In your quest for financial freedom, you might have consulted different options to help you with your personal finance. Apart from the tips you can get on the internet and other sources, there are books you can read to help you succeed in your goal of achieving financial freedom.
However, you have to know the right books to consult so that you can get genuine and tested information from experts. You can get book recommendations online as well as there are sites that offer this service. We are going to talk about some books that will help you with your personal finance.
- 10 Best Personal Finance Books for 2021
- What is the Best Book on Making Money?
- How can I get Rich in 2021?
- How can I be a Millionaire in 5 Years?
10 Best Personal Finance Books for 2021
Books that teach the art of Finance offer a great way of learning the ins and outs of Finance and at a much lower price than taking, for example, a specialist Finance Course.
Read Also: The Ultimate List of Personal Finance Tips
By reading a book, you consume a huge amount of research in a relatively short amount of time, and it is one of the best ways to improve your skills.
The only problem is that there are a lot of Finance Books in the market and there are much more to come.
For example, just doing a search for “Finance Books” in Amazon results in more than 60,000 books about Finance, so how do you make up your mind about what to read?
You can do a google search and search for the Best Finance Books but then you get hundreds of “Best of Lists” in front of you, so that doesn’t help a lot either unless you want to spend a full day going through all those lists.
Well, that is exactly what we did! We searched for 50 “Best of Lists” highlighting the most recommended Books about Finance by various authority sites.
Then we selected and combined the 10 most valuable “Best of Lists” and earmarked and ranked what Finance Books keep up appearing on most of those recently published lists.
1. The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing
by Benjamin Graham and Jason Zweig
Listed 13 out of 20 times. Benjamin Graham (born Benjamin Grossbaum; May 8, 1894 – September 21, 1976) was a British-born American economist and professional investor. Graham is considered the father of value investing, an investment approach he began teaching at Columbia Business School in 1928.
Jason Zweig is an investing and personal finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Previously, he was a senior writer at Money magazine, mutual-funds editor at Forbes magazine, and a guest columnist for Time and cnn.com.
2. One Up On Wall Street
by Peter Lynch
Listed 7 out of 20 times. Peter Lynch is America’s number-one money manager. His mantra: Average investors can become experts in their own field and can pick winning stocks as effectively as Wall Street professionals by doing just a little research.
Peter Lynch is vice chairman of Fidelity Management & Research Company — the investment advisor arm of Fidelity Investments — and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Fidelity funds.
Mr. Lynch was portfolio manager of Fidelity Magellan Fund, which was the best performing fund in the world under his leadership from May 1977 to May 1990.
He is the co-author of the bestselling Beating the Street and Learn to Earn, a beginner’s guide to the basics of investing and business. He lives in the Boston area.
3. Rich Dad Poor Dad
by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Listed 3 out of 20 times. Kiyosaki is best known for his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the #1 New York Times bestseller. Kiyosaki followed with Rich Dad’s CASHFLOW Quadrant and Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing.
He has now had at least a dozen books published. Robert Kiyosaki has challenged and changed the way tens of millions of people around the world think about money.
With perspectives that often contradict conventional wisdom, Robert has earned a reputation for straight talk, irreverence and courage. He is regarded worldwide as a passionate advocate for financial education.
4. The Investment Answer | by Daniel C. Goldie, CFA, CFP and Gordon S. Murray
Listed 3 out of 20 times. Daniel C. Goldie is president of Dan Goldie Financial Services, LLC, a registered investment advisory firm.
A former professional tennis player and Wimbledon quarterfinalist, he has been recognized by Barron’s as one of the top 100 independent financial advisors in the United States.
He graduated from Stanford University and has an MBA degree from the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley.
Gordon S. Murray spent more than twenty-five years working on Wall Street, primarily at Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and Credit Suisse First Boston in a variety of institutional sales and management roles.
After his Wall Street career, Murray worked as a consultant with Dimensional Fund Advisors.
