Building Your Financial Future: Top Investment Books for Beginners

2. I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

An introductory book that talks about credit cards, automatic systems, buying index funds, promotions, and salary increases. The core is to start early, spend money consciously, and hold index funds for a long time. 

Written for Americans, many practices are the default option for Asians haha. But I still learned a lot of things I didn’t know before. The author uses the word-for-word script to teach readers how to talk to the bank. 

The most useful thing I’ve learned is to stay within your means and don’t feel guilty about spending.

3. The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore

The author is the Jewish founder of Vanguard. If you have a peaceful mind and strive to have a prosperous old age, then read this book. 

If you want to get rich overnight, stop reading and go find those motivational books on the market that will make your blood boil. 

The central ideas of this book are:

1. Start saving early and consistently. 
2. Diversify. Invest in index funds and forget about it. 
3. When young, buy services and experience, not luxury goods. 
4. Panic during a bear market is a certain recipe for disaster. 
5. Be cautious of small fees and taxes. 
6. Get insured. 

To American investors, It’s a good introductory book

4. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle

I read 'Enough' by John Bogle three years ago and recently reviewed his "Little Book of Common Sense Investments". 

To be honest, I prepared for the bubble burst for half a year, but I was still not fully prepared when the crash came. 

Although the loss is within control, it is enough to serve as a warning. Review the past and learn the new! 

PS This book is still very suitable as an investment enlightenment book.

A pretty good little book. A lot of data is provided. To put it bluntly, just buy the total market index fund regularly. 

5. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

Although the writing style and structure are that of a columnist, many simple truths remain true. 

These points about savings, desire management, and understanding of risks are very consistent with many investors around me, and I deeply agree with them. 

From the perspective of financial management, the only thing I disagree with is the author's choice to buy a house with full payment despite the low-interest rate environment and his high savings and relatively stable cash flow.

The author repeatedly emphasizes saving. Grasp your expectations for wealth and clarify your standards for a good life.

Read it. Got a lot of education about money. Let me just talk about one of my takeaway lessons: 

• Make sure your mindset about money is clear 
• Money is never enough, what's important is if it supports your living 
• A compounding factor is important, befriend with time 
• Save more spend smarter 
• Allow room for error for the unexpected changes 
• Volatility is the price of return, the cost of admission to get the return.

6. Broke Millennial Takes on Investing by Erin Lowry

There are a lot of parts about repaying debt, and the audience may be some young Americans who cannot make ends meet, but it is still a good introduction to investment and financial management, and there are also many comments and ideas from financial tycoons.

A very easy-to-read book, suitable for novice international students studying investment in the United States to establish a preliminary understanding of investment.

7. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

The comments at the end of each chapter are worth reading. Investment is a psychological war, and everyone's biggest risk is himself. 

This book cites countless clichéd examples to express: Buy the market honestly and invest rather than speculate. Although the central idea is good, it is a classic among classics after all, but it still needs to be viewed dialectically. 

This is independent thinking. Easy to understand and benefit a lot. This book that everyone who wants to learn investing should read.

8. One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch.

This is the first serious investment book I have read in its entirety, and my future investments will probably be marked by Lynch’s imprint. 

What Lynch emphasizes in this book, in my opinion, is to think independently in a nutshell. 

Start from your own life, recognize your advantages (as an amateur investor), don’t be superstitious about institutions and professional investors, don’t blindly follow the market and good and bad news, read the financial reports, understand the company and even conduct on-site inspections in a down-to-earth manner, and hold it for the long term. 

A stock in a good, undervalued company, waiting for it to grow. 

Before buying a stock, you need to figure out what the attractive 'story' of a company is. 

Check whether this 'story' is still true within a few months of holding it. 

As long as it is true, there is no need to worry if the stock price falls, and there is no need to be anxious if the stock price rises. 

On the contrary, if this 'story' no longer holds, you should get rid of it in time regardless of whether the stock price rises or falls.

9. The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett and Lawrence Cunningham

I will re-read it many times, and it is almost certain that as my experience, knowledge, and insights increase, I will gain new insights after reading it. 

After reading this, I have a new understanding of value investing and business management, and I can also understand a little bit that so-called investors do not make money by speculating on prices, but enjoy the returns of owning a business. 

I have always regarded Buffett as a fund manager (BH is its vehicle), but now I feel that he is indeed a businessman with great entrepreneurship.

10. A Beginner's Guide to the Stock Market by Matthew R. Kratter

The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power. If you've got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you've got a very good business. 

And if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10 percent, then you've got a terrible business.

Although it’s very short and basic, it’s quite suitable for beginners like me.

11. The Investment Checklist by Michael Shearn

It is very suitable for stock researchers to get started and helps form a judgment framework from the beginning. 

