One Thousand Gurus Podcast

#60: Mastering Personal Finance: Insights and Strategies from Three Major Books | Book Highlights

• J.R. Yonocruz • Season 6 • Episode 10

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Mastering Personal Finance: Insights and Strategies from Three Major Books

In this episode of One Thousand Gurus, host J.R. Yonocruz kicks off a special book highlight series by exploring the realm of personal finance. He shares insights drawn from over a decade of experience and three influential books—'I Will Teach You to Be Rich' by Ramit Sethi, 'The Psychology of Money' by Morgan Housel, and 'The Simple Path to Wealth' by JL Collins. J.R. discusses key concepts such as automated financial systems, the difference between looking wealthy and being wealthy, and the importance of simple, reliable investment strategies. The episode also introduces his new digital financial guides and audiobooks, designed to help listeners implement these strategies effectively. Tune in for practical advice on achieving financial freedom and mastering money management.

00:00 Introduction to the Book Highlight Series
00:47 Personal Finance: A Passion and a Presentation
02:07 Money Mastery: Key Insights from Three Books
03:02 Big Idea #1: Willpower vs. Systems
04:19 Big Idea #2: Wealth is What You Don't See
09:53 Big Idea #3: Simple Beats Complex
13:20 The Freedom Formula and Final Thoughts
17:55 Call to Action and Conclusion

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One Thousand Gurus Podcast:
Everyone has a compelling story to tell with insights we can all be inspired by. J.R. Yonocruz is a self-improvement blogger, relationship coach, and serial hobbyist with a passion for learning. He interviews unique guests from various fields to distill the strategies, habits, and mindsets we can use in our own lives. Each “guru” has a chance to give the audience a peek into a new world.

J.R.: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of One Thousand Gurus with me, your host, J.R. Yonocruz. So today's episode is a very special episode. It is the first part in a special book highlight series that I'm doing for the show, and it's an idea that I've had for a while now, but I've always wanted to bring on my love of books and ideas that I learned from books onto this platform where I get to talk with people in real life and learn insights from them. If you guys don't know already, I have a blog where I host book summaries that I do.

J.R.: And this is a way for me to showcase some of my favorite books and share them with you as a part of the ethos of this show, which is to learn from people and share those learnings with you guys. So this is gonna be the first one. I actually knew that my first book highlight would be in personal finance because for those of you who don't know, personal finance is one of my favorite topics to talk about.

J.R.: But I couldn't choose which [00:01:00] book I wanted to highlight because there were three particular books in my library that I definitely wanted to share that have shaped my life and how I approach money. And so I decided to just combine it all into one sort of episode presentation. And while I was doing the outline for this episode, I ended up going down a rabbit hole and then created a full blown presentation, which I will link in the show notes so you can follow along.

J.R.: If you are audio only or if you're video, you can see the presentation that I'm going to be sharing with you. The aim of this is to give you some insights and some of the main overall mindsets and psychology and strategies that have impacted me the most in terms of personal finance and money, and hopefully you guys will get some value out of it.

J.R.: And at the end of this, I'll link to my new digital product store, which I've created personal finance guides. PDF guides and the audiobook versions that help go through the tactical ways of implementing these approaches to money. And so I'll talk about that at the end, but overall, just want to go over that.

J.R.: [00:02:00] And yeah, that's pretty much it. So without further ado, let's get into the presentation called Money Mastery.

J.R.: So I created this presentation to combine the 10 plus years of wisdom that I've distilled. Mainly from three books, but also from my own implementation. And I wanted to pull out at least one or two key ideas from each book, and that's what this presentation is. So welcome to Money Mastery 10 plus Years of Wisdom from three books by yours truly J.R. Yonocruz for the 1000 Gurus Podcast.

J.R.: So the three books that I'll be talking about today are I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi, which teaches the system of money. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel, which is the mindset. And the simple path to wealth by JL Collins, which is more on the philosophy of how to build wealth.

J.R.: So today's promise is that you'll discover the three big ideas that changed my relationship with money. Some light bulb moments, but not overwhelming tactics for you guys, and some insights [00:03:00] you can start using today.

J.R.: So big idea number one is that willpower fails while systems succeed.

