Read 15 Minutes a Day – Personal Challenge

A Little Background….

I love books.  I love books so much that every once in a while I actually read a book.  My (our) book collection, which is not minimal in any way, shape or form is something I am really proud of.  For a long time, I only focused on Architecture books (I’m an Architect) and that probably contributed to a decent share of my credit card debt.  Then once I met Erin she helped me to loosen up and consider actually reading (or looking at) non-architecture books.

I grew interested in American History, the Gilded Age, National Parks and Finance books.  What makes it even more great is that is that I have found ways to still grow my (OK, our) collection and she has given it some much needed maturity with her history books and novels.

Every year we go to the largest used book sale in the country.  It opens at 8:00 AM but don’t even think about showing up then.  This year we got a spot in line at 3:00 AM and had a great time.  It might be my favorite day of the year.  You never know what you are going to get but there is some amazing stuff there.  My first year I went crazy.  Since then, we set a general budget and do a pretty good job of sticking to it.

The other way I get books is I ask for them or Amazon gift cards for my Birthday or Christmas.  That way I know how much I get to spend throughout the year and that is it.  The funny thing is that my collection has greatly improved under those two methods as I have gotten more focused.

The Challenge

Now, on to the challenge.  For the month of April we will be reading books a minimum of 15 minutes a day.  The intention is to force us to just pick it up and start and hopefully we’ll keep going each night.

We tend to go back and forth between reading and not reading and both of us have been bad about reading lately.  We both have a stack of books piling up yet that we are wanting to read.

So what are we reading?

I have a few books on my nightstand such as The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach, The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins, Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam and The Recovering Spender by Lauren Greutman (courtesy of a Stacking Benjamins contest).  We’ll see what I get through or more likely start but don’t quite finish (maybe a challenge for another month).  I am most of the way through the Automatic Millionaire and have just started Millionaire Teacher.  BTW, does anyone else feel greedy reading books with ‘Millionaire’ in the title?

Erin picked up the $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau at our recent used book sale visit.  She later discovered his side hustle podcast without knowing it was the same person.  She typically reads books focused more on habits rather than the straight personal finance books that I read.  Once again, she helps balance me out.

Obviously I won’t get through them all but reading is a trait of millionaires so why not try it?  It also gets our eyes away from screens and helps us to relax (sometimes a little too much).

Have any of you guys done something similar to start a good reading habit?