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