Financial Autonomy

by Paul Benson

Financial Autonomy, by Melbourne financial planning expert Paul Benson is about money. But, unlike most money books, it's not focused on making you the richest person in your street, or worse, the richest person in the cemetery. Instead, the focus of this book is on gaining choice.



Have you ever listened to a guest on a radio program or a speaker at an event talking about some amazing experience they've had? Perhaps it was travelling through Tibet in a beaten-up Land Rover, sailing around the world, jumping out of planes in a wing suit, or starting a business or charity of their own, driven by a magnitude 10 passion to make an impact.




When you listened to these inspiring stories, did you ever wonder how they managed to organise their life so that it was possible? Do you wish you could organise your life to do what's important to you?




Financial Autonomy is a book about money but it's equally about gaining choice. If you get the money side of your life right, you will have the choice to pursue maximum happiness in all the other aspects of your life.




Personal finance expert Paul Benson believes there are three vehicles to create enough wealth to have the choices you desire




(1) Investing in shares;

(2) Investing in property; and

(3) Working for yourself (starting a side hustle or small business).




He explores these in detail, as well budgeting and saving - and as you'd expect, he gives readers a choice of strategies they can adopt to succeed in these areas.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Money

246 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 24, 2020

Reviews

[Cameron Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable, informative, short read, At first I thought it was going to be a boring autistic book about the basics of budgeting and investing everything I've read or heard a hundred times. But once the book gets the stock section it's actually very good. Probably best ETF explanation I've ever heard (Index fund is a fund that tracks an index ETF (exchange traded funds) is a index fund traded on a online exchange in stead of having to submit paper work to index fund to buy) also lots of good interesting info on how PE ratio determines how the market thinks a company is going to perform and instead of seeing a high PE ratio as a overpriced company and a low PE ratio as an underpriced company it means that a high PE ratio the market thinks that company is going to dramatically increase its earnings while a low PE ratio that companies earnings might decrease. Also has interesting property strategies including using interest only repayments to own as many houses as possible only increasing equity by increasing property valuation and then using that valuation and increased equity to get a loan for the next property. Chapter on self employment was not that interesting but it was short

[Aileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Financial Autonomy was an easy read, however it would be useful to refer back to when needed. It breaks everything into parts; Part 1: Define Success, Part 2: Cash Flow, Part 3: Invest in Stocks, Part 4: Invest in Property, Part 5: Self-Employment. It also briefly covers retirement savings.
Paul explains each part in an easy to read and digestible manner, as well as provide checklists and quizzes for you to help give you more choice and follow a path more practical to your financial needs, as nothing in the financial world is a 'one size fits all'.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good for people who struggle to save and for advice on investing. Well written and easy to follow. I personally didn’t really get any new information from it but it still was good as a refresher / spark some thoughts :)

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to understand, interesting read for beginners or intermediate investors. Australian based book, focusing on creating choice and consciously deciding what type of lifestyle you desire. Discusses cash flow, shares, property and self employment.