Summary: How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis

by Matthew Newton

This book will not make you super-filthy rich, like Bill Gates. It’s more about becoming a common garden-variety rich. Wealthy enough that you don’t have to worry about the price of anything you buy anymore. This book will teach you how to accumulate enough money to retire, or only work three days a week, or drink every night if that’s how you wish to spend your time. Becoming rich is heroism, but a different sort of heroism than someone who nurses orphans or fights against tyranny in prison. Few people are willing to do those things, but everyone wants to be rich, and nobody - not even the staunchest Marxist - would refuse ten million dollars. It is a prestige based on common human envy. How rich is “rich”? It’s not based on the amount of money, thanks to inflation over time, but purchasing power. Because of the capital gains tax and other levies, it’s difficult to find the actual total asset value of a person. Needing an army of financial advisors to determine your wealth for you is a nice problem, but it’s a problem nonetheless. It only matters when you’re inheriting wealth, because if you don’t have a legally enforceable will, the taxman can take out a great deal of your estate before bequeathing it to you. Getting rich does not guarantee happiness, but brings about stresses and miseries of its own.

24 pages, Paperback

Published May 19, 2018