By the time readers get to Chapter 8, they’ve done the work to set up their financial infrastructure, set up investments, and automate the system. The rest is extra credit. Chapter 8 shows readers how to maintain their financial system and offers some tips for readers who want to optimize their system.

Sethi first advises readers to think about why they want to optimize their system. He returns again to the idea of living outside of the spreadsheet; it’s tempting to want more just for the sake of having more. Instead, Sethi encourages readers to identify specific goals like going on a big vacation or buying a house in their dream neighborhood. He calls this readers’ “street-level motivation.”

The earlier chapters in the book recommended Sethi’s 85% Solution: It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you do have to get started. Now, Sethi shows readers how to fill in the remaining 15%. The more that readers feed into their system, the more they’ll get out of it: “one of your key drivers will be feeding as much as possible into your system” (263). Following this statement is a chart showing how much readers would make after 5, 10, and 25 years if they invested $100, $500, or $1000 per month.