Looking for recommendations for the best books and podcasts? Bushy Martin puts together his list covering self, health and wealth … and some bonus recommendations on property investment.
[Bushy Martin takes you through his best books and podcasts on the Get Invested podcast here]
Do you KnowHow many books the average person reads per year? Two or three, for the entire year.
And yet, the average CEO is reading four or five books per month. That’s a drastic difference.
Studies show that active readers are likely to have annual incomes more than five times greater than those who spend little or no time reading.
Most successful people credit reading, in some capacity, as a factor in their success.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, for example, spends 80 percent of his day reading. “That’s how knowledge works,” he recently told an investment class at Columbia University. “It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”
A young Elon Musk read for 10 hours each day before growing up to become Tesla CEO. He also reportedly read through the entire Encyclopedia Britannica when he was nine years old.
These days, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates reads a new book every week.
And Since 1996, the veteran talk-show host Oprah has been influencing her viewers’ reading habits with Oprah’s Book Club. She has called reading “her personal path to freedom”.
So what if you could read a book a week? Do you think that might improve your sustainable success in any area of your life?
Now the medium average number of words per book is about 64,000 words. So let’s say the average person reads about 200 words per minute. We’re talking about 320 minutes to get through a book, which is about 45 minutes a day, to read a book a week.
This is very realistic and achievable. That’s a lunch break, a little bit at night, maybe reading a bit on the train on the way to work etc.
Audiobooks or similar audio apps like Blinkist give you audio and written book summaries so you can get the juice even when you don’t have the ability to read, like when you’re on-the-go, or at the gym.
Listening to audiobooks or podcasts when you’re exercising or working out is good because it actually helps you absorb the material better. It’s been proven that when you are releasing certain hormones when you’re working out, you’re actually able to learn faster. And then you can also put the audiobook or podcast on 1.5x or 2x the speed, so you can move more quickly through the material.
So as we start a new year, I’m going to challenge you to make the time to read and listen to podcasts as a way of filling your tank with inspiration and motivation – just trade some time that you spend watching or listening to the news or scrolling through social media and replace it with some good book or podcast listening time – you will be amazed at how you start thinking and seeing things differently.
My recommendations for books and podcasts.
I’ve broken up my recommendations for books and podcasts into sections around the three cornerstones of success – self, health and wealth – along with some specific books and podcasts on property investment.
But before we quest to that list .. let me start with the books that had the most influence on own book, The Freedom Formula:
- The Slight Edge – Jeff Olson
- Life in Half a Second – Matthew Michaliwicz
- The Simple Path to Wealth – JL Collins
Self: The best personal development books
- Start with Why – Simon Sinek
Get clear on your beliefs and values and use that as a compass for everything you do and everyone you do it with.
- Living Forward – Michael Hyatt
A great life planning book that covers all areas of your life and takes you through a step by step process.
- Linchpin – Seth Godin
This really positions your mindset for how to survive and thrive in the accelerating change that AI and technology will bring to our lives over the next decade.
- 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos – Jordan B Petersen
A “self-help” style book, it beautifully interweaves history, religion, science and philosophy into a highly pragmatic book on how to be a fulfilled, successful, better human being – this is a powerful book that can help you develop a higher sense of self-discipline and self-reliance.
- The Obstacle is the Way – Ryan Holiday
What gets in the way is the way – There are no such things as problems, just challenges. We don’t control what happens to us but we do control how we respond. There’s no such thing as a problem or an obstacle but an OPPORTUNITY to do something different.
- Dying to be Me – Anita Moorjani
A spiritual book that really got me thinking – do yourself a favour and have a read.
- Mindfulness & Madness: Money, Food, Sex and the Sacred – Ira Rechtshaffer
Explains how to get spiritually sober through the practice of meditation integrated with straightforward psychological processes. It clarifies the fine line between presence and absence, between direct contact with our immediate situation as opposed to the ‘madness’ of being elsewhere, distracted and confused by a multiplicity of choices.
