From Here to Financial Happiness summary

If there’s one thing that keeps people from sleeping at night, it’s sure to be financial worries. And that’s understandable – living from paycheck to paycheck is a recipe for stress.

That’s why it’s critical that you try your hardest to set up an emergency fund.

If we lived our lives meticulously evaluating every decision along the way, making decisions at all would quickly become utterly exhausting. That’s why humans have evolved to operate and react instinctively to the world around them on a day-to-day basis.

That’s all well and good, but unfortunately some of our ingrained instincts aren’t such great news for our wallets.

If you started in on this book-in-blinks hoping to discover a secret to becoming an overnight millionaire, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.

The thing is, there is no secret to financial success – it’s nothing more than developing a good set of habits. You just have to learn and implement those habits.

To an outsider, insurance and insurance policies can seem incomprehensible and confounding. It sometimes comes across as a lot of administrative and technical jargon.

But at heart, insurance is both practical and pretty simple. It’s just a way to pool risk.

Think of a purchase that symbolizes career success and what will likely come to mind is an expensive and luxurious car. Sure, it’s a status symbol, but for many the experience of driving a first-class vehicle is simply a lot of fun.

As a result, it’s all too easy to overspend on them! For decades, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been tracking how American families spend their money, and their data illustrates this point: A whopping 16 percent of the average American family’s budget goes to transportation - which, in the US, usually means cars.

If you ask anyone about the best methods of increasing wealth, they’ll most likely suggest you look for solid investment opportunities. High-yield savings accounts for retirement are often what spring to mind.

But investing isn’t the only way of securing your wealth.

Usually, when people get to thinking about money, their thoughts head to the next big thing. That could be putting a down-payment on a house, buying a car or setting up a college fund for the kids.

But your first financial priority should actually be about what comes last. At the end of your professional life comes retirement.