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Looking for a great new read about personal finance? These are the best personal finance books you can read in 2019! These books are all perfect for beginners. Once you take in all the great information in these books, you’ll be ready to budget, pay off debt, build wealth, and manage your money confidently.
Don’t forget to use your library card to read many of these books for free! Not much of a paper book reader? Most of these books have an audiobook version you can listen to for free on the app Hoopla (you will need a library card to gain access). You can also find the audio version for free on YouTube for some of them! You might also want to buy these books to keep a copy for yourself that you can write notes in, or maybe pass it on to a friend when you’ve finished reading! Let’s get right into them.
THE BEST PERSONAL FINANCE BOOKS FOR 2019
1. The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
This was the first book on personal finance that I read. I’ve read it twice actually. This book is a must read for people who have debt of any kind or who struggle to budget. It is simple, easy to read, motivating, informative, and gives you all the tools you need to simply get started at being better with your money. This book helped me figure out how to budget back in 2016! Simple concepts, huge results. Seriously, everyone needs to read this at least once.
2. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
This is a book I recommend to anyone and everyone who has even a spark of entrepreneurism in them. If you or your spouse has considered or is running a business or side hustle, you need to read this book right now! I am a very anxious person with not much of an entrepreneurial bone. My husband is the exact opposite, very creative and driven with a million ideas on businesses and ways to exit the 9-5. I was always so nervous and struggled to support his ideas, but I didn’t want to crush his creativity. This book gave me so much confidence to support him and we’ve made leaps and bounds in investments and businesses since I read this. It will inspire you, remind you of your potential, and give you perspective. This is another must read!
3. Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach
This is a good all-inclusive personal finance, insurance, investing basics book. It covers the A-Z of money and gives a little snippet on everything you need to know. You’ll learn everything from the importance of budgeting, to the basics on investing in the markets, and the insurance you should be carrying and why. This is a great overview book to learn a little about a lot of things. There are some other books that go into better and more detail on each different topic, but I love this book for beginners who just want to know a little bit about everything and start getting really savvy. If you are a single woman, he also wrote Smart Women Finish Rich geared directly toward you! He also wrote Start Late Finish Rich for anyone in their 40s or older just getting started with wealth building. They all have similar concepts, and are just better geared toward more specific audiences.
4. The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
This is an excellent book on building wealth long term, primarily through index funds. This author does have a personal bias toward this method of investing to build wealth, but he has a great reason for that and supports it in the book. He gives significant and specific detail on how to do so, so that when you’re done with the book, you’ll be ready to start making those investments right away. He even tells you which company and websites to go with and which index funds to start with. He also helps you get real savvy about the stock market, index markets, and so on. You’ll feel smart after finishing this one. At least I did! After I read this book I could carry on a conversation with someone about investing and explain mutual funds, index funds, and the stock market to a friend. So, it’s pretty awesome.
If you’re not much of a book person, the course How to Build Wealth by Investing in Index Funds is a great alternative to The Simple Path to Wealth, teaching brand new beginners how to get started investing. It is a fun and interactive course that walks you through opening an account, picking the right investments and amounts, etc. from A-Z!
5. Retire Inspired by Chris Hogan
This is the basic starter book on investing. If you’re like…. LOST… and don’t even know where to begin. What is investing? What the heck is the stock market? Someone help me. Pick this book up! Chris Hogan is a Dave Ramsey team member, so this book follows his ideology on investing. While I do feel that the investing advice in this book is limited for people who want to retire at 65, it does very clearly and simply teach you the basics on investing and uses great simple stories to illustrate that. This is a book you don’t need any prior knowledge to get through and find helpful.
6. Work Optional by Tanja Hester
There is a lot of buzz out there right now about early retirement, and for good reason. Who wouldn’t be interested in retiring early? This is the perfect book for anyone who is interested in retiring early, becoming self-employed, or taking a non-traditional route toward retirement. Hester lays out the steps to help you plan and execute your own early retirement in a way that seems actually feasible for the average family.
7. Broke Millennial by Erin Lowry
Written with simple terms that are easy to understand, this books lays out everything young people need to know about managing money and living a better life. It should be called “How to Not be a Broke Millennial,” but “Broke Millennial” has a much better ring to it, don’t you think? Lowry really makes money management relevant, interesting, and accessible in this book! If you could really use a step-by-step guide on how to go from broke and cash-strapped to killing it with money, pick up this book! It’s also funny, refreshing, and full of great stories!
8. Broke Millennial Takes on Investing by Erin Lowry
After her first book Broke Millennial was wildly successful, author Erin Lowry uses her same funny, relatable, and easy-to-understand style to help young people take on investing! This book is full of real, solid, and sound tips and instructions on how millennials can take on investing in the modern world we live in today. Are any of these investing apps actually good? Should I invest while paying down my student loans? How do I actually buy and sell a stock? This book is perfect for young people in their 20s and 30s who know they need to invest but don’t even know where to begin.
9. I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
This book was not what I was expecting! It sounds like a get rich quick scheme, but it’s not! I will Teach You to Be Rich is all about enjoying the journey of life and finances and letting that positive mindset actually empower you to make good choices along the way. It is formatted as a 6 week program that works, so it’s definitely practical, easy-to-read and has very actionable advice as opposed to ethereal concepts that are hard to apply. He tackles useful topics such as how to pay off debt fast and for good, how to talk your way out of late fees, how to handle buying a car, and how to automate your finances so your money grows and works for you! Everything is practical, everything is actionable. I love that!
10. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
This is a classic book that might not be what you think it is! It is a short read that illustrates how to unlock the secret to wealth through a fun and engaging story of men in ancient Babylon, illustrating how these critical principles haven’t changed much throughout time. This book is about the simple principles needed to become wealthy and happy.
11. You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero
This book is all about pumping you up to change your mindset about managing and making money! At first when I read this book I thought it was a little hokey and oversimplified. But I started to realize that I was setting goals with my finances, taking chances with my business and putting myself out there in a way I never would have a few years ago. This book was part of a mind-shift that I went through that opened my mind to starting a business, taking chances, and believing that I can be successful, because, why not me? If you have limiting beliefs about yourself and your abilities, this is an excellent book to pick up to boost your confidence and take your mind to the next level.
12. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley
A classic book that everyone who cares about money should read. This book delves into what millionaires in the USA actually look like, how they actually live, and what they actually spend their money on. The theory is that when most of us think about millionaires, we picture someone living in a mansion, driving a mercedes, and hanging out at a country club. The reality is that millionaires are living right next door and look and act very much like you and me. This is such a good book and it’s incredibly motivating to get you to build wealth and stop worrying about keeping up with the Joneses.
13. The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach
I personally love David Bach’s upbeat, easy-to-understand writing style and organization, and this book is no different from the other ones I’ve read and loved. The number of millionaires in the United States has more than doubled since he first published this book in 2004. In this 2016 updated version, he explains how it is easier now more than ever before to become an automatic millionaire but so many Americans are missing out on the opportunity simply because they don’t know about it! This book offers the foolproof plan for how to retire wealthy that so many are missing out on.
Do you have a favorite money related book you would recommend to a friend in a heartbeat? What should I pick up next? Leave me a note in the comments!
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2 Responses
My husband and I both read Financial Freedom by FIRE blogger Grant Sabatier. While it’s meant to provide millennials practical steps to retire as early as possible using Grant’s own story as background and motivation, it provides basic investing principles that anyone with any financial goals can implement. Though we are debt-free and already live below our means and save for the future, this book lit a fire under is to kick it into high gear by increasing our income and further decreasing our spending.
This is so great! Thanks for the recommendation!