Health: The best book for your body
- The Primal Blueprint – Mark Sisson
This focuses on keto style eating regimes. Mark is the de-facto leader of the primal/paleo lifestyle movement and his practical suggestions on diet and exercise are easy to follow and just make sense.
Wealth: The best books on money and income
- Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki
This focuses on critical importance of creating passive income and saleable assets. Not just doing a job and hoping the pension will do it. This was the first book that started me on my passive aggressive investment journey over 20 years ago.
- The 4-Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss
This book gets us clear on exactly how we want to live and creating mechanisms that don’t need us to fund our lifestyle. It teaches you the useful concept of access not ownership and the power of delegation to get your life back.
Property: Best books on property investment
- From 0 to Financial Freedom – Steve McKnight
What does financial freedom mean to you? This book outlines a two-part system for retiring richer and sooner. It reveals which properties make the best growth and income investments, what strategies are best for you, and how to buy more properties without working harder in your job.
- The Property Puzzle – Stuart Weymss
Stuart is an accountant, financial planner and mortgage broker and his combined skill results in a great book on how to master property investment in Australia.
- Saving Tax on Your Investment Property – by Noel Whittaker
This is a great book for tax structuring, entities and lots of tips and tricks on how best to structure your investment portfolio.
Bonus: Best fictions books for fun and escapism
- City of Thieves – David Benioff
- Always Look on the Bright Side of Life – Eric Idle
- The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- Anything by Ben Elton!
- The Wonder of Loving: Best of The Thoughts of Nanushka – by Nan Whitcomb. If you’re into emotionally engaging poetry that captures situations in a magic way, you can’t go past this.
Now, let’s look at the best audio options to fill your ears.
Transition! The best book-related podcast!
- Read to Lead Podcast – Jeff Brown
Book reviews and fascinating author interviews. Jeff has the dulcet tones of a DJ to make it easy listening.
Self: The best personal development podcasts
- Dichotomy – Mike Reid
A deep thinking podcast that covers the dichotomy of challenges that we all face in our lives.
A straight shooter who cuts through all of the politically correct BS and says it how it is.
Health: The best podcasts for your body
- The Breathing Edge – Angie & Shane Saunders
This show helps you to focus on your breathing as a simple yet obvious way to control energy and our stress levels – you’ll hear them on Get Invested in 2020.
- Muscle for Life – Mike Matthews
Down to earth fitness advice for anyone who is keen to stay in shape.
Wealth: The best podcasts on money and income
- The Money Café – Alan Kohler
General Economy with a shares bias – Alan Kohler is a very insightful economic analyst that you may have seen on the ABC News and other media.
- DENT Podcast – Glen Carlson
Glen interviews some awesome entrepreneurs and leaders who are really making a mark so his episodes are full of inspiration and useful tips.
A very relaxed pod that I have been listening to for years that focuses on location independent businesses that give you your time back – always some great stuff on this.
- Do Well & Do Good Podcast – Dorothy Illson
This podcast focuses on guests who are successful as a result of their giving approach to life and how they use their business to help others.
- Full Production – Peter Finny Finn
If you’re a FIFO then this is a must listen podcast covering all subjects with some great guests on all things mining and resources.
Property: Best podcasts on property investment
- Kevin Turner’s Real Estate Talk
He is the go to host for all things property and finance in Australia and has some great guests and great topics to keep up to date with what is happening across the nation.
- Property Investory or Property Investor Stories by Tyrone Shum
Great interviews with a wide range of property investors.
Hosts Ben and Bryce cover some great topics on property and finance matters.
- Hotspotting by Terry Ryder
For assessments of future growth zones.
- Investopoly – Stuart Weymss
Some great insights on current matters relating to property and finance.
Bonus: Best podcasts for learning, entertainment, fun and escapism
- Conversations – Richard Fidler
- Revisionist History – Malcolm Gladwell
- The Tim Ferriss Show
So hopefully that has given you some good reading and listening material to get your grey matter working. But I’d also love to hear your favourite books and podcasts, so email me on [email protected] if you have others that would be worth sharing.
Bushy Martin takes you through his top books and podcasts on the Get Invested podcast here.
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