Reader Survey: Which Personal-Finance Books Should I Review?
Published on - December 21st, 2008 (by J.D. Roth) My personal-finance library is growing at an alarming rate. Authors and publishers send me preview copies of their works. I pick up cheap copies of old books at thrift stores. And, it’s true, Get Rich Slowly (the company) actually buys new books about personal finance and success. As a result, I have a stack of unread books, and not enough time to read them all. Worse, I can’t decide which to read first. I thought it might be fun to let you, the readers, help me choose.
I cleaned my office this weekend (it was a mess). Just for kicks, I made a short video after I’d finished picking up:
As I cleaned, I made a note of every unread book I found lying around. In the following list, I’ve linked to the Amazon page for each of them so you can get a better idea of what each book is about. I’ve also indicated how I heard about it. Which of these would you like me to read and review?
- Saving for Retirement without Living Like a Pauper or Winning the Lottery by Gail MarksJarvis — reader recommendation
- Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi — a classic psychology book
- Stumbling on Happiness by Danniel Gilbert — watched his amazing TED talk
- Investing in an Uncertain Economy for Dummies edited by Sheryl Garrett — sent by GRS-reader Dylan Ross, who has two chapters here
- How to Be the Family CFO by Kim Snider — sent to me by the publisher
- It’s Not About the Money by Brent Kessel — sent to me by the publisher
- The Motley Fool Million Dollar Portfolio by David and Tom Gardner — sent to me by the publisher
- Overcoming Underearning by Barbara Stanny — sent to me by the publisher
- Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom — recommended by a reader
- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions — reader recommendation
- The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz — reader recommendation
- Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton — reader recommendation
- Your Money & Your Brain by Jason Zweig — sent to me by the publisher
- You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen — reader recommendation
- Enough by John Bogle — sent to me by the publisher
- Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina — purchased by GRS
- Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver by Michael Maloney — given to me by GRS reader
Yes, all of these were scattered around my office. There were actually many other books cluttering up the place, too, but I’d either read them or they weren’t about personal finance. If one or more of these sounds interesting to you, please leave a comment with the title(s). If there are books with significantly more votes, I’ll prioritize them. (Also feel free to request reviews of other books you don’t see listed here.)
My problem is that I want to read these all, but I don’t have time, and I don’t know how to choose. (Hm. Maybe The Paradox of Choice should be first!) But because I am here to serve, I’m happy to take requests. And, I must admit, I’m even happier to finally clean my office!
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I have mixed feelings about Overcoming Underearning — I agree with Stanny on a lot of issues, but her law-of-attraction-type magical thinking really gets up my nose. The advantage of taking control of your own life is that you’ve taken control of your own life, not that the universe is going to suddenly decide to reward you for it!
I adored Stumbling on Happiness and Your Money and Your Brain. Some might find Gilbert too self-consciously clever, but I liked his humor.
The video was very cute, but sadly lacking in cats.
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My choices for your reviews:
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Stumbling on Happiness
Personal Development for Smart People. Because of his recent guest post on your site, I have added his book to my list of library reads, but it is not available at my local library. If it’s worth buying, I will do it.
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What about having some of your readers read and write reviews? It could be done like a give-away – post a basic description of the book and have readers comment. Out of the comments, randomly pick a winner to recieve the book in exchange for a review.
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My top 3 choices would be:
The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz
Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom
Status Anxiety
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Hi. I bet if you took the tables of contents and indexes of all the books you don’t want to read, and compared them, you’d be able to do an illuminating “review” of the top topics/buzzwords/memes of the field. As you mentioned, so often a new book is just a rewording of old ideas.
Also, I think there’s a difference between “personal” finance books, which are grounded in the idea that individuals have sufficient control over the environment to make significant changes, and other books of economic and social analysis which might suggest that there are cultural and social realities that are very difficult to overcome at the individual level and that will require social/cultural changes that affect the whole economy before individuals will be able to beneft.
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Gwendally Says:
December 21st, 2008 at 5:56 pm
I vote for “Overcoming Underearning”. I’m a CPA and one of the constant refrains I’ve been having lately is telling people to go get a job. Being a student or an artist or an ex-wife is not actually a career that provides food and shelter for an adult and the time comes when they’ve got to stop living on debt and just suck it up.
Yes, I am tired of being expected to be sympathetic for artists who can’t make a go of it and just don’t have the lifestyle they want- or that I should support them by buying their work. These are people who have never been even remotely able to support themselves by their art and got along on parent or spouse financial support but in these hard times, they still don’t want to take the office job(like I have) that would “crush their spirit”. Ok- but then don’t complain that times are tough while you sitting at the home someone else is paying for while you are making one more bowl or necklace that no one wants to buy.
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I would be very interested to see what Status Anxiety has to say. I think the idea of appearing poor, or cheap, keeps a lot of people from driving cars older than three years, or shopping at thrift stores. Of course I’ve read a few articles lately about how more and more people are shifting that balance, due to the economy, and it’s almost becoming the “new” status quo to appear thrifty, or get more bang for your buck.
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For those of you looking for biographies of people who lived through hard times, I recommend the late New York Times columnist Russell Baker’s book called “Growing Up.” It’s a very readable, humorous memoir of his childhood in Virginia and Baltimore during the Depression and how he and his family coped with those difficult times.
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Kiyosaki wrote “Increase Your Financial IQ” this year. The five basic financial IQ’s are:
Making more money
Protecting your money
Budgeting your money
Leveraging your money
Improving your financial information
In his new 3 day course “Predict the Future” he suggests that we learn to print money (legally of course) like the FED by building our own businesses.
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The Credit Diet: How to Shed Unwanted Debt and Achieve Fiscal Fitness.
