2 July 2007 No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

Before my college days, I absolutely hated reading. It’s not so much that I disliked the material, but most of the school books did a great job of put me to sleep after the first three pages. The only time I would actually be excited to read a book was when it was a book on making money, be it through entrepreneurship, investing, or managing personal finances. Financial books are the absolute best return on your investment because you get helpful information in them somehow, you can reread them and take notes, then you resell them again and get more books. All it really costs you for the information in them are the shipping charges you pay every time you change books.

This is what I usually do:

1. Go on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble, etc. and search the personal finance, entrepreneurship or investing section for it’s bestsellers. I love using online bookstores because you can read reviews and see what others thought of the book. It’s like doing the research for an investment to predict it’s return on investment. You don’t get stuck with a book filled with useless jargon. Online buying is also very convenient. Amazon also goes a great job with their recommendations.
2. I usually buy the books used, unless the new books are within $2-$4 of the used ones listed. I choose the new ones in this case because I can get free shipping at Amazon if I spend over $25 through them. If you buy the used books you have to pay that particular seller a separate shipping fee.
3. I put the total purchase on my Amazon.com mastercard. I signed up for this card because it gives you $30 in amazon credit the moment you sign up and you get $25 for every 2500 reward points you accumulate. You get 3 reward points for every dollar spent on Amazon and 1 for every dollar spent on purchases elsewhere. I pay off the card at the end of the month so no interest gets charged, and I just keep getting those $25 gift certificates good for more books! They make great gifts too.
4. The books arrive and I add them to my reading list. After I’m done I decide if the book is worth keeping long term. I only keep books long term if they offer good fundamentals, such as introductions to the stock market/mutual funds, introductions to real estate investing etc. Basically If I think I’ll refer to it often, I’ll keep it.
5. If the book is not a keeper, I just go through the book and jot down important stuff. After that I’ll put the book back up on sale either through Amazon or half.com. The price that the site recommends should be similar to what you paid.
6. Your book sells, you ship it and you have money to buy another book.

If you keep reading and reselling, you end up getting tons of great information without really paying much at all. The worst thing that can happen is if a book stinks. But even if you totally disagree with the author, at least you’ll be forced to think about why you disagree. This just adds to the learning process. So if you aren’t reading something in your spare time, get on Amazon and search. If you are reading and have a bunch of random books that you’ve never touched in three years, put them up for sale and get some of your money back.