The Rules of Money Summary I What Rules You Follow -

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Book – The Rules of Money (Summary)

Author – Richard Templar

Genre – Self-help Book

Published in – 2007

When It comes to Money We have an inherent belief that it is good or bad and that wanting it is good or bad. That loving it is good or bad. That spending is good or bad.

Money is one subject irrespective of our feeling about it, plays an important role. There are as many opinions about money as there are people.

Richard explains the reason we all pursue, desire and fiercely protect money is because of what we can do with it.

The Rules of Money will help you figure out pre-requisite of money-making like, what rich means to you, how you intend to get there, and how long you expect it to take.

About the Author –

Richard Templar Photo — Image Credit – Goodreads.com

Richard Templar is a British Author. He is known for having written self-help, personal development and management books. In a series of books like The rules of life, work, love, wealth, parenting, money and management are shared about 100 rules on the subject.

His style of writing is simple and effective. Books are designed in such a way that readers can read any chapter without having to read prior chapters. All rules are put in a maximum of one or two pages.

About the Book –

In The Rules of Money Richard Templar shares 107 ideas, which one can apply and get better with money.

The Rules are divided into 5 Parts. 1) Think Wealthy, 2) Getting Wealth, 3) Getting Even Wealthier, 4) Staying Wealthy, 5) Sharing Your Wealth.

Part I Think Wealthy

If we believe subconsciously even slightly that money is bad, we undermine our efforts unconsciously to make money.

Having said that only thinking good is not enough and we do have to put in the effort to make money. It’s like sports, the more we practice the better we get at it.

You’ve also got to know pretty intimately what you want, why you want it, how you think you are going to get it, what you are going to do with it after you’ve got it—stuff like that. No one said this was going to be easy.

Rule 1 – Anybody Can We Wealthy—You Just Need to Apply Yourself –

The lovely thing about money is that it really doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t care what color, race, creed or even who you think you are. As Henry ford puts it “Whether you think you can or you can not, You are right”.

Its imperative that we write down what do we think about money, what’s are inherent belief about it, how did we get it and whether they are serving us well.

Rule 2 – Decide Your Definition of Wealth –

This is one of the most important requirement, when embarking on the journey of getting good with money. Decide for yourself and yes it may take more than one sitting. It may change time to time as life happens, which is OK.

But by all means, please define what is being enough is to you, not what others think is enough for you.

Rule 4 – Keep It Under Your Hat –

This one is tricky. We often start talking to people the moment we do something new, plan, think or start something new.

Richard, suggests that we must keep our money goals to ourselves, as people with different views will try to talk us out of it. So discuss money matters only with someone from whom you’re looking for suggestions/guidance.

Rule 7 – Understand Your Money Beliefs and Where They Come From –

We get money beliefs set way early in our life and most of us let it affect our whole life. If you are not happy with your financial situation, First thing you must do is to check your money beliefs.

There are high chances of derailing our own efforts for what we believe about it. Your belief should work for you not against you. As they say “what is right is, what works.”

Rule 18 – Don’t Envy What Others Have –

This is one of the biggest impediment to riches. We often look at successful people and write them off as lucky. We envy of what they got and completely ignore kind of efforts they put it.

Richard suggests that we should look in to efforts rich people are putting and learn from them. That’s the best gift we can give to ourselves.

Part II – Getting Wealthy

Getting wealthy is all about taking a hard honest look at our situation and resolving to act following way to wealth. Many of the Rules here are behavioural and changing your behaviour is never easy.

I like the suggestion Richard has to offer in this section – Some rules may seem simple and that is when you are supposed to ask “I may already know this—but do I do it?”

Rule 20 – Know Where You Are, Before You Start –Unless we know where we are, we can’t make a plan as to how are we going to reach our destination. This is embarrassing to face especially when our money scene is not rosy. Yet we must face it, own it and put it down on paper.

Rule 29 – It Is Never Too Late To Start Getting Wealthy –

This one gives hope to everyone who have spent their ways to luxury in twenties, thirties thinking they have enough time to save, invest.

