The Millennial Money Mindset by Neil Doig

My Rating of “The Millennial Money Mindset” by Neil Doig: 8 / 10

2020 has been a turbulent year for many people. Job security, health, access to family/friends and finances are some of the issues our population is dealing with. Neil Doig’s The Millennial Money Mindset book is a timely release given how much the world has changed since 2019. Its purpose is to help millennials think differently about money and wealth. It’s about education to set the reader up for financial success in the short, medium and long term.

What I liked about The Millennial Money Mindset is its simplicity, story telling and metaphorical secrets to finance. What I mean by the latter is his use of language to describe important considerations for sound money management. For example, encouraging the reader to think about “farm financials”. This entails pension pigs, ISA chickens and cash cows. These are the tools that every person should be utilising and including in their portfolios. Using metaphor is a nice trick to help the reader cement these concepts.

The book finishes with Doig’s passion and call to action. I like to label this section his “Jerry Maguire” moment. Instead of working for a large wealth management organisation, Neil thought differently. What if he could run his own business and help educate people to be self sufficient with wealth management. Furthermore, how should millennials be thinking about the world in general. Looking for work, volunteering, contributing, being sustainable are just some of the nuggets in this section.

It is easier to pay someone to manage your finances; typically a fee based off a designated percentage of your portfolio. I’m a bigger believer of gaining enough knowledge to be dangerous and have skin in the game on managing my own finance. True, some of these aspects are complex however you can engage where needed. In this instance, get the basic knowledge and approaches to manage your wealth. The Millennial Money Mindset is that book to help you start the journey.

Three key takeaways from the book:

1. All bull markets are the same. They are born on pessimism, grown on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria.
2. GDP measures everything except what makes life meaningful.
3. Purpose + Progress = Happiness (interesting that money/wealth isn’t mentioned directly).