When author Mark Aardsma was 24, he was fired in a downsizing. Like many people, he had little in the way of savings. However, instead of panicking and seeking to land a new job immediately, he sat down at a makeshift desk and began to invest his time and money differently. By the time he was 34, he had multiplied his limited savings a thousand fold and controlled a multi-million-dollar portfolio of businesses and other investments.
During that 10-year journey, Aardsma created and refined a document that became his personal guidebook of time-and-money management principles. Each time he grasped a new concept, gained new insight or made a significant mistake, he updated the document. This book is that guidebook in an expanded and refined form.
In Investing with Purpose: Capitalize on the Time and Money You Have to Create the Tomorrow You Desire, Aardsma offers lessons on using your time efficiently, limiting expenses, limiting taxes, avoiding emotional pitfalls, finding opportunities that others are not able to exploit, and finding the inspiration to take action immediately.
The book’s 14 chapters – which are relatively short – are spread over 216 pages. In reviewing the list of chapters when I first picked up the book, and later when I started reading, the one thing that immediately struck me is that Aardsma’s approach is definitely action oriented.
Most of the chapter titles start with a verb. As examples, Chapter 1 is Reflect Before You Race, Chapter 7 is Build Yourself and Your Network and Chapter 8 is Manage the Emotions that Trip Investors. Similarly, each chapter concludes with Action Points, typically 4 – 6, which serve as a summary of sorts and suggest definitive steps to take based on lessons learned in the chapter. If you are an individual that appreciates specific guidance that is easily digested, you will appreciate the format of this book.
One of the things I liked most about the book, which is alluded to in the subtitle, Capitalize on the Time and Money You Have to Create the Tomorrow You Desire, is the reference to time. I have long believed that time is an undervalued asset and resource. We often hear talk about money, both as a form of currency, its value, and with respect to how expensive something is. It is wise to view ‘time’ through a similar lens. There is value in continually asking yourself questions such as, “how am I spending my limited time” and “is what I’m doing at this time moving me closer to my goals?”
The book is largely void of charts and tables; however, there are some great illustrations. They help bring the lessons and ideas together in a way that is easy for the reader to appreciate and understand. The Manage and Choose With ROI illustration is a good example:
Investing with Purpose: Capitalize on the Time and Money You Have to Create the Tomorrow You Desire is available at Amazon in Kindle, Paperback, and MP3 CD formats.
The Giveaway – simply leave a comment to be entered – will end, and the winner selected, at 12:00 p.m. (EDT) on Sunday, April 2nd.
