YMOYL is currently #1 on the amazon best seller list!

[jacob]

https://www.amazon.com/best-sellers-boo ... zgbs/books

Anyone has any idea what happened? Was Vicki Robin on Oprah or something?

[jacob]

Ahh... the CNBC bump: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/20/grant-mi ... -book.html

[C40]

Why the heck would you read 360 personal finance books? God that would be so boring.

[Tyler9000]

Maybe he's still looking for the one that explains how to quit your job and still spend like crazy.

[Riggerjack]

Am I the only one that hated this book?

I found it after "get rich slowly", and ERE, so the concepts weren't new. The endlessly repeating stories of how this little lesson was applied by Mary, or Tom, or Pete felt like I was stuck in 1st grade again, waiting on classmates to figure out "Scott runs, Lucy runs, Spot runs. Run, Spot, run!"

It just dragged on and on. I couldn't keep going after the first few chapters.

Jacob, thank you for making this information accessible.

[Did]

Surely the Ferris recommendation would have something to do with it as well. The "Tim Ferris Effect". Jacob have you noticed any more traffic here?

[Dragline]

Why the heck would you read 360 personal finance books? God that would be so boring.

Gulp -- I resemble that remark.

But over a much longer period of time.

OTOH, I am interested in the history of the genre and why certain books appeal to certain people and not to others when they are providing essentially the same messages. A lot of it seems to come down to what is the most attractive narrative for a particular audience. It would be interesting to categorize them by MBTI types, but INTJ would dominate.

[jacob]

@Did - Not much. On a normal day, I sell 4-5 books. On Feb 13-15, it was 7-11 and then back to 4 on Feb-16. (I didn't check paperback, but it's typically about as many.) Yesterday, I sold 15. However, I did get a 3x uptick in CPC ads (so from $5 to $15/per day over those days)---this is often a better way to see who is coming in (because people from other pf sites never click on ads). I don't do detailed tracking/analysis anymore for reasons of not wasting time watching it

Consider the chain: Someone has to listen to the podcast; catch the early retirement extreme mention; go to the website; decide to read enough to look at the book; decide to buy the book. Even if there's a lot of people, the probability goes down with each step.

Typically mainstream mentions don't convert nearly as well as a direct mention on a compatible blog or forum. This one might have influenced the Ferris numbers: https://www.kitces.com/blog/retirement- ... ire-early/

@Riggerjack, Dragline - I see YMOYL as having the strongest appeal to the NF-group. "Your money or your life", "life energy", ... is the spiritual angle.

[Fish]

I've always thought of these as the archetypical books for each major personality type as relates to FIRE:

SJ = Millionaire Next Door
SP = 4HWW
NF = YMOYL
NT = ERE

Surely this is not the first time this observation has been made? Hardest to decide what represents SJ but I thought the idea of blending in and practicing stealth wealth would appeal most to guardians.

[Dragline]

I've always thought of these as the archetypical books for each major personality type as relates to FIRE:

SJ = Millionaire Next Door
SP = 4HWW
NF = YMOYL
NT = ERE

Surely this is not the first time this observation has been made? Hardest to decide what represents SJ but I thought the idea of blending in and practicing stealth wealth would appeal most to guardians.

There is also a generational angle to these books -- Jim Rohn style for Silents (focus on improving income and be nice, upbeat and helpful) -- MND also describes a lot of Silents, YMOYL for Boomers (Values), MMM/4HWW and ERE are really Gen-X (kick ass and get it done on your own), and the Millennial stuff is just emerging (basically holistic minimalism, tiny houses and stuff that appeals to Olaz ).

[bryan]

@Riggerjack, so you wouldn't recommend I read it

I'm trying to remember my own PF reading list.. I know I started with a few books not directly related to PF (but had philosophical cross-over) and then started getting into the investing/PF blogs/articles via stumbleupon. PF blogs I recall enjoying: The Simple Dollar, Get Rich Slowly, Free Money Finance.. I liked 4HWW/IWTYTBR for a spell but never read the books.

