Powerful ideas from top nonfiction
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
Just Keep Buying summary
Nick Maggiulli
Proven ways to save money and build your wealth
22 mins
Brief summary
'Just Keep Buying' by Nick Maggiulli is an informative and engaging guide to investing in the stock market. It emphasizes the importance of a long-term investment strategy, diversification, and avoiding common investment mistakes.
Table of Contents
Just Keep Buying
Summary of 5 key ideas
Audio & text in the Blinkist app
Key idea 1 of 5
The first rule of saving? Save more when you’re earning more.
We’re going to be talking about money in this Blink. But our journey doesn’t start on Wall Street or the trading floors of London and Frankfurt. Our first stop is southern Alaska.
We’re in the world’s largest temperate rainforest. Anglers prize this area for its clear streams, which are filled with large, trout-like fish known as Dolly Varden charr.
These Pacific streams contain little sustenance – until the early summer. That’s when salmon laden with eggs arrive. Charr love these eggs, and what follows is a months-long feeding frenzy. But then the salmon leave. The streams once again become a food desert.
For years, biologists couldn’t figure it out. There just weren’t enough calories to support so many charr year round. Yet there they were, month after month – hundreds and thousands of thriving fish.
So how does it work? The answer is phenotypic plasticity – a species’ ability to adapt its physical form to suit its environment. Dolly Varden charr shrink their digestive organs and slow their metabolism when there’s little food. When the salmon arrive, by contrast, those organs double in size and their metabolism speeds back up.
- So what’s that got to do with finance? Quite a lot, actually. Adapting your behavior to your environment also holds the key to saving.
Let’s break that down. Google the question, “How much should I save?” and you’ll get 150,000 hits with very precise answers. You should save 20 percent of your income, one self-proclaimed expert claims. No, another says, you should have three times your income saved by the age of 40.
All of those answers share an assumption – that everyone has the same ability to save. That’s just not true, though. As economists point out, the biggest determinant of savings is income. In the United States, folks in the bottom 20 percent of earners typically save just 1 percent of what they earn. For the top 20 percent, that rises to 25 percent. The idea that everyone should save X amount flies in the face of empirical evidence, which shows that not everyone can.
And the thing is, lots of people move up – and down – those income brackets. Life, after all, isn’t static. Often, you’ll earn less when you’re young and more when you’re older. But high earners also quit the rat race to take on more fulfilling work in less well-paid industries. Some jobs force you to live in expensive cities; others don’t. Then there are life’s highs and lows and their financial consequences – marriages and divorces, children, promotions and layoffs, leaking roofs and Christmas bonuses. To find a single, neat rule that covers so much messy reality is a fool’s errand.
This brings us back to our Dolly Varden charr, which lower and raise their caloric intake according to how much food is available. Their maxim? Eat what you can, when you can. And that’s a great principle for saving, too: save what you can, when you can. In practice, that means saving more when you’re earning more and less when you’re earning less.
Want to see all full key ideas from Just Keep Buying?
Key ideas in Just Keep Buying
More knowledge in less time
Read or listen
Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
Find your next read
Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
Shortcasts New
We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.
What is Just Keep Buying about?
Just Keep Buying (2022) is a no-nonsense guide to personal finance that delights in busting myths and dispelling old clichés. Tackling all-important questions like saving and investing, it digs into the psychology behind money and provides a realistic guide to making sound financial decisions.
Just Keep Buying Review
Just Keep Buying by Nick Maggiulli (2022) is a thought-provoking exploration of our consumerist culture and the psychology behind our buying habits. Here's why this book is worth adding to your reading list:
- With insightful analysis and compelling research, it unravels the complexities of our relationship with money and offers valuable perspectives on how to navigate consumerism.
- Maggiulli's real-life examples and relatable anecdotes bring the content to life, making it relatable and applicable to readers from all walks of life.
- This book challenges conventional thinking and encourages readers to question their own behavior in a thought-provoking way, ensuring that it is anything but boring.
Who should read Just Keep Buying?
- Would-be savers
- Guilty spenders
- Future investors
Categories with Just Keep Buying
Book summaries like Just Keep Buying
People ❤️ Blinkist
Sven O.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Thi Viet Quynh N.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Jonathan A.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Renee D.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
People also liked these summaries
4.7 Stars
Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
35 Million
Downloads on all platforms
10+ years
Experience igniting personal growth
Just Keep Buying FAQs
What is the main message of Just Keep Buying?
The main message of Just Keep Buying is the importance of consistency and persistence in investing.
How long does it take to read Just Keep Buying?
The reading time for Just Keep Buying varies depending on the reader's speed, but it typically takes several hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is Just Keep Buying a good book? Is it worth reading?
Just Keep Buying is worth reading because it provides valuable insights on investing and encourages a long-term approach to wealth accumulation.
Who is the author of Just Keep Buying?
The author of Just Keep Buying is Nick Maggiulli.
What to read after Just Keep Buying?
If you're wondering what to read next after Just Keep Buying, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- The One-Page Financial Plan by Carl Richards
- Makers and Takers by Rana Foroohar
- Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez
- Know Yourself, Know Your Money by Rachel Cruze
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
- The Economy of You by Kimberly Palmer
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Buy This, Not That by Sam Dogen
- Market Mind Games by Denise Shull
Featured Titles
- 1776
- A Brief History of Neoliberalism
- A Companion to Marx's Capital
- AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership
- An Attempt To Repair America's Broken Credit System
- Confessions of an Economic Hitman
- Corporate Financial Distress, Restructuring, and Bankruptcy
- Dividend Investing Made Easy
- DotCom Secrets
- Enterprise Risk Management