These books on finances were all personally read by me. I considered them to be very helpful – that’s why I would like to recommend them.
Future reviews about its content will be added so that you can get a better understanding whether this book might also be something for you or not. If you think I’m missing important titles which you think are great, please let me know. I will definitely take a look at them and maybe post them here as well. No list of books on a particular subject is ever complete, but I hope I can pull together as many great titles as possible that will make a solid collection.
Also note that most books are of course of such a level that the average person (like me) will benefit from them. As a result, you are unlikely to find titles, whose contents can only be read and understood by economic students or professionals.
So if you want to buy any of the following titles, you can do so directly by clicking on it.
The link behind the book cover or the title will take you to Amazon, where you can order it using your Amazon account.
I know, within the bookseller community, Amazon is the bookseller „killer“ No. 1, therefore I wouldn’t mind at all if you were ordering or purchasing these books directly from one of your favorite bookstores near you.
But Amazon is awesome if you want to take a closer first look, of course. The size of different offers is unbeatable.
And here’s the thing about the Amazon Affiliate: when you buy a book using the links below, Amazon pays me a commission. There are no additional costs for you. Instead, from the total price, I receive a tiny portion, payed by Amazon.
Since I pay taxes regularly (not living in a tax haven) and go shopping almost only within my community, I can at least keep the cycle of money a bit more around to support people and their shops in my area. In the end, I guess we will all benefit if we first help our community by shopping in their stores and build a solid foundation.
If any other affiliate partner is behind a specific link, it will be mentioned extra.
David F. Swensen: Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment
Free Press; 1. Edition (1. August 2005), Hardcover, 403 p.
Hardcover here
For the Kindle version click here
In Unconventional Success, investment legend David F. Swensen offers incontrovertible evidence that the for-profit mutual fund industry consistently fails the average investor. From excessive management fees to the frequent „churning“ of portfolios, the relentless pursuit of profits by mutual fund management companies harms individual clients. Perhaps most destructive of all are the hidden schemes that limit investor choice and reduce returns, including „pay-to-play“ product-placement fees, stale-price trading scams, soft-dollar kickbacks, and 12b-1 distribution charges.
Even if investors manage to emerge unscathed from an encounter with the profit-seeking mutual fund industry, individuals face the likelihood of self-inflicted pain. The common practice of selling losers and buying winners (and doing both too often) damages portfolio returns and increases tax liabilities, delivering a one-two punch to investor aspirations.
In short: Nearly insurmountable hurdles confront ordinary investors. Swensen’s solution? …
Benjamin Graham: The intelligent investor
Harper Business; Revised ed. Edition (21. Februar 2006), Softcover, 640 pages.
Paperback version here
Classic read, first published in 1949, with a lot of tips on psychology already. Still Buffett’s most valuable book about investing until today.
Mark T. Hebner: Index Funds: The 12-Step Recovery Program for Active Investors
IFA Publishing, Inc.; Upd Rev Edition (15. März 2018), Hardcover, xxi, 322 p.
Hardcover here
Small great book (with awesome illustrations). Revised edition 2018 (although Amazon’s description says differently).
Exhaustive examination why active trading is inferior in the long-run. Must read for starters and statistic lovers.
Ben Mezrich: Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal and Redemption
Abacus (7. Mai 2020), Softcover, 288 p.
Paperback here
Although I would not call myself a Bitcoin geek at all, this book was actually an awesome read (took me two days to finish).
Very well written by the author, it tells the story of Bitcoin from the view of the Winklevoss twins (Facebook battle), which eventually became the first (known) Bitcoin billionaires in the world. They learned about Bitcoin in 2010 and went all-in on this idea. Although this book surely has some unnecessary lengths within biographic details of some protagonists, it poses some very interesting questions about Bitcoin (without answering them, of course – only future will show how it turns out), and succesfully shifted my personal view about Bitcoin away from my existing investment sceptisism towards a technical fascination.
Ben Mezrich: The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees
Grand Central Publishing (7. September 2021), 304 p.
Paperback here
Despite of kinda unnecessary lengths about the different fictional characters, it shows the development about the GameStop stock ralley, started on Reddit. I believe the subjective intentions and motives of the different protagonists getting involved are described pretty reasonable and believing. Elon Musk, gets a funny appearance, too.
Thomas J. Stanley: The Millionaire Next Door. The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy
Taylor Trade Publishing; Reissue Edition (16. November 2010), Softcover, 272 p.
Paperback here
Kindle here
When visiting wealthy people concerning their book-collection, I can confirm the bottom line of this book: the vast majority of really wealthy people are not living a fancy lifestyle at all and build up wealth in quite a conservative way. Could also be a fit for the psychology section.
It is very useful to get sharpen your perspective about how far a conservative approach needs to be applied, if taking this path, and how the „traditional“ (pre-internet entrepreneurship) approach has mostly been.
Mark Spitznagel: Save Haven. Investing for Financial Storms
Wiley; 1. Edition (17. August 2021), Hardcover, 240 p.
For the Kindle version click here
What role should they play in an investment portfolio? Do we use them only to seek shelter until the passing of financial storms? Or are they something more? Contrary to everything we know from modern financial theory, can higher returns actually come as a result of lowering risk? In Safe Haven, hedge fund manager Mark Spitznagel—one of the top practitioners of safe haven investing and portfolio risk mitigation in the world—answers these questions and more. Investors who heed the message in this book will never look at risk mitigation the same way again.