As the rule says once you realize and make up your mind, you can work out your plan and get to work on your way to riches. Though starting early has its own advantage of COMPOUNDING, one can always take a reality check anytime one wakes up and begin.

Rule 42 – Consider Consolidating Debts –

Richard encourage not to have debts, though we are only humans and we all have been there having consumer debts, spend more than we can pay and get in the rut.

Consolidating debts can help save more money and build corpus comparatively faster. Also, we need to be refrain from getting in to same debts again at all cost.

Rule 45 –Don’t Be Too Busy Earning A Living To Make Some Money –

Richard suggests that if you’re not meeting your financial goals from your primary work and also don’t have time for living a life outside work, You must consider how you make money.

You may consider side hustle or convert your hobbies, other skills in money making projects.

Part III Getting Even Wealthier

As they say, when you have got a bit of money behind you, the whole thing gets a bit easier. Money begets money.

But seriously, after you have started to move toward prosperity it isn’t a good idea to sit back and start counting your loot. It’ll disappear faster that way than by any other means.

Rule 71 – Get Some Money Mentors –

You can only reach up to a limit alone in any endeavor and getting rich is no different. If you are looking to get wealthy, it is important to have mentors to guide you.

As you set bigger goals, and your wealth expands you will need more advice to stay the course.

Rule 75 – Know Yourself—Solo, Duo, or Team Player –

This especially applies when you are about choosing work you love and starting on your own. Based on your preferences of working whether alone, with one partner or in a team of multiple people, you can choose a project so that you can love what you do and do it the way you want.

Rule 77 – Don’t Try to Get Rich Too Quickly –

There is no shortcut to riches. Becoming wealthy is the process, attaining maturity and wisdom to sustain that wealth is also a process, which we learn only with time and experience.

Part IV – Staying Wealthy

As they say, getting rich is one game, staying rich is another. Though we do get some wisdom working for riches, there are way too many things that surprise you how you manage your wealth.

Rule 89 – Don’t Spend It Before You’ve Got It –

This one is really simple, yet we often miss this one. We tend to increase our expenses before future income or growth is materialize.

Rule 95 – Know When To Stop –

As we reach a level where we have our wealth and its constant growing at satisfactory rate, we should press enough button and focus on other areas of life or at least prioritize other things in life.

As we age our priority changes and having solid wealth allows choosing options with ease.

Part V – Sharing Your Wealth

If you have much, give of your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart.” – Arab saying

I’m not talking do-gooding here. I’m talking about sharing because sharing is a kind thing to do. It won’t buy you a ticket into heaven but it will help others.

Rule 96 – Use Your Wealth Wisely –

Richard suggests using our wealth wisely. As we grow rich, there are always people who we can help out. If you have set your goals using your inner compass you’ll not have difficulty parting your wealth for good cause.

Rule 100 – Know When/How to Say No—and Yes –

As you grow rich, there are people with expectations of help, loans, charity. You should know and set some rules and should not hesitate to say No if you are not convinced with the request. You may consider reading the book The Art of Saying NO for ideas of how to say no gracefully.

The Rules of Money Recap –

Check Your Money Beliefs
Get reality check (Taking stock of your current financial situation)
Set objectives
Make a plan (how to, time-line, kind of work)
Spend less than you earn. ( Golden Rule) (Very simple, yet Mostly Ignored)
Avoid debt, and pay-off fast if you got some. (Very Important one)
Once you get rich, learn to stay rich (Mind you these are two different game)
Protect your wealth, and make sure it grows consistently ( Have Money Mentor)
Share your wealth (Help less fortunate, the more you share your wealth wisely, the more it will multiply)

I have also created a video of a few quotes from the book – Hope you like it. Please do subscribe to my YouTube channel – Myread4change

Conclusion –

The Rules of Money is an amazing book and will be of great help if you are looking to set your financial life in order. I highly recommend this book and encourage you to read and put these rules in motion.

Hope this summary helped you in some way in your financial matters. You may download The Rules of Money free E-book from here. If you like this book, you may also like The Automatic Millionaire.

Thank you for reading. Wish you a life full of Abundance.

Muzammil.