5. The Richest Man in Babylon | by George S. Clason
Listed 6 out of 20 times. George Samuel Clason was born in Louisiana, Missouri, on November 7, 1874. He attended the University of Nebraska and served in the United States Army during the Spanish-American War.
Beginning a long career in publishing, he founded the Clason Map Company of Denver, Colorado, and published the first road atlas of the United States and Canada.
In 1926, he issued the first of a famous series of pamphlets on thrift and financial success, using parables set in ancient Babylon to make each of his points.
6. Market Wizards | by Jack D. Schwager
Listed 3 out of 20 times. Mr. Schwager is a recognized industry expert in futures and hedge funds and the author of a number of widely acclaimed financial books.
He is perhaps best known for his best-selling series of interviews with the greatest traders and hedge fund managers of the last three decades: Market Wizards (1989), The New Market Wizards (1992), Stock Market Wizards (2001), Hedge Fund Market Wizards (2012), and The Little Book of Market Wizards (2014).
Jack Schwager is a managing director and principal of The Fortune Group, an alternative asset management firm regulated in the UK and the United States.
Schwager is the Senior Portfolio Manager for Fortune’s Market Wizards Funds of Funds, a broadly diversified series of institutional hedge fund portfolios.
7. Your Money or Your Life | by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez
Listed 4 out of 20 times. Vicki Robin is a renowned innovator, writer, and speaker. In addition to coauthoring the bestselling Your Money or Your Life, Robin has been at the forefront of the sustainable living movement.
She has received awards from Co-Op America and Sustainable Northwest and was profiled in Utne Magazine’s book Visionaries.
Joe Dominguez (1938-1997) was a successful financial analyst on Wall Street before retiring at the age of thirty-one by following the nine-step program he formulated for himself.
He taught this formula for many years and preserved it for future generations in Your Money or Your Life. From 1969 on, he was a full-time volunteer and donated all proceeds from his teaching to transformational projects.
8. Common Sense on Mutual Funds | by John Bogle
Listed 3 out of 20 times. John C. Bogle (Bryn Mawr, PA) is Founder of The Vanguard Group, Inc., and President of the Bogle Financial Markets Research Center.
He created Vanguard in 1974 and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until 1996 and Senior Chairman until 2000. He had been associated with a predecessor company since 1951, immediately following his graduation from Princeton University, magna cum laude in Economics.
The Vanguard Group is one of the two largest mutual fund organizations in the world. Headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania.
9. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings | by Philip A. Fisher
Listed 5 out of 20 times. Widely respected and admired, Philip Fisher is among the most influential investors of all time.
His investment philosophies, introduced almost forty years ago, are not only studied and applied by today’s finance professionals but are also regarded by many as gospel.
He recorded these philosophies in Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, a book considered invaluable reading when it was first published in 1958, and a must-read today.
“I sought out Phil Fisher after reading his Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits…When I met him, I was impressed by the man as by his ideas. A thorough understanding of the business, obtained by using Phil’s techniques…enables one to make intelligent investment commitments.” (Warren Buffett)
10. When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management | by Roger Lowenstein
Listed 3 out of 20 times. Roger Lowenstein (born in 1954) is an American financial journalist and writer.
He graduated from Cornell University and reported for the Wall Street Journal for more than a decade, including two years writing its Heard on the Street column, 1989 to 1991.
Born in 1954, he is the son of Helen and Louis Lowenstein of Larchmont, N.Y. Lowenstein is married to Judith Slovin. He is also a director of Sequoia Fund.
His father, the late Louis Lowenstein, was an attorney and Columbia University law professor who wrote books and articles critical of the American financial industry.
What is the Best Book on Making Money?
Here’s a list of books to help you get out of the rat race of debt and achieve the wealth that you truly deserve.
1. Think and Grow Rich
Way back in the 1930s, author Napoleon Hill interviewed a series of millionaires and philanthropists, starting with the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie.