Mark Spitznagel: The Dao of Capital: Austrian Investing in a Distorted World
Wiley; 1st Edition (3. September 2013), Hardcover, 368 p.
For the Kindle version click here
Hardcover here
In The Dao of Capital, hedge fund manager and tail-hedging pioneer Mark Spitznagel―with one of the top returns on capital of the financial crisis, as well as over a career―takes us on a gripping, circuitous journey from the Chicago trading pits, over the coniferous boreal forests and canonical strategists from Warring States China to Napoleonic Europe to burgeoning industrial America, to the great economic thinkers of late 19th century Austria. We arrive at his central investment methodology of Austrian Investing, where victory comes not from waging the immediate decisive battle, but rather from the roundabout approach of seeking the intermediate positional advantage (what he calls shi), of aiming at the indirect means rather than directly at the ends. The monumental challenge is in seeing time differently, in a whole new intertemporal dimension, one that is so contrary to our wiring.
Peter Mallouk & Tony Robbins: The Path: Accelerating Your Journey to Financial Freedom
Post Hill Press (13. Oktober 2020), Softcover, 320 p.
For the Kindle version click here
Hardcover here
Regardless of your stage of life and your current financial picture, the quest for financial freedom can indeed be conquered. The journey will demand the right tools and strategies along with the mindset of money mastery. With decades of collective wisdom and hands-on experience, your guides for this expedition are Peter Mallouk, the only man in history to be ranked the #1 Financial Advisor in the U.S. for three consecutive years by Barron’s (2013, 2014, 2015), and Tony Robbins, the world-renowned life and business strategist. Mallouk and Robbins take the seemingly daunting goal of financial freedom and simplify it into a step-by-step process that anyone can achieve.
Robin Wigglesworth: Trillions: How a Band of Wall Street Renegades Invented the Index Fund and Changed Finance Forever
Portfolio (12. Oktober 2021), 352 p.
Hardcover here
„In Trillions, Financial Times journalist Robin Wigglesworth unveils the vivid secret history of an invention Wall Street wishes was never created, bringing to life the characters behind its birth, growth, and evolution into a world-conquering phenomenon. This engrossing narrative is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand modern finance—and one of the most pressing financial uncertainties of our time“
Todd Tresidder: How Much Money Do I Need to Retire?: Uncommon Financial Planning Wisdom for a Stress-Free Retirement (Financial Freedom for Smart People)
Second edition, 2020, 236 p.
Buy now here
Did you recognize how I pound so often in this blog on the fact that every financial plan is unique? Reading this book will clarify the why.
Learn how retirement really works before it’s too late…
Most so-called „experts“ plug your numbers into a retirement formula to tell you how much money you need to retire. Unfortunately, the conventional approach is fundamentally flawed. If you fail to learn how retirement savings truly works, then you’ll either underspend and be miserable or overspend and run out of money.
Ray Dalio: Big Dept Crises
Bridgewater: 2020, 472 pages.
Hardcover here
As he explained in Principles: Life & Work, (see in the „Philosophy“-Section) Dalio believes that most everything happens over and over again through time so that by studying their patterns one can understand the cause-effect relationships behind them and develop principles for dealing with them well. In this 3-part research series, he does that for big debt crises and shares his template in the hopes reducing the chances of big debt crises happening and helping them be better managed in the future.
The template comes in three parts: 1) The Archetypal Big Debt Cycle (which explains the template), 2) 3 Detailed Cases (which examines in depth the 2008 financial crisis, the 1930’s Great Depression, and the 1920’s inflationary depression of Germany’s Weimar Republic), and 3) Compendium of 48 Cases (which is a compendium of charts and brief descriptions of the worst debt crises of the last 100 years).
Chancellor, Edward: The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest
Atlantic Monthly Press 2022, 416 p.
Hardcover here
For the kindle version click here
All economic and financial activities take place across time. Interest is often described as the “price of money,” but it is better called the “price of time:” time is scarce, time has value, interest is the time value of money.
Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, interest rates have sunk lower than ever before. Easy money after the global financial crisis in 2007/2008 has produced several ill effects, including the appearance of multiple asset price bubbles, a reduction in productivity growth, discouraging savings and exacerbating inequality, and forcing yield starved investors to take on excessive risk. The financial world now finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place, and Edward Chancellor is here to tell us why. In this enriching volume, Chancellor explores the history of interest and its essential function in determining how capital is allocated and priced.
George Clason: The Richest Man in Babylon
Independently published, 2023, 114 p.
Paperback here
The Richest Man in Babylon, based on “Babylonian parables”, has been hailed as the greatest of all inspirational works on the subject of thrift, financial planning, and personal wealth. In simple language, these fascinating and informative stories set you on a sure path to prosperity and its accompanying joys. A celebrated bestseller, it offers an understanding and a solution to your personal financial problem. Revealed inside are the secrets to acquiring money, keeping money, and making money earn more money.
This original edition has the original language, content, and message from George S. Clason as intended in 1926. It’s all here, uncensored.