Book review: The Money Code: Become a Millionaire With the
Ancient Jewish Code by H.W. Charles
Finished reading: 16 April 2017
"The
Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville" is an article by Warren Buffett
promoting value investing, published in the Fall, 1984. The article highlights
how it is more than just coincidence that a group of investors who invest using
particular value philosophy have outperformed the market and a value investing
approach can deliver higher than market returns over a long period of time.
However, following a
value investing approach is easier said than done and requires a terrific
amount of discipline and fortitude to keep adhering to the philosophy even in
times when it is out of favour.
Having read the
article I thought what are the traits of investors that are likely to lead to
outperformance and the obvious one to me was race. Through my readings on
business and investment I continue the come across a large number of Jewish
people who are extremely successful in building large amounts of wealth.
My gut feeling was that Jewish people are severely over-represented on a
per capita basis in both income levels and absolute wealth, however I have not
seen much publicized about this perhaps because the Jewish people have had a
long history of being persecuted and would rather not raise attention to this
observation.
When looking into the
richest people in the world I found an article that suggests more than
100 of the 400 billionaires on Forbes' list of the wealthiest people in America
are Jews. Six of the 20 leading venture capital funds in the US belong to Jews,
according to Forbes.
Since the mass immigration
some 100 years ago, Jews have become richest religious group in American
society. They make up only 2% of US population, but 25% of 400 wealthiest
Americans.
Eleven of the 50
richest people in the world are Jewish, according to the 30th annual Forbes
billionaires list released Tuesday. The list features five Jews in the top 15
and seven in the top 25 spots.
In 1957, 75% of US
Jews were white-collar workers, compared to 35% of all white people in the US;
in 1970, 87% of Jewish men worked in clerical jobs, compared to 42% of all
white people, and the Jews earned 72% more than the general average.
These statistics make
it clear that my gut feelings were correct the question from here is why the
characteristics of Jewish people make them extremely wealthy and on average
much more wealthy than the average person.
Again I would start
with my hypothesis that the Jewish people were treated very poorly historically
especially during World War 2 and had many assets repossessed. Therefore
when Jews were forced to relocate to new countries they only had one option to
work extremely hard and focus on education to improve themselves.
In trying to answer
this question and let me to the book the money code which attempts to explain
why so many Jews are millionaires and extremely successful.
In this book, H. W.
Charles laid out 7 practical money code (tips), each in their own chapter.
The first code is
wisdom which basically professes that the more you learn and the more that you
can apply practically those learnings the more fulfilled your life will be and
as a byproduct of that the greater your wealth will become . Wisdom can be
achieved through practicing humility reading books and from interacting with
others
The second code is
tradition and the Jews view wealth and success is a blessing and gift from god
and not something that should be shied away from. What a man thinks of himself
that really determined his fate and because the Jews think of wealth and
prosperity as positive and something to strive for many achieve that status.
There is a focus on working hard and then accumulating wealth and then making
that money work hard for you through wise investments that yield passive
income.
The third code is
work. The takeaway from this chapter is that most Jews work for themselves and
hire employees instead of being employees. There is also a focus on
perseverance and I believe that success is achieved and maintained by those who
try and keep trying. Whatever you do should be with complete focus with
no interruptions as interruptions break our train of thought.
The 4th code is
investing highlighting a focus on building your wealth through making
successful investments.
The 5th code is law
and placing importance on honesty and business matters and don't try to get
rich quickly. Wealth obtained by ill gotten means will be lost or as well again
by hard work will be kept. It is also encouraged to take care complete day of rest
on the Sabbath.
Code 6 is Tithe which
is a practice where you should give away at least 10% of your earnings
regularly.
Code 7 is charity and
the Jews are very charitable with the population making up in the approximately
2% of the US American population, however they represent 30% of America's most
generous donors. There are different levels of charity from the lowest to
highest level the lowest being giving begrudgingly and the highest being in a
beam the recipient to become self reliant
To sum it up it is
earn as much as you can save as much as you can invest as much as you can give
as much as you can. Money is a great treasure that can the only increases as
you give it away.
Conclusion
The Jewish people
have overachieved in a variety of industries & countries. They have
some very sensible philosophies which like the value investors highlighted in
Warren Buffett's Superinvestors of Graham and doddsville article lead to above
average wealth accumulation. Furthermore, their philosophies extend wider to
seek ultimately a more fulfilled life which all races could learn from.
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