The Simple Path to Wealth

Your roadmap to a rich, free life — in just five minutes per week.

September 15, 2026

If you're looking for a practical companion on the journey to financial independence, The Simple Path to Wealth Workbook is here to help you turn ideas into action.

One of the first to learn the path was Jessica Collins. In fact, JL created it for her: his blog and the book grew out of letters to his daughter offering wisdom and advice on how she could win her financial freedom.

Jessica is paying it forward with a workbook full of prompts, exercises, and her own reflections to help you examine your relationship with money, clarify what financial independence means to you, and take meaningful steps toward a rich, free life.

Now we're giving you a sneak peek.

The workbook will be in stores on November 24th, just in time to plan for 2027. But if you preorder today, you'll get an exclusive invitation to join Jessica and JL Collins for a live 2027 planning session. They'll showcase powerful exercises from the workbook and answer some of your questions as you look ahead to another year.

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Step 1: Preorder from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, BAM, Target or your favorite bookstore.

Step 2: Fill out the form and share your proof of purchase.

Step 3: Join on November 30th 1-2pm ET or watch the recorded video.

SIMPLE PATH OF THE DAY

A slice of timeless wisdom from The Simple Path to Wealth:

"Even slightly beating the index year after year is incredibly difficult. Only a handful of investors have been able to modestly beat it over time. Doing so makes them superstars. That’s why Warren Buffett, Michael Price, and Peter Lynch are household names. That’s why I don’t let my occasional win go to my head. That’s why I let index funds do the heavy lifting in my portfolio."

ASK JL

Q: I am very fortunate to have received an inheritance from my parents in 2022 and my husband is about to get a large inheritance from a family trust. I am 56 and my husband is 53. We haven't received my husband's, but mine is invested in a variety of things.

I did take over from the financial advisor last year, and now have a self-managed account. The investments have done very well, so every time I look at it, I talk myself out of liquidating it all and moving to one or two low-cost funds. I really want to make our investments more simple, but I am concerned about buying into new funds that are priced at their highest levels. —Megan R.

Hi Megan…

You don’t mention where the money is currently invested, but since you say it has done very well, my guess is individual stocks. This, of course, likely means they too are at or near their all time highs. So the risk is the same.

If you are going to invest in stocks, that is the risk you must accept. At any given time they could drop dramatically and, over time, they will. Enduring these drops is the price we pay for the outsized gains they provide over the decades.

If you want to move to broad-based low-cost stock index funds or ETFS like VTSAX or VTI, go for it.

The bigger concern, if you hold these investments in a taxable account, is the capital gains tax you’ll owe selling the current investments.

—JL

Got a money question keeping you up at night? Reply to this email and we'll get it over to JL.

Two ornate golden crowns displayed on velvet cushions — You may not inherit this, but what about those stocks from your grandpa?

WHAT WE'RE READING

📚 Ben Carlson takes stock of a scary news story — "The End of a Golden Era For Investors" — with a twist: It was published in 2016. Since then, he says, the broad US equities market is up 300%.

📚 It's JL Collins vs The Internet Retirement Police!

📚 Speaking of inheritances, Vanguard has an estate planning checklist to ensure your heirs and heiresses will benefit from the wisdom of low-cost index funds.

THE BIG QUESTION

Have you ever inherited individual stocks from a relative? Did you keep hold of them, or try to replace them with index funds?

Reply to this email and we'll feature some of your responses in upcoming issues!

Last time, we asked when you started teaching your children about financial independence and how you got them interested at a young age. Here are a few of your answers...

Nine-year-old has $910 invested in the market. The seven-year-old sets up a lemonade stand during the summer in our neighborhood and has accumulated $1,196 in the market.

Something funny I've noticed is the younger one is more interested in letting the money build. I believe just hearing it talked about and discussed, even if it isn't directly with him—he picks up on it over time. We will see if the theory holds true with the two-year-old! Thank you for all you do! —Zach S.

I started playing board games with them when they were each about five. Many board games are about war. Those were not my choice. I chose games with an economic theme, where you had to develop something, and where the competition was in getting there before the others. The thing you developed depended on the box you chose to open: it could be a farm in central Europe, or a federation of planetary colonies in some galaxy.

The dynamics, however, were similar: you are given resources, and to the extent that you invest them wisely, you will get closer to your objectives and receive more resources at your next turn. It was fun, it provided a healthy way to compete for my school age kids, and—this is my personal judgment—was super instructive.

Apart from that, it was just common sense: telling the difference between needs and wants, incentivizing labor and cooperation, deferring gratification. —Bruno B.

My kids are eleven and nine. When they were eight and six, I started giving them a small allowance—ten dollars—every two weeks when I got paid. They didn't have to do chores for this, because the ultimate purpose was financial education.

They were required to invest 50% of it. I would transfer the five dollars to their Fidelity UTMAs, then they would go on the Fidelity website and make the FSKAX (total market index fund) purchase on their own. We still do this today. Then they can use the other 50% of their allowance on whatever they want.

I explained to them at the start that investing was buying ownership of all the companies in America so that all those employees are working to make money for us, and we don't have to work for money. —Bryant Q.