These books changed my perspective on life

Photo taken and edited by Nalani Nieto-Johnson

Allow me to start from the beginning.

My family was not wealthy by any means. I guess you can say we were on the lower end of middle class in Southern California. When I was 10, my dad had been listening to a guy named Robert Kiyosaki. He had gone to a seminar or two, and had the audio tape set along with some books. (It was the 90's)

One day, my dad told me that if I wanted to learn about finance, I should read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. I clearly remember responding to him sharply. I said "Dad, I am only 10! Why do I need to learn boring finance? I want to be a kid! I have plenty of time to learn that stuff when I grow up!"

Fast forward 20 years, and wouldn't you know, that's exactly what I was doing. Learning about finance and all sorts of stuff about building wealth.

And which book was the first book I chose to read?

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

Yes! The very same book my dad suggested that I read to learn about personal finance when I was 10!

Now, I want to share my knowledge and my love of learning and reading with others like myself. People who need a little helping hand. For me, I was stubborn. I didn't want to learn about money or economics or anything business until I was in my 30s, and because I didn't want to sit down and read for about 20 years, it set me back pretty far.

After reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, my husband and I began reading more and more personal finance, wealth building and self-help books to change the way we looked at money, and life as a whole. We are now into our 9th year of marriage and since the beginning of our marriage we have been on this journey to improve our lives and the lives of our children. We have come up against so much pushback, it's upsetting, but we both know that this journey is for our future and if we allow negative comments and pushback to interfere with our mission to improve our lives and our childrens lives forever, then we will end up living an unfullfilled and hopeless life of misery and dissapointment. We definitely don't want that.

So, with all that said. I hope this list of books, that helped me change my mindset, can and will help you change yours.

The Holy Bible

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Start With Why by Simon Sinek

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

These books are in order from most helpful to least. This is my list and this is the order in which these books helped me. This is just my opinion, so use your own judgement. We all have different life circumstances, and those circumstances will dictate what you need to learn and what you don't. In my own life circumstances, I had to completely shift my paradigm. It took years to get to where I am today and I still have more shifting to do. As I read in the companion book for "Start With Why", "Find Your Why", one of the hardest things to overcome is time. It takes time to figure things out. For some it is instant, for others it'll take weeks, months and even years to "Find Your Why" and then become successful.

If you have a library account, your library might have a physical copy you may borrow. Your library account can also sign you into Libby, an app where you can borrow ebooks and audiobooks with your library account. This can be downloaded on your smart phone so that you can read or listen to these books anywhere you are, without carrying around a physical copy. (Personally I do it all, I have physical copies of the books I want to keep and I listen to audibooks through my library, and sometimes if the audiobook isn't available, but the ebook is, I'll get the ebook.)

Once you get your mind right about money. You should continue to condition your mind toward prosperity, instead of poverty. Money, as you will learn, is merely a tool to advance yourself forward in society. It was never supposed to suppress you, it was always meant to advance you.

In my next blog post I am going to break down how each book was able to shift my mind set about money from poor to prosperous. Over the past 10 years I've been on the journey as an entrepreneur learning what my life's mission is, and I want you to join me in learning what your life's mission is and how to become self sufficient and more prosperous in your own life. I may be doing videos later and post them on YouTube and Rumble, but for now I have this blog.

The books I recommended were only the top 5 books I read that helped me. I have many, many, more to share and no, they are not all about money or personal finance. Many are self-help and personal wellness books. Because in order to get your money right we must get our mind right and these books I am sharing with you are for you to get your mindset right. So please join me on this journey. I await the company.