Finance Book Recommendations

What is it about?

• A cheeky intro to finances
• Practical steps to take to get your finances in order
• One-time setup to optimize your financial system - credit cards, HISA, retirement accounts, investing accounts, tax-free registered accounts
• An alternate approach to budgeting → conscious spending
• Introduction to self-directed investing

What it invoked in me?

• Gave me the spark I needed to start getting a handle on my investments
• Invoked a rehaul in my budget, tracking my spending, and being realistic about money
• Was a gateway to learning more about investing
• I also followed all the steps!

Noteworthy Concepts

• Some good asset allocation portfolio recommendations for investing
• Being annoying to get fees reduced
• Common questions asked when it comes to retirement accounts, how you should pay down debt, recommendations for millenial common scenarios
• Easy to understand steps to actually getting things right with finances
• How going above and beyond gets you places

Who and when I think you should read this

• Great beginner introduction finance book
• If you don't know much of anything when it comes to money but you want to dip your feet in the water
• If you work well with practical steps and are ready to implement them to get your money working for you better

What is it about?

• A set of core nine rules of wealth you should have learned in school
• A good introduction to being more financially responsible and pitfalls of financial advisers and mutual funds
• Portfolio allocation recommendations

What it invoked in me?

• Pointed me to many other resources
• Made me aware of the benefits of index funds
• Like a deeper pry into the investment chapters of I Will Teach You To Be Rich
• Made me feel more financially competent, but still not a holistic view

Noteworthy Concepts

• His definition of wealth - to have enough money to never have to work again and investments that can provide you with twice the level of your country's median household income over a lifetime
• Adjusting your mentality around money — not overpaying for things you don't need
• Thomas Stanley study done on educated professionals in their 40s and 50s found that receiving financial handouts hinders a person's ability to create wealth
• Start investing early
• On average, investorys who buy and sell shares quickly don't tend to make profits
• Intro to "reversion to the mean"
• Tax consequences of a taxable account
• Includes finding that earlier lump sum investments usually win so it is good to invest as soon as you have the money (this is in contrast to dollar-cost averaging)

Who and when I think you should read this

• Newbie to financial literacy
• Or if you can skim through the parts you may already know

What is it about?

• The Bible of Financial Literacy
• Framework and mindset for how to approach money
• How to think like a winner and be smart (not just in money)
• How the traditional path is rarely the best path for you

What it invoked in me?

• Made me want to search far and wide for assets as opposed to liabilities which are all I have right now
• I've developed this notion of only financing my "wants" through other means than my full-time employment income
• Pushed me to gain more streams of income
• Made me want to stop spending in silly places and take time to become financially literate by the definitions of the book
• Made me want to generalize and spend money to learn as many new and broad things as opposed to specializing
• Made me realize I think like a loser a lot
• Put into perspective that mistakes are required in order to make progress

Noteworthy Concepts

• Generalize, don't specialize, go deep and broad
• The four facets to financial literacy
• Financial aptitude
• A winner's and loser's mentality
• Importance of working to learn, not working to earn
• How traditional education rewards less mistakes and how that ultimately hurts those "A" students

Who and when I think you should read this

• Anytime in life, but the earlier the better!
• I think this is required reading for everyone
• If you need encouragement pursuing an untraditional path
• If you want to have your wits about you when it comes to money
• If you are a frivolous spender and are ready to be put in your place lol
• If you consider yourself an "A" student but you still feel lost when it comes to money
• If you've been brought up with the expectation of getting a good education and stable career in order to be successful

What is it about?

• Getting your money in order step by step, beginning from the person in the worst shape possible (ex. huge credit card debts, no emergency savings)
• How to think about money and not make silly mistakes with it

What it invoked in me?

• Made me realize the things I've taken for granted with my money and be thankful for the lessons I've learned through my parents on managing it
• Was a good wake-up call on smaller things like spending extravagant amounts for things you don't need
• The preachiness of the audiobook, although at times was too much, was a nice fire under me for getting my finances together and it was enjoyable to listen to a professional speak about the topic in general

Noteworthy Concepts

• Debt snowball method
• Don't buy things you can't afford just out of ego (like a car)
• Importance of an emergency fund and keeping it separate from everything else
• Importance of investing for yourself and your kids
• Don't just pay off your home mortgage as fast as you can — a paid off house with no investments means you'll just have to sell the house in order to get by

Who and when I think you should read this

• I listened as an audiobook so my experience may be somewhat different
• Great if you are bad with money and don't have emergency funds, or are in deep debt
• Still good if you are in good financial shape to give you a guideline for how you should be thinking about money
• Has a very strong opinionated undertone but is still effective

What is it about?

• A book by the creator of index funds making his case about how index funds are superior to all!
• Half kidding, but it's mostly about the emphasis on the advantage over index funds to anything else with mathematical figures to back it up
• Sparked my interest to start looking into key numbers like P/E ratios for companies
• Pushed me to not want to participate in an actively managed mutual fund anymore

What it invoked in me?

• Sparked my interest to start looking into key numbers like P/E ratios for companies
• Pushed me to not want to participate in an actively managed mutual fund anymore

Noteworthy Concepts

• Impact of P/E ratio
• How fees make returns a lot less than they appear to be
• What speculative return does for overall investment returns (reversion to the mean)
• Yes, index funds will yield you the average return but it is far better than the infinitely worse alternative actions you could take
• Smart beta ETFs are more new-age, but might not be the best
• Use of many common investment terminology, price-earnings ratio, dividend yield, etc.

Who and when I think you should read this

• If you have a financial advisor, want to get more in depth about DIY investing, and need something to push you to move to index funds
• You want to get more comfortable with financial terms and concepts

What is it about?

• A guide to learning how to choose which stocks to invest in
• An expert talking about his experience with choosing the right and wrong stocks and how he arrived at his conclusions

What it invoked in me?

• Gave me a much deeper understanding of the evaluation of a company
• Gave me a great reference handbook for when I would like to invest in individual stocks

Noteworthy Concepts

• The numbers to look at to evaluate a company's worth
• How to flag a stock to be interested in
• The type of temperament you need to be an investor
• How to categorize companies and therefore adjust expectation on how it performs
• When to buy and sell stocks
• Criteria for picking a good stock & stocks he'd avoid
• A numbers-based approach to determining if a stock is over- or under-valued

Who and when I think you should read this

• Prerequisite if you are planning to invest in individual stocks
  • He says only if you already have a home or mortgage
  • Chapter 8 - The perfect Stock
  • Chapter 9 - Avoid stocks
  • Chapter 11 - The Two Minute Drill
  • Chapter 13 - Famous numbers
  • Chapter 17 - Buying and selling
• If you already dabble in the stock market
  • Chapter 7 - Categories of companies