Financial library

You do not need to read all these books. The Library helps you choose which ones to read for what you want to learn and in what order, flags when two books cover the same ground and links each one to the Academy guides and calculators where you can apply its ideas with your own numbers.

Not sure where to start?

You do not need to read all of these. Five books in order take you from saving to your first investment.

I want to start from scratch

Reading paths

Choose what you want to learn. Each path explains why every book is where it is and what you can skip.

• Start from scratch: For people who have never read about money and do not know where to begin.
• I want to start investing: For people who already save every month and want to invest that money without complications.
• I want to understand the stock market: For people who want to analyse individual companies, not just buy the index.
• I want to build wealth: For people whose finances are already in order and who think long term: net worth, financial independence and what money is for.
• I want better money habits: For people who know what they should do with their money but cannot keep it up.
• I want to understand real estate investing: For people thinking about buying a rental property or growing a property portfolio.
• I want to understand how I decide about money: For people who want to understand why they make poor money decisions while knowing the good ones.

Personal finance

Saving, debt, budgeting, net worth and what to do with the money you build up.

• The Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clason (1926). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Easy. Basic saving principles told as parables set in ancient Babylon.
• Your Money or Your Life, Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez (1992). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Moderate. A method to measure what each purchase costs in hours of your life and decide how much is enough.
• I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Ramit Sethi (2009). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Easy. An automated system of accounts, saving and investing so finances take little of your time.
• The Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey (2003). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Easy. A step-by-step plan to get out of debt, build a cushion and start saving for the long term.
• The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko (1996). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Moderate. A study of the habits of people who build wealth, who often live well below their means.
• Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert T. Kiyosaki (1997). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Easy. An introduction to the difference between assets and liabilities, told through two father figures.
• Die With Zero, Bill Perkins (2020). Finance level: Intermediate. Reading: Easy. A case for spending money at the stage of life when it adds most, instead of piling it up with no end in mind.

Investing

Index funds, company analysis and valuation, risk and long-term investing.

• The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham (1949). Finance level: Advanced. Reading: Demanding. The book that defines value investing: margin of safety, analysis and discipline in the face of the market.
• A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Burton G. Malkiel (1973). Finance level: Intermediate. Reading: Moderate. Why beating the market consistently is so hard, and what index investing offers instead.
• The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, John C. Bogle (2007). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Easy. The Vanguard founder's case for index funds and against high fees.
• The Simple Path to Wealth, JL Collins (2016). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Easy. A simple approach to long-term investing: a few index funds, low costs and patience.
• One Up On Wall Street, Peter Lynch (1989). Finance level: Intermediate. Reading: Moderate. How an individual investor can find companies from what they see in everyday life.
• Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Philip A. Fisher (1958). Finance level: Advanced. Reading: Moderate. Qualitative criteria to identify quality companies and hold them for years.
• The Little Book That Beats the Market, Joel Greenblatt (2005). Finance level: Intermediate. Reading: Easy. A simple formula that ranks companies by return on capital and by how cheap they trade.
• The Most Important Thing, Howard Marks (2011). Finance level: Advanced. Reading: Moderate. Ideas on risk, cycles and market psychology from the co-founder of Oaktree Capital.
• The Little Book of Valuation, Aswath Damodaran (2011). Finance level: Intermediate. Reading: Moderate. An introduction to valuing a company by its cash flows and by comparison with others.

Real estate investing

How to analyse, finance and manage rental property.

• The Book on Rental Property Investing, Brandon Turner (2015). Finance level: Intermediate. Reading: Moderate. A practical guide to buying, financing and managing rental homes.
• The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, Gary Keller, Dave Jenks and Jay Papasan (2005). Finance level: Intermediate. Reading: Moderate. The models wealthy property investors follow to find, finance and hold real estate.
• The ABCs of Real Estate Investing, Ken McElroy (2004). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Easy. The basics of analysing rental homes and apartment buildings.

Psychology of money

Biases, emotions, luck and risk: why we decide worse than we know.

• The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel (2020). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Easy. Why money decisions depend more on behaviour than on technical knowledge.
• Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman (2011). Finance level: Advanced. Reading: Demanding. The two modes of thinking Kahneman describes, and the biases that trip us up with numbers and probabilities.
• Misbehaving, Richard H. Thaler (2015). Finance level: Intermediate. Reading: Moderate. How behavioural economics made its way against the idea that people always decide rationally.
• Your Money and Your Brain, Jason Zweig (2007). Finance level: Intermediate. Reading: Moderate. What neuroscience explains about how the brain reacts to gains, losses and risk.
• Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2001). Finance level: Intermediate. Reading: Demanding. An essay on how we mistake luck for skill, especially in the markets.

Habits and career

Discipline, habits, negotiation and dealing with people: what lets you stick to a plan and grow your income.

• Atomic Habits, James Clear (2018). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Easy. A method to build good habits and break bad ones through small, steady changes.
• How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie (1936). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Easy. Principles for dealing with people that are still used in sales, negotiation and team management.
• Never Split the Difference, Chris Voss and Tahl Raz (2016). Finance level: Beginner. Reading: Easy. Negotiation techniques from a former FBI hostage negotiator, applied to everyday situations.

Descriptions written by FinSimLab for educational purposes. They do not summarise the books and are not investment advice. Editorial rating by the FinSimLab team, not by readers. Practical usefulness for personal finances weighs most, followed by clarity, how current the ideas are, rigour and fit with what you learn in the Academy.