The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life

In the opening chapter, Collins explains that this book began as a series of letters to his teenage daughter, meant to teach her about money and investing in simple, honest terms. He argues that money is the most powerful tool for navigating life but can control a person if not understood. Using a personal anecdote—his daughter saying she doesn’t want to spend her life thinking about money—Collins highlights why simplicity is essential: Most people don’t want to obsess over finances, and that makes them targets for exploitative financial systems.

He offers clear, often blunt advice: spend less than one earns, avoid debt, invest the surplus, distrust financial advisors, and understand that financial independence means freedom. His tone is direct and occasionally humorous, using metaphors like debt being “leeches” to drive the point home.

The chapter reflects a middle-class perspective, assuming the reader can save significantly, which may not apply to everyone. Still, the message is timely, especially in a world that has grown skeptical of traditional finance since the Great Recession of 2008. Compared to finance books that explicitly situate budgeting or frugality as moral values (for example, Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover), Collins’s focus is on simplicity as power.