This is the last book of the five personal finance books that I gave myself a goal to read in 2023. It was a very easy read and I finished it within 24 hours since it is under 100 pages. Here is my Too Rich to Be Stressed: Freedom with Dividend Investing book review. This book was written by Dividend John.
Table of Contents
Too Rich to Be Stressed Book Review
Too Rich to Be Stressed: Freedom with Dividend Investing first talks about having an ATM machine in your living room, and that ATM machine is your dividend paying portfolio. He goes on to talk about how dividend investing is life changing.
Dividend John talks about his upbringing and how his mother was the breadwinner (making under $40,000 annually) and his father did not really have a steady job. How he was teased for not having designer clothes when going to a private school where wealth was very prevalent.
Then he talks about his experiences investing and how he meets his mentor Adam (who had around $250,000+ in annual dividend income between his wife and him) and was taking $60,000 a year vacations in addition to buying a new Lexus in one year.
In this book Dividend John explains how dividends work and how you should create a system for investing. For example, he invests on the 30th of every month, which is dollar cost averaging.
Who Is Dividend John?
Dividend John is a X personality (or Twitter personality) with almost 10,000 followers. He started with $0 in dividend income and now has $73,000 in annual dividend income.
His portfolio comprises of about 10 Canadian dividend stocks, with them mostly Canadian financials with a smattering of Canadian telecom stocks.
He published a book Too Rich to Be Stressed: Freedom with Dividend Investing in November 2022. This book has a Kindle version which is only about $1 USD.
Here’s a video of Kanwal Sarai from Simply Investing interviewing Dividend John.
What I Liked About Too Rich To Be Stressed
I was actually pleasantly surprised reading the book how personable Dividend John is. It was interesting reading about his upbringing and how he lived modestly but went to a private school where his classmates had chauffeurs. The memory of his mother returning the grocery items back to the aisles because she didn’t have enough money for groceries was heart breaking.
He rarely ate steak because it was too expensive for their family. Now I understand why Dividend John posts pictures of steak on the time on X (formerly Twitter).
The book is very inspiring as it goes through Dividend John’s upbringing and his painful experiences investing, and trusting his hard earned money ($30,000 in his early 20’s saved up from shovelling his neighbour’s snow) to a financial advisor only to lose most of it in the dot com bubble and netting only about $5000. Then doing it again and losing money investing with Research in Motion.
What I Didn’t Like About Too Rich To Be Stressed
If you’re looking for inspiration with your investing strategy or you want to validate your dividend investing strategy, Too Rich to Be Stressed would be a good book for you.
There are a few typos (he spells Michelin star as Micheline star…and there is a solo parentheses without a pair somewhere) but I have typos all the time on this website.
It is a short read and doesn’t go very much in depth into dividend investing but more on the ‘why’ of dividend investing. This is one major drawback.
Also, the biggest criticism I would say is the very short mention of taxes and dividend investing, basically in the book he advises the reader to contact there accountant. A little further exploration on the tax implications of investing with Canadian dividend stocks in addition to having your 9-5 income on a T4 would have been helpful.
That being said, Canadian eligible dividend stocks are easier on the taxes. Here’s a guide on tax efficient investing in Canada.
This free Wealthsimple tax calculator comes in handy for calculations like that.
Too Rich to Be Stressed is very inspirational and the Kindle version is easy on the pocket book.
What is your Too Rich to Be Stressed book review?
GYM is a 30 something millennial interested in achieving financial freedom through disciplined saving, dividend and ETF investing, and living a minimalist lifestyle. Before you go, check out my recommendations page of financial tools I use to save and invest money. Don’t forget to subscribe for blog updates, a free dividend yield spreadsheet, and the free Young Money Bootcamp eCourse.