The result was a perennially best-selling work of self-development that encourages the notion that “greed is good”–as long as you’re willing to share your wealth.
Best quote: “If you truly desire money so keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it. The object is to want money, and to be so determined to have it that you convince yourself that you will have it.”
2. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
If you’re poor, it’s because you think like a poor person and if you’re rich, it’s because you think rich, according to author (and multi-millionaire) T. Harv Eker.
To make matters worse, poor people essentially program their children to be poor, by providing them with a worldview that makes wealth accumulation impossible. Not to worry, though. If you start thinking like a mogul, you can be one, too.
Best quote: “The vast majority of people simply do not have the internal capacity to create and hold on to large amounts of money and the increased challenges that go with more money and success.”
3. The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke
Most personal finance books seem to be written with the about-to-retire set in mind. In this sprightly offering, TV star Suze Orman helps millennials navigate the basics of the financial world, like coping with huge student loans and a job market that, for young people, is nearly as dismal as the Great Depression.
Best quote: “You picked up this book because you are broke. Keep reading and you will discover what you need to know–and do–so you will not be broke forever.”
4. Total Money Makeover
Anyone who’s listened to Dave Ramsey’s radio show knows that he’s all about common sense: avoid buying on credit, pay cash for everything possible, get yourself out of debt and build an emergency fund.
Rather than airy-fairy promises and feel-good anecdotes, he offers solid basic advice for the everyman and everywoman.
Best quote: “What I have done is packaged the time-honored information into a process that is doable and has inspired millions to act on it.”
5. The Millionaire Next Door
Through research into U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more, authors Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko identifies most individuals as Under Accumulators of Wealth (UAW) who have a low net wealth compared to their income.
They then provide advice (like take skimpy vacations) to help people achieve a higher net worth compared to their income.
Best quote: People whom we define as being wealthy get much more pleasure from owning substantial amounts of appreciable assets than from displaying a high-consumption lifestyle.
6. Your Money or Your Life
Contrary to popular belief, living more frugally increases (rather than decreases) your quality of life. Author Vicki Robin’s cites many examples, such as the practice of working at a job that brings in less than the amount you pay out for childcare and “time saving” trips to McDonalds.
Best quote: “Conditions have changed, but we are still operating financially by the rules established during the Industrial Revolution–rules based on creating more material possessions. But our high standard of living has not led to a high quality of life–for us or for the planet.”
7. The Science of Getting Rich
Even though it contains nothing that even vaguely resembles “science,” this 1910 book provided the intellectual framework for thousands of personal wealth-building seminars.
Author Wallace Wattle believed that your ability to accumulate wealth is directly dependent upon how you think about it. In other words, if you believe that money is the root of all evil, you’ll never be wealthy.
Best quote: “No man can rise to his greatest possible height in talent of soul development unless he has plenty of money.”
8. Rich Dad, Poor Dad
An eighth-grade dropout who spends less than he earns is smarter than a college professor who can’t make ends meet, according to Robert Kiyosaki.
Furthermore, while working for a steady paycheck can get you started, your best investment of your time and money is to buy property or a business. Or better yet, do what Kiyosaki himself did and write a best selling book.
Best quote: “The key to financial freedom and great wealth is a person’s ability or skill to convert earned income into passive income and/or portfolio income.”
9. The Millionaire Fast Lane
Working hard, saving 10 percent, and retiring at 65 is a chump’s game because 1) financial markets are simply too volatile and 2) you’ll “be in a wheelchair” by the time you actually have enough to retire, according to author MJ DeMarco.
A better strategy is to use the volatility of the financial markets to get rich quickly and enjoy it now.
Best quote: “Show me a 22-year-old who got rich investing in mutual funds. Show me the man who earned millions in three years by maximizing his 401k. Show me the young twenty-something who got rich clipping coupons. Where are these people? They don’t exist.”
