If you want to feed your mind with knowledge, reading books is the best practice. Whether you’re learning how to cook, run a business, or better manage your money, these books can help you find financial literacy. If you’re a young adult (18-35) who is new to the workforce, starting your own business, or about to make some major financial decisions like buying a home or taking out student loans, it’s important that you know what the heck you’re doing. Financial literacy may not be learned in high school and even many parents don’t have a complete grasp on managing their finances.
Best Financial Literacy Books for Beginners
The act of learning about the value of money has never been more important. If you want to finance your education, start a business, buy a new home or invest in the stock market, it’s important that you’re doing it right.
People who are considering buying their first home or perhaps have some debt they need to pay off might want to read these books. Do you know when and where your money goes each month? How do you get paid? How do you manage your investments? Even though these aren’t necessarily beginner books, they can give you some quick insight into the basics of personal finance so that if something comes up that concerns you in the future, you’ll have a better response plan.
1- Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together, by Erin Lowry
Being confused about managing your finance in recent years is common for students and young people from different fields of life. This financial literacy book is highly recommended for people who are interested in learning about the experience of financial experts. Instead of struggling with your budget every month, get your financial management back on track and take control of your expenses and savings. Being freaked out about expenses and other financial aspects of life is natural but with the right strategy and approach, you can get rid of half of the problems.
2- The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness, by Dave Ramsey
This is not only a book to read if you’re broke but also for those who are already financially stable. Everyone could benefit from discovering the power of money, starting a business, and investing. This book is more on the family finance and lifestyle vs. personal finance aspect. The book brings up many questions that you may have while you’re reading it. What if we don’t have a home? What if we want to travel? This question is good because it motivates you to start learning about saving money, spending more wisely, and making the right decisions in your everyday life.
Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey is a great choice because it helps you to end debt, save money and learn how to get out of debt. It’s not just about money management; this book will teach you many other life-changing things that can help you lead a richer life.
3- Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence, by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez
If you have the desire to make a change in your life and tread the path of financial independence, this book will help you learn about money in a new way. This book is not about budgeting and saving money but about how to make a change for better financial health. It’s particularly for those who are stuck in their jobs and hate their routine job than anything else. The book shows you how to get out of debt, build savings, reduce spending and save money for what really matters. This financial literacy book contains step-by-step advice on how to set up a plan of action that will enable each individual to be successful with their finances.
4- Set for Life: Dominate Life, Money, and the American Dream, by Scott Trench
If you’re not familiar with the new money mindset, Scott Trench is your best choice to learn why you should be proactive in your financial life. If you have some debt, don’t have a job, struggle with budgets, and need to make some changes to your mindset, this is the book for you. This book can be used as a guide while going through the process of making a change in your financial life. With coaching sessions, this book will help you visualize and plan out a realistic path towards getting out of debt and saving money. It’s not just about what to do next but also how to do it in a better way.
5- Smart Women Finish Rich, by David Bach
Many women fall into the trap of bad financial decisions regarding money. They spend their hard-earned money on non-essentials things and don’t have enough savings at the end of the month. Smart Women Finish Rich is all about smart financial planning, in order to get you out of debt and save more to achieve financial freedom. This book is an answer to questions asked by many women regarding investments, retirement, insurance, and other aspects that are closely tied with your finances.
6- The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich, by David Bach
If you’re looking for financial success, The Automatic Millionaire is a book that can help you. Not only does it refer to saving money and investing money but also gives you tools to create the life of your dreams. The reason why wealthy people have certain habits and values is that they have the ability to do so. The Automatic Millionaire will give you the keys to create your own investment plan that will allow you to secure your financial future. If you believe that millionaires are all full of stories, this book will change your mind.
7- Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein
Nudge is a book that will help you adjust your behavior and decisions to save more money. It’s not just about increasing the amount of money you save but how you spend it. Everyone wants to save more money but it takes having the correct mindset, which can be quite difficult at times. However, when you know what to do and how to do it, saving becomes very easy. Nudge is a small financial literacy book packed with simple tips on ways how to make smart decisions in life, which can help you get out of debt and save more money.
8- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg
Every one of us has habits; it’s the subconscious mind that drives our day-to-day life. Habits can be bad or good, but most of the time they are not intentional. The Power of Habit is a superb book that explains how we develop habits and how to change them. This book will also help you to create money-saving habits in your financial life as well as help you to change your spending habits for better financial health.
9- The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy, by Thomas J. Stanley & William D. Danko
The Millionaire Next Door will show you that it’s far more likely that you’ll get wealthy if you’re a regular person than if you are from a rich family. This book shows how most people living the American dream are part of the middle class and how it is possible to live better and start becoming wealthy by making small behaviors changes in your everyday life. This book discusses how people who are not wealthy think, act and behave when it comes to money. It’s based on over 20 years of research with interviews with over 400 millionaires who were originally “average” people.
10- Secrets of Six-Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life, by Barbara Stanny
Secrets of Six-Figure Women will show you how to make the changes in your life, which can help you become wealthy by applying the strategies and tips given in this book. This book is based on interviews with women who are financially independent and they will show you how to get there as well.
This is a simple investment book that will explain in detail what the stock market is, how it works and why it’s important. It’s an investment guide that will help you to build a well-diversified portfolio with low fees, which will give you more financial security. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing is not just about investing but also shows you how to create an emergency fund, retirement savings accounts, and other ways of saving money.
12- The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing, by Mel Lindauer, Taylor Larimore, and Michael LeBoeuf
The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing will show you how to implement your investments and manage them properly. It is based on the principles of John Bogle, an investment expert, who started the first index fund company. Nowadays the book has been revised with additional information on investing and portfolio management. Even though this is not a money-management book, it will help you to save more by not paying fees for financial managers and banks that don’t do their job properly.
