Books

There is an amazing amount of knowledge available through the many personal finance books out there. I’ve been reading personal finance books for 25 years now. In my humble opinion, these are the most important.

This is actually a rough ranking as well. I say rough because in any given year, my favorite’s may change. The ranking might alter depending on my current financial challenges or interests. Either way, in my opinion you can give yourself a solid personal finance training by reading just the books on this list.

1. Richest Man in Babylon (1930’s)
2. Bogleheads Guide to Investing (2006)
3. Millionaire Next Door (19960
4. Rich Dad Poor Dad (1997)
5. Total Money Makeover (2003)
6. Multiple Streams of Income (2000)
7. Your Money Ratios
8. Automatic Millionaire
9. Your Money or Your Life
10. Debt is Slavery
11. The Number
12. Think and Grow Rich (1937)
13. How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936)
14. The Difference
15. Smartest Investment Book
16. Millionaire Teacher

One Sentence Synopsis:
For each of these books, I could actually give you a one sentence synopsis that, if you added up and followed, would be a pretty complete list of advice to build wealth. Those would look something like this.

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Richest Man in Babylon | Spend less than you earn and save and invest a minimum of 10%.
Bogleheads Guide to Investing | Invest primarily in index funds.
Millionaire Next Door | Frugality is the trait most millionaires exhibit, so be frugal if you want to be one also.
Rich Dad Poor Dad | An asset produces income, if not it is a liability.
Total Money Makeover | Eliminate all debt, because all debt is bad.
Multiple Streams of Income | Establish multiple sources of passive income.
Your Money Ratios | Utilize ratios to establish clear milestones and goals.
Automatic Millionaire | Automate your savings first before paying any expenses: set it and forget it.
Your Money or Your Life | Using debt to accumulate things is a losing proposition so get out of debt and stay out.
Debt is Slavery | Debt is bad and possessions are a prison – so control your expenses to get or stay “free”.
The Number | Establish a target number for retirement s and work steadily towards it.
Think and Grow Rich | Establish a plan for wealth and pursue that plan with a definiteness of purpose.
The Difference | Mimic the 20 behaviors of the wealthy and financially comfortable and avoid those of the paycheck to paychecks and in debtors.
Smartest Investment Book | Invest!
Millionaire Teacher | Even low-income individuals can become wealthy if they are consistency frugal enough

While the above one sentence synopsis of these books is enough to get an idea of what each book is about, I promise you each of these books is worth buying- and reading at least once. I’ve read most of these books twice and some, like Richest Man in Babylon, I’ve read many times over. I promise you that I have referred to all of these books many times over throughout the years.

I suggest that if these 15 books were owned (and of course read and followed) by every single person, people would be far better off. And while this is my “definitive list”, I’m sure there are other books I don’t know about, or I have overlooked or undervalued. I’m always on the lookout for ways to improve the list. Love to hear from you on your favorite choices.  Post to comments.