The Best Self-Help Advice For Money, Health, And Wealth

The Best Self-Help Advice For Money, Health, And Wealth

My favorite genre in a bookstore is self-help. There's a million things to learn in life. So why not learn how to be the best you from people who've already been there. If you're looking for the best self-help advice for money, health, wealth, and success you're in the right place.

There are many reasons why you should always believe in yourself and in your ability to bring about positive change.

A Reddit user by the name of NickPlusYou decided to find all the top self-help reddit threads of all time and read through all the top posts of this year.

He combined all the most common advice into a cheat sheet, with the most common advice prioritized at the top.

There's so many great tips on self improvement, I wanted to share them with you. Below you'll find the best self-help advice he came up with along with some great additional tips from myself. This thorough list has the best self-help tips for money, health, wealth, and greater success.

I've been writing about personal finance since 2009 and achieved financial independence at age 34 in 2012. Learn more about my Financial Samurai Passive Income Journey and my blog's history here.

Best Self-Help Advice On Success

Here are some of the best self-help tips on being successful.

  1. Optimism makes people perform better. Most importantly, the optimism that literally anything can be defeated with enough effort. Every obstacle is merely a challenge, not a threat. x 8
  2. Habits are what form and deform your life. Humans are short-sighted. Build a ritual that will, much like compound interest, build an amazing life. x6
    Working out twice a day for a week won’t do much. But a year could make for a transformation. Failure is not one dramatic fall, but a series of small failures, compounded over a longer period. X 5
  3. Scale slowly. An overnight success still had 1 step up goals every hour. A billion dollar company once only had a goal of a million dollars. Set numerous small, achievable, bite sized goals – as opposed to a few, huge chunky goals. X 4
  4. Authenticity is king. People enjoy authentic people, respect authentic people and welcome authentic people. x 4
  5. Common sense beats all rules, stipulations and otherwise. You likely know most of what you learn, it’s simply being reorganized to fit your mind better. When it’s time to take action, trust that you know what you’re doing and focus solely on moving. x 3
  6. Success comes from trying something, failing and modifying the action – Thousands of times. No amount of preparation (beyond the basic) can prepare you for the first day with sharks. ACTION + MODIFICATION = RESULTS x 3
  7. Show small amounts of gratitude every day. Make it apart of your ritual. The gratitude forces you to focus on the things you are happy about. Small gratitude is low commitment and high reward. X 2
  8. Establish 3 to 20 second barriers between bad habits. Take batteries out the remote. Put junk food in trunk of car. It won’t stop you completely. But it will decrease significantly. Make positive habits easier. Pack a healthy lunch. X 2
  9. A huge part of succeeding at something is simply showing up. Even if that means you just walked in the door and back out. If you show up, the math says you’ll succeed, eventually. X 3
  10. Go 150% + beyond what you are expected to do. This is a 100% way to gain immediate traction. Applied with consistency can skyrocket results. x 2
  11. Practice task isolation. The only thing that matters in that moment is the task at hand. Work on that task only until you are ready to stop. Nothing else matters until. X 2
  12. Constantly be evaluating yourself. Every year, every month, week, day, hour. – Do this 100% objectively and healthily. The more you look at yourself objectively and decide what you’re doing right and wrong, the better feedback you can use to improve. X 2
  13. If you are always the smartest person in the room, you’re probably in a room full of idiots or you’re lying to yourself.
  14. Double down on your strengths. Neutralize your weaknesses. Make them just capable enough to swim still water.
  15. Adaptation is the key to survival. You cannot run over a jungle, but with the right small, frequent adjustments, you can run through a jungle.
  16. Discipline is not just following a plan when you need a plan, but following the plan when you’ve succeeded. Make a plan and follow it, regardless of your emotions.
  17. When you first wake up, try breathing faster and faster until hyperventilation. It makes your body kick into awake mode quickly.
  18. Try fasting from a bad habit completely. Replace it with something less bad. Over time, you can replace a lot of small bad habits with less bad habits and get big change.
  19. Organization, habits and the process of planning is actually all simply tools to clear space in your brain. You cannot use a car efficiently if it is jammed to the ceiling with clothes and furniture that belong in your house. And the furniture and clothes can’t be used correctly either.
  20. Take stock in the understanding that 90% of successful people are doing a lot of hustle underneath the glam and money. They wake up early, they skip parties and they work – A LOT.
  21. Automate literally every task you do not enjoy. It will make your life focus on the things you do enjoy.
  22. Most habits can be changed by finding the belief rooted to it and finding all the evidence you can to break it. – “The gym is a chore.” *Watch documentaries about people who love the gym* “I love sugary foods” *Watch documentaries about sugar causing disease* – You are what you subscribe to.
  23. Tell no one your goals. Talking gives you a rush of endorphins and dopamine. You “dope yourself out” on talking and never get anywhere.
  24. No amount of regret can bring back the dead. Love immensely and give your friends and family what they deserve as soon as possible and as often as possible.
  25. Chain together successful tasks and create the illustration of commitment, thus reducing your likelihood to miss out. – Crossing off days on a calendar chains a habit and thus reduces the chance to break it.
  26. Stage every commitment so you only give what you get back, and scale it slowly. Put in 1 cent, if it gives back 1 cent, then put in 5 cents. If it gives back 5 cents, continue. Never Give 100% to an idea you haven’t tested at 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% etc.
  27. Never show your cards first in a negotiation. The offer they have in mind may be much higher than you’re thinking.
  28. In a dispute, ask for proof of everything. Make the process draining for the other party if you’re in the right and they are forcing you to wade through mud.

