Survey: The Best Personal Finance Books?

I thought Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover was inspiring to some extent, but I don’t think I’d reccommend downloading it via Audible/iTunes.

I felt like I’d been yelled at for almost 4 hours.

Also, I’m still fairly young and feel like my potential income could be twice what I make today within the next five years and that’s really not talked about in the book.

There probably isn’t a book about making how to deal with a lot of debt, while assuming you’ll have an easier time dealing with it as long as you are careful not to change your lifestyle as you make more money… hopefully that makes sense.

I think I’m on the right track, but it’s tough right now, and I guess reading this website helps. Thanks, JD

I’ve been reading Five Years to Financial Freedom over the past week or so. Its geared for the Australian market, but the principle is the same everywhere.

1) Clear all bad debt (credit card debt etc.).
2) Start investing now.
3) Start investing now.
4) Start investing now.
5) Invest regularly with a regular percentage of your income.
6) Don’t touch your investments.
7) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

It also talks about that while paying off your mortgage faster is a great idea, its possibly a better solution to invest elsewhere to spread the risk and possibly add some liquidity to your investments. The basic principle being that you can sell half your shares but you can’t sell half your house to raise funds. There are also certain tax benefits here to gearing debt for investment.

The other thing its got me thinking about is turning dividends back into shares in the same company thereby essentially getting free shares and building the dividend payout next time.

The best book I’ve ever read (that caused the largest change in my point of view) was The Millionaire Next Door. I had always been one of those people who sees someone driving a fancy car and assume that they are wealthy. Now I look at those people and my first assumption is: “Wow, they’ve got some debt”

I’m in the camp that has started a bunch of books but just can’t get through them. I usually make it through the first few chapters and then just get discouraged. RIght now I have All Your Worth (based on comments from this site) and Affluenza on my bedside table. We’ll see how it goes…

In the last few months I have read all the books that J.D. has recommended (with the exception of Your Money or Your Life – still waiting on that one at the library!)

I read The Wealthy Barber first and it blew my mind. I felt so financially inept and couldn’t believe how retarded I had been with my money. That began the change.

Then came Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. Again – a rock to the head. I felt EVEN more stupid.

Both of these books are great. I read The Millionaire Next Door and got the gist of it by the third chapter. The rest of the book was amusing statistics of how the rich keep their costs low. It seemed to me that they were beating a dead horse.

Since then I have completed a few other Ramsey books, including his Financial Peace, which I would recommend. It probably isn’t as structured as Total Money Makeover, but the same principles are fleshed out well.

Now mind you, I’m not in serious debt. But after reading all of these books, I became aware of how I COULD become seriously in debt if I didn’t make some changes now.

Thanks for doing this blog, J.D. You’ve saved my bacon with your book recommendations.

I like Suze Orman’s Young, Fabulous and Broke book. Very helpful for a guy like me. My dad’s been pushing Die Broke, and I’ve read it…but some bits in that seem counterintuitive (e.g., leasing instead of buying a car).

Def not Rich Dad Poor Dad

I’m a big fan of Rich Dad. Ill admit though, I havent read many PF books that werent related to stocks.

I like three different books, best is E. Warren’s All Your Worth, a very practical method for controlling your money. Second I like Andrew Tobias’ The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need and last as mentioned above I like the late Joe Dominguez’ Your Money or Your Life.

I favor the word of the pro’s directly. Take a look i.e. at Google Video for Charlie Rose’s interview with Warren Buffet.

Charlie Rose – Warren Buffett: The Man – Part One in a Three Part Series (Part 2 and 3 can also be found at video.google.com).

Other people have already said most of my favorites, so I’ll just air my biggest annoyance with personal finance books: they assume that you’re making enough money that saving money is just a matter of cutting out stupid luxuries.

Suze Orman’s “Young, Fabulous, and Broke” is an especially bad example of this, when it suggests that getting your hair cut every 8 weeks instead of every 6 weeks is a great way to save money.

(Conversely, this was one of the things I liked All Your Worth for…)

I started out 5 years ago with:
* Getting a Life
* Your Money or Your Life

Then I moved to:
* The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need

I’ve just finished reading:
* Rich Dad Poor Dad

The above 4 books provided me with an excellent financial education.

Next I’m gonna read:
* The Millionaire Next Door
* Cashflow Quadrant

The intelligent investor (Benjamin Graham). So good I lent it and when it did not come back I purchased again.

This is the book that talks about how to invest.

I really liked and recommend The Richest Man In Babylon. It has the biggest impact me on so far. It has really changed the way I manage my and my organization’s finance.

I found some of its principles really worth applying. They are:

1. Save 10% of Income
2. Seek Experts’ Advice
3. Let Money Work For You. Invest.
4. Invest, Insure. Less Risk, Less Return Is OK / Desirable Than Risk.

