Tag: Personal Finance

The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, Finance, ReadingLeave a comment

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I ended up with mixed feelings about The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. Mr. Ferriss is a very successful entrepreneur and I found many things in common with him as I read this book. Having said that, this book didn’t leave me feeling warm and fuzzy inside at the end.

The Four Hour Work Week outlines Tim Ferriss’ keys to minimizing your work day. From only answering emails twice a day to working towards telecommuting, there are all varieties of ways to shave minutes or even hours out of your work day. He even boasts that he runs a company from anywhere in the world in about four hours per month. He also goes into what to do with all this newly created free time such as travel the world or learn a new exciting skill.

I think this books is a great read and definitely dovetailed into The 4 Disciplines of Execution quite well. The reason I ended up with mixed feelings was due to hearing all the amazing things Tim Ferriss had manage to accomplish with little to no more knowledge and experience than your average person. It made me really look into what I’m doing with my day, month, year, life. I didn’t feel great about that but it did motivate me to look for new opportunities. Let me know how this book sat with you in the comments below.

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The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) review

The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) review

The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, Finance, Reading1 Comment

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As a person who tries to be as efficient in my work as possible, The 4 Disciplines of Execution was a great read. The CEO of the company I work for had given it to me when I was added to a team in charge of one of our product lines and said “we try to incorporate these disciplines in this company.” So, naturally, it sat on my shelf for over a year. Shouldn’t have done that.

4DX outlines a thought process or behavior that many extremely successful companies have adopted over the years. The authors spent a long time implementing this process in companies both large and small before pinning this book. The basics are find a wildly important goal (WIG) that will impact your company the most, figure out what drives the success or failure of that goal, track that driver, and hold people accountable for the success or failure. Seems pretty simple but as you read, you’ll undoubtedly see and probably have experienced the challenges this simple process can run into but have no fear, they will guide you on how to overcome them.

A lot of thought and research went into this book making it very thorough and easy to understand. After reading it, I find myself trying to implement aspects of 4DX into various parts of my day both at work and at home. I will say that the second half of the book gets a bit repetitive when they go into how to scale the process from a team to a company to even at home. However, this book would be a great read for anyone who leads people both in and out of the office.

Click here to buy this book on Amazon!

The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach

On By J. Patrick LasherIn Book, Book review, Finance, Reading, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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The Automatic Millionaire is a book I wish I would have read at a much younger age. David Bach’s book on how to automate your finances to financial security and freedom in the future is a valuable tool for anyone who has ever made even a dollar. Even if you don’t worry about money or don’t know anything about financial topics, this books breaks the fundamental knowledge every person should have about what you are probably working for, income, and what to do with it.

In case the title didn’t do it for you, the Automatic Millionaire primarily focuses on how to automate your finances. No one likes to worry about paying the bills or keeping a budget. Bach’s book teaches you how to not only get the time back you are spending on budgets and bills with the added benefit of preparing to be in a better place in the future as far as your finances go. With simple explanations and examples, anyone can understand and implement his suggestions easily.

As mentioned, I wish I would have read this book when I was in high school or early college. Though I am an accountant, there were still several ideas in The Automatic Millionaire I had never thought of and immediately put into place after reading this book. I think this book would be a great gift idea for any graduate. Hint. Hint.

Click here to buy this book on Amazon!