Personal Finance reading

[pin]

Inspired by the original thread:

https://geoexpat.com/forum/414/thread171085.html and the specific post by @John Doe Jr about books: https://geoexpat.com/forum/414/threa...ml#post1311433

I thought we could start a thread about what books one should read. Would be useful to state if that book is what I would call more "general theory" and books that are "specific example" books.

For example something like Fooled by Randomness would be general theory while The Simple Path to Wealth would be specific examples.

It would also be really interesting for peoples thoughts on what would be the must have or first book one should read especially to achieve financial independence.

I'll kick off I guess, the books I've read so far would be:

Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School by Andrew Hallam [Specific Example]: https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-T...=andrew+hallam

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not! by Robert Kiyosaki [bit of a hybrid of General Theory and Specific Example]: https://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor...h+dad+poor+dad

I am also reading Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb [General Theory]: https://www.amazon.com/Fooled-Random...+by+randomness

I have to say though I am struggling with Fooled by Randomness. I am about half way through and while I understand what it is trying to achieve, I do find it very abstract.

[cendrillon]

Books

I recently read and very much appreciated The Simple Path to Wealth: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H97OQY2...ng=UTF8&btkr=1

The Intelligent Investor is a classic, by Warren Buffett's mentor: https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-I.../dp/0060555661

I quite enjoyed The Alchemy of Finance by Soros: https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Finan.../dp/0471445495

If you'd like to be slightly more active but automated there is Systematic Trading by Robert Carver: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014J5LNSY...ng=UTF8&btkr=1

Since getting your head right is just as, and probably more important to financial freedom as the mechanics of investing I can thoroughly recommend the following:

Your Money or Your Life: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052MD8VO...ng=UTF8&btkr=1

How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: https://www.amazon.com/How-Found-Fre.../dp/0965603679

The Millionaire Next Door: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CLT31D6...ng=UTF8&btkr=1

The Joy of Not Working: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CSM3DNE...ng=UTF8&btkr=1

Unjobbing: The Adult Liberation Handbook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BPET8SK...ng=UTF8&btkr=1

And of course Walden by Thoreau: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008TVLYAW...ng=UTF8&btkr=1

Blogs

There are also some great blogs out there. A few I can recommend are:

Mr. Money Mustache: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com (great forum also!)

The Voluntary Life: http://www.thevoluntarylife.com

Living a FI: https://livingafi.com

Millenial Revolution: http://www.millennial-revolution.com

Videos

And because I'm a big fan of YouTube videos here are a couple of great ones:

[chris_in_hk]

A (general theory) book I wish I'd read much earlier is: Asset Allocation Balancing Financial Risk by Roger Gibson
https://www.amazon.com/Asset-Allocat...YKZDR5SY1SAY9X (Also available from the public library. If you can't get the 5th edition you can always get the 4th. That's the one I read).

Wouldn't say it was a starter book as it's difficult for people to appreciate, say, passive investing until they've tried and seen the somewhat futility of active investing.

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb was an eye-opener for me. Basic takeaway was that most financial talking heads are just attributing reasons to market movements when in fact no one really knows why the market moves the way it does or in fact it was just some randomness.

[shri]

That reminds me of simulating a drunkards walk. No need for books to understand what that is.


https://medium.com/i-math/the-drunka...ed-48a0205d304

[WMDS]

Great thread!

This is my goto book. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Investing-D...nt+for+dummies

[shri]

Worth reading:

How Many Stocks Do You Need to Be Diversified?

and the rest of their content

http://www.aaii.com/journal/index

(Note - am going to start switching links to ShopInHK - need contributions to my personal finance too!)

[Morrison]

I think I have already mentioned it in the how to retire early thread, I highly recommend this book

https://www.amazon.com/Wanted-Join-M...wanted+to+join

Amongst other things, you will learn that the "C" in SIPC stands for Corporation,
in others words it's not an insurance company

[Plutark]

I read some of the books on there but what I found most interesting is read the books of people who actually succeeded, either in Finance or by creating their own business. A lot of books out there are written by people who aren't successful themselves. I found that there are recurring themes with these people that can help you invest in these companies at an early stage.

I found these books really good
The Everything Store by Brad Stone - it's the story of Jeff Bezos
Zero to One by Peter Thiel - he created Paypal - Palantir and invested in a lot of successful startup
The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz - Worked for Netscape and sold to AOL, then had a VC fund investing in Facebook, Pinterest, Foursquare, Twitter, Github etc...
Shoedog by Phil Knight - created a small shoe company no one heard of, also one my favorite book about business.
Creative Inc. by Ed Catmull - the CEO of Pixar, it's a great book, not just about creativity

I also hear the new Ray Dalio Book call Principles is very good.

Also interesting to learn about how our brain work before investing. A book like "Thinking Fast and Slow" is really, but super heavy as there is a lot of learn in there.

[share818]

I would recommend "The Richest Man in Babylon" by George Samuel Clason and "The Complete TurtleTrader" by Michael Covel.

The former shares with you on the principles of money management while the latter on trading using the trend. Hope it helps.

[kittykaitak]

I thought Investing Demystified by Lars Krojer was well worth reading. He is a strong advocate of indexing and lays out the case that laymen have no edge in investing compared to professional traders so should keep things as simple as possible.

He also has a youtube channel and writes for monevator.

Lars Kroijer
Monevator — Make more money, invest profitably, retire early