Many people are struggling financially, thanks to Covid.

Self-isolation, restrictive rules and the on-again/off-again lockdowns have killed an extraordinary number of businesses. At the same time, the cost of living is increasing. Together, these factors are creating the perfect storm of poverty.

At the same time, we are bombarded with news stories about the rich getting even richer off the back of our struggles. Many people see the rich as their enemy — as fundamentally different from them. Instead of wealth being something to aspire to, it is becoming a dirty word for many.

However, it stands to reason that no one wants to remain poor and struggling. To improve your life, you have to change your ideas of what it means to be wealthy and whether or not you can achieve it.

The books in this article have all helped me change my financial life. Thanks to the wisdom contained in their pages, I am now financially secure with a bright future. I have several streams of income that fortify me against any individual misfortune. Most of all, I now have peace of mind.

Reading these books will not replace hard work, but I hope they will give you a roadmap for your future.

1. Your money or your life by Vicki Robin and Joel Dominguez.

Goodreads score: 3.99/5

This book taught me to start from the beginning. To begin your journey towards financial independence, you have to know where you currently stand.

Evaluate your financial history and current situation. For me, this meant working out my exact income, outgoings, and breaking my spending down into categories.

Start with your household bills such as your mortgage, gas, electricity, and water. Then calculate any insurance you have, the cost of running your vehicles, debts, and food. Also, calculate your entertainment expenses (this one may surprise you).

Do you donate to charity? I would highly encourage it.

After your expenses, think about your investments and pensions. How much can you put aside each month for your future freedom? If the amount is zero right now, don’t worry.

At the end of this analysis, you should know exactly how much you earn, how much you spend, and what you spend it on.

Are there any bills you have found that you can reduce? Can you “tighten your belt” concerning entertainment? Could you get a better energy deal elsewhere?

The first step towards making more money is saving as much of what you currently earn as possible.

After this potentially painful analysis, this book helped me to transform my relationship with wealth by realizing the money I earn is my “life energy.” When you think of money this way, you want to protect it. You protect money in three ways:

. Reduce spending.

. Increase income

. Investing savings to retire early and pay off debt.

2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

Goodreads score: 4.17/5

How often do you see a millionaire and think, “trust fund baby for sure”? The overwhelming stereotype is that Joe Bloggs, who works in a factory, breaks his balls day in and day out. By contrast, millionaires are sitting back on a desert island somewhere, raking in the money handed to them by getting lucky at birth and profiting off the backs of the “little people.”

Think and Grow Rich taught me that wealth is rarely the result of luck or coincidence. It is most often the result of particular traits and skills anyone can learn at any point in their lives.

We need a burning desire to act as our driving force to accomplish our goals.

This book changed my outlook on how most rich people achieved their wealth and planted the seed in my mind that perhaps I, too, could improve my financial situation with hard work and discipline.

The journey towards any achievement begins with goal setting and detailed planning. If you don’t have a destination, how will you know if you are on the right track?

The most crucial thing I learned from this book is that successful people have total belief in themselves. They know they can accomplish anything they set their minds to, and each success fuels and motivates them to push higher.

Knowledge is power. Many of us go to school and then give up on learning for the rest of our lives. Speaking for myself, I have learned far more essential things since I left school than I ever did sitting in class learning about angles. Everything I have learned about finances, tax, investing, philosophy, psychology, self-improvement, and relationships I have learned since leaving school many years ago.

We need imagination to turn our dreams into reality. Think big, and don’t limit yourself. Use your imagination as a road map.

Know your strengths and weaknesses, and remember that positive emotions are fundamental to a successful life and must be constantly strengthened. What the mind dwells on becomes your reality. Don’t fill it with garbage.

Finally, achieving remarkable things means being smart and surrounding yourself with intelligent people. We are heavily influenced by the people in our lives. If you are surrounded by toxic people that want to see you fail, now is the time to clear the way so that people who love you can come into your life and give you the love you deserve.

If you are the most intelligent person in the room, find a new room.

3. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.

Goodreads score: 4.39/5

This book taught me that it is impossible to separate finances from psychology.

Financial decision-making is messy, and many decisions — such as buying lottery tickets — are understandable but not rational.

This applies up the financial chain to investing. Investment choices are driven more by our initial, formative experiences of the economy than by a cool appraisal of the current facts.

The message from this book is simple. Accept that luck plays a part in success, learn to focus on preventing unnecessary loss of money instead of constantly chasing gains, and always hedge your bets — in investing and life.

4. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T Harv Eker.

Goodreads score: 4.18/5

In line with “The Psychology of Money,” this book teaches that our level of wealth is preprogrammed by behavior patterns we learned as children. Unlike the previous book’s emphasis on luck, however, this book provides a more actionable approach by saying that we need to recognize our learned behaviors and actively adopt a millionaire mindset.

Specific thought patterns program our wealth and our thoughts regarding wealthy people. These patterns are shaped by what our parents taught us about money which is why so many people end up staying in the same income bracket, reproducing the income strategies of their parents.

To break free from our parental limitations, we need to assess where we are and break the pattern with new guiding principles.

We need to realize that WE control our fate, and therefore we must give life every bit of effort we have to achieve our goals. If you reach for the stars, even if you miss you will still go pretty far.

As well as handling money better, you need to think highly of yourself. You have to believe you deserve success and never give up striving.

5. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley.

Goodreads score: 4.03/5

This book fundamentally changed how I view the wealthy.

Contrary to popular belief, most millionaires live a normal lifestyle, about as far away as you can get from the Instagram Posers of today. In fact, the people who drive sports cars may earn less than you.

Most rich people are frugal with their money, and many neighbors of millionaires have no idea as to their financial status.

From this book, I learned the importance of saving when you earn more money than you need for basic living.

Don’t spend money on stuff you don’t need. Your money represents freedom, which is more important than any shiny new toy. Emotionally, a new car may give you a boost, but within a few days, that feeling fades away, and you are left chasing your next fix. By contrast, the freedom to do whatever you want in life never gets old.

With echoes from the previous books I have mentioned, this book teaches to plan and structure your expenses.

Set a goal, budget, and invest.

To calculate your expected wealth in relation to your age, multiply your age with your pre-tax annual income and divide by 10.

Although The Millionaire Next Door stresses the importance of frugality concerning buying toys, it emphasizes that you should spare no expense when the purchase is essential. This includes investment services, tax advice, medical care, or products that improve your business.

Cash looks best in your bank.

Conclusion.

Looking at these five books together, we can see overarching trends running through them.

The importance of budgeting and goal setting cannot be overstated. They are the first steps to achieving any financial success.

Once you know where you are and have a roadmap for where you want to be, the psychological work starts. You may have been surprised to read the integral link between money and psychology and never imagined you would reflect on your childhood in an article about finances. Yet only by dissecting our relationship with money can we set ourselves on the right path to a bright future.

When you start on this path to improve your wealth, you are improving your life, and many of the lessons related to goal setting and psychology can be applied more broadly.

More than anything, you will get a feeling of deep satisfaction as, step by step, you improve your future and achieve your dreams.

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