J.R.: I don't know if you guys have ever heard that quote, but you don't rise to the level of your goals, but you fall to the level of your systems. And I think that's completely true, especially when it comes to personal finance. So the problem is that most people try to rely on daily willpower, such as I'll try to save more, and they have good intentions.

J.R.: Instead, people who succeed in money rely on automated systems that move their money intentionally where they want before they even have a chance to touch it or spend it in a reactionary way on things that don't really align with their long-term goals.

J.R.: So key insight number one, is that your financial system should be so boring that you forget about it.

J.R.: If there's drama or excitement, there's something wrong. Totally agree with this. I think if. You get excited over money or trying to make money, it's probably gambling. I think building a financial system that works for you should be boring and [00:04:00] automatic and should run in the background and you never have to think about it so that you can put your energy and focus into other aspects of your life such as your health, your wellness, your relationships, your career, your spirituality, et cetera. Money should be something where you set up your system, direct your money where it needs to go, and then it builds automatically.

J.R.: Big idea number two is wealth is what you don't see. This was a really big game changer to me when I read about it in the Psychology of Money. But here's the paradox. So the paradox is, looking wealthy is not the same as being wealthy.

J.R.: So looking wealthy for example, is having those materialistic things such as expensive cars, a nice house, luxury watches. Whereas being wealthy is having financial security. The freedom to move jobs if you want to. Or what JL Collins says in the simple path to wealth, F-You money, which is the ability to say fu if you want to change your career or leave a workspace that doesn't align with you. Or the ability to go on lavish vacations.

J.R.: The only way to build real wealth is to [00:05:00] not look wealthy. So instead of trying to present the appearance of looking like you have a lot of money, you can instead just have a lot of money and direct it into the things that actually matter to you.

J.R.: The car paradox. I really like this because it really underscores something that really made me think. Because as a person who, one of my ultimate goals is to own a Lamborghini Aventador. And I think a lot of people similar to myself, when you think about wanting to have a really nice car, part of you wants to do it because you want people to admire you or respect you or be like, wow, that guy or that girl must be so amazing because they're so successful and they have a nice car.

J.R.: But think about this. Let's say in this example, you see someone in a Ferrari, when you see that person, you think, man, if I had that car, people would think I'm cool. But what you don't think is, man, that person driving the Ferrari is so cool. Because you probably don't care about them. You just care about your situation and the feeling [00:06:00] that having that materialistic thing can give you.

J.R.: So in a sense, if you try to buy a nice car in order to make people respect you or like you, or think that you're cool, it'll never happen because they're only gonna think about themselves. So nobody cares about your stuff as much as you think. That was a real mindset shift for me because it's so powerful. The idea that if you use your money to impress other people, it's ultimately going to lead to a dead end because they are not going to be impressed by how much money you have. At least not the right people.

J.R.: Here's another really big point. Getting wealthy is different from staying wealthy. These are like two different opposite skills. So for example, getting wealthy, some skills or some mindsets is taking risks, being optimistic, learning new skills, et cetera. Staying wealthy is almost the exact opposite. It's being humble, frugal and paranoid, being risk averse and putting in systems and implementations and mindsets that reduce the risk of you getting wiped [00:07:00] out.

J.R.: In the book Psychology of Money, he talks about this very profound point, which is the idea of playing Russian roulette. So for those of you who don't know Russian roulette is you take like a revolver, right? Which has six chambers or six barrels where you put the bullets in and then let's say you put in one out of six, right? One bullet into the chamber, you spin it and then you lock it, and then you pull the trigger to your head. And so you have a one to six chance of dying. But if you get the five that are empty, then it goes to the next person, right? And so the losers the one who get shot. And he talks about this in money. And this is probably my favorite point in the entire book, was the worst thing that you can do when it comes to your money is play a game of Russian roulette. Meaning you gamble all of your money away, or you do something that completely wipes you out.

J.R.: So it's kind of like playing a squid game. Yeah, the pot is very enticing. You can win several millions of dollars, but if losing wipes you out, then it wasn't worth the risk. So basically what he [00:08:00] says is never play Russian roulette. In the sense metaphorically with your money, you never wanna do anything so risky because the thing that will prevent you from being wealthy is taking you out of the game, and then you have to start back at zero. If you allow time to compound your money, that is the most surefire way to be wealthy in the long run.