10. The Richest Man In Babylon
George S. Clason’s faux-biblical parables about acquiring wealth have inspired investors since the 1920s. Like most of the personal finance books that followed, The Richest Man In Babylon emphasizes saving over spending.
However, the book also insists that charitable giving is equally as important, provided you don’t allow those two whom you give to become dependent upon your gifts.
Best quote: “Budget thy expenses that thou mayest have coins to pay for thy necessities, to pay for thy enjoyments and to gratify thy worthwhile desires without spending more than nine-tenths of thy earnings.”
How can I get Rich in 2021?
If your’re looking to build more wealth in 2021, money won’t simply appear — you’re probably going to have to make some changes to reach your goals.
Here are five lifestyle changes that have helped self-made millionaires get to where they are today. If they worked for them, they could also work for you.
Focus on Generating two or more Income
The richest people focus on earning, and they typically aren’t content with one source of revenue.
As author Thomas C. Corley found in his multi-year study of self-made millionaires, the rich “do not rely on one singular source of income,” he writes in “Change Your Habits, Change Your Life.”
In fact, “65% had at least three streams of income that they created prior to making their first million dollars,” Corley says, such as real-estate rentals, a side hustle or a part-time job.
Once you start bringing home two paychecks, try Jay Leno’s strategy: Save the bigger of the two checks and live on the other.
It not only frees up more cash that you can save and invest, but it helps prevent lifestyle inflation, which is when you increase your spending as your income increases.
Save with the Goal of Investing
“Investing money is how you will get super rich,” says self-made millionaire Grant Cardone. “The only reason to save money is to one day invest money.”
In fact, how much you save and invest is often more important than the size of your paycheck, says personal finance expert Ramit Sethi. “On average, millionaires invest 20% of their household income each year.
Their wealth isn’t measured by the amount they make each year, but by how they’ve saved and invested over time,” he writes in his book, “I Will Teach You to Be Rich.”
Automate your finances
Once you’ve committed to investing your money, the easiest way to stick with it over time is to make the process automatic. Set up a regular transfer so that money from your paycheck is sent to your savings or investment accounts every month, before you even see it.
Say one of your 2020 goals is to put $2,000 into an emergency fund. Start by figuring out how much you’d have to save per paycheck over the course of the year to reach that goal.
Then set up an automatic transfer so you move that amount from your checking account to your savings each time you get paid.
If you have even bigger wealth goals, automation can help get you there, too. It helped one millennial, Grant Sabatier, save over half his income and eventually become a millionaire. “Automation is essential,” he tells CNBC Make It.
“When I first started saving and investing, I was a little more old school — I was trying to invest as much as possible into the online savings accounts I had set up, and it was a pretty manual process. Now, one of the biggest recommendations I make is to automate as much of your savings as possible.”
Build relationships with successful people
Your community matters. It can even affect your net worth, says self-made millionaire and author Steve Siebold: “In most cases, your net worth mirrors the level of your closest friends. … We become like the people we associate with, and that’s why winners are attracted to winners.”
Coreley agrees: “Wealthy, successful people are very particular about who they associate with,” he writes. “Their goal is to develop relationships with other success-minded individuals.”
If you don’t have highly motivated people in your network, Corley suggests joining groups for people who share your same career goals or personal interests.
Think big
If you set your expectations exceptionally high and are up for any challenge, you’re on the right track. After all, “no one would ever strike it rich and live their dreams without huge expectations,” Siebold writes.
And don’t put off setting money goals or implementing these lifestyle changes — if you want to build wealth, jump in today, says Sethi: “The single most important factor to getting rich is getting started, not being the smartest person in the room.”
How can I be a Millionaire in 5 Years?
After graduating from the University of Chicago, Grant of Millennial Money found himself unemployed, living at home with his parents, and with a bank account balance of $2.26.
“That was a huge wake-up call for me,” the now 31-year-old, who goes by his first name exclusively, tells CNBC. “I remember thinking, ‘I never want to feel like this again in my life.’ I took a screenshot of my bank account as motivation and made it my personal goal to have $1 million in assets in five years.”
