September is the month when you start planning how you would like to spend the next year lying ahead of you. You think about what you would like to achieve, set your goals, elaborate the steps how to make this happen and you start your hard work. Having said that, there are so many people who write all those lists of what they would like to achieve in the future but due to bad time management they rarely succeed at bringing to an end these projects – as a result people get disappointed and disillusioned. It happens not due to the lack of skills and motivation – but because of the lack of understanding of how to structure their day, how to juggle their tasks to make their day more efficient. That is why we at BooksRun decided that such topics as efficiency and productivity resonate particularly well with everyone who aspires to achieve their personal and professional goals. That is why we have prepared our list of the best productivity books for 2021 which should boost your money-earning potential!
Check below our selected list of motivational books to advance your financial IQ, get interesting money tips and learn the core investment principles.
Book 1. The Latte Factor: Why You Don’t Have to Be Rich to Live Rich (by David Bach)
Another masterpiece by the king of personal finance books – David Bach, ex-VP at Morgan Stanley who used to manage more than 1 billion dollars in his previous professional life. This book is designed as a narrative when the story is woven from the main character Zoey’s actions, thoughts and lessons from her mother. This book is filled with personal finance advice and motivates you to pay yourself first – ahead of all debt, student loan and mortgage payments. The author understands very well that most people do not like the idea of budgeting since it sounds so daunting and complicated so they will never embark on that road. Instead of advising what percentage of your monthly income you should put aside to start saving for your retirement, rather than speaking about retirement plans – the author simply puts on paper his idea of paying the equivalent of one hour of your daily labour to your pocket. He explains that in the long-run this habit will become your life saviour and will turn you into a wealthy person!
“David Bach is the financial expert to listen to when you’re intimidated by your finances”
— Tony Robbins
Check below an interesting podcast featuring David Bach who regularly appears on the New York Times list of best-selling authors to get more insight on personal finance.
In this book, Bach explains how our contemporary epicurean habits of buying coffees, subscribing for premium memberships of YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, Hulu are draining our money – he uses the analogy of “latte” for this kind of irrational payments. This makes us, in the end, work for stuff from 9am till 6pm rather than invest wisely hard-earned money to liberate ourselves from office slavery. This is one of the best motivational books of all time that we highly recommend to everyone out there who wants to understand how to tweak one’s finances to live one’s best life. The author explains that there are so many alternatives in this life which you can benefit from without having a lot of money – and at the same time feel rich and fulfilled! Check David Bach’s three secrets to financial freedom, stop buying those “lattes” and get inspired to build your wealth with his new book “The Latte Factor”!
Book 2. Broke Millennial Takes on Investing: A Beginner’s Guide to Levelling Up Your Money (by Erin Lowry)
This book written by a representative of the Millennial Generation is definitely on our list of the best-selling motivational books 2021. Erin Lowry has prepared her guide to investment basics for recent graduates who are feeling overwhelmed with student loans, rent payments, car maintenance costs as well as other running costs that every person who started to live independently encounter on his or her way. If you are not ready to get into the market, Erin will explain and encourage your next steps on how to stop wasting your time and money! So many of us have heard that life is getting more and more expensive and that it is becoming harder and harder to afford financial independence on a salary that we receive at the end of the month – so everyone on the radio, in the news and on the pages of financial journals advise us to start investing immediately. With the advancement of technology, we no longer need to save at least 5,000$ to open a brokerage account and start investing – and it is true! With the appearance of various stock investing apps, micro-investment apps like Acorns this process got simplified – but still, most of us have no idea where to begin. Moreover, so many graduates cannot find the balance between repaying their student debt and meeting their daily expenses – if on top of that they have to create an investment fund, it makes most people’s skin crawl. That is why we need Erin’s book to learn the basic investment rules, learn from her personal experience of managing debt while saving for the property in New York City. The author’s motivational advice on getting grips with financial basics makes it the best book on overcoming financial procrastination. On the pages of “Broke Millennial”, you will find answers to your burning questions about robo-advisors and which apps are worth using, how to invest when you have student loan burden, where to look for the best and most up-to-date investment advice, how to invest in a socially responsible way. According to Lowry, the road to your secure financial future consists of two parts:
1st– educate yourself about the main principles, terminology, read books on people who turned themselves into successful investors
2nd– you need to set financial goals for yourself: short-run, medium-run and long-run.
Learn common investment terminology and plan your retirement savings, learn how to sell and buy stocks, understand why you should start investing earlier than later and turn yourself into an investment market connoisseur with the help of “Broke Millennial”!
