Books can hold decades of earned knowledge in the span of a few hundred pages. When it comes to understanding finances, fewer decisions are easier, cheaper or more impactful than the move to educate yourself with a great investing book.
Money touches everything we do, so learning how to properly invest early in life can make a huge difference in your ultimate success.
It’s important to learn investment terminology. You’ll want to understand the difference between a stock and a bond, how cryptocurrency works, how inflation affects investments, the role of risk tolerance and how tax efficiency can increase a portfolio’s return.
It’s equally important to understand what money does and doesn’t do for a person seeking to grow wealth for future life events. That includes how we interact with money, how family experiences can shape our investment outlook and how significant debt can be a drag on our ability to achieve life goals.
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To assist you in this endeavor, here’s a list of 11 great books that address multiple aspects of the investing process. The authors range from leading financial gurus of their time to female, minority and next-generation authors who shape new perspectives.
Here are 11 of the best investing books for beginners:
— “The Intelligent Investor”
— “Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger”
— “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns”
— “A Beginner’s Guide to the Stock Market: Everything You Need to Start Making Money Today”
— “Investing QuickStart Guide: The Simplified Beginner’s Guide to Successfully Navigating the Stock Market, Growing Your Wealth & Creating a Secure Financial Future”
— “Rich Dad Poor Dad”
— “How to Money: Your Ultimate Visual Guide to the Basics of Finance”
— “Get Good With Money: 10 Simple Steps to Becoming Financially Whole”
— “Broke Millennial Takes on Investing: A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up Your Money”
— “The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness”
— “The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness”
“The Intelligent Investor”
Author: Benjamin Graham
Originally published in 1949, “The Intelligent Investor” has long been considered the only book you’ll need to read to learn the principles of investing. Common themes of this classic text include the concepts of long-term investing and Graham’s philosophy of value investing, earning it a place on every serious investor’s bookshelf. Graham is famous not just for his status as the father of value investing, but for his tutelage of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (ticker: BRK.A, BRK.B) CEO Warren Buffett, who used Graham’s principles to become arguably the best investor of all time.
“Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger”
Author: Charles T. Munger
Charles Munger, more commonly known as Charlie Munger, may not be known to casual investors, but his longtime friend and business partner, Warren Buffett, should be. Munger served as Buffett’s right-hand man leading the conglomerate and holding company Berkshire Hathaway for decades, and recently passed away in late 2023 at the age of 99. Widely considered one of the sharpest business minds of the 20th and 21st centuries, Munger based this book on 11 talks he gave between 1986 and 2007.
“The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns”
Author: John C. Bogle
Bogle is the late founder of The Vanguard Group and the creator of the first index mutual fund. His mantra was to invest with purpose, maintain a long-term horizon and reduce internal fees as much as possible. He was also a fan of dollar-cost averaging, a method of consistent, patient investing. Through his book, the reader will understand the differences between sound investment and speculation. You shouldn’t be surprised that one overarching conclusion is that low-cost index funds — Vanguard’s specialty — are a savvy move for most investors.
“A Beginner’s Guide to the Stock Market: Everything You Need to Start Making Money Today”
Author: Matthew R. Kratter
Published in 2019, this book offers a road map to getting started with investing. You will learn how to open a brokerage account and how to buy your very first investment. Kratter is a retired hedge fund manager who lived through the 2008 market crash, so his advice can be useful during modern market upheavals, especially in identifying the mistakes that often plague beginners.
“Investing QuickStart Guide: The Simplified Beginner’s Guide to Successfully Navigating the Stock Market, Growing Your Wealth & Creating a Secure Financial Future”
Author: Ted D. Snow
This book is part of a series of informational guides to different aspects of investing. Snow has more than 30 years of experience as a working financial advisor, and each book comes with free lifetime access to online resources (including coaching) created to support the reader’s growing knowledge. The second edition, released in January 2022, expands on real estate investments and managing tax liabilities. It also introduces the growing field of environmental, social and corporate governance, or ESG, investing.
[Read: 7 Best Vanguard Funds for Beginner Investors]
“Rich Dad Poor Dad”
Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki
A best-selling book for more than 25 years, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” tells the story of Robert Kiyosaki’s own experiences with his father (the “poor dad”) and his best friend’s father (the rich one) and explains how to grow wealth. It reinforces the reader’s understanding that you do not have to earn a high income to be rich — you just need to ensure your money is working for you. Readers should know that Robert Kiyosaki’s track record on predicting stock market crashes is horrendous, so it’s best to stick to the more generalized advice he gives about assets and liabilities in this certified classic.
“How to Money: Your Ultimate Visual Guide to the Basics of Finance”
Authors: Jean Chatzky and Kathryn Tuggle
Chatzky, a 25-year veteran of personal finance reporting for the “Today” show, and Tuggle, a New York writer and editor, teamed up to create HerMoney, a team whose stated goal is “to improve the relationship that women have with money.” This New York Times bestseller will take readers from the basics of creating a budget through all the firsts (student loans, jobs, credit cards) right into investment principles. Beautifully illustrated, it will amplify your understanding of earning, managing and using money in your daily life.
“Get Good With Money: 10 Simple Steps to Becoming Financially Whole”
Author: Tiffany Aliche
A self-described “budgetnista,” Aliche has created a 10-step road map to having a good relationship with your money, no matter the size of the goal or the complexities of the market. Speaking from her own experiences of having lost significant money during a recession and then receiving poor investment advice, Aliche’s words have enabled over 1 million women to achieve their goals. Nestled among the honors in her resume, Aliche is the first Black woman to be featured solo on the cover of Money Magazine and her book has been a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller. She has been a legislative trailblazer in partnering with New Jersey assemblywoman Angela V. McKnight to write “The Budgetnista Law,” which mandated financial literacy education throughout New Jersey’s middle schools.
“Broke Millennial Takes on Investing: A Beginner’s Guide to Leveling Up Your Money”
Author: Erin Lowry
This 2019 book is the second in Lowry’s “Broke Millennial” series and it tackles more modern investment topics, such as dealing with significant student loans, ESG investing, robo-advisor services and online financial resources. Best of all, it is written from the perspective of the millennial generation, which tends to be more wary about the stock market than previous generations and often believes in allowing personal values to guide investment strategy.
“The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness”
Author: Dave Ramsey
This 2013 book is the bedrock of Ramsey’s philosophy on building wealth. It focuses heavily on eliminating debt (student loans, credit cards, car loans and mortgages) among the seven “baby steps” he teaches to achieve financial stability and emotional peace. Ramsey has helped pull millions out of crushing debt, which is one of the biggest steps to achieving true wealth. It is an excellent foundational book to complement others on this list. While not everyone agrees with Ramsey’s aggressively anti-debt philosophy, there’s no doubt that many people find his advice invaluable.
“The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness”
Author: Morgan Housel
A well-known investing writer, Morgan Housel’s 2020 book “The Psychology of Money” became an instant bestseller. Ever the pragmatist, Housel uses his gift for storytelling to relate 19 different short tales about how people think about money to illustrate important behavioral principles that investors all too frequently ignore. The book is a refreshing break from denser books on finance that focus more on the raw math behind investing well — sometimes at the expense of common behavioral hurdles.
Bottom Line
There are many great titles on financial literacy, but this selection will give you a well-rounded knowledge base — both technically and emotionally. It will enable even the most inexperienced investors to feel confident and comfortable crafting a budget, reducing debt and gaining enough knowledge to either dive deeper into investing for themselves or have an engaging conversation with a financial advisor.
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11 of the Best Investing Books for Beginners originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 04/23/24: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