But it is probably limited to the fields the author is involved in, and the cases and ideas in it are closer to the consumer industry.

Although this book is called Fundamental Analysis of Stocks, I feel it is more suitable as a bond analysis book and is better used by those who analyze credit risk.

12. Margin of Safety by Seth Klarman

Klarman is indeed a very traditional value investor, more traditional than Buffett, and the investment method he adopts is closer to Graham. 

I feel that this book is more suitable for value investors to read than for smart investors. 

It contains many modern values. Investment cases, such as investment bankruptcy and reorganization, spin-offs, mergers, and acquisition opportunities, are described in more detail in Greenblatt's Stock Market Genius. It is helpful to read these two books together.

The valuation method is different from the traditional Graham style, but the approach reaches the same goal, and his record illustrates this point. 

13. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher

I was interested in this book after turning a few pages. The reason was that my a priori concept of depth value was too ingrained in me. 

Fisher also bought three deep-value companies in 2029 and ended up losing money. 

From this, Fisher suddenly realized that a low price-to-earnings ratio could not protect anything and was even a precursor to danger; 

The only thing investors need to care about is what the company's earnings will be in a few years, which is forward-looking rather than backward-looking. 

Based on this, he accumulated a set of business insights—it is not enough to have good products, but you must also be able to sell them; 

It is not enough to have good sales channels, you must also be sensitive to rapidly changing consumer demands. 

Stock dividends may be low because of good growth prospects. The returns from capital appreciation far exceed the limited returns that high dividends bring to investors. 

The returns of ten times and hundreds of times make companies that currently seem overvalued cheap, and the reason for their cheapness is precisely The general public lacks knowledge of the trajectory of business changes.

14. A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel

This is the first formal investment and financial management book I have read. I just finished reading it the first time, and I didn’t understand it deeply. I need to read it again. 

Some opinions I have absorbed so far: 

• Short-term changes in stocks are unpredictable, and history does not represent future predictions; 
• Both company fundamental analysis and castle-in-the-air theory have their limitations; 
• Investment and financial management should be diversified; 
• Prepare nest eggs for yourself early; 
• Reducing risk may be more important than high returns

15. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

Although most of the book is devoted to tirelessly emphasizing "frugality," the most valuable thing is that it breaks the consumerist myth that "rich people" "live luxuriously" and "buy whatever they want." think. 

Once the equivalence between the two is eliminated, other guidance and suggestions such as frugality and financial management are inevitable conclusions. 

Another gain, although it is also a cliché, is still very touching when I read it: after a high-consumption level, it is not a plain road, but the temptation of more and higher consumption. 

Living in such a vortex of consumerism will only drive you further and further away from the track of wealth accumulation. 

The most surprising thing is that this book written more than 20 years ago is still very inspiring today. What it brings me is a perspective on consumer behavior: What am I pursuing, the accumulation of wealth, or "looking/living like a rich person"? 

I don’t think everyone should pursue wealth accumulation, but this perspective can help us resist the almost all-pervasive consumption temptation, and make us more frank in refusing to pay for the “rich/middle-class life” created by business.

16. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

This short book that can be read in two hours tells people how to save money (saving), use money (investment), and spend money (consumption). 

The essence is: to save 10% of your income, repay loans 20%, and live 70%. 

Don’t squander your savings to a certain amount, look for investment channels to make money, and avoid investing in unreliable people. 

When spending money, make a budget and live within your means. 

At the same time, improve your ability to make money, reduce expenditures, and increase revenue at the same time. 

After you know the truth, you need to practice it with persistence every day.

This book is more reliable than Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Back then, I was brainwashed by my poor dad and my rich dad. 

I despised work and only wanted to make money. As a result, I didn’t do a good job at work and lost money in financial management. 

Where is the money to invest without hard work? It is a healthy concept to expand your ability to make money and not rely solely on work to increase your wealth.

17. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

"The start point of all achievement is desire. The finishing point is that brand of knowledge which leads to understanding - understanding of self, understanding of others, understanding the law of nature, recognition and understanding of happiness."

Those with a spiritual foundation seem to be very popular. It turns out that these theories have been around since 1987. "The Law Of Attraction", "Embodiment of strong concrete thoughts to make them a reality", "Desire, Decision, Faith, Persistence, Master Mind, Organized Planning"

Mind control is the result of self-discipline and habit. You either control your mind or it controls you. There is no hallway compromise. 

The most practical of all methods for controlling the mind is the habit of keeping it busy with a definite purpose, backed by a definite plan.

A rare success study that I recommend.

18. The Little Book of Value Investing by Christopher H. Browne

The author is worthy of being a veteran who has been in the investment field for decades and covers some important principles of value investing in the book. 

