Book Review: The Money Tree: A Story of Finding Fortune in Your Own Backyard by Chris Guillebeau

Welcome to Player One Finance, this week’s book review is on The Money Tree: A Story of Finding Fortune in Your Own Backyard by Chris Guillebeau.

He is also the author of The $100 Startup and Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days.

Chris Guillebeau also has a podcast, Side Hustle School, where he provides short episodes every day of someone who started a side hustle. He provides tips on how one can start their own too. 

What I enjoy the most, he has been doing throwback Thursday episodes where he allows previous side hustlers from past episodes to give the audience an update of where they are with their side hustles. 

Other segments in the podcast, Failure Friday where people provide stories of setbacks in starting their side hustles and First $1,000. I highly recommend this podcast for some inspiration.

The book Money Tree is different from his previous books though, instead of being a how-to book, it’s a fiction one. He tells the story of Jake, a marketing consultant, who finds out one day he owes a large amount of student debt. Meanwhile, he starts having trouble at work and in his personal life.

On his journey, he finds a way to make extra money and create other sources of income while still keeping his day job. With having a second source of income, he ends up gaining more confidence at his job and in his personal life. 

I like that he added information mentioned in his previous books into the story, to show how someone can think of and create their own side business while keeping their day job.

Considering it is a six-hour audiobook, it went by really fast. I listened to this book a few times to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The book overall was good. 

This is the type of book I wished I read in high school. I know people’s go-to book recommendation is Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but I would recommend Money Tree over that one for anyone in high school or anyone who needs to be motivated. As well as $100 Startup and 27 Days Side Hustle. 

I think we can all relate to the story in this book. Many of us have some sort of debt. It can be student loans, car loans, credit cards, mortgages, medical bills that we want to pay off. There are probably some who might feel like they will never be able to pay all of it off. I’m there with you.

With what’s going on in the world right now, the book reminds us of the importance of having multiple sources of income. You can’t just rely on one source of income. And the fact that all of us still have to pay our bills during all this uncertainty, we need to take this opportunity to learn new skills to start a business, to be a more valuable employee or just be able to have extra cash to pay the bills or save for the future.

 I plan to review Chris Guillebeau’s other books and build side hustles by following his steps.

 Memorable Quote from the book:

 “You can do more than you think”