Weekly Non-Fiction Reading List 2.22.21

Published in

The Startup

6 min readFeb 22, 2021

This week, I read 6 books from some amazing authors. I’ve been really enjoying learning everything I can about saving and investing, so five of the six books are on that topic. The 6th book is about the “moral case” for fossil fuels, and I decided to start with that one in this week’s reading list to get it out of the way.

Each of the links to the books are affiliate links, so if you use my link to purchase any of these books, some comes back to support what I do (and it also helps fund my reading habit).

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels by Alex Epstein

I think one of the most important things we can do is read books with opinions that challenge our views. It’s easy to read books that agree with us, but it’s difficult to read an entire book from someone with an opposing viewpoint. I do this because we all succumb to biases, and we need the opposition to show us things we might be missing. As someone who is Pro-Green New Deal and renewable energy, I decided to read this book. I also thought it’d be interesting because I love moral philosophy. With that being said, this book was terrible. I went into it with as much good faith as possible, and the author is definitely smart, but this book is filled with weak arguments and cherry-picking of data.

I could write an entire essay picking apart this book. Instead, for this review, I’ll just take his premise and strongest argument. It can be summed up with a quote from the end of the book:

“We don’t need to save the planet from human beings; we need to save the planet for human beings. We need to say this loudly and proudly. We need to say [that] human life is our one and only standard of value.”

Alex Epstein comes from a moral position that humans are the most important creatures, so we can do whatever we want. If you believe that humans are more important than plants and animals and we should just destroy them for our convenience, this book is for you. But, if you’re someone with a wider scope of morality, you’ll choose to work towards other solutions that help us live in harmony with nature rather than destroying it because we’re at the top of the food chain.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Second Edition: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works by Ramit Sethi

I’m a recovering drug addict with 8.5 years clean who destroyed his finances, and I’m just now learning how to get my money in order. During the whole Reddit vs Wall Street battle, I learned about Ramit Sethi on Twitter, and he said something that resonated with me, so I decided to check out his book. I’ve been reading a lot of books about money management and investment, and this is definitely one of my new favorites. I’m the type of person who responds to tough love, and Ramit hits you with the tough love from the start of the book. In this book, he has practical advice and strategies for your credit, saving, automating your money system, and investing.

Aside from the tough love, Ramit takes the time in this book to explain concepts that many other books kind of gloss over. I’m brand new to this world, so I appreciate when someone explains the basics. The only critique I have of this book, which is something I’ve noticed in most of these books, is during the chapter on credit, it doesn’t mention dealing with collections and repairing credit. This is no fault of the author, but I’m just starting to think that more books should be geared toward people like myself who absolutely obliterated their credit due to addiction or other dumb decisions. This was an incredible book, though. I can definitely see myself reading it again.

The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness by Morgan Housel

How I Invest My Money: Finance experts reveal how they save, spend, and invest by Joshua Brown and Brian Portnoy

The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On with Your Life by Bill Schultheis

As someone who is brand new to investing, I have to worry that books will be filled with too much jargon and other ideas that will go over my head. After finishing this book, I now know why it’s so highly recommended. This book is great for brand new investors as well as seasoned investors. Schultheis keeps it simple and boils it all down to three principles: save, invest, and plan. I’ll be revisiting this book at some point just for some reminders of the fundamentals. Although I didn’t have an issue with it, towards the end of the book, it gets pretty spiritual. So if you’re not into that stuff, be prepared.

The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read: The Proven Way to Beat the “Pros” and Take Control of Your Financial Future by Dan Solin

This a great book and short read. The entire book is explaining how the system is designed to rack up fees to make brokers a ton of money by selling the lie that they can predict the market. It reminds me of how banks make their money on the backs of ridiculous overdraft fees and other shady dealings. Dan Solin presents some great arguments backed by research about why trying to beat the market is a bad idea. I’m a new investor and definitely learned a few things about index funds and asset location. Best of all, I was able to finish it in one sitting because it’s so short and to the point.

The Behavioral Investor by Daniel Crosby

I read hundreds of books a year, and most are in the realm of psychology. As a newer investor, when I discovered this book, I knew I had to read it. Daniel Crosby uses psychology and behavioral economics to explain how to be a better investor. Most of the books I’ve read have had the same ideas and agree with each other when it comes to index investing and being smart about risk. What I really liked about this book is that Crosby presented both the pros and cons from all types of investing strategies. Although I’m new to this whole thing, I don’t know if I 100% agree with all of his arguments, but he definitely gave me a few more concepts to think about.

Young Money: 4 Proven Actions to Design Your Wealth While You Still Can by Desarte Yarnway

This is an amazing book, and it’s a short read. Yarnway wrote a book that’s designed for young people in their 20s to learn valuable lessons about money that many people don’t teach us. Desarte not only has practical advice, but he’s wise beyond his years and provides some philosophical insight along the way. I’m going to add this book to the list of books I want my son to read as he reaches his teen years.

I’ll be doing this every week, so stay tuned! You can follow me here as well as on Twitter and Instagram The Rewired Soul, and make sure you’re following me on GoodReads too.

If you need help with your mental health, I highly recommend the service I use, BetterHelp. They’re an affordable online therapy service, and by using this affiliate link, you help support The Rewired Soul.