MONEY: Master the Game summary – Tony Robbins’s Personal Finance Must-Read

Anthony Jay Robbins, well-known as the popular “Tony” Robbins, needs no introduction. After his first successful book, Awaken The Giant, Tony decided not to write another book and instead focus his efforts on his philanthropy and motivational speaking.

After the financial crisis of 2008, Robbins felt the pain and suffering of those impacted and decided to double down on a financial guide. Using his unique position, he interviewed billionaires and the top 1% of the industry and impart 7 of the best money management tips they could offer into his 700-page book: MONEY Master the Game.

Here is a summary of Money: Master the Game, highlighting the best concepts and ideas we have got from reading it.

Summary of MONEY: Master the Game

MONEY: Master The Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Anthony Robbins is a collection of research and interviews of the top 1%, condensed into a well-written guide on money management and wealth creation. Robbins assists the reader in understanding their financial needs and wants on their journey to becoming financially responsible, literate, and successful.

MONEY: Master the Game seeks to quell the myth that only the rich have access to financial tools, and that anyone, of all ages and economic backgrounds, can take hold of their finances.

Going further beyond the personal finance aspect, interviews with Burton Malkiel, Charles Schwab, Ray Dalio, and many other financial titans gives the reader an insight into the psychology and journey billionaires have undergone to achieve their level of financial success.

By imitating and modeling their behaviors, thought patterns, and confidence readers can begin to develop and change their limiting beliefs about wealth creation.

The 7 different points can be condensed further into three different main ideas, which will be covered below. They are:

1. utilizing the power of compound interest to work for you and not against you.
2. select from a list of 5 financial goals to succeed at to prove to yourself that financial freedom is achievable.
3. hedging risk through diversifying your portfolio using simple methods.

MONEY Master the Game best ideas

MONEY Master the Game can be condensed into three different points, as mentioned above. Let’s dive into them:

The Magic of Compound Interest

A key concept that is shared across most investment, money management, and financial self-help books is the power of compounding. Humans are built to think very linearly; thinking of progression only in additional and multiples and cannot grasp the power of exponents. There are age-old stories that spoke of this, such as the Rice and The Chessboard story. A more modern example is this: if you can fold a piece of paper 42 times, it will reach the moon. Go ahead and try this yourself, and see if you can get past 7!

Compounding is just like this. For example, starting with 100$, an investment of 200/month at 10% interest for 30 years would yield an end balance of 454,081. Only 72,000 was invested and the rest was the magic of compounding. Doubling the investment to 400 a month would yield 906,179. The key is to start as early as possible with as much as you can spare so that your compounding growth can work for you.

Be wary as this can work against you! high yield debt such as credit cards is usually the financial ruin to most consumers that are unaware of the harm it can do. A typical credit card has a near 20% interest, and if it is not paid in full, will exponentially grow over time even faster than your investments. Pay off high yield debt first before investing, and let your money do the work for you.

Choose a Goal, and Invest in it

When most of us are asked, what is the number that would make you happy and bring a work-life balance? most of the answers would be: a million dollars. This arbitrary figure is societally programmed in our minds that once the millionaire mark is passed, you are considered wealthy. This is simply not true, and achieving financial freedom can be higher or lower than this number depending on your lifestyle. Tony suggests five goals, three of them are

1. To generate enough income from passive investments to pay for basic living costs
2. To generate enough income from passive investments to pay for basic living costs and entertainment
3. To generate enough income annually from passive investments to become financially independent in your current style of living.

These are just goals to get started, and will eventually end when you hit your ideal lifestyle. For example, taking the first goal into account, you can devise the cheapest scenario that you could live in if you had to, and be financially free, such as renting a shared house and shopping only deals.

Calculating the rent, food, utilities, transportation, and necessities to live, your first goal could be to cover these expenses. For a single person, let’s assume at a minimum in an average cost of living city, these expenses could come to 3000/month. If your investment income nets you this much per month, you have a safety net or even retirement option in the case of a crash or unemployment streak. This means having 36,000 per year, or overall 900,000 using the 4% rule means you’ll never need to work again.

Diversify and Separate your Goals

Humans are not machines. Aside from money, life is meant to be lived and enjoyed. This means that you need to prepare yourself for not just your future, but also emergencies and fulfillment goals. The “bucket” approach explores three different areas of investment:

1. The “security” bucket can be looked at as a stable part of your portfolio, or even an emergency fund. this will contain savings accounts, money market vehicles, and bonds that have a very small growth rate, but is unlikely to lose your principal investment.
2. The “growth” bucket should contain the majority of your holdings, about 80%. These are for ETFs, Stocks, and index funds that track, match or potentially beat the growth of the market in the long term.
3. The “dream” bucket, which no more than 10% should go into. This can include income made from the other buckets as well as employment or business earnings investing into whatever you’d like. These could be speculative plays, or not even investment-related at all (vacations, trips, or hobbies!)

MONEY Master the Game Review: should you read this Book?

Robbins aims to paint a clear picture for readers on the beautiful reality of the capital markets, anyone can create their wealth through financial success and discipline. There is something to be learned in this book for everyone, including portfolio managers and even children at school.

This book does not necessarily need to be read cover to cover; some sections can be cherry-picked such as the exact portfolio allocations of billionaires which include David Swensen and Ray Dalio.

Some critics of this book may say that it is too general, but can be looked at this way: If you are a beginning investor, this book is for you. If you are a financial professional: this book can teach you something new. If you are completely new to the world of money management, this book is also for you.

Conclusion

For a book that is extremely difficult to summarize in only a few points, it is one of the best in the self-help and finance section. It is recommended that the entire book be read, as it contains more knowledge not listed here.

For example, the difference between a financial advisor and fiduciary duty, some more financial goals that could be reached, and how to speed up the process of wealth creation. Excercise the first part of your investment journey today by investing in tools that will aid your financial literacy such as MONEY Master the Game!