I really loved it and would love to hear what you (and others) think of it!
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“How to Be the Family CFO” and “Saving for Retirement Without Living Like a Pauper…” sound the most useful to me at the moment. “Buyology” sounds interesting, just because I like that sort of thing.
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Mmm, I’m seeing a similar problem with myself and reviewing books. Sometimes I get them faster than I can review them (I recall one publisher sent me a stack of five in one package).
Might I make a suggestion. If you don’t have time to review them all give some away to other bloggers to review for you. That way you still get a post done, but you don’t have to actually read all the books yourself.
The blogger then get published on your site as payment and perhaps you let them keep the review copy (up to you).
Anyways just an idea. Let me know if you want a eyeball or two to help out.
Tim
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My vote goes to: The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz
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I vote for the Paradox of Choice.
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Enough by John Bogle please! Thanks!
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Review Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness. I read it last year and would like to hear your reviews and other users reviews as well. Think it is something everyone will enjoy, although it’s not necessarily about personal finance.
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Your office looks fabulously organized! Just by the by, I’m reading “Hetty: The Genius and Madness of America’s First Female Tycoon” by Charles Slack. Not really a PF book per se but more the workings of a billionaire mindset. Given the era, this lady achieved amazing things via smart investment and frugal (even miserly) living.
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I’m interested in hearing about The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less.
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Interesting. It looks to me as if you folks are interested in the same books that I’m interested in, for the most part. Like me, you’re not as interested in the traditional personal-finance stuff. There’s just a ton of it out there.
Up until this comment, the following books have the most votes:
The Paradox of Choice: 15
Stumbling on Happiness: 8
Predictably Irrational: 8
Overcoming Underearning: 7
How to Be the Family CFO: 6
I do like the idea of having readers review certain books. I’ll e-mail a couple of commenters to see if they’d like to review a book. If you’d like to do a review, drop me a line at the tips address and specify which book (doesn’t have to be on the list) you’re interested in. If you can convince me you’re a good choice for the job, GRS (the business) will send you a copy to review.
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What?! No “Rich Dad…”?
Heh. Just kidding…
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Hi J.D.,
I’m torn between #1 and #2. I like the thought of finding out exactly how to save enough while still living pretty comfortably but I’m a sucker for psychology. Out of all of them, I would definitely say one of the first two.
Good luck!
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I am interested in a review of the Motley Fool book…
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I vote for “The Motley Fool Million Dollar Portfolio by David and Tom Gardner”
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I’ve only read 2 on the list. Paradox of Choice is fun and counter-intuitive. I’ve met barry schwartz, and he’s a great guy. However, the book expounds quite a simple premise – the more choices people have, the more stressful decisions become, which actually DECREASES their sense of happiness and well-being. (this, I am convinced, is one of the attractions of shopping at Costco.) So you can read a chapter and skim the rest, since it just builds on the case he makes. It’s quite a slim volume to begin with.
I also read Gilbert’s Happiness book. His point is that people miss-guess what will make them happy, but since it’s not a self-help book, I just found it left me mystified. People are stupid about doing what will make them happy, but there’s no simple solution to this problem. Great…. So don’t spend a lot of time on Gilbert!
Given the new economy, where assets are all devalued and no one knows what’s coming next, my hunch is that very few financial books are going to make any sense.
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I’ve been wanting to read Predictably Irrational, so that’s my choice for you. To think that we act irrationally in predictable ways is fascinating, and I’d like some insights so that I can be less predictable and more rational – why oh why do I buy clothes I really don’t need because they’re on sale?
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This isn’t on your list and it’s not 100% financial, but I would love to read your take on Sharon Astyk’s book “Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front.” I don’t think we’re headed for a Depression (or at least hope not), but her views are interesting. I know you like gardening, thereby saving money, too. She’s also got an interesting blog at http://sharonastyk.com/
She says about her book: “I focus on how families can adapt to climate change, financial crisis and peak energy, with an emphasis upon finding ways to keep a high quality of life while using radically less energy. The book suggests that we should focus our adaptive energies towards the things we’ve always cared most about – education, health care, food security and giving future generations a real future.”
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You can supplement Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice book review with his video that appears on Ted.com.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html
I asked Mr. Schwartz to speak at the FPA Mid Winter Conference in February 2009, but he has to teach that week! It would have been great to hear his presentation in person.
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Long-time lurker, first-time commenter. Like you, J.D., I have an ever-expanding library of personal finance books that vie for my attention. I checked out Kessel’s “It’s Not About the Money” from my local library and I highly recommend it as the next book for you to review. Kessel explains archetypes that seemed relevant and meaningful to me. What I really liked, however, was his focus on balance and education. Individuals who fit neatly into one of his archetypes are encouraged to adopt characteristics of an archetype that might be the polar opposite. The opportunity to understand and empathize with people who approach money in ways completely different than I do was refreshing and, in my experience with personal finance literature, somewhat unique.
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Saving for Retirement without Living Like a Pauper or Winning the Lottery by Gail MarksJarvis
and
Enough by John Bogle
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The Motley Fool Million Dollar Portfolio
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I vote for “Enough” by John Bogle.
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The Motley Fool Million Dollar Portfolio.
Thanks!
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Has anyone read “The Brainwashing of the American Investor”? subtitle is “The book that Wall Street does not want you to read.
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1. Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver
2. How to Be the Family CFO
Happy New Year, J.D.!
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My vote is for The Paradox of Choice.
It’s crazy that we live in a world of so many choices! It can get overwelming!
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I won a copy of the Family CFO book on another finacial blogger site. I liked the book but decided that there is no way on earth that most people can do everything she says. I would be interested in your take of the book since you are in the business of personal finance. I look forward to your posts every day.
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