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Why "The Simple Path to Wealth" Is the Most Honest Money Book You'll Read

The financial services industry wants you confused and dependent on their fees. JL Collins isn't having it.

Here's what I appreciate about The Simple Path to Wealth: JL Collins doesn't have a course to sell you. He's not building a coaching program. He's not affiliated with any investment platform.

He's just a guy who achieved financial independence using a straightforward index fund strategy, and he wrote a book explaining exactly how he did it.

No upsells. No complexity. No hidden agenda.

In a financial world drowning in conflicts of interest and manufactured confusion, that's rare. And valuable.

The Problem With Most Investment Advice

Let's be honest about how the financial services industry works.

Financial advisors charge 1-2% annually to manage your portfolio. That seems small until you realize that over 30 years, those fees can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost compound growth.

And what do you get for those fees? In most cases, performance that underperforms simple index funds. Because actively managed funds, after fees, typically don't beat the market.

But the industry doesn't want you to know that. They want you to believe investing is complicated. That you need their expertise. That "set it and forget it" is reckless.

Collins calls BS on all of it.

The Core Strategy: Boring and Effective

Here's Collins's entire investment philosophy in one sentence:

That's it. That's the strategy.

You invest consistently in a low-cost total market index fund. You ignore the noise. You don't try to time the market. You don't panic during downturns. You let compound growth do its thing over decades.

It's so simple it sounds like it can't work. But the data is overwhelming: This approach beats 80-90% of actively managed funds over the long term.

What Makes This Book Different

Collins doesn't just tell you what to do. He explains why it works, backed by historical data and market mechanics.

The book covers:

• Why index funds beat active management (lower fees, tax efficiency, market capture)
• The 4% rule (how much you can safely withdraw in retirement)
• Asset allocation (stocks vs. bonds based on your timeline)
• Tax optimization (Roth vs. Traditional, tax-loss harvesting)
• Debt elimination (why high-interest debt kills wealth building)
• Financial independence math (the exact numbers you need to retire)

But here's what I really appreciate: Collins wrote this book as letters to his daughter. The tone is conversational, not academic. He explains complex concepts in plain English without dumbing them down.

You don't need a finance degree to understand this book. You just need to be willing to question what the financial industry has been telling you.

The Financial Independence Framework

Collins is a foundational figure in the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early), and this book lays out the math behind financial freedom.

The concept is straightforward:

Now, you might be thinking: "That's great, but I'm 45 and haven't saved $2 million. What's the point?"

Here's the point: Even if you're not retiring early, the principles still apply. Every dollar you invest using Collins's approach compounds efficiently. And if you're building supplementary income through consulting or advisory work, you can accelerate that growth significantly.

Why This Matters for Building Encore Income

Let's connect the dots.

You're leveraging your Corporate Superpowers to build supplementary income streams. Maybe you're consulting. Maybe you're advising. Maybe you're creating products based on your expertise.

Here's the question: What are you doing with that money?

If you're spending it, you're trading time for consumption. If you're investing it in actively managed funds with high fees, you're giving away 30-40% of your potential growth.

But if you're investing it using Collins's approach—low-cost index funds, consistent contributions, long-term hold—you're building a compounding machine that works even when you're not.

The Parts That Hit Home

On market crashes: Collins doesn't sugarcoat it. Markets will drop 30-50% occasionally. It's not a matter of if, but when. But he shows you the historical data: Every crash has been followed by recovery and new highs. Panic selling is how wealth gets destroyed.

On financial advisors: He's not categorically against them, but he's clear about the math. A 1% annual fee might not sound like much, but over 30 years it can cost you 25-40% of your final portfolio value. That's not small change.

On lifestyle inflation: Most people earn more and spend more, never building wealth. Collins advocates for keeping your expenses stable as income rises, investing the difference. It's not sexy, but it works.

What I Don't Like

I'll be honest about the limitations.

This book is heavily focused on Vanguard funds, particularly VTSAX. That's not a problem—Vanguard is excellent. But Collins could acknowledge equivalent options at Fidelity and Schwab more thoroughly.

Also, the book is U.S.-centric. If you're investing internationally, you'll need to adapt the strategy to your country's tax laws and available funds.

But these are minor quibbles. The core principles are sound regardless of which broker you use or where you live.

How This Connects to Your Corporate Superpowers

Building supplementary income is one side of the wealth equation. Investing that income intelligently is the other.

Your Corporate Superpowers help you generate the money. Collins shows you how to make that money work for you without getting fleeced by the financial industry.

The Bottom Line

Is this book going to make you rich next year? No.

Is it going to give you some magic investment hack that beats the market? Also no.

But will it give you a clear, data-backed strategy for building wealth without getting exploited by the financial services industry?

Absolutely.

Over 1 million copies sold. Foundational to the FIRE movement. And unlike 99% of financial advice, Collins has nothing to sell you except the book itself.

That alone makes it worth reading.

Fortune favors the bold. But fortune also favors those who understand compound growth and refuse to pay unnecessary fees.

— Scott Fulbright

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