As a newcomer to FIRE and an unhappy employee in my mid-40s with two children, I found this book really resonated with me...apart from the going digital chapter, but I also work in IT.

It's always refreshing to read a UK-based, lifestyle management book. It takes all the mental translation out of the picture, which makes it an easier read.

The 'kids' factor is also a big one for me. So many books gloss over the financial/time constraints which limit parents' abilities to get stuff done.

Yea that is a fair shout on the kids things... the majority of FI blog writers I would venture to say do not have children. So it is nice to get the other side of the perspective on that one (Full disclosure: I have a child)

Ha! Sounds like I don't have to add that to my list ;)

Just curious, what do you have on your reading list for this year? I really like the BOOK BINGO idea that weenie is following :P

http://quietlysaving.co.uk/...

I don't have a set goal to read a certain amount of books, or even read books within certain topics. At this point I just read whatever I feel like (both fact and fiction - I really like biographies lately).
I might have a go at the book bingo though, just for the fun of it :P

Haha, hope you enjoy the Book Bingo, Nick!

I'm sure you could learn from how to digitize your life Nick!? Your graphs are SO un-interactive and bland :))

My Goodreads target this year is 30 books. I'm also focusing on FIRE/self-help books. I read the WHOLE of the Robin Hobb fantasy series last year (literally took me the whole year, it's huge!), they were some of the best books I've ever read, but I need a break from fantasy before I dive into another massive series. I'm already starting to get a bit bored though from being 75% through 'The Millionaire Next Door'. I read before bed so it's a bit of a boring thing to read at that time, so I might have to add in some other fun books to read along-side these. Again though, I'd like to give some other categories a go, I'd quite like to read some good horror books like Misery or The Shining!

The book bingo thing looks really cool, I've got too many books on my reading list that I'd like to get through this year though! :)

I enjoyed Millionaire Next Door - but I read it a long time ago. The take home was valuable back then ie most millionaires tend to run average businesses and aren't conspicuous spenders as it did result in a mindset shift. But I wouldn't revisit it.

I'm finding that many non-fiction books don't warrant reading from cover to cover to get the main points of value from them. It's quite refreshing to put one down after 50 mins and think "I could read this book for another 2 hours, but I think I've got 80% of the value from it".

Pareto book reading... I like it Chris!

@Ninja - You've given the book a pretty fair review from what I can see here (I haven't read it all yet though haha) - I got the feeling from reading the first chapter or so that it probably isn't really aimed at me, I've been on the FIRE path for 6 years now so I feel I've got most of this sh!t locked down and am on cruise control. But I will give the rest a skim and see if anything pops out. We could always do with more decluttering in our house so that section is definitely worth a read!

But for the person who has recently discovered FIRE it sounds like a really great resource and I really hope it gets out to as many of that demographic as possible.

Cheers!

p.s. you have a typo in "Renaissance Man ideal that you'll find in Joe Fiskers book" - should be Jacob (feel free to delete this part of my comment once you've fixed it)

Oooo, nice spot! Updated, thanks :)

Yeah, he's done a great job with jam-packing the thing with links and footnotes to other great resources too!

Nicely written review (better than mine, I think, haha!)

However, looks like we came to the same conclusions with regards to the book mostly being aimed at unhappy midlifers with kids who haven't embraced the digital age. I can see why David has asked us to read his book as we can post reviews on our blogs but we are already on the path to FIRE, so probably not his real target audience - a lot of it, as you say, was affirmation as opposed to learning something new.

That said, I think we both agree that the decluttering section was wery useful (which I will get onto myself!) and that a huge amount of effort has gone into collecting all those references and links.

Thanks Weenie!

It is harder to review it as someone who the book isn't aimed at, but I tried my best :D I loved reading about his own journey, I wish he wrote about that more actually. If he's actually achieved FIRE? What his saving rate was? etc.

I'm starting my first category tomorrow! Gonna pile all the clothes in the house up in the living room haha. I've already written a pretty lengthy investigation into the 'perfect' state of the category, now just need to do the discarding and organising :)

Thanks for the review, Savings Ninja. I think I've read a few reviews, interviews and perhaps even the Kindle sample of this book. Fair play to David to getting himself out there and for writing an engaging tome, but the digitally clueless mid-life middle manager take didn't appeal to me as not all of us are devoid of digital knowledge and skills and it's frustrating to have our cohort pigeon holed as such. There is always room for autobiographical takes on FIRE though so perhaps I'm being too harsh.

A large portion of the book did seem to be dedicated to this, and his synopsis didn't quite mention the 'digitally clueless mid-life careerist', just 'mid-life careerist' :) I'm making my way through all of the FIRE books I can read in 2019 so I'll let you know which one's my favorite!