Post Your Best Personal Finance Books/Influencers

[james.hendrickson]

Crew - please post your best personal finance books, gurus or others who have had the biggest influence on your wealth or financial well being.

For me, the following are what I've been heavily impacted by:

1. The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko

2. Multiple Streams of Income by Robert Allen

3. Choose Yourself By James Altucher

4. Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedmann

5. Bogle on Mutual Funds by John Bogle

6. Securities Analysis by Benjamin Graham

In terms of personal inspiration, I like:

7. Money, Master the Game by Tony Robbins

8. Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki

And...

my mom. Who taught me that its okay to talk about money.

[frugal saver]

The books I tend to go back to time and again are all from Morningstar.

Why Moats Matter
FundSpy
The 6 Morningstar textbooks--3 for stocks and 3 for mutual funds
Dividend Handbook by Josh Peters

I have numerous books about Financial Reports--how to read them, how to know they've been fudged that I enjoy. Currently reading The Financial Numbers Game.

I just finished a fun book called "100 Baggers" about picking a stock to hold that will multiply 100 times or more. Lots of examples but sadly no list of the next stocks that will do that. (If anyone in the U.S. can't find it and wants to read it, I'll mail it to you--I bought it used and probably won't re-read it.)

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

W-e-l-l-l-l-l...... The book most influential on my finances and money understanding would be my fifth grade math book. I think it was part of the "Mathematics Today" series that Marsha Brady can be seen carrying in at least one of the old series --though she was carrying the third grade book when she was older than third grade. Also by the time that series came along that book was a little stale, though far from vintage.

I am quite serious about that. My math book! Fifth grade made sure we covered fractions, decimals, proportions, discounts, interest, exponents, & negative numbers and often included word problems involving money. If you'd asked me at the time I would have said I hated math, but I did learn it well, no thanks to the harsh, drill & kill, yell-at-the-kids & throw-objects-at-them-when-they-get-a-problem-wrong math teachers at my school. Just basic math is such a common sense underpinning to my money life.

Now to confess: I don't read books such as in your original question. I have read some nitty-gritty books about make do and mend type savings. The Tightwad Gazette is a classic. Others I couldn't tell you the title, but I read some of them from the library when I was about 13 to 18. I have enjoyed those but haven't read one in many years. I'd also put in that category from childhood US Agriculture publications and magazines like Mother Earth News, Popular Mechanics, Woman's Day, Family Circle, Kiplinger and a couple of others from back in the 60's and 70's Those often analyzed how to make money wise choices and do things inexpensively. They were interesting to me as a kid. It kinda stuck.

[rennigade]

Am I the only one who hasnt read any of these financial books to educate themselves?

Reading threads on bogleheads is the only place I can say that I took some advice...and that was pretty much just learning about the vanguard 3 fund portfolio. Even at that point I was already maxing my roth/401k for probably 6 years. I dont waste my time reading books about investing. I write my own book by the actions I take.

[DaveInPgh]

Am I the only one who hasnt read any of these financial books to educate themselves?

Reading threads on bogleheads is the only place I can say that I took some advice...and that was pretty much just learning about the vanguard 3 fund portfolio. Even at that point I was already maxing my roth/401k for probably 6 years. I dont waste my time reading books about investing. I write my own book by the actions I take.

Are you going to publish it?

[scfr]

Number 1: Jane Bryant Quinn: Then (when I was in my mid-20's) "Making The Most Of Your Money" and Now "How to Make Your Money Last: The Indispensable Retirement Guide" Thank you, Jane, from the bottom of my heart!

Number 2: The late Dr. Thomas Stanley, author of "The Millionaire Next Door" and "The Millionaire Mind"

I highly recommend "The Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned In School" by Andrew Hallum for those just starting their journey of financial responsibility and freedom. He came along too late in my life to have been a big influence on me, but I respect what he has to say and the way he says it.

Other writers who have influenced my finances in one way or another include John Bogle, Clark Howard, Dan Solin, David Bach, Jonathan Pond, Suze Orman, Scott Burns, Barton Malkiel, Andrew Tobias, Amy Dacyczyn, Michelle Singletary, Susan Feitelberg, and I'm sure there are others that I am forgetting about.

[rennigade]

Are you going to publish it?

Nah...I dont need or want anyone else to follow the path I did. Who am I to tell anyone whats best for them? I never understood that.

The point is there is a 100 books for every thing you can imagine. Why dont people carve out their own path? What works for someone may not work for you.

[frugal saver]

The point is there is a 100 books for every thing you can imagine. Why dont people carve out their own path? What works for someone may not work for you.

And the point for me is that I'm going to read. Whether it's an investment book that might teach me something or a trashy romance, I'll still be reading and might as well try to learn something.

Although I do still find time for the trashy romances.

[creditcardfree]

I've read many, not all, of the books previously mentioned. Yet the one book that I probably read first was by Mary Hunt, Cheapskate Monthly Money Makeover. That book talked about methods to get out of debt and set up a Freedom account. As a early 20s, just entering marriage with 10K in debt, it was eye opening.

[creditcardfree]

And...

my mom. Who taught me that its okay to talk about money.

Love this! My parents don't talk about money much, so I can't say that. However, my dad did teach me to balance a checkbook, and how to file my own taxes when I was 16.

[sv2007]

No inspirations from books as I only started to read some personal finance/investment books a few months ago. One book that is almost a mirror of my experience is The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Rich. This book outlined my past experience almost exactly.

The other book I like is Kramer's Get Rich Carefully only because his views were also a very close match to my investment strategies.

If I had read these books 20 years ago, I would have had a complete road map of my financial path. Kind of scary.

[DaveInPgh]

Having one of these moments