Us female lawyers are an intelligent bunch. But law school didn’t teach us personal financial literacy. It’s time to fix this. Discover Blinkist!

Disclaimer: The information in this blog is my personal opinion and experience and is not legal or financial advice in any way! Also, just FYI, this post may contain affiliate links.

The benefits of a good book are far-reaching and, in some cases, life-changing. This is especially true when it comes to financial education. 

I can hand on heart say that books changed my life. But I could have made life a lot easier for myself. Here’s how.

Do you suffer from perfect lawyer syndrome?

When I set out on my journey to financial freedom, my starting point was books.

Hundreds of books in fact.

It took years to get through them. And the problem is, you never really do get through them all. 

There is always one more book to read. One more perspective to consider.

I simply never had the time to read all the books I wanted to read.

This became a massive hindrance because I sometimes suffer from “perfect lawyer syndrome” (i.e. the need to have every single bit of information before making a decision). 

Can anyone relate?!

This resulted in me doing a hours upon hours of reading (more like studying).

So much so that it prevented me from “pulling the trigger” on my investment journey for a very long time.

So don’t make the same mistake that I did.

Self-education through books is massively important. However, don’t make the mistake of spending so much time reading at the cost of doing nothing.

Get the information you need as quickly as possible and then get started!

Thank God for Blinkist!

After years of investing in my self-education, a good friend of mine introduced me to Blinkist. I was genuinely amazed by it.

So much so that I’ve used it every day since.

Blinkist is an app that summarises nonfiction books in 15 minutes or less.

The book summaries are called “Blinks”. You can either read the Blinks or listen to the audio summaries.

You get access to over 27 categories of books including money and investments, career and success, entrepreneurship, psychology, relationships, mindfulness and the list goes on.

When I joined Blinkist, I had a list of around 30 books that I still hadn’t got around to reading but wanted to read before pulling the trigger on certain investments. 

All 30 of these books were on Blinkist.

So instead of waiting months to read those 30 books, I listened to the Blinks in a matter of days!

It might sound like an exaggeration to say this app has changed my life but it has certainly changed the way I approach self-education – for the better!

Advantages

Advantage 1: Quick summaries

Don’t you hate when you finish a book and think to yourself “that could have been condensed into 10 pages”.

It can feel like such a waste of time.

Us female lawyers are busy people so it can be difficult to find time to read at the best of times.

I now listen to a Blink audio summary every morning while eating my breakfast. This means that I don’t lose time trying to fit reading into my schedule.

So I end up spending less time reading the book and more time actually implementing the lessons from the books.

Advantage 2: Highlighting!

To most people this might sound like a minor thing. But to us lawyers, a good highlighter is gold!

Do you remember what your law school books looked like?

When I read a hard-copy book, I tend to annihilate it through highlighting (tip: don’t ever borrow a book from me!).

Highlighting helps us subconsciously filter the bits we want to remember. 

So I was over the moon when I discovered that I could highlight Blinks.

The app also saves collections of highlights in a separate space so that they’re easily accessible.

Advantage 3: Cost-saving

I was spending about £30 per month on books in the early days. That’s a lot to spend when you’re trying to budget and live a more frugal lifestyle. 

Blinkist has saved me a lot of money.

So if you intend to read or listen to Blinks regularly, it’s well worth the price. 

I signed up for the annual membership (I believe I paid around $69 USD). I literally got my monies worth in about 10 days!

Disadvantages

Disadvantage 1: Some else’s critical thought

When listening to audio summaries, you are listening to what another person thinks are the key messages from the book.

This means that some of the messages you might have otherwise picked up from reading the book yourself could be missed.

When I joined Blinkist I tested the app by listening to a few the summaries of some of the books I had already read – just to check their accuracy (there goes that “perfect lawyer syndrome” again). 

I was genuinely impressed!

Books that had previously taken me a couple of weeks to read were condensed into 15 minutes summaries, without missing the key messages.

So, yes, there is a risk that a few key messages might be missed here and there. But I think Blinkist does a pretty good job at capturing the key points. 

Besides, if you were to listen to a Blink that you love – you could always buy the hard-copy. At least you know you’ll like it!

Disadvantage 2: Nothing compares to physically turning a page

Is it just me or is there immense satisfaction in turning the final page of a good book?

I always feel a mini sense of achievement when I finish a book from start to finish. 

When reading a digital book summary or listening to an audio summary, you’ll get no such satisfaction. 

But in my opinion, it’s worth sacrificing that satisfaction in favour of getting through 10 books in the time it would have taken you to get through one.

Conclusion

Financial self education is a building block to being financially healthy.

But there’s a balance to be struck between taking time to educate yourself and actually putting what you learn into action.

I spent way too long on the education part. I should have started investing much earlier than I did – and I lost out on valuable opportunities as a result.

I wish I’d have discovered Blinkist from the outset to speed up the education process.

So, in summary, I use Blinkist everyday and I’d highly recommend it!

Want some book recommendations? Drop me an email saying “I need a good book” and I’ll respond with my faves.