In a post on his blog, Grant, who now lives in Chicago with his wife, outlines the five steps he took that helped him turn $2.26 into $1 million.
“I can’t guarantee that you will have the same results, but if you follow even just a few of these steps, you are likely going to be much better off financially than you are today,” he writes.
1. Get paid what you’re worth
“The number one thing that will dictate your future earning potential and get you to $1 million the fastest is how much money you are being paid today,” Grant writes. “Unfortunately, you probably aren’t being paid what you are worth.”
The simplest way to boost your earning potential is to ask for a raise. Grant recommends looking at the salary range for someone with your level of experience in your industry, which will help you understand what you’re worth.
Then take that information to your boss and emphasize what you bring to the company. Remember, “it doesn’t hurt to ask,” he tells CNBC. “A lot of people are ultimately afraid that people are going to say no, and so they undervalue themselves and they undervalue their services.”
2. Save as much money as you can and invest
“In order to build wealth you need to be making as much money as possible on your money,” Grant writes. “Because you can only make so much money at any career, investing is truly the key to wealth.”
During his five-year journey to seven figures, Grant saved 50% of his income. Today, despite his financial success, he still focuses on living simply and sets aside 40% to 50%.
The key, Grant says, is to make things automatic: “Talk to your HR company and have them start depositing at least 20% of your income directly into an investment account before you even see it.
This is 20% of your income AFTER contributing to your 401(k). I have mine automatically deposited directly into my Vanguard investment account and the money then gets automatically invested into a mixture of index funds.”
3. Develop multiple streams of income
After you’ve maximized your earning potential and are saving a good chunk of your salary, focus on increasing your revenue streams, by finding a part-time job, starting a side hustle or establishing passive income.
“If your goal to build wealth you need to master the side hustle and make money other ways than just your full-time job,” Grant writes. “This can really be anything, including driving for Uber, consulting, or building websites on the side.”
Once you start making money from your side gig, invest 100% of the profits, says Grant: “Once you find a great side gig, you will be tempted to spend that money in your everyday life as your bank account grows — but I strongly recommend you think of your side hustle as a key to building wealth (over the long term) instead of just being rich today.”
4. Invest in what you know
While Grant is a big believer in simple index fund investing, he allocates 20% of his investment capital towards individual companies like Apple, Amazon and Google.
If you’re going to invest in individual companies, go with what’s familiar, he says: “Look at the products you use and consume every day; then research the fundamentals of those companies so you can learn more about their investment potential.”
It’s a strategy that investing legend Warren Buffett lives by. The billionaire only invests in companies that are within his “circle of competence,” a concept he first described in his 1996 Shareholder Letter.
Simply put, stick to what you know. “Defining what your game is — where you’re going to have an edge — is enormously important,” Buffett says. Once you’ve done that, buy and hold.
5. Monitor your net worth
“I look at my net worth every day when I wake up in the morning and have my morning coffee,” Grant writes. “There are few greater motivations than seeing this number rise over time. No matter where you start from. I have been tracking my net worth for the past five years and my first balance was $2.26.”
He monitors his net worth using Mint.com, which allows you to link all of your financial accounts and displays your assets and liabilities. (Personal Capital does something similar.)
Read Also: The Best Personal Finance Apps
Plus, it tracks your spending. “At the end of the each year I take a deeper dive into this data and track what I have spent the past year on everything so I can work to improve my spending,” he writes.
If bad habits are holding you back, don’t fret. Even the Millennial Millionaire is human: “In 2012 I discovered that I had spent over $3,000 on Mexican take-out food in one year, which is insane and taught me a lesson,” Grant writes.
Conclusion
Reading a personal finance book is definitely a starting point in your financial journey. However, after reading these books, action is needed on your part.
Like you have seen in the suggested tips above, things like increasing your income or saving to invest and so on are things you need to do to achieve financial stability and freedom.
