Starting strength equivalent for psychology and personal finance

Hello, my name is Flavius, I am a 33 year old male from Romania, eastern Europe;

I own a gym in a small town, and I want to first thank Mark Rippetoe, and all of the Starting Strength crew for all the good quality information you guys put out there; I just want to say that it has helped me a lot, and I have learned about 90% of what I know about training from you guys (considering I have a masters degree in "Fitness and performance", whatever that means, its worthless anyway); Right now I can honestly say I can spot bullshit from a mile away when it comes to fitness and strength training thanks to you guys;

So as the title of my thread says, I want to learn more about psychology and personal finance, the only problem is I can't spot the bullshit here at all, and I don't know who to follow, what is good, what is bullshit and so on;

So what books should I read for a basic(novice) understanding of these two subjects?
Who should I follow on social media and youtube that has good content on these subjects?

Thank you!

When it comes to finance, Dave Ramsey has a lot of good things to say.

He also has a lot of hard things to say that aren't very popular, but logically they make sense if you are a disciplined person.

I will second the Dave Ramsey. Get his material, study and learn them, then do them. Once you have done all the steps, then you will have the knowledge to plot your own outcome.

Psychology, look into Jordan Peterson off the top of my head. I guess to really answer I'd need to know what do you want to do with it? I'm used to do a lot of publish speaking, so I learned a lot about how people listen, hear, process, etc. What are you looking for in psychology?

While you are deciding, get the Dave Ramsey books and get to work, then you'll have the finances to pursue all else.

My favorites for personal finance are:

"The Millionaire Next Door" and "The Millionaire Mind" by Tom Stanley

"The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham

"The Intelligent Asset Allocator" by Dr William Bernstein

Getting started - Bogleheads
Learn how to Save, Invest and Finance Life * FinancingLife.org

Dave is a great entertainer and his radio show is worth a listen. His material is an okay place to start if you have terrible spending habits, are deep in debt, and need to be told exactly what to do. I would pass on his investment portfolio advice. He recommends actively managed front-loaded mutual funds sold through his affiliates that must pay him to be endorsed. He does have reasons behind this and you can search for them and see if you agree. Dave recommends always using an advisor. I'm a non believer. Sometimes paying for advice is worth it. But you can set up a simple scalable investment portfolio easily, without paying someone 3.25-5.75% of every dollar you invest.

My top two reasons to have a financial advisor:

1. You have a complex tax situation and need tailored advice. Not paying for this advice would cost you more money in taxes than the cost of the advice.

2. You don't have the right temperament to invest and are prone to self destruct.

Just remember, most people tend to overestimate their own risk tolerance.

On the extreme end you can look into the "FIRE" movement. Plenty of good material there too. Even if you don't want to take it to the extreme, there are plenty of good ideas to cherry pick from.

Mr. Money Mustache — Early Retirement through Badassity

Your Money or Your Life | Achieve Financial Independence | Your Money or Your Life

I second the recommendation for Jordan Peterson's material. Tons of YouTube lectures, interviews, etc. The book "12 Rules for Life" is a good start. "Wild at Heart" by John Eldridge, and "7 Habits" by Stephen Covey are also a couple favorites of mine. The second two books are spiritual and practical manuals for life and less philosophical like Peterson's material.

Dave Ramsey had absolutely terrible investment advise. If he had a license (like I do), he'd have lost it.

His debt management approaches are good. But it is for a specific market.

I'm a financial advisor and have studied his stuff quite a bit. He's a financial entertainer and marketer first, and VERY VERY good at that.

Thanks for the replies;

Well for the psychology part, I guess I want to understand myself better, my personality, my good and bad stuff, what i'm naturally good at and what I suck at, these things; and to understand the mind, how our brain works, I find it interesting i guess;

the thing with psychology is there are many schools of thought, and many opposing views, plus it's not really a hard science and there can be many misleading views going on; for example I follow some evolutionary psychologists on social media, and form what I can see from these guys, they don't agree with the whole psychoanalysis stuff, they talk more about heritable traits and genes, more emphasis on nature, and how that mostly influences our behaviour and personality;

then there are the psychoanalysis people with more emphasis on nurture, the environment, childhood trauma, etc.;

I just can't figure out what's what, although I kinda find the whole freudian oedipus complex, and penis envy, and castration fear and all that stuff to be ridiculous, and not very scientific;

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Originally Posted by mpalios

Dave Ramsey had absolutely terrible investment advise. If he had a license (like I do), he'd have lost it.

His debt management approaches are good. But it is for a specific market.

I'm a financial advisor and have studied his stuff quite a bit. He's a financial entertainer and marketer first, and VERY VERY good at that.

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Honestly I'm not even sure his debt repayment advice is all that great. Besides the "pay it down" and "stop overspending." The order in which he suggests to pay things off will cost you more in interest and is not maximizing the utility of your money. The value in Dave is the shear entertainment when he rips into people who are completely financially illiterate on his show. But that gets old after a while because the case studies are always so similar.

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Originally Posted by Jason Cross

"The Millionaire Next Door" and "The Millionaire Mind" by Tom Stanley

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I forgot all about that one! It's an old book from the 1990's so you'll have to do some translations to when they give dollar amounts, but the principals are rock solid. I was a young man when I read it and it fundamentally change the way I view spending.

A number of people have dogged Dave Ramsey's investment advice and I don't disagree with them. If you are willing to do the leg work yourself and live with your results, then do. if not, then get a financial advisor to help you.

I view his get out of debt process and stay out of debt rule to be his most valuable message.

Does anyone know of anyone else that's preaching get out of debt to consumers? I think DR is the only one.

True. He's an entertainer and marketer first, and he's absolutely fantastic at that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jason Cross

Honestly I'm not even sure his debt repayment advice is all that great. Besides the "pay it down" and "stop overspending." The order in which he suggests to pay things off will cost you more in interest and is not maximizing the utility of your money. The value in Dave is the shear entertainment when he rips into people who are completely financially illiterate on his show. But that gets old after a while because the case studies are always so similar.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Flavius

Well for the psychology part, I guess I want to understand myself better, my personality, my good and bad stuff, what i'm naturally good at and what I suck at, these things; and to understand the mind, how our brain works, I find it interesting i guess;

the thing with psychology is there are many schools of thought, and many opposing views, plus it's not really a hard science and there can be many misleading views going on; for example I follow some evolutionary psychologists on social media, and form what I can see from these guys, they don't agree with the whole psychoanalysis stuff, they talk more about heritable traits and genes, more emphasis on nature, and how that mostly influences our behaviour and personality;

then there are the psychoanalysis people with more emphasis on nurture, the environment, childhood trauma, etc.;

I just can't figure out what's what, although I kinda find the whole freudian oedipus complex, and penis envy, and castration fear and all that stuff to be ridiculous, and not very scientific;

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Psychology surely is intriguing, and I respect your interest in learning more about yourself and what makes people who they are. Last year, I was a student in a dual enrollment course called Intro to Psych, and this was the textbook that the class utilized: https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-In.../dp/0134552512. The text surely is not outstanding in any singular study of psychology, but it acts as a way to get your feet wet in some of the basic concepts.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a singular source to acquire virtually all the knowledge that you need in either psychology or personal finance simply does not exist. Starting Strength is unique in this aspect across every area of expertise known to man--at least this has been my experience. I suggest that you dive into anything that you are able to get your hands on that relate to these fields if that is where your interests lie.