13- The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence and a Rich, Free Life, by J.L. Collins
The Simple Path to Wealth is a book that will help you to find your financial independence. It’s not about investing or raising your investment amount but more about being financially independent, it’s about being able to live comfortably for the rest of your life. The Simple Path to Wealth explains why financial independence is important and how much money you need in order to be wealthy. It also teaches you how to be debt-free, retire early and make long-term investments in order to save more money.
14- Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
Rich Dad Poor Dad is a book that teaches you how to be financially free by not working so much and earning more money by putting your time to work. It shows you how rich people think, act and achieve success in life. There are several successful people who have become wealthy because they learned from the experiences of the rich father, who came from a poor family.
15- Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century (Think and Grow Rich Series)
Think and Grow Rich will help you to adjust your thinking, which will transform your life. It’s a classic book that was written back in 2005 but is still as popular as it was back then. This book is not just about becoming rich but also about setting goals in life and achieving them. Think and Grow Rich shows you how to set your priorities straight and how to think with the right mindset in order to get the best results in your life. The book contains 13 steps of how to start thinking like a rich person and how to make money work for you by making wise financial decisions.
16- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a must-read for everyone who wants to be more productive and successful in life, whether at work or at home. This book will help you to improve your time management skills, work ethic, problem-solving ability, and other important skills, which will help you to achieve success in your life.
17- The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness
The Psychology of Money will teach you how to become wealthy by learning the psychology behind it. It will show you that money is not evil or a curse but the way we think and act can completely change the way we are with money. This book will help you to adopt new habits and change your financial behavior. The Psychology of Money is based on more than 16 years of research and includes more than two thousand case studies, which are all about how people conduct their money-related activities every day.
18- I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Second Edition: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works
I Will Teach You to Be Rich was printed a few years back and it’s now being reprinted for the second time. This is a book about personal finance based on the principles of wealthy people, who are willing to share their experience and knowledge with others. I Will Teach You to Be Rich will show you how to build an emergency fund, make smart investments, and other tips that will help you to live better.
19- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Mindset will teach you how to boost your confidence and discipline, which will help you to achieve more in life. It’s a book about personal finance, happiness, success, and how the mind influences who you are. Mindset is all about your mindset that will help you to overcome any obstacle in your life. The author took the content of this book from the best-selling book by Carol S. Dweck called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
20- The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure
The 10X Rule will teach you how to be successful in life, whether it’s about your career or personal relationships. This book is about being disciplined, focused, and committed to reaching your goals. It will also show you how to reach these goals in a short period of time by not waiting. The 10 X Rule provides several simple ways to reach your goals faster than you think and accomplish more things than you can imagine.
21- The Richest Man in Babylon
The Richest Man In Babylon will teach you how to pay yourself first and save money for the future. This is a classic personal finance book that was written by George S. Clason back in 1926 but has been revised over time. The Richest Man in Babylon includes some timeless principles of wealth building, which will help you to get out of debt and achieve financial freedom. Even though this book is not about investing, it will teach you how to manage your investments better and make the right decisions when buying stocks or funds. It’s a book about stocks, investment strategies, index funds, and other things related to Wall Street.
22- Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
Principles book is based on the nearly 40 years of experience of a successful investor and entrepreneur, Ray Dalio. He reveals his personal principles and the guidelines that helped him to achieve success in life. He shows you how to think about money, work, relationships, and even about yourself as a person. Principles book is one of the best personal finance books of all time because it will teach you how to be successful not just in business but also in your personal life.
23- The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Smart Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing
The Book on Rental Property Investing has been written by David and Jared Friedman, who have experienced investing in rental properties. It shows you how to make money investing in rental property. The Book on Rental Property Investing will teach you the right way to buy a rental property and the right investments to achieve your financial goals. It will also show you how to maintain your rentals and everything else related to rental property. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn how to invest in real estate as well as anyone who wants to become a landlord or an owner of rental properties.
24- We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman’s Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power by Rachel Rodgers
If you are a woman who wants to learn how to invest, earn more money and be independent of your partner, then this is the book for you. We Should All Be Millionaires was written by Rachel Rodgers, who was a manager at Lehman Brothers and one of the top female earners on Wall Street. She decided to leave her job to learn to invest and earn more money on her own. She wrote this book because she understands the struggle of women when it comes to earning a decent salary. This book will help any woman to become independent from their husbands or boyfriends because it will show them how they can earn money by investing and making more than their partners do.
25- Money: Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins
Money: Master the Game will teach you how to invest, save money and become wealthy. The book focuses on creating a mindset that will help you to achieve your goals in life. This book has been written by Tony Robbins, one of the richest men in the world, and his message is illustrated by his life experiences. The Book on Money will show you how to create money habits, which are very beneficial for your financial future and how to succeed at investing. This book is also about branding yourself and how important it is to your success in life so that others recognize you as a person of high quality.
Why Reading Books is Important to Gain Knowledge?
We are living in a world where information can be found to anything, at any time for less than the cost of a coffee. With the ubiquity of electronic media like smart TVs and iPad, we have lost sight of what is knowledge and what is just entertainment due to its accessibility.
Personally, I love reading books. It’s not only my preferred method of learning new things but it also helps me focus on the greater purpose and higher goals in life as I am able to gain power through knowledge.
Learn from Experts to be Financially Independent
When I was younger, one of the things that I was most interested in was stocks. This is because up until college, I had never had any money to invest my own money. In college, I learned about this concept of investing that people call “investing” but then discovered investing isn’t the same thing as with stocks where you are expected to earn more in the long run than what you put in.
Instead investing is all about financial independence and it’s something I desperately want because investing gives you control over your life, rather than depending on other people for their services and products.
