[{"content":"Overview After finishing the book If You Can, I asked people on Reddit for recommendations for the next book that could help me better understand money and investing. The most suggested book was Broken Money, a book about how money works, how it evolved, and why the current monetary system has serious problems. Lyn Alden explains that money is not only an economic tool, but also a technology. As technology improves, the way humans store value, exchange value, and measure value also changes.\nThe book looks at money through history, economics, banking, geopolitics, and digital technology. Its main idea is that the modern financial system is “broken” because it depends heavily on debt, inflation, and currency debasement.\nWhat Money Is Alden begins by explaining the basic functions of money. Good money should work as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account. However, not all forms of money perform these roles equally well.\nThroughout history, people have used many different types of money, including shells, beads, silver, gold, paper notes, bank deposits, and digital money. Each form of money solved some problems but created new ones.\nThe book shows that money is essentially a ledger. It records who owns value and allows people to transfer that value across time and space.\nThe Evolution of Money A major part of the book explains how money changed over time. Early forms of money were physical and scarce, such as gold and silver. These worked well as stores of value because they were difficult to produce.\nOver time, banking systems developed. Banks made money easier to move and use, but they also introduced credit, leverage, and counter-party risk. Paper money made transactions more convenient, but it also separated money from physical scarcity.\nEventually, many countries moved away from gold-backed money and into fiat currency. Fiat money is not backed by a scarce asset. Instead, it depends on government authority, central banks, and public trust.\nWhy the Current System Is Broken The central argument of Broken Money is that modern fiat money loses value over time. Governments and central banks can expand the money supply, especially during crises. This can help prevent short-term collapse, but it often creates long-term inflation and currency debasement.\nAs more money is created, the purchasing power of each unit of money falls. This means ordinary people need more money to buy the same goods and services. Wages may rise slowly, but prices of assets such as housing, stocks, and real estate often rise much faster.\nThis system benefits people who own assets and punishes people who mainly hold cash or earn wages. Savers lose purchasing power, while debtors and asset owners often benefit.\nDebt and Inflation Alden explains that debt is deeply connected to the modern monetary system. Today’s economies rely on credit growth. Governments, companies, and households all use debt to finance spending and investment.\nHowever, when debt becomes too large, the system becomes fragile. Central banks often respond by lowering interest rates or creating more money. This may support the economy in the short term, but it can also push the system into more debt and more inflation.\nThis creates a cycle: more debt requires more money creation, and more money creation reduces the value of existing money.\nThe Global Impact The book also focuses on how broken money affects different countries unequally. People in developed countries with strong currencies may not feel the problem as quickly. But people in developing countries or countries with weak currencies often suffer much more.\nIn these countries, inflation, devaluation, capital controls, and banking restrictions can destroy savings. People may work hard, save money, and still become poorer because their currency keeps losing value.\nThis is one of the most important points in the book: broken money is not just an abstract financial issue. It directly affects ordinary people’s lives.\nMoney, Power, and Control Another key theme is the relationship between money and power. Centralized financial systems allow governments and banks to control money creation, payments, and access to the banking system.\nThis control can be useful in some situations, such as responding to financial crises. But it can also be dangerous because people’s savings and transactions depend on institutions they do not fully control.\nAlden contrasts this with harder forms of money, such as gold and Bitcoin. These systems are harder to manipulate, but they also have their own limitations and trade-offs.\nBitcoin and Digital Money In the later sections, Alden discusses Bitcoin, stablecoins, CBDCs, and other forms of digital money. She presents Bitcoin as a new type of monetary technology: digital, scarce, decentralized, and global.\nThe book argues that Bitcoin is important because it offers an alternative to fiat money. Unlike government currencies, Bitcoin has a fixed supply and does not depend on a central bank.\nHowever, the book does not present Bitcoin as a perfect solution for every problem. Instead, it shows Bitcoin as part of a broader monetary evolution.\nKey Takeaways The biggest lesson from Broken Money is that money is not neutral. The design of a monetary system affects who gains, who loses, and how society stores value.\nThe book shows that inflation is not just rising prices. It is also a sign that money itself is losing purchasing power. Over time, this changes people’s behavior, investment decisions, and ability to build wealth.\nAnother important takeaway is that saving in a weak currency is risky. People need to understand the difference between nominal value and real purchasing power.\nShort Review Broken Money is a powerful and detailed book for understanding the problems of the modern financial system. Its strongest point is that it explains money as a system: part technology, part economics, part politics, and part history.\nThe book can feel slightly Bitcoin-focused in the later chapters, but its broader explanation of debt, inflation, and currency debasement is valuable even for readers who are not fully convinced about Bitcoin.\nOverall, Broken Money is a highly useful book for anyone who wants to understand why money loses value, why asset prices rise over time, and why many people feel poorer even when the economy appears to grow.\nFinal Thought The main message of Broken Money is simple but important: when money is built on too much debt and can be expanded too easily, savers eventually pay the price.