How to Live a Life Unshakeable
If you’re going to have a comfortable life when you retire, you’re going to need money. Quite a lot of money. That means doing one of two things:
- Becoming incredibly successful and wealthy so that you never need to worry about your finances ever (and I mean never, ever) again.
- Working hard, saving and choosing the right investments in which to put your hard earned cash.
Yes, number one would be great wouldn’t it. And if that’s what you’re striving towards, then that’s great – more power to you.
But for the rest of us, our reality is number 2. And if that’s the case, then you need a financial plan for the future. Which is what ‘Unshakeable: Your Guide to Financial Freedom‘ by Tony Robbins is all about.
We Really Suck At Saving for the Future
The statistics on savings, and how much we have, is pretty scary. Here’s a summary from a 2017 U.S. survey:
- 57 per cent of adults have less than $1000 in savings.
- Young Millenials (18-24 year olds) have even less – nearly half have $0
- In the UK, 25% of households have less than £100 saved.
- Most 30 year olds will need around £750,000 to maintain a good standard of living in retirement, but the majority have less than £10,000 saved.
This is sobering reading. Where are you going to get all that money from? And how do you become disciplined enough to build this sum of money?
What Could You Learn from Unshakeable?
Thankfully Unshakeable is the right book to get you started. You’ll get a really good overview of investing, markets and how to avoid getting scammed.
If you were to take three key things away from this short book, there is an easy list to compile.
Most Financial Advice and Media is a Scam
The financial industry are not out to help you. They’re out to help themselves. That means high charges, big commissions and ineffective products. The best way to avoid these is to disregard 99% of what you read or hear in the financial press.
The ‘featured’ funds you see at a fund supermarket or investment platform are normally poor performers and have high charges. Over time, index linked investment funds outperform managed funds. And they have lower charges.
Start Saving Early and Keep Doing It
What age should you start investing? As early as possible! Aged 20 I made a ton of money selling Christmas trees in my spare time. I saved most of it and started my first investments which grew 6x in the same number of years. That built the foundation of the portfolio I still have.
Regular investing (called cost averaging) gives you the best chance to take advantage of stock market volatility. These days this can be easily set up and automated which lets you get on with your life.
Diversity is Your Strength (No Really)
If you want to have an ‘all weather portfolio’ then investing across asset classes (stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, cash and gold) and diversifying within these (emerging markets, UK, US stocks etc).
A semi aggressive spread could look like:
40% Stocks, 30% bonds, 7.5% commodities, 7.5% gold, 10% real estate, 5% cash.
Yes, this book is typical ‘Robbins’ and if you’re like me, you’ll find the slightly ‘scammy’ feel of parts of the book off putting. But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater – there is plenty of good advice to get you started on your financial journey.
The Best Time to Invest was 10 Years Ago..
And the next best time is now. Unshakeable is about making you financially free, resilient and set up for our financial reality.
If you are able to have an unshakeable financial future, will your life be better?
You can buy ‘Unshakeable’ here.
Neil
P.S. If you want to take your Dad Game to the next level, you can buy my book ‘A Father’s Mission’ here.