Best Self-Help Tips On Money And Wealth

Here are some of the best self-help tips on money and wealth.

  1. Every successful person saves money. EVERY. SUCCESSFUL. PERSON. SAVES. MONEY. Save, at the very least, 10%. If the amount of money you're saving each month doesn't hurt, you're not saving enough. That's my saying, Sam Dogen.
  2. Every successful person invests. Invest in a bank, invest in real estate, invest in yourself. No matter how you invest, it’s the only way to grow. Spend your money on things that grow. – This includes your health.
  3. Do not skip on insurance. The peace of mind that disaster will not ruin you is worth the duty paid.
  4. One of the most common failures in business & personal is the mismanagement of funds. Be very meticulous with how you spend your money.
  5. Once you have enough, stop playing the game. After a 10+ year bull market, most investors have massive returns. If you already have enough money to live a happy life, there's no need to take as much risk anymore. With the Fed raising rates aggressively, you can get the highest money market rates with a bank like CIT Bank. Protect your gains and earn money risk-free!
  6. Being cheap is the wrong way to retire early. There are downsides to being too frugal.
  7. Once you accumulate your own money and become financially independent, consider practicing stealth wealth.
  8. If you have dependents and other beneficiaries, consider meeting with an estate attorney and setting up a trust. Don't risk your loved ones having to go through the hassle probate court.

Best Self-Help Tips For Your Social Life

Here are some of the best self-help tips on improving your social life.

  1. Listen to people. Ask open-ended questions to get someone to talk. Why, what and how questions. To enhance listening, look for a one sentence life lesson to take from every story / interaction. x 4
  2. You are upset because no one calls you to do things. So is the person who didn’t call you. Initiate activity. This is a solid way to be invited to more things, meet new people and have fun. X 2
    1. Group activities are always more comfortable.
    2. Have a specific plan in place of who, what, when, where & why.
    3. Sometimes the event will fall apart. This is common. Do it anyways. It’s worth it.
    4. Social people invite others out when they feel lonely. Antisocial people wait for a phone call. Antisocial people have a higher probability of being lonely.
  3. Traveling & expanding your social circle makes you more confident in who you are.
  4. Be 10% more excited than the person you are talking to in positive conversations.
  5. You have value to add to every interaction. Whether it’s with a CEO or a janitor. No matter your past – If you’ve burned many bridges, at least you had bridges to burn.
  6. If 10 people in a row reject you as a friend, that’s only .000000015 percent of the world’s population. You’ve got a whole lot more to choose from.
  7. Small talk is the door to deep friendship. You must make small talk first. You first said “Hi” to your significant other, you first had an interview at a company. People need to know you won’t stab them before they want to hang out.
  8. Letting go of the thought that people have to like you is the best decision you will ever make. People would have liked or disliked you regardless of how lightly you tread.
  9. Talk to people’s emotions. A metalhead and a classical music lover can connect on how emotional they get during a raw, deep piece.

