Stress-Free Money: Overcome These Seven Obstacles to Find Financial Freedom

by Chad Willardson

Every day you’re bombarded by ideas that could derail your financial future. Bad advice, differing expert opinions, and sales pitches are everywhere. You’re faced with important money decisions that could either be very costly or really pay off in the long run. Whether you personally have $100,000 or $100 million, you feel the burden and stress of making the best moves for your future despite a lot of uncertainty.How do you decide what to do with your money? Where do you turn for financial advice? What if you’ve been misled?In Stress-Free Money, Chad shows you how to overcome the seven obstacles standing between you and financial freedom. He exposes the risks, biases, and major mistakes that keep so many people from reaching their goals. Financial security and peace of mind are within reach, but most of us don’t know where to start. The insights and stories in Stress-Free Money will give you confidence and guidance toward a life where you spend less time worrying about money and more time doing everything else.

148 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 29, 2020

About the author

Chad Willardson, CFF, CRPC®, and AWMA®, is the President of Pacific Capital, a fiduciary wealth advisory firm he founded in 2011 that serves entrepreneurs and their families. He is the author of four bestselling books, the co-founder of GravyStack, a banking app that helps kids manage money, the co-host of The Smart Money Parenting Show, the #2 Podcast on Apple worldwide for Parenting, Kids & Family, and the founder of the ELEVATED Entrepreneur Coaching Program. Chad also manages the 660 million dollar investment portfolio as the elected City Treasurer in his community. He is recognized as one of the top wealth management experts in the country, writes for Entrepreneur magazine, serves on the Forbes Business Council for entrepreneurs, and has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., CNBC, NASDAQ, Yahoo Finance, U.S. News & World Report, InvestmentNews, Entrepreneur, and Financial Advisor Magazine. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Amber, and their five children.

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is only helpful to people that have a good amount of money to begin with. I can't relate to people that spend $15,000 a month, as was one of his examples.

[Paweł Papke · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book focuses on behaviours and emotions rather than financial instruments. Here are some takeaways:
- Create a clear plan, preferably in writing. It's easier to stick to during turbulent market phases.
- Many financial advisors prioritize their commissions over creating a sensible investment strategy tailored to your needs. Don't follow them blindly. Learn fundamentals.
- The financial entertainment news media is your enemy. They will distract you from your goals and destroy your ability to differentiate what is important from what is not. Information overload has made most of us worse at making financial decisions.
- Master your emotions. In finance, the two emotions you need to learn to recognize and temper are fear and greed.
- Don't expect instant gratification. Rule of thumb: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
- Set basic financial principles — have clear goals, don't invest just for the sake of it, consider taxes, invest only in instruments with low fees, etc.
- Have the guts to execute your plan when the market is running high. 99 percent of the time, the right thing to do is stick with the plan you’ve laid out and not react to short-term events
- When planning to invest, think about the bigger picture. This includes the investment horizon, the purpose behind the investment, your risk tolerance, and more. Ex. when you're in 30tis it's a much different approach than when you're in 60ties.
- Investing is a never-ending emotional battle between fear of the future and faith in the future.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a short and easy read. I liked that. There are great examples of each key idea that hammer the points home. Ultimately, it felt like it all drove to this point: "Everything is too situational to provide any guidance beyond the idea of setting goals, so work with a fiduciary." That's solid advice but I hoped for more.

[Alex Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise

This book is an easy read and it tells you what you need to know about picking a financial advisor. The book goes in detail about the importance of financial goals. It tells you what to do and why they really matter. I recommend this if you’re wanting to have a financial plan.

[John Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s nothing terribly provocative about this book, but that’s what I liked about it. Simple. Clear. Practical. It’s the kind of timeless, common-sense money advice we all need but rarely get (or choose to listen to).

The two biggest takeaways for me were 1) I want to work with an independent fiduciary and 2) we need to get clearer on our longer-term financial goals.

[Taylor Friend · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read with timeless facts about finances

Great read with timeless facts about finances and how to be stress free with your money. I enjoyed all the stories and examples, it made the read more interesting. I would highly recommend everyone read this book.

[Peter C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive, solid advise

Great quick read with very pragmatic and useful advise. Reiterates what I have been thinking and the direction I am moving in.

Have already started implementing .

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good quick read

I’ve been following Chad on LinkedIn for a few years and always appreciated his views on things.

This book is a good quick read. It covers the basics of investments and highlights Chad’s finance philosophy and company.

[Jeffrey Woodard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have been shorter

This book is really a long sales pitch on why you should choose the author's firm as your financial advisor.