J.R.: So in this next slide, compounding truth. I think this was a very crazy story, that I didn't even know, which is that Warren Buffet, I think. Something about like 90% of his wealth came after he was age 50 or 60 or something like that. So it's like the standard exponential curve where it's like you don't see any returns, but then compounding and just starting early and being in the game long enough allows time to compound your results. And so it's 80 plus billion dollars after the age of 60 or something like that. It's pretty crazy.

J.R.: So key insight number two, define what enough looks like for you and then stop moving the goalpost. I think what stops a lot of people from living a rich life and having more money and [00:09:00] giving themselves more freedom and more options is that they want to upgrade their lifestyle now because they think that'll make them happy and trading their future self or their future opportunities with that money. And then they keep moving the goalposts. Like as soon as their income increases, their expenses increase. And there's never that cushion or that buffer where they can save and invest that difference. Ideally, when you're advancing your career, your income is gonna go up over time, right?

J.R.: But ideally, also, you keep your expenses, your monthly and your living expenses low, so that as your income increases, you have more of a gap or a buffer in between those two amounts, and then you save and invest that difference. So your lifestyle's still the same and you can still have a good level of life.

J.R.: But that difference, that money when you invest it and it compounds and it grows and it works for you even if you're sleeping. That's the truth, that's the real unlock to being financially free or building wealth over time.

J.R.: Big idea number three, simple beats complex every single time. I think it's self-explanatory, [00:10:00] that complex things stop you from achieving results.

J.R.: And if you just take the simple path, the easy path or the path that's more straightforward, you're gonna get it. I always like to compare personal finance with fitness or working out. And we always try to find the hack, the silver bullet, the Instagram influencer workout that's going to give you six pack abs or remove your belly fat or your arm fat. First of all, for those of you who don't know, there's no way to just remove it from one single spot. But I digress. The key really to being fit and to having a good level of fitness and health and overall nutrition, or just a good overall level of health, is just a few simple things. You sleep well, hydrate, reduce your stress, eat healthy, and strength train several times a week. That's it. It's just those five things. You don't need to complicate it with these special workouts that you think might give you an optimized edge. These are trendy or like fad [00:11:00] workouts. Whatever allows you to keep going to the gym or keep going to workout is all you really need. You just need to keep it simple. And if you keep it simple, then you'll keep going. And if you keep going and it becomes a habit and a discipline, then you'll get the results.

J.R.: So the path to wealth is very simple, just like what JL Collins says, and the simple path to wealth. It's just literally three things. It's spend less than you earn, invest the surplus, and avoid debt. And that's it. He goes into like technical terms, and I also go into my financial guides. But investing the surplus, it's even simpler. You just really need to throw it into one index fund, which is diversified, lowers risks, and maximizes returns. And that's like super simple. But you don't need to do all these other crazy things.

J.R.: So here's an example. In order to build wealth or to get rich, et cetera, you don't need individual stocks or trying to pick stocks, picking Facebook or meta at a certain time, or Google at a certain time, or Tesla or whatever.

J.R.: You don't need to do that. You don't need to invest in crypto. You don't need a real estate empire and you don't need [00:12:00] complex strategies. What you do need is one index fund. JL Collins recommends V-T-S-A-X, which is the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, and that's also what I own. I think a majority of my stocks are in that as well or similar diversified index funds. Then aside from the index fund, you just need time and patience again to allow compounding to take over and then to maximize your returns.

J.R.: Why Index Funds win? This is really the key. This is all you need to know about investing is just low cost diversified index funds.

J.R.: Index funds beat 95% professional investors over 20 year span. Of course, in like the micro level, day to day, month to month, year to year, you might be able to pick winners and those like hedge fund managers, they might be able to do that, but in the long term, they can't beat the market, which I think, if my numbers are correct, it's about 11.9% returns over the course of 20 to 40 years. And so that's averaged. With inflation factored in, it's probably closer to seven or 8%, but essentially [00:13:00] you'll beat 95% of investors because they can't get those returns over the long period. Lower costs equals more money that stays with you, so that's really key. And then you just set it and forget it. It's actually that simple, really. And as I've looked at my own portfolio over the last 10 years, I've seen all the returns that I've gotten from just following this strategy, and it definitely works.

