David –
Automatic Millionare is a great way to organized one’s life. I can’t wait to share this with my 19 year old son. I’m seeing him tomorrow and can’t wait to tell him that I have found a way to save him from the mistakes I’ve made in my life.
I immediately recognized my Latte Factor. Books! Yes, the very thing that made me buy this book on impulse has been at work in my life with books in subjects ranging from geology to “Drawing the Nude”, westerns, science fiction, romance, and just about anything else you can imagine for as long as I can remember. This started when I was a kid and had been hit by a car. My mother brought a book home from grocery shopping every week. My earliest memories of being warm, safe and loved are wrapped up with books. When I was older (late 70’s) my father and I would go to the grocery store with her and add an average of $10 – $15 per week to her grocery bill in paperbacks. Today I average a $6-7 paperback a week, I have a monthly subscription to an audio book service for $20 and then there are the subject books. Lets say I get interested in geology or the Spanish language. I’ll go out and spend an average of $10-25 every two weeks acquiring books on the subject. I want to own them, not borrow them, I want to touch them, smell them, fall asleep with them and when I’m done with them, I usually box them up and hoarde them in the attic. Now for the changes I’ve decided on… other than a few special books, I’ve resolved to donate them all to charity and start getting my pleasure reading (brain candy) at the local library. If I become enamoured with a special subject, I’ll start with the internet and if after 3 months of researching on the internet, I’m still passionately interested in that subject, then I’ll see what the library has, and then, after I’ve read through their selection, if and only if I find a book worth keeping, will I go buy it at the book store. The indulgence I’ve decided to keep is my monthly subscription to audio books. With a 1 1/2 hour round trip commute every day the audio books save my sanity. I’m still cutting out an average of $80 per month in spending that can be satisfied in other ways. This equals 10% of my mortgage. Guess where I’m going to put that money.
Thanks for helping me find a new perspective!
