That is true. Best thing to do is start with small changes so that you don't even notice it and all of a sudden, your bank account has more money in it.
Also, which book would you recommend?
Also, which book would you recommend?
I just did a quick scan of recent articles that you might find interesting. Try this one: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/02/04/why-the-middle-cla...
Book recommendations are a tough thing for me to make, I studied more gradually since I started in my early youth, and was already interested in mathematics. I suspect most of the "top ten personal finance books" articles favoured by PageRank™ are pretty reasonable, and a good start for most people.
My personal method was perusing Wikipedia for accounting and economics information, and looking at people close to me. Sorry I can't fob the right book title though.
Seconded; while I am very skeptical of the "invest to get (a little) rich(er)" approach[1], I'm open to and curious of what books the GP considers good.
[1] - Every single way of investing that I've looked at is either (1) not worth it (doesn't even beat inflation) and/or (2) more work than it's worth (I've already got hobbies I like; why should I waste my unpaid time playing even more into the rat race by tracking markets and probably never making a profit?)
Financial investment is a difficult bar to hit just because there are usually people more capable of it, and with better judgement for it than you. Investing in capital goods on the other hand can be best understood by the people capable of using the goods.
For example, you may commute to a job every day, and take public transit to get there. If you're within bicycle range perhaps you could get a used bicycle(good commuter bikes can be had for a hundred bucks here, and we don't even have the usual number of surplus bikes.)
The point about bicycle commuting is extremely cogent, however, as I do have a working bicycle and a commute that lends itself well to it. But I am lazy, at what I estimate of cost of between 800-1200USD a year, and it's only going to go up. Still, I might be able to motivate myself with some righteousness about being better than all the gas guzzlers . . .
All that aside, I can say one of my favorite "get rich slowly" books (that came out before that phrase was invented) is "Your Money or Your Life", although it's fairly dated (T-Notes at 15%? I wish!)