Best Self-Improvement Tips For Your Health

Here are some of the best self-help tips on improving your health.

  1. Get 6-8 hours of sleep. It can cause huge detriments to your wellbeing to get less. X 3
  2. Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. X 2
  3. Sleep is one of the more important aspects of health, right beside nutrition and exercise. Master these three and you are doing well.
  4. Optimum sleep temperature is 61-64 degrees F. Optimal sleep warm up is 1 hour before bed to begin process attempting sleep. – No screens, no exercise, no stress.
  5. Meditation provides a range of health benefits.
  6. Exposure to nature prevented hay fever and other illnesses in cavemen.
  7. Stem cells regrow the body.
  8. Alcohol consumption linked to many diseases we didn’t think – such as Alzheimer's, Dementia, Cancer, etc. Alcohol companies are funding research to make alcohol okay or “healthy”. X 2
  9. Not exercising is worse for your health than smoking, diabetes and heart disease.
  10. Tobacco use linked to a quarter of a billion life-years lost vs. illegal drugs accounting for only tens of millions.
  11. Education linked to better health than income. Intelligent people make smarter health decisions that prevent the need for reactive, potentially too-late healthcare.
  12. Dropping smartphones from evening activity led to 93.6% of participants opting to keep their phones off at night. – Increased happiness, focus & wellbeing.
  13. Dark chocolate is a superfood. Good for health and mind.
  14. Take care of your mental health. It is just as important, if not more, as your physical health.

Best Self-Help For Business Owners

  1. WHO matters most, then WHY, then HOW, then WHAT, then WHEN. Hire the right people with the right motives who follow a great plan and what you do and when you do it should work out on it’s own. x 2
  2. Facebook, Uber, AirBnb, eBay – All got their start connecting two people together who could help each other. None have inventory, shipping centers, etc.
  3. Grow your brand. Building a strong brand is everything.
  4. Buy low, sell high. Every business is in the business of buying something cheaper than they sell it. Simplify your business by asking what you’re buying for cheap, and selling for more.
  5. Personal letters are the only way to get through a noisy world today. Find a way to personalize every communication you send.
  6. Aim for as many happy employees as possible. Happy employees can increase your profits.
  7. A great product will sell itself. Build a product that people will talk about.
  8. Test EVERYTHING. We live in a hyper-feedback world. Run test after test and build on what works. Methodically test every single aspect of your business.
  9. “Big Picture” thinkers don’t work well in a startup. You need detail oriented thinkers to calculate every move and thought.
  10. Ideas are like treadmills. It can be a catalyst to something great, but will require you to execute methodically and frequently. A treadmill without work is worthless.
  11. One of the most common failures in business & personal is the mismanagement of funds. Be very meticulous with how you spend your money.
  12. The best marketing is word of mouth. Talk to the loudest birds and get noticed effortlessly.
  13. Know your worth. Ask for that raise. It costs money to replace an employee, and it could be a significant amount.
  14. Online business valuations will skyrocket in value after the coronavirus pandemic.

Never Stop Learning

There are an endless number of things to learn. Never be satisfied with what you currently know. Utilize the best self-help tips above to improve your life. Become your best self. And never stop learning.

At the end of the day, you don't want to look back on your life with regret. Try your best. Give love. Take chances. Find good friends.

Wealth Building Recommendation

Track Your Wealth For Free: If you do nothing else, at the very least, sign up for Personal Capital’s free financial tools so you can track your net worth, analyze your investment portfolios for excessive fees, and run your financials through their fantastic Retirement Planning Calculator.

Those who are on top of their finances build much greater wealth longer term than those who don’t. I’ve used Personal Capital since 2012. It’s the best free financial app out there to manage your money.

Personal Capital Retirement Planning Calculation For Estate Tax Planning
Personal Capital's Free Retirement Planner