J.R.: So the freedom formula, if you guys don't know. This is how you calculate how much money you need to save to have basically your finish line or your nest egg in order to live off of that in retirement.

J.R.: So basically it is save 25 times your annual spending, which is your financial independence. So for example, if you think you need 60 K per year, you need to save. $1.5 million in the bank, and then you live off of 4% of that each year, and then that's basically all you need. You can Google it in JL Collins's book, and that's pretty much it.

J.R.: So it's not about your income, it's actually about your spending. For me personally, that's my goal is 1.5 million. That's my first sort of check mark [00:14:00] or first finish line. But the second one after that is just straight up eight figures. It's just $10 million, which I think comes out to 400 k per year. Which I don't think I'll ever need that much money, even if I have a family and a house. But I think just overall, if I get $10 million or when I get there, it's like I'm done. I don't need any more money. The rest, I can reinvest it into businesses, charities, et cetera. And like I don't need anything more than that.

J.R.: Key insight number three, the financial industry profits from complexity, but the simple path works better for almost everyone.

J.R.: This was another thing that I learned from I think Ramit Sethi, but it could have been from somewhere else. But when you're trying to get financial advice from someone, the one question you should ask them is, how do I get rich without getting lucky? And that means it is a repeatable strategy that works for most people.

J.R.: I think a lot of these different ways to get money, especially these get rich quick in these fad methods. Can work for some people, some of the time, a small percentage. But if you follow a [00:15:00] strategy just like this one, it works most of the time for most people. Like a vast majority of people. If they just do it and you keep it as an automated system that grows for you and keep it simple and not complex.

J.R.: So how they work together. So the first book I will Teach you to be Rich helps to teach you how to build an automated system. The second book, the Psychology of Money. Teaches you how to approach money and have the right mindset on building wealth and staying wealthy and not losing all your money. And the third book the Simple Path to Wealth, obviously is keeping the strategy simple and how to approach building wealth over time.

J.R.: It's more focused on investment like the spend less than you earn and then invest the difference and avoid debt. That's all. It's fairly simple, but it goes a lot into investing in that book.

J.R.: So why people fail? We talked about this in the beginning, but the reason why people fail or they don't achieve their goals is because they try to rely on willpower and they don't have a system that's set up for them.

J.R.: Again, I almost never think about money [00:16:00] because my system has been set up for 10 plus years. And no matter how much money I make, I know that my money's being directed intentionally to ways that fit my value system and my lifestyle, and so I never have to worry about that. That ability to go through life, stress free about money is something that's so invaluable.

J.R.: Another reason why some people fail is that the goalpost keeps moving and they're never satisfied. I think. That's just the nature of living in a capitalist consumer society is that ads and marketing and all that stuff is designed to make us feel not whole, so that we will buy their products to make us feel good, right?

J.R.: And it's just constantly reinforcing this idea that we need to spend money in order to be happy. But if we realize the things that actually make us happy and focus in on those things, it doesn't really cost a lot of money and we'll actually save a lot of money. And then when we can save and invest that money, it'll be there for us when we need to use it intentionally on things that actually matter to us.

J.R.: So it's just basically being more intentional and [00:17:00] knowing where your actual goalposts are. And then not overcomplicating things. I think we've all experienced that for anyone who's tried to get in shape and try to build a consistent workout routine, the more complicated and effortful it is, the harder it is to maintain or to retain, or to have good compliance. But if you keep it simple and straightforward, easy to follow, then you can keep going. And that's the actual key to success.

J.R.: So the gap, the gap is knowing the insights versus implementing them. Light bulb moments are just the beginning. So I think we all know this. None of this information is proprietary.

J.R.: None of this I came up with from my genius brain. Obviously you can Google any of this strategies, mindsets, get inspired from YouTube videos. You can chat GPT. How do I become rich? And I'm sure it'll give you millions of different options. But the key is that, how do you take what you've learned and put it into a system where you can implement it?