The first legit PF book I remember was listening to Millionaire Next Door on a long drive (good audiobook! probably better than reading). Listening to that, I think, crystallized some future visions, like retiring "super early". It also got me sussing out some of the meaning (or irony) of (the parts where it mentions the Millionaires) getting rich and then just wanting the kids to be doctors/lawyers/engineers..

I remember going to bookstores/library back then and just not being interested in any of the books. I got Tightwad Gazette as a gift but can't recall when that was. I think it was changing jobs a few years later (and having a month in between) that I found MMM. After a while on that blog, I found the ERE blog and it was like paradise relative to all the other stuff I had read. I devoured it (and discovered it was no longer active)! Eventually I found my way to the MMM/ERE forums.

So, if I got that right.. I've probably read/listened to <=3 strictly PF books (counting ERE which is still dog-eared on page 110 from a couple years ago.. anything good after that? ). I suppose that makes sense to most here, considering the Recommended Reading wiki page only has 5 books listed under PF, not including ERE! If someone asked me my favourite PF book I would most likely say earlyretirementextreme.com

[IlliniDave]

It was the first book geared specifically towards ER that I read, though I read it after "How to Retire Wild, Happy, and Free" by Ernie Zelinsky, so I didn't mind it too much. It did get tedious at times but I'm more of a nerd than their target audience and I "got" concepts like the FI Graph at a glance (dirty little secret: I maintain one on the computer that is nearing it's 5th birthday). For me the idea of examining expenses in light of whether they improved or hindered well-being was a mini epiphany that led to better understanding and a restructure of some of my values. But some of the advice is really dated and I'm surprised it's endured as well as it has.

[steelerfan]

It was the first book geared specifically towards ER that I read, though I read it after "How to Retire Wild, Happy, and Free" by Ernie Zelinsky.....

True story. I was reading Ernie Zelinsky's book, "How to Retire Wild, Happy Free" on a plane to Seattle in May 2015. I was sitting next to an elderly lady. She glanced over and saw what I was reading and casually whispered to me "It's a lie you know" and proceeded to basically bitch me out and call me a fool. I came to find out she was forced out of a job before she was ready. In addition to that, she was bringing back her son's ashes in her suitcase (that I had helped her place in the overhead bin) to scatter back home. I was really enjoying that book but that experience caused me to close that book. I never opened it again. Talk about a buzzkill. I just pulled it off the shelf. Maybe another try... I did not care for YMOYL though.

[wheatstate]

I read YMOYL in high school in the 90's. I didn't understand it enough to avoid all the mistakes 20-somethings make. It did give me a good foundation. I like having it in the PF toolbox. It emphasizes money storing life energy, the balance of earning/spending, and finding a life passion in simple ways. The investment advice favoring bonds is outdated with the low interest rates. Having ERE and MMM have greatly expanded the PF toolbox.

Trivia Fact:
YMOYL is a prop in the movie "American Beauty" from 1999.
Kevin Spacey is going through a mid-life crisis leaving a corporate office job. His wife, Annette Bening, is a super materialistic real estate agent (the opposite of ERE). Anyways, she pulls into their driveway in a Lexus SUV and Kevin Spacey has traded his Camry in on a 70's Firebird. In my parallel universe, the main character Burnham family in American Beauty would have applied some YMOYL/ERE principles to chase their passions and find financial freedom in healthier ways. However, this would have been the most boring Hollywood movie.

Here is the clip: Unfortunately this edit skips the book on the seat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0RyipOMnnY

[saltarello]

Am I the only one that hated this book?

I found it after "get rich slowly", and ERE, so the concepts weren't new. The endlessly repeating stories of how this little lesson was applied by Mary, or Tom, or Pete felt like I was stuck in 1st grade again, waiting on classmates to figure out "Scott runs, Lucy runs, Spot runs. Run, Spot, run!"

It just dragged on and on. I couldn't keep going after the first few chapters.

Jacob, thank you for making this information accessible.

You are far from alone on this. Historically important and worthy book, but also damn boring.

Took me three tries to finish it, and on the last i did it by skimming.

IIRC, MMM has it on his book list and says much the same as you.