7 Best Personal Finance Books I’ve Ever Read
A curated, well-rounded list of personal finance advice to help you manage your money better.
At the risk of sounding like a cliché, I genuinely think good books on money management are one of the fastest ways you can develop good financial hygiene.
That's how I learned most of what I know about money, and how my personal money management has improved over the last 10 years.
But in a saturated market, not every book on personal finance has advice worth following.
So, in this post, I'll share a handpicked list of books that I've read cover-to-cover and used the principles inside in some way in my life.
Here we go:
1. Die with Zero
The premise of this book is to develop a mindset that money is not for hoarding. Savings are essential, sure, but there's also a thing called too much saving.
The purpose of money is to unlock opportunities for you and make your life better and easier.
This book will teach you how to develop this balanced mindset without blowing all your money away.
2. The Psychology of Money
How you and I spend, save, and invest money can be vastly different because our worldviews are shaped by our past experiences and interactions.
This book will help you understand the role of emotions in finance, set realistic expectations, and account for unseen risks when investing money.
In this connected world, understanding how people behave with money can help us manage our finances better.
3. I Will Teach You to Be Rich
Instead of guilt-tripping you over buying another latte or video game, this book introduces the concept of “conscious spending”.
With conscious spending, you stop spending money on things that don't bring you joy, so that you can reserve that quota on things you truly enjoy.
A book with practical steps to have more money available from your income without living too frugally.
4. The Automatic Millionaire
This book will guide you to set up automation around your income that will help you accumulate wealth on auto-pilot.
Usually, when salary hits the bank, or we get a payment from a client, it goes to paying bills and others.
This book takes a different path of paying yourself first through pre-tax investments, automated savings, etc. A wonderful read to build a system that saves or invests money like clockwork.
5. The Money Tree
This is a book about developing agency around money.
Instead of playing victim and sitting waiting for a winning lottery ticket to fall on our laps, we can actively find ways to make money using what we have.
The whole message is wrapped in an engaging story, which makes it an enjoyable read.
6. Financial Freedom
This is not another traditional FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) book.
Instead, it teaches how to be creative in earning money, so that you don't have to give up most of the fun things in life to achieve financial freedom.
Even if you don't plan to retire early, the ideas in this book will help you build a solid financial ground for life.
7. The Moneyless Man
This is a bit of a tangential inclusion, and probably an experiment you and I will never attempt.
However, the economic experiment in this book helps us understand our relation with money, and just how often we can develop ingenious ways to get something done without needing substantial funds.
Even if you read it purely for entertainment, it's worth a read.
That's the end of this list. I might extend this later as I read more books on this subject.
But for now, if you're looking for a place to visualise your spending so that you can apply what you learn here and see progress, try Ducat.