Personal Finance Books – My Recommendations

For the last five years I have been pumping out content to educate and inform you, dear reader, about all aspects of personal finance. But there are others out there equally committed to providing great resources to further your financial education. Next week, I’ll cover some of my favourite podcasts, but this week, I want to cover some great personal finance books which I can recommend highly…

Getting Started

The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach is a masterful book when it comes to inspiring those getting started with their personal finances. Mr Bach is (was?) a practicing financial planner and the opening of the book tells the story of some prospective clients who walked into his office one day. They were dressed in very ordinary work clothes and drove an old car, but despite appearances were very wealthy.

How they got that way is the premise of the book – pay yourself first. This book will inspire you while instilling a key tenet for financial planning success. It is only available in Kindle format, but there are second-hand copies on Amazon and elsewhere.

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey is a text book for getting out of debt and getting started with making money for yourself. The tone is very American, though not really any the worse for that. Mr Ramsey's Debt Snowball is the best way I know for getting out of credit and store card debt. I reviewed this book in detail in this video.

The 30-Day Money Plan by Damien Fahy offers 30 days' of easy to implement tips and tricks to dramatically improve your financial situation. So many big achievements in life are made up of several small steps, and Damien shows you how, in just five minutes per day, you can make many small changes which add up to big results. I defy you to read the introduction without smiling!

Investing

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale is something of a bible to many financial advisers. Mr Hale has built an extremely successful consultancy helping financial advisers build investment propositions. The book covers the fundamentals of investing in sufficient detail but importantly the book is very practical – highly recommended.

Fundology by John Chatfeild-Roberts is a book I read years ago but which taught me a great deal about fund management. These days I lean very much towards passive investing rather than using funds, but there is some good stuff here for anyone interested in learning more about how investing is done at the institutional level.

Retirement

Ready, Steady, Retire by Justin King and Martin Bamford is a fantastic entry-level read into the principles and practice of planning for retirement. It was only released last year and so is pretty current which is useful as there has been a lot of change in the at-retirement world recently. I interviewed Justin and Martin about the book back in Session 86 of the podcast.

As a bonus suggestion, Martin's father Nick Bamford has recently launched a book called How To Take Your Pension Pot which is an excellent accompanying book to Justin and Martin's tome.

How Much Do I Need To Retire by Todd Tresidder delivers exactly what it promises in the title. It is one of Todd's 60 Minute Financial Solutions books which are available via Amazon or from Todd's website, FinancialMentor.com. I also interviewed Todd back in Session 123 of the podcast – his take on what retirement means is refreshingly different from so much of what you will hear from the traditional retirement industry.

Further Reading

Wealth Management by Jason Butler is an extremely comprehensive guide to personal finance from an extremely experienced and leading financial planner. Jason is someone I have admired from afar in a professional capacity for some time. Recently he has announced that he is stepping away from advising his clients day to day to focus his considerable energy towards financial education – a man after my own heart indeed. I can't wait to see what he comes up with. His book, in the meantime, is a text book which you will find yourself referring to time and time again.

Finally, The Snowball by Alice Schroeder might seem like a left-field choice. It is the definitive biography of the greatest investor the world has ever seen, the Sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett. It's a big ol' book, running to 832 packed pages, but apart from providing insight into one of the keenest minds of the 20th and 21st centuries, it is also one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read, from any genre. Ms Schroeder is quite the wordsmith, and this book is great for reading by the fire on a cold December evening!

So there you have it – my suggestions for some personal finance books which you're bound to find useful. My thanks to podcast listener Gideon for inspiring me to write this post.

What about you? Do you have any favourite books which have changed your outlook on personal finance? Let me know in the comments…