Personal Finance 101
The first time I remember getting a recommendation about a personal finance book was in 2012, from my Airbnb host Bones Rodriguez. He recommended me to read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, which I had heard about before but never paid attention to. I grew up in a poor family in Brazil, my parents didn’t know much about money, they knew about the basics such as compound interest, never spent more than you earn, don’t get in debt, but not anything about the stock market, bonds, assets vs liabilities, etc; I heard to learn everything as an adult many years after I started working.
In 2013 moved to the USA and here most savings accounts are garbage, they’re not a means to invest money, so I decided to learn more about personal finance at the end of the year and picked up a copy of the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. I loved the book and read The Cashflow Quadrant after that (same author). I learned terminology about how “the rich” think (he stories in the book are great but the author seems to be shady in real life). I learned many lessons and eventually found other books, blogs, podcasts, and that’s what I want to share with this post.
If you don’t know the basics of personal finance, you are in debt, or you don’t know what to do with the extra money you’re saving, do yourself a favor and get educated. The tech industry pays a lot of money and you’ll have to learn how to best use that money. The following resources have helped me and may help you too.