5 Personal Finance Books You Need to Read
One of the most essential skills that every adult should understand is to manage their personal finances without falling into debt. Everyone understands the value of steady income, but it is easy to become wasteful without the right type of guidance. Anyone that learns to save money and use it as a tool to increase finances has the ability to achieve any financial goals that they set.
Reading the financial guides at a bookstore is a great place to start learning. Not all advice is worth listening to so we have listed a few essentials to begin the journey to understanding financing, saving money, and getting out from under debt that has already accumulated.
The Millionaire Next Door:
Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko combine their research to profile the spending behaviors and habits of millionaires. A focus on explaining the difference between an under accumulator of wealth (UAW) versus the prodigious accumulator of wealth (PAW) reveals the need to accumulate wealth by saving rather than consuming.
Main Points:
- Spend less than you earn
- Avoid buying status objects or leading a status lifestyle
- Spending tomorrow’s cash today
- Correlation between income and wealth
The Richest Man in Babylon:
George Samuel Clason provides financial wisdom to readers through the setting of ancient Babylon. The characters go through experiences with managing finances and business through a collection of parables, such as The Five Laws of Gold:
- Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family. (Save 10% of your gross earnings.)
- Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.
- Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling.
- Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep. (Educate yourself or rely on those who are educated in the investment you’re interested in.)
- Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.
You’re So Money:
Farnoosh Torabi uses a bold attitude to provide fresh advice to the generation of individuals lacking an education in personal finance. It serves young adults with the tools to succeed in a way that is easy to read and entertaining.
Key Takeaways:
- Live beyond your means but spend within them.
Take your steady out for that $350 dinner after the big promotion. You might just have to eat PB&J for a week to make it happen. - Splurge when it makes sense.
Buy the designer jeans you can’t live without in your size, at full price. But you better walk away from last season’s must-have sweater, even if Your Good Life Starts Now - Splurge when it makes sense.
Buy the designer jeans you can’t live without in your size, at full price. But you better walk away from last season’s must-have sweater, even if it is 75 percent off! - Make more money with your money.
Invest in stocks to make the big bucks and start saving for retirement now.
You want to be debt-free in your swinging sixties. - Have it all . . . just not all at once.
Want a Mercedes more than anything in the world? You can make it happen . ..but probably not while sharing a summer beach house with your friends.
Rich Dad Poor Dad:
Investor Robert Kiyosaki teaches wealth building through investments, building businesses, and implementing financial intelligence. Entrepreneurs and self-starters can learn to own valuable assets that generate cash rather than struggle through life as an employee.
Key Takeaways:
- “The lack of money is the root of all evil.”
- Poor and middle class work for money. Rich people made money work for them.
- “You must know the difference between an asset and a liability, and buy asset.”
- Buckminster Fuller definition of wealth: Wealth is a person’s ability to survive so many number of days forward… or if I stopped working today, how long could I survive?
- Rich people acquire assets. The poor and middle class acquire liabilities that they think are assets. Your house is your biggest liability.
Living Debt Free:
Financial guru Georgette Miller clears up false financial information and empowers readers to achieve economic stability through accurate knowledge. Learning real strategies to manage debt and break bad habits provides a clear path to a secure financial future.
Key Takeaways:
- Four legs of your financial stool
- Are Debt Settlement and Debt Consolidation Viable Options?
- Bankruptcy – Escaping the Debt Trap
- Forget FICO – Why Are You Borrowing?
- Your Saving(s) Grace
- Are You Insured Against Loss?
- Gangstas and Their Student Loans
The resources to gain an understanding of finances and building wealth is abundant with the help of knowledgeable investors and like-minded individuals. If you are fed up with a lifestyle of debt, it is never too late to turn it around by increasing your personal knowledge so that you can make a change. Georgette’s book is available on her website, Barnes and Noble stores, and Amazon.