The Path Continues: Tools & Resources
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Don’t Make It Hard.
Use the Tools.
Calculators and Research Tools
S&P 500 Return Calculator, with Dividend Reinvestment
S&P 500 Periodic Reinvestment Calculator (with dividends)
Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Calculator
Charity Navigator (How to Give like a Billionaire)
Community and Learning
JL’s FI Reading List
Quit Like a Millionaire by Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Why Does the Stock Market Go Up? by Brian Feroldi
Set for Life by Scott Trench
The Mindful Millionaire by Leisa Peterson
Cashing Out by Julien & Kiersten Saunders
Bogle on Mutual Funds by John C. Bogle
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle
The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life by John C. Bogle
Taking Stock by Jordan Grumet M.D.
*Get more book recommendations from JL Collins
The Punch List
Share it with everyone you love and follow it like a map. Included in the new 2025 edition of The Simple Path to Wealth
Spend less than you earn
1. Save a portion—I used 50%—of every dollar you earn or that otherwise comes your way. The beauty of a high savings rate is twofold: You learn to live on less even as you have more to invest.
2. You own the things you own, but they in turn own you.
3. Money can buy many things, but nothing more valuable than your freedom.
4. If your lifestyle matches—or God forbid exceeds—your income, you are no more than a gilded slave.
5. Avoid fiscally irresponsible people. Never marry one or otherwise give them access to your money.
6. Life choices are not always about the money, but you should always be clear about the financial impact of the choices you make.
Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy.
—Groucho Marx
Invest the Surplus
7. Invest what you’ve saved. The greater the percentage of your income you invest, the sooner you’ll have F-You Money.
8. The stock market is a powerful wealth-building tool in which you should be investing.
9. Understand that the market and the value of your shares will sometimes drop dramatically. Nobody can predict when market drops will happen, even though the media is filled with those who claim they can.
10. Ignore the drops and buy more shares. This will be much, much harder than you think. People all around you will panic. The news media will be screaming, “Sell, sell, sell!”
11. Avoid investment advisors. Too many have only their own interests at heart.
12. By the time you know enough to pick a good advisor, you know enough to handle your finances yourself. It’s your money, and no one will care for it better than you.
13. When you can live on 4% of your investments per year, you are financially independent.
Avoid Debt
14. Carrying debt is as appealing as being covered with leeches and has much the same effect. Take out your sharpest knife and start scraping the little bloodsuckers off.