J.R.: And so this is where I put in my call to action because I wanted to solve this [00:18:00] problem for my friends and family who I cared about. I've seen that a lot of people in my life don't really know how personal finance works, and through no fault of their own, our society, our school system doesn't really teach this stuff. You kind of have to learn it. On your own, or if you're lucky enough to have family who teaches you, or like a mentor or someone in school who teaches you this stuff, or you just happen to come across this information. Otherwise, it's a very active thing that you have to learn and look out for.

J.R.: And trust me, when I graduated college, all I wanted to do was to be wealthy, to be rich, and not have to worry about money. And so once I graduated, I'm like, okay, lemme figure out this personal finance thing. And so I've learned about it extensively. I've read dozens of books. I've consumed a lot of material from the best minds out there, and people who actually have solid financial advice, just like the authors of these three books.

J.R.: And I wanted to solve that pain point for people who I care about by creating these low cost informational PDF guides, along with audiobooks [00:19:00] that distill everything you need to know about personal finance and put into a system that you can implement right away and cuts out all the fluff. Because for anyone who knows, if you tried to Google or chat GPT anything, it's gonna give you a million options and then it's just option fatigue and then you don't know where to start.

J.R.: These guides point you in the right direction. It takes you step by step. It's very practical, implementation heavy. It gives you the homework that you need to do in order to get on that path. And it's broken up into modules or days, so that is very easy to follow. And the audiobook versions, I'm an audiobook kind of guy, so the audio versions really help because it's like a double digestion. You get to listen to it while going through the guide and seeing it. So it really helps you to ingrain the ideas into you.

J.R.: And then as you go through it, you'll see your finances transform in the short term and the long term. So if you're interested in any of that, or this seems like something that you would benefit from or you wanna share it with someone who you feel like would benefit from, go to my store. stan.store/marloyonocruz.

J.R.: So [00:20:00] STAN.STORE slash MARLOYONOCRUZ. And these guides were actually meant to be standalone. Meaning I originally did not want to do coaching. I just want it to be like, Hey, world, here is a personal finance suite, a series of three different guides depending on your level one, two, and three. You can just jump in on whatever level you're at.

J.R.: And I didn't really want to have to do coaching. But just in case for those who can afford it and they want someone to hold their hand, I do offer coaching where I can walk through any or all of the guides and then help give you that extra accountability, but also that guidance on the guides to make sure that you really get towards your goals.

J.R.: So if you're interested in that, it's in my stan store as well. Or you can follow me on Instagram at yonocruzcoaching on Instagram.

J.R.: So my last call to action or my last idea here is permission to start. You don't need perfect knowledge. You don't need to read all these three books, and you don't need to understand every single detail. You just need to start. Highly recommend just checking out the guides. It's an easy way to [00:21:00] start. I think right now they're priced at $7, $17 and $27. Very, very low cost and for the amount of value you get, I fully believe in it. I think you guys will get value out of it.

J.R.: The real goal of personal finance is not about deprivation, it's about freedom.

J.R.: I promise you the feeling of having financial freedom or not stressing out about money is something that I would never trade anything else for. Freedom to say yes to what matters and freedom to say no to what doesn't matter.

J.R.: So thank you guys for listening. And that concludes this presentation, sort of quick talk.

J.R.: I'll link all of my socials for my coaching brand, my coaching business, as well as my podcast, so again, onethousandgurus.com. You'll find all the episodes. Check those out. Leave me a follow like comment.

J.R.: And so I'll do my final sign off for this episode. I really hope you guys enjoyed this. I am actually looking forward to doing a lot more of these book highlights. I think moving forward, I will do one book at a time. I just really wanted to start with money first, personal finance, because it's [00:22:00] one of my favorite topics to talk about, like I mentioned, and I think these three books really needed to be talked about together.

J.R.: But again, moving forward, I think I'll just do them one at a time. So thank you guys for being here. I really appreciate it. Be sure to like, follow, subscribe. Whatever platform you're on, please leave me five stars. It really helps with findability, SEO. It really means a lot to me, so I really appreciate that. And leave a comment as well, engage in my social media reminder to always be kind to other people, especially yourself. And remember that you can always learn something from someone if you take the time to listen. So thank you for being here.


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