Check Erin Lowry’s podcast on Investing basics and take your financial future in your own hands!
Book 3. Work Optional: Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way (by Tanja Hester)
One of the top productivity books 2021 written by the matriarch of the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement – Tanja Hester, ex-political strategist, high-achiever who retired when she was 38 years old. This is one of the best books written on time and personal finance management that is set to change the way you think about your work-and-life balance. It opens the new horizons to our traditional perceptions that you work till you are 66 and then you start looking after your grandchildren and do some travelling around.
Tanja will help you create a customized plan to gain financial freedom without debt and extra-stress of extreme frugality – no matter what your income is! The author was able to retire together with her husband because they were earning more than they were spending and the difference they would invest wisely. Achieving financial freedom requires a tweak in spending habits: to simplify your conversion to more rational spending lifestyle, the author suggests thinking about it as a trade-off between the things you focus your attention on and make a lot of effort for and those things which are less important. You need to align your daily decisions based on the opportunity costs and your priorities!
When speaking about retirement, you should think about it as a way to retire to something new and exciting rather than quitting the 9-to-5 job that you hate! Planning your retirement means that you start figuring out early on where you would like to be living, who is part of this vision, what issue frustrates you in the community where you are living and how you can become instrumental in bringing change, what are the hobbies that you would like to take up, whether you would like to double your hobbies or you would like to immerse deeply into one.
Read this book to understand how you can wake up in the morning without an alarm clock! Check below one of the best podcasts on productivity where Tanja Hester explains how to live a life in which work is optional:
Book 4. The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs: The Investor’s Guide to Defining Your Renovation Plan, Building Your Budget, and Knowing Exactly How Much It All Costs ( by J. Scott)
This is a how-to-guide to renovating your investment property– this book will tell you how much it does cost. You will learn detailed tips and strategies to plan your budget from the expert real estate investor– J.Scott. He will explain how to inspect every aspect of your property, how to decide on upgrade options that will bring you the most profit, you will learn to identify typical renovations, how to fix mold and termites problems, determine which contractors are the best for certain repairs and projects… and much more! After reading this book you will master the fundamentals of pricing and budgeting renovation for your investment property– it will enable you to produce the income you want on your next investment deal!
Book 5. Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less (by Michael Hyatt)
This book on efficiency from New York Times best-selling author Michael Hyatt will inspire you to take control of your life! Get to know the principles listed in one of the world’s best motivational books written recently on time management and achieving work-life balance – and let go your never-ending task lists! If you are the one who is behind your most important work, who is used to feeling anxious due to numerous interruptions sabotaging your plans and who keeps trying to work harder and longer hours – then this book is definitely for you! The author spent years investing in his productivity system and his key to accomplishing all the plans lies in redefining productivity: achieving more by doing less! Change your traditional approach to productivity and you will no longer need to compromise: true efficiency is about getting the right things done! In such a way you take control of your to-do lists, you make progress day after day – and get ahead on your most important work! You want to make gains at work and you don’t want to make sacrifices at home… so stop, reflect and redefine your productivity and work on the efficiency system that will last you a lifetime! To achieve major wins at home and at work you need to come up with a system that will keep you focused on your highest leverage work.
Check below Michael Hyatt’s podcast on being productive:
Book 6. The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life (by Todd Herman)
If you are committed to changing your destiny and bringing to life the superpowers hidden inside you – then this book is for you. The award-winning author Todd Herman has been a professional counsellor to top-performing athletes all his life and he draws on his professional experience to help his readers and followers to unblock and unleash their top performance, to take their talent and expertise to the next level. Very often people cannot resolve the consequences of the trauma dating back to their childhood and teenage years and as a result, they struggle with guilt and barriers that they put to protect themselves from the world. The author’s advice to overcome such blocks that stand between the best versions of who we can be and our current selves – it is to suspend the disbelief by adopting the super personality that on some level we know we are capable of becoming. Once you activate this heroic Alter Ego, you will understand that it is you who can perform at your peak and achieve such mesmerizing results. This person is already inside you – your Heroic Self who can achieve the impossible!
Todd Herman understood his principle of Alter Ego when he met Bo Jackson: this professional athlete used to get into trouble when he was young due to his anger issues. That was the reason why Bo “never played a down of football in his entire life”. But once he saw the series Friday the 13th and learnt about Jason Vorhees – Bo’s fascination with this character’s calculating nature changed his perception of himself. Since then Bo Jackson decided to turn himself into Jason when playing on the football field.