I am sharing the gist of the book for the benefit of all.

Richest Man In Babylon

A. 7 Rules

1. Start thy purse to fattening – Save 10% ( A part of all you earn is yours to keep!)
2. Control thy expenditures
3. Make thy gold multiply – Invest in profitable ventures
4. Guard thy treasures from loss – No Greed. No unprofitable / unwise ventures
5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable venture – house of own
6. Insure a future income – Insurance / old age
7. Increase thy ability to earn

B. Debt Management
Be a man of honor. Pay debts. Clear them.
Be a man for your wife. Respect and honor her
Formula for repaying debt:
- 10% Savings
- 70% Expenses (Whatever you earn, follow this principle)
- 20% Repayment

C.
Procastination is the biggest enemy!
Luck meets person who is prepared for the opportunity.
No Gambling, wager – Luck!
Men of action are favored by Goddess of Luck.

D. 5 Laws of Gold
1. Gold comes glad so long as one invests 1/10 to create estate.
2. Gold works diligently for wise owner who finds for it profitable employment.
3. Gold clings to the protection of owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.
4. Gold slips from unwise person / venture.
5. Gold flees from man who puts it to impossible earnings / tricksters.

E.
Lend only to a person who knows how to use that money, how to get returns, has a business plan, who has expertise in that area, better a little caution than a great regret.

F. We cannot afford to be without adequate protection.

G. Where the determination is, the way can be found.

Book Recommendations,
1)”your Money or your life” by joe Dominguez. (really life changing).

2) The smartest investment guide you’ll ever read -it’s a relatively new book that teaches index investing.

3) Automatic Millionaire (although I’m sick of the latte factor thing)

I truly inspired by the Riches Man in Babylon and Millionaire Next Door (I like the idea of frugality). At the same time enjoyed the Rich Dad Poor Dad that I learn about the definition of Asset and our position in the cashflow quadrant.

I really liked reading “RICHEST MAN IN BABYLON”. It is a classic.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad, hands down. This book, which I read in 2004, changed my outlook on life. I have since become “bad” debt free based on a personalized plan that was derived from this book and modified some after I read Phil Town’s excellent Rule #1. I have given both of my sons (ages 8 & 10) their own copies of RDPD. The book to me is more about gaining financial knowledge and courage than it is about some of the specifics outlined in the book. Buying assets, avoiding liabilities (bad debt) and living within your means while planning ever-growing financial successes is what I have taken from these books. Also, any of the annual Berkshire Hathaway letters from Warren Buffett always have huge nuggets of simple but profound advice.

I definitely recommend How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Much of it is common sense and stuff you feel like you probably already know, but still rarely practiced. This is the absolute best book in learning to develop the right people skills that can get you ahead in all your relationships whether business or personal.

the best money books i read are: Think and grow Rich;Napolion Hill ;your money or your life-Domngez;The Automatic Millionaire David Bach ; Safe money in touhh time; The Riches Man in Babylon and the Wealthy Barber. I took inportant lessons from all the above books. But the book that raised my financial awareness and introduced me to the first book on the list was an old book I picked up in a discarded book list in a hospital ER while waiting to be treated. This book was titled ” The University of Success”. This book also raise my awareness of “possibilities in life” . I did Make strdies in my personal Education including earning a law degree and other achievements personally.

Going through the Bogleheads Guide to investing now. Reading through some of William Bernstein’s work will be my next project.

Just finished Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. I highly recommend it. He has some, not alot, scripture quotes referencing money from the bible. Don’t let that turn you off if you can’t handle something from the bible. He’s not preaching or trying to save your soul. He is trying to save you financially & he makes alot of sense so you in turn can make alot of cents in your financial life. I will implement some of his strategies.

1. The Automatic Millionaire — loved it. Quit thinking personal finance is complicated. It isn’t, and the fact that you have zero saved and 20 personal finance books shows you are doing it wrong.

2. What Works on Wall Street — not really a book that you read, but a stunningly complete showing that picking stocks is idiotic. Keep fooling yourself, though, and keep trying to pick stocks.

3. Millionaire Next Door — many people have also listed this. A wake-up to the society that says that all rich people lead extravagant lives.

4. Rich Dad, Poor Dad — it lights a fire under your ass, telling you to get up and DO something. When you work for someone, you might think that you’re safe, but really you are putting yourself in a dangerous situation. You don’t have to get into real estate like the author but at least be aware of the danger you are in when you work for someone else.

5. Look into the idea behind “Winning the Loser’s Game” — some games are controlled by the winner (tennis matches between professional players — the winner is so good that he scores points and wins) while some games are controlled by the loser (tennis matches between the rest of us bad players — the loser is so bad that he makes enough mistakes to lose). When I play tennis, I’m playing a loser’s game _IF_ I try to win. But if I try to just stay in the game and to not lose points, then I can win.