The author is also more down-to-earth and tells readers that when doing value investing, they must endure loneliness, ignore all kinds of criticism, and stick to their own choices and decisions. These are the most difficult aspects of investing.

On the whole, it introduces some elements of value investment. The content is relatively simple and easy to understand, and it frames some basic standards of investment from various aspects. 

Although the content is relatively simple, for example, not following the crowd, insisting on time, and rejecting short-term market hot spots, it is very difficult to achieve it. 

After all, human nature is very complex, and reverse investment is a test of human nature.

19. The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai:

It is a very good book. The author explains the concept of value investment that he understands and has his own experience in operation. 

It is very helpful for a deeper understanding of investment, clarifying ideas, and expanding horizons.

Pabrai is a very magical new generation of value investors. He thinks deeply about value investing and uses his super execution power to create huge wealth. 

What is very interesting about this book is that it quotes many stories of Indian entrepreneurs and also illustrates its points through Hindu stories.

20. Learn to Earn by Peter Lynch and John Rothchild:

Simple and easy to read, it introduces index funds, mutual funds, and the most important investor disciplines.

The historical part at the beginning is very interesting, but some of the later information is a bit out of date... but it's a good introductory book.

A very good introduction to investing. It explains the relationship between inflation and the market. History repeats itself. Wise people can see the relationship and summarize it.

21. The Intelligent Asset Allocator by William J. J. Bernstein

This book explains MPT (modern portfolio theory) very well - a way of understanding investment, but it requires readers to have a certain mathematical foundation (especially a statistical foundation). 

Among them, it has certain reference significance for the long-term historical data statistics of the U.S. capital market.

For financial novices, this is a very good introductory book. It contains many terms and concepts, and the explanations are easy to understand and highly maneuverable. 

I set up a Vanguard account while reading and plan to follow the instructions in the book. Use the listed tax-sheltered accounts and taxable accounts to purchase index funds. 

This is a book that is worth reading and taking detailed notes at the same time. It will be very beneficial for future practical operations.

22. The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Common Investor by Howard Marks:

This wave of value investors has their own investment philosophy, but it is not deep enough. 

Of course, if they can implement that philosophy well, they will definitely be able to make profits in their investments. 

Nor do I mean that the deeper the philosophical thinking, the higher the profit margin.

Even if you don’t invest, this book is worth reading. 

I feel that people who are engaged in finance think about the people and things around them much more than ordinary people. It’s a very interesting book.

23. Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard H. Thaler:

It mainly describes the academic development process of Richard Thaler. It also coincides with the development trajectory of behavioral economics. 

However, for behavioral economics, Richard Thaler can indeed be regarded as an icon. Many big names in this field have collaborated with him. 

Some have collaborated on many articles, and some have collaborated on fewer articles.

It is worth pointing out that this book was written by a three-person dream team, and Malcolm Gladwell was one of them, which may be the reason why this book is very readable. 

This is also one of the few things I have read that is thoughtful, logical, and the fastest way to quickly understand behavioral economics. When studying "Behavioral Economics", this book should be your first choice.

24. The Alchemy of Finance by George Soros:

Due to the lack of relevant background knowledge, the case analysis in the international finance part is unclear. 

Generally speaking, it is a relatively difficult book, but the theoretical core is not complicated, and it is a bit like the philosophical principles of speculation. worth learning. 

You can review it after you have learned relevant knowledge about international finance.

It can teach some basic methods and thinking of operations, and on the other hand, it can also tell readers how top investors like Soros are nervous when facing the market and how to deal with mistakes.

25. The Warren Buffett Way by Robert G. Hagstrom:

The advantage of this book is that it sets up a general framework for understanding Buffett.

This book introduces Buffett's life, focuses on his investment philosophy, and analyzes several major investments in Buffett's life. 

In the process of reading this book, several doubts were solved for me, and I felt like I had a sudden enlightenment several times. 

First of all, this book helped me understand the specific operation method of "discounted future cash flow valuation of enterprises".

Secondly, I figured out how to evaluate the success of an investment decision, that is, not based on the short-term stock price level, but on whether the company's operating conditions are consistent with previous expectations to determine whether the decision is correct. 

Third, understand how to value multiple targets and select the optimal target among them. For anyone interested in learning about Buffett's value investing, this book is well worth reading. 

Honorable Mention: Recommended Books for Beginner's Investment Success

Embarking on the journey of financial growth and investment can be both exciting and daunting for beginners.

To navigate this path successfully, it's crucial to equip oneself with the right knowledge.

