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About the Book

Title: The Path: Accelerating Your Journey to Financial Freedom 

Author: Peter Mallouk with Tony Robbins

Genre: Nonfiction, Finance, Personal Finance, Self Help, Personal Development

Publisher: Post Hill Press

Publication Date: October, 2020

Pages: 320, Hardcover

I think once you start getting into personal finance management, many or most of the books you see on the subject start to interest you. So I finally took this out of my TBR. 

The Path: Accelerating Your Journey to Financial Freedom is written by Peter Mallouk, with the renowned author Tony Robbins making a few contributions. 

Is this book worth your time and money? Let’s find out! 

Get Your Copy of The Path: Accelerating Your Journey to Financial Freedom by Peter Mallouk

My Take

Let me start with what I do not like about the book. First, if you are already past the basics of personal finance management, everything in this book will definitely seem repetitive. I mean, you can access most of the content he writes about on saving, investing, and even estate planning for free on any blog or website that writes about personal finance. 

Also, whatever the author touches on in some of these topics barely scratches the surface of it all. Again, read any free blog with these topics, and you will get almost everything you need to see you off on your personal finance planning and management journey. 

Second, I noticed that the author couldn’t pass up the opportunity to mention his company, Creative Planning. This, of course, made such sections seem like an AD copy in a book. Once or twice is probably enough, but anything more than this and a personal profile showing his company is just cringe-worthy. 

Third, you can tell that the target audience is heavily the US market. If you are an international reader, some issues like taxes and retirement savings account information will definitely not make sense or even benefit you. To some extent, I think this is understandable. Still, don’t expect to learn much from these if you are not in the US. 

The same applies to the investment portion of indices, as well as overall market performance. While I love that he provides the necessary data and graphs to back his content, this is based on the US market. Not many international investors have access to the S&P index funds, and not many countries have investment firms with funds that track the market indices. 

Still, you can borrow some of the advice for your specific country’s market. For example, he reaffirms John Bogle’s theory that you should buy stocks for the long term. And while at it, buy index funds, not single stocks. 

The chapters that I loved are the second and the last. The second chapter, The World is Better Than You Think, provides much hope for any investor or prospective investor who feels there is no hope ahead. 

The book was published a few months after the onset of Covid-19. And we all know how the market reacted to the pandemic. As a result, many investors sold their stock holdings for cash, which always happens when the market goes down. However, this chapter offers some hope and reinforcement that you should never sell your stocks because you feel the market is tanking. It always recovers if past experiences are anything to go by. So, yes, there is always hope that you can still invest. And, with the world changing, you can never tell what the future holds in terms of companies you can invest in. 

In the last chapter, The Summit, he talks about happiness. We all have a goal for financial freedom, and it has a different meaning to every individual. What’s yours? Apart from this, what makes you happy? Attaining financial freedom might not give you the happiness that you are looking for. 

So, as you try to manage your money for a better future, do not forget to keep yourself happy. But that frozen yogurt, take that trip, buy the latest phone, as long you are sure you have enough savings to keep you going. Because if you don’t, your beneficiaries will not waste time getting whatever they want when you leave that inheritance. Worse still, the money could go to the government! 

Should you buy this book? I think if you are a novice and trying to figure out the way around your personal finances, you could learn a few things. But, if you have some experience and are looking for something more profound, I believe there are books out there that you could read, like The Psychology of Money and The Intelligent Investor (the reviews for these will come later). 

Get Your Copy of The Path: Accelerating Your Journey to Financial Freedom by Peter Mallouk

My ★ Rating 3.8

Goodreads ★ Rating 4.12 (as of September 2021)