Herman’s transformative guide on creating and controlling an Alter Ego will teach you the techniques and principles that helped multiple athletes, business leaders and entrepreneurs to perform at the top of their abilities. Moreover, in this book you will find the autobiographical part where the author shares his personal story: he taught himself by putting on a pair of glasses to turn into a confident and self-assured person dedicated to changing other people’s lives for good despite his trauma of being sexually assaulted at the age of 12. Don’t be held back by your shortcomings, let your dreams come true – the only thing you need to do is to understand that you can handle life’s ups and downs and perform at 100% even when the stakes are high. No more time for self-doubts, use the Alter Ego principle to become the best version of yourself! It is interesting to learn more details about Todd Herman’s professional secrets and strategies and you can do it by listening to his recent podcast below :
Book 7. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad ones (by James Clear)
One more New York Times bestseller on our list – this time about building good habits! This book is a must-read literally for everyone since every one of us needs to come up with positive habits that will improve our quality of life. James Clear is the world’s leading expert on habit formation and he has helped Olympic gold medallists, award-winning artists, business leaders and star entertainers to form small habits and tweak their routines to vault to the top of their field and become real masters of their craft. With the help of this book, you will open for yourself what tiny changes you need to do every day that will lead to astonishing results in the long run. It will help you understand and construct your framework for everyday improvement. So many of us promise to start a new life full of positive changes “from Monday” but very few do succeed in doing so. The reason for this is not to do with us but rather with our internal habit system. If you have the wrong system when you repeat your negative habits day after day – it will make it harder for you to achieve your goals since you do not want to change your habit system – you are the slave of your systems! The author has successfully distilled the complex topic of self-transformation into simple behaviour strategies applicable to our daily life and work. He derived his knowledge from biology, psychology and neuroscience to create a user-friendly guide to avoid bad habits, overcome a lack of motivation and will power and modify your environment to succeed easier. This book will let you reshape your old-fashioned habits that are dragging your progress even when you try to quit smoking, lose weight and reduce stress. You can check more of James Clear’s core principles that let him and his followers lead conscious lives in this podcast with Rich Roll below:
Book 8. I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Second Edition (by Ramit Sethi)
Ramith Sethi is a renowned personal finance expert who became famous with his 2009 book — “I will teach you to be rich”. It was released at the time of the serious financial crisis and many concepts about automating finances proved to be true. This time he comes back with the 2nd edition of his book where he continues to exploit the importance of investing your money. It is crucial to find the right accounts and think through your investments to make sure your money grows automatically. Being referred to by Forbes as a “wealth wizard”, Sethi knows what he is writing about. In his new book he will show you how to get rid of your debt and student loans faster than you ever thought, how to set-up free high-interest bank accounts, why you should automate your finances so your money gets transferred exactly where you want it to, how to avoid late payment fees, how to save thousands per month and still be able to afford what you love, how to handle the costs of paying for a car, a house or a wedding and why you should always negotiate. Read this finance management book to master your money and your life! In this new edition, you will find inspiring stories about Ramit Sethi’s readers and how they succeeded in building their wealth after reading this inspiring book.
Below is an interview with Ramit Sethi where he answers the host’s questions about managing finances — it is very inspiring:
Book 9. Financial Freedom: A Proven Path to All the Money You Will Ever Need (by Grant Sabatier)
This is one of the best books offering wisdom on how to manage your money so that you become financially independent as fast as possible. It is a step-by-step guide on how to enjoy your life and do the things you love while not worrying about affording to pay for your expenses. The author challenges the wide-spread concept of going to work 9 to 5 and living in frugality to have the right to finally retire at the age of 65; on the opposite, he offers you surprising piece of advice about how to create profitable side-income businesses, how to save money without the need to penny-pinch, how to ask more than you thought it is ever possible from your employer, how to travel the world for less and make money on your existing living situation. The key to this is to think creatively and elaborate your knowledge on how to make money. Sabatier offers his expertise on financial freedom reminding everyone that there is no limit to how much money you can make but time is not limitless so it is better to start now! In the book, you will find the autobiographical part when the author shares his personal story when he had merely $2.26 in his bank account at the age of 24 whereas now he has been referred by CNBC as “the Millennial Millionaire” who by the age of 30 has succeeded in reaching absolute financial independence. Read this top book to discover the author’s wisdom about money, time management, corporate rules and retirement that break our old-school concepts!
“This book blew my mind. More importantly, it made financial independence seem achievable. I read Financial Freedom three times, cover-to-cover.”
—Lifehacker
Find out more of Grant Sabatier’s money management wisdom from this podcast below:
