The Book That Started It: What Rich Dad Poor Dad Taught Me

My cousin Leon pointed me to Rich Dad Poor Dad, and that's where all this started.

The idea that stuck was simple. The book says an asset puts money in your pocket and a liability takes money out. I'd never looked at what I owned that way. Suddenly I could see which things were working for me and which were quietly costing me every month.

The second idea was to pay yourself first. Save and invest as soon as you're paid, not whatever's left at the end of the month.

Not all of it works in the UK. The book is American, so its tax tips don't apply here. It's keen on property and borrowing, but UK landlords now get much less tax relief on mortgage interest, and borrowing to invest can go badly wrong. It also says almost nothing about ISAs or pensions, which are some of the best tools we have.

Then I met my friend Pat, the closest thing I've had to a real-life rich dad. Pat showed me how to look at investing analytically, with numbers rather than feelings.

That mix - a big idea from a book, then someone showing me how to check it - is what I've tried to build into the Learning Hub. Its new Famous Investors and Books section takes the big ideas from well-known investors and books, and says plainly what works in the UK and what doesn't. This isn't advice - just what helped me.