\nRating: 4.5/5\n","permalink":"https://thiennguyen56.github.io/posts/the-broken-money-review/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"overview\"\u003eOverview\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter finishing the book \u003cstrong\u003eIf You Can\u003c/strong\u003e, I asked people on Reddit for recommendations for the next book that could help me better understand money and investing. The most suggested book was Broken Money, a book about how money works, how it evolved, and why the current monetary system has serious problems. Lyn Alden explains that money is not only an economic tool, but also \u003cstrong\u003ea technology\u003c/strong\u003e. As technology improves, the way humans store value, exchange value, and measure value also changes.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Broken Money Book Review – Understanding Modern Monetary Systems"},{"content":"Overview I just finished If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly, and I think it is one of the simplest and most practical introductions to investing.\n📚 Read the book here: If You Can\nThe core message is very clear: you don’t need to be a financial expert to build wealth. You just need discipline, patience, and a long-term system.\nInstead of chasing stocks or trying to time the market, the book focuses on building a simple structure that anyone can follow.\nThe 5 Investing Hurdles One of the most useful parts of the book is how it breaks down investing success into 5 key hurdles. The idea is that most people fail not because investing is complicated, but because they struggle with these basic barriers.\n1. Savings Rate The first hurdle is how much you actually save.\nIf you don’t save enough, even good investing won’t help much. The book emphasizes that building wealth starts with controlling spending and increasing your savings rate over time.\nExercise: Track your income and expenses, then calculate your current savings rate. Set a target to gradually increase it.\n2. Asset Allocation This is about how you split your money between stocks, bonds, and other assets.\nMany beginners either take too much risk or too little. The goal is to find a balance you can stick with long term.\nExercise: Choose a simple allocation (for example, 80% stocks / 20% bonds) and write down why it fits your risk tolerance.\n3. Fees Fees quietly destroy returns over time.\nThe book strongly emphasizes using low-cost index funds instead of expensive actively managed products.\nExercise: Check the expense ratio of your current investments and compare them to low-cost index alternatives.\n4. Taxes Taxes can significantly reduce your returns if you are not careful.\nThe idea is to invest in a tax-efficient way and avoid unnecessary trading.\nExercise: Review how your investments are taxed and identify whether you are frequently triggering taxable events.\n5. Behavior (The Most Important One) This is the hardest hurdle: yourself.\nEven with a perfect plan, many investors fail because they panic during crashes or chase hype during bull markets.\nExercise: Write a personal rule like:\n“I will not sell during market crashes if my long-term plan has not changed.”\nKey Takeaways You don’t need advanced financial knowledge to build wealth. Consistency matters more than timing the market. Low-cost index investing is powerful over the long term. Avoid unnecessary fees and emotional decisions. Patience is one of the biggest advantages in investing. My Thoughts What I like most about the book is how it simplifies investing into something very practical. It removes the illusion that finance is complicated and instead shows that success mostly comes from discipline.\nThe idea that “boring investing is good investing” really stands out.\nIt is especially useful for young people who are just starting their careers and want to build strong financial habits early.\nCriticism The book is very short and basic, so experienced investors may not find new insights. However, that simplicity is also its strength — it focuses only on what actually matters.\nConclusion Overall, If You Can is less about “getting rich fast” and more about building a system that works slowly and reliably over time.\nIt teaches that wealth is not about prediction — it is about behavior, consistency, and patience.\n","permalink":"https://thiennguyen56.github.io/posts/if-you-can-book-review/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"overview\"\u003eOverview\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI just finished \u003cem\u003eIf You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly\u003c/em\u003e, and I think it is one of the simplest and most practical introductions to investing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e📚 Read the book here: \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/If-You-Can-Millennials-Slowly/dp/098878033X\"\u003eIf You Can\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe core message is very clear: you don’t need to be a financial expert to build wealth. You just need discipline, patience, and a long-term system.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInstead of chasing stocks or trying to time the market, the book focuses on building a simple structure that anyone can follow.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Book Review: If You Can — How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly"},{"content":"If this blog has helped you, the best support is to share a post with someone who may find it useful.\nIf you would like to support my writing, you can buy me a coffee on Ko-fi. It helps me keep writing, learning, and sharing useful things here.\n","permalink":"https://thiennguyen56.github.io/donate/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIf this blog has helped you, the best support is to share a post with someone who may find it useful.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you would like to support my writing, you can buy me a coffee on Ko-fi. It helps me keep writing, learning, and sharing useful things here.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n  \u003ca href=\"https://ko-fi.com/mikenguyen56\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"\u003e\n    \u003cimg height=\"36\" style=\"border:0;height:36px;\" src=\"https://storage.ko-fi.com/cdn/kofi6.png?v=6\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Support me on Ko-fi\" /\u003e\n  \u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Support"}]