Here are some recommended books for beginners for each of the topics:

• Investment Fundamentals: This genre covers the basics of investing, including different asset classes, financial markets, and investment strategies.
• Building a Portfolio: This genre focuses on how to construct a diversified portfolio based on your risk tolerance and financial goals.
• Long-Term Investing: This genre emphasizes the importance of a buy-and-hold strategy and minimizing investment fees.
• Value Investing: This genre teaches you how to identify undervalued stocks based on their fundamentals.
• Index Investing: This genre explains how to invest in passively managed index funds that track the market.
• Getting Started with Real Estate: This genre provides a beginner's guide to investing in real estate, including different property types and financing options.
• The Psychology of Investing: This genre explores the emotional aspects of investing and how to make rational decisions.

Booklists by Category:

Investment Fundamentals

1. I Will Teach You to Be Rich - Ramit Sethi
2. The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing - Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, Michael LeBoeuf
3. The Investment Answer - Gordon Murray
4. Investing for Dummies - Eric Tyson, Lita Epstein
5. The Simple Path to Wealth - J.L. Collins
6. Broke Millennial - Erin Lowry
7. The Finance Bar - Michelle Schroeder-Gardner
8. We Should All Be Rich - Robert Kiyosaki
9. Unconventional Prosperity - Robert Royshark
10. The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley

Building a Portfolio

1. The Asset Allocator - James Rickards
2. The Bogleheads' Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio - Taylor Larimore
3. The Investor's Manifesto - John Bogle
4. The Essential Portfolio Manager - Michael E. Ferguson
5. Portfolio Construction in a Nutshell - Moshe Milevsky, Kenneth Grant
6. Stocks, Bonds, Bullets & More - Roger Gibson
7. The Robo Advisor Revolution - Jonathan Lintz
8. The Coffeehouse Investor - Jeff Havik
9. The 100-Baggers: Stocks That Move Markets - Christopher Mayer
10. The Intelligent Asset Allocator - William Bernstein

Long-Term Investing

1. A Random Walk Down Wall Street - Burton Malkiel
2. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing - John Bogle
3. The Richest Man in Babylon - George S. Clason
4. Dhandho Investor - Mohnish Pabrai
5. Margin of Safety - Seth Klarman
6. The Investor's Paradox - John Bogle
7. Stay Calm - Rohan Parikh
8. The Drunken Millionaire - William J. Bernstein
9. Market Wizards - Jack D. Schwager
10. The Investor's Field Guide - John Burr Williams

Value Investing

1. The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
2. The Essays of Warren Buffett - Warren Buffett, Lawrence Cunningham
3. The Little Book That Still Beats the Market - Joel Greenblatt
4. Security Analysis - Benjamin Graham, David Dodd
5. Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies - Robert Hagstrom
6. The Warren Buffett Way - Robert G. Hagstrom
7. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits - Philip A. Fisher
8. Coffee Can Investing - Robert P. Miles
9. The Value Investors - James Grant
10. Contrarian Investment Strategies - David Dreman

Index Investing

1. The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing - Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, Michael LeBoeuf
2. The Bogleheads' Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio - Taylor Larimore
3. If You Can: How Millennials Can Build Wealth and Retire Early - William J. Bernstein
4. Die Broke - Stephen J. Foley
5. The Index Revolution - Gerald M. Loeb
6. The SPIVA® Scorecard - S&P Dow Jones Indices
7. The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning - Taylor Larimore, Michael LeBoeuf
8. Beat the Banks - Larry Swedroe
9. The Bogleheads' Guide to the New Retirement Savings Plan - Taylor Larimore
10. The Bogleheads' Guide to Living in Retirement - Taylor Larimore

Getting Started with Real Estate

1. The Book on Rental Property Investing - Brandon Turner
2. Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki
3. The Millionaire Real Estate Investor - Gary Keller
4. Hold: Secure Yourself Financially Through Real Estate - Grant Cardone
5. The ABCs of Real Estate Investing - Ken McElroy
6. The No-Hype Guide to Real Estate Investing - Liz Fahland
7. BiggerPockets Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing - Brandon Turner
8. Set for Life Real Estate Investing - Scott Trench
9. The Landlord's Guide to Hiring and Managing Tenants - Barbara Desoe
10. The Financially Independent Investor - Brandon Turner

The Psychology of Investing

1. The Psychology of Money - Morgan Housel
2. Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
3. Irrational Exuberance - Robert J. Shiller
4. Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics - Richard H. Thaler
5. Emotional Intelligence for Investors - Matthew R. Kratter
6. The Investor's Mind - James P. O'Shaughnessy
7. Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
8. The (Almost) Entire History of Economics Explained by a Comic Book - Robert L. LeRoy, Roy A. Weintraub
9. You Are Not So Smart - David McRaney
10. The Art of Picking Stocks - John Train

Please note: These are just a few examples, and there are many other great books on investing available. It is important to do your own research and choose books that are appropriate for your individual needs and goals.