Name: How to be rich
ISBN: 9780872169371

How to be rich

J. Paul Getty draws on his own experiences of becoming the worlds first generally recognized billionaire to explain money and economics. He does so in a way that is very readable even to the novice. He is surprisingly down to earth and rather philosophical in his discussion of what wealth is, what it means to have wealth and as the title itself states "How to be rich". J. Paul explains in simple terms how stocks, bonds and real estate work. He discusses running a business and the impact of sound business decisions on the economy. He explains clearly the importance of paying employees as well as one can afford because they are ultimately the ones buying the product the company produces. He shows himself to be humble when he discusses real estate and personal possessions pointing out that if you own 4 mansions and 5 yachts, there isn't enough time in the day to use them. They will just sit there collecting dust. He explains how finances work and how to become rich but ultimately he makes a compelling case that being rich is not about piling up possessions, rather it is about investing back into the communities from which the wealth comes. A book that needs to be rediscovered in this age of income inequality and corporate CEO's gone wild.

What Hacker News says

stagbeetleMar 2017

> How to Get Rich, Felix Dennis

Great book. Some of the lessons are dated (less than J.P Getty's How To Be Rich), but a great book nonetheless.

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projectileboyOct 2009

You might enjoy the book "How To Be Rich" by J. Paul Getty; he touches on the subject a little bit.

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petercooperJun 2009

I read this book a couple of years ago and it wasn't quite what I expected - it was better.

Felix drags you in with the "how to be rich" message but actually ends up convincing you that you really don't want to be megarich at all and that there are far more important things in life to focus on or give priority to. He says he'd give anything to be young again and that no matter how much money he has, he'll never get time back.

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DanielBMarkhamOct 2008

Found it. It's from "How to be Rich" which I finished last week (after getting a recommendation from another HN'er -- good book!)

(Regarding the May, 1962 Crash)

"I told them quite frankly that, while I sympathized wholeheartedly with anyone who had lost money because of market developments, I saw little if any reason for alarm and absoutely none for panic....I said I felt that the stock market was in a much healthier and certainly in a much more realistic position because of the long-needed adjustment in prices. As for what I was doing, the answer was simple. I was buying stocks...Most seasoned investors are doubtless doing much the same thing. They're snapping up the fine stock bargains available as a result of the emotionally inspired selling wave." [page 152]

Perhaps there's some difference this time around, but I doubt it. I imagine old J.P. would be saying the same thing today if he were alive.

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mattmaroonAug 2008

Eh, not all self-help books are that way, and a lot of the ones that are even contain nuggets of wisdom you can learn from. There are a lot of people who can help themselves, and the first step is often realizing that other people know stuff they don't.

How To Win Friends and Influence People is a sterling example of a good self-help book. Also, How To Be Rich by J. Paul Getty sort of changed my life.

The main concept was that to become rich, you have to work for yourself. Otherwise someone is essentially taking a cut from the profits of your labor.

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mattmaroonAug 2008

Yeah, you just kind of have to have the attitude that you're searching for a diamond in the rough going in. I may buy that one as well.

Check out J Paul Getty's How To Be Rich, which is both about how to attain wealth and what to do once you succeed. Pretty awesome really.

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