Some Good Personal Finance Reads
It’s getting colder (at least it is in Chicago), and that means more time for making hot chocolate and reading books. I’ve found a list of allrecipe.com’s top 20 hot chocolate recipes just for fun, but I’m more interested in talking about books, especially those in the personal finance category. I’m a big advocate of reading any kind of “informative” book – you find answers to your questions, stumble upon new interests, and become more knowledgeable about a topic.
My friend Ann gave me my first personal finance book about three years ago (one year after I graduated from college). It was David Bach’s The Automatic Millionaire, a book that teaches you how to save now to accumulate wealth down the road. I thought it was a fabulous book, and it truly helped me start saving more money. I got lucky thanks to Ann, but how do you know which personal finance books are worth your time?
Today, I ran across a blog by Barbara Bryn Klare on examiner.com that offers a list of solid personal finance reads. Barbara references another blog, GetRichSlowly.org, which provides its own list to help you build a personal finance library. These two lists include a wide range of books, most of which I haven’t read so I visited the ever-popular Amazon.com to get some crowd input. You’ll see the approximate rating and number of reviews I found on Amazon.com for each book below.
I suggest printing this blog post and heading to your local library to check out one or two of these suggestions, as most of them should be eye-opening yet enjoyable reads. If you don’t want to sift through the list of forty titles below, here are the seven I put at the top of my personal “to read” list:
- The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
- The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
- The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing by Larimore, Lindauer, and LeBoeuf
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Getting Things Done by David Allen
- Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes by Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich
- The Seven Stages of Money Maturity by George Kinder
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Examiner.com |
GetRichSlowly.org |
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1 |
The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko (4 stars, 842 reviews) |
The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko (4 stars, 842 reviews) |
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2 |
Your Money or Your Life by Dominguez and Robin (4 stars, 250 reviews) |
Your Money or Your Life by Dominguez and Robin (4 stars, 250 reviews) |
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3 |
The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class by Keith Cameron Smith (4.5 stars, 47 reviews) |
The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey (4.5 stars, 502 reviewers) |
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4 |
The Difference: How Anyone Can Prosper in Even the Toughest Times by Jean Chatzky (4.5 stars, 7 reviews) |
The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton (4.5 stars, 86 reviews) |
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5 |
The Laws of Money - 5 Timeless Secrets to Get Out and Stay Out of Financial Trouble by Suze Orman (4 stars, 61 reviews) |
The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason (4.5 stars, 428 reviews) |
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6 |
The Nine Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman (4 stars, 227 reviews) |
How to Live Well Without Owning a Car by Chris Balish (4.5 stars, 48 reviews) |
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7 |
Your Credit Score - Your Money and What's at Stake by Liz Pulliam Weston (4.5 stars, 44 reviews) |
Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy (4.5 stars, 14 reviews) |
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8 |
The Personal Finance Calculator - How to Calculate the Most Important Financial Decisions in Your Life by Esme Farber (no reviews) |
The Joy of Simple Living by Jeff Davidson (4 stars, 18 reviews) |
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9 |
The Number by Lee Eisenberg (3 stars, 112 reviews) |
Wealth on Minimal Wage by James Steamer (2.5 stars, 3 reviews) |
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10 |
The Seven Stages of Money Maturity by George Kinder (4.5 stars, 45 reviews) |
The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn (4.5 stars, 243 reviews) |
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11 |
The Soul of Money - Reclaiming the Wealth of Our Inner Resources by Lynne Twist (4.5 stars, 14 reviews) |
The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach (4 stars, 304 reviews) |
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12 |
Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes by Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich (4.5 stars, 49 reviews) |
The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias (4.5 stars, 112 reviews) |
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13 |
Nudge by Richard Thale (3.5 stars, 114 reviews) |
The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing by Larimore, Lindauer, and LeBoeuf (5 stars, 62 reviews) |
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14 |
The Secret Language of Money by Dr. David Krueger (4.5 stars, 24 reviews) |
Yes, You Can…Achieve Financial Independence by James E. Stowers and Jack Jonathan (4.5 stars, 5 reviews) |
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15 |
Making the Most of Your Money by Jane Bryant Quinn (2.5 stars, 179 reviews) |
50 Success Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon (4.5 stars, 20 reviews) |
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16 |
The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach (4 stars, 304 reviews) |
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker (4 stars, 405 reviews) |
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17 |
Money Changes Everything - Twenty-Two Writers Tackle the Last Taboo with Tales of Sudden Windfalls, Staggering Debts, and Other Surprising Turns of Fortune edited by Jenny Offill (5 stars, 1 review) |
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (4.5 stars, 719 reviews) |
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18 |
Money, a Memoir - Women, Emotions and Cash by Liz Perle (4 stars, 31 reviews) |
Getting Things Done by David Allen (4.5 stars, 558 reviews) |
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19 |
Options as a Strategic Investment by McMillan (4.5 stars, 73 reviews) |
Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz (4 stars, 240 reviews) |
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20 |
The Warren Buffett Way by Robert G. Hagstrom, Ken Fisher, and Bill Miller (4 stars, 95 reviews) |
Living Simply with Children by Marie Sherlock (4 stars, 11 reviews) |
