Fans pick 100 books like How to Fund the Life You Want

I think Treasure Islands may well be the most influential book in tax justice.

Author Nick Shaxson, previously a journalist for the Financial Times and Reuters, became a key member of the Tax Justice Network and wrote this rollicking blockbuster. In a story that spans the globe, Shaxson captures the lurking malevolence of the men – and it is almost always men – who shaped our world so they could profit from selling opportunities for tax abuse and financial crime.

It does what it says on the cover. Don’t just shrug your shoulders if an airline refuses to refund your money, your insurer won’t pay up, or the jeans you bought online don’t fit. Challenge the firm! Complain! Get your money back – and then some. Helen – who calls herself the Complaining Cow – is a master at all of this and herself a serial complainer. The book explains who to write to, what to say, and what to demand – and the laws to quote to make sure you get what you’re entitled to. 

Fraud is now 40% of all crime. It is the crime we are most likely to come across. Yet the authorities seem powerless to stop it. This book explains how frauds work and, armed with that knowledge, how to prevent them happening to you. Doug has years of experience and understands the world of fraud as well as any fraudster. Read it and keep safe. 

This book – a copy is free at hathitrust.org – shows how some truths about money are eternal. 

It is the first personal finance guide written for women but its advice is still valid – ‘high interest is another name for bad security’ ‘Do not put all your money into one concern’ ‘the Broker [you employ] should be of high standing and respectability’ ‘place the money…in the bank at interest [or] put it into the Funds’. And it is a model of clear writing. I loved it.

This book had a profound impact on my life.

In fact, so much so that I picked the name of the main character in the book, Roy, as my author name – that was my tribute to Chilton. It’s not enough to just find a job and keep working, hoping that one day you will make it big.

Most regular people are about 3 months away from homelessness, but not 3 months away from becoming a millionaire. Once you get a job, you want to build your life in a way that makes you wealthy.

This book was instrumental in teaching me how to save and build a secure future.

When Katie and I married, we had completely different views on finances. In particular, I wanted to get out of debt and Katie seemed like she wanted to keep spending money regardless of how much we had. Someone gave us this book as a wedding gift and Katie read it on our honeymoon. By the time we came home her view was completely changed.

It’s probably the highest recommendation I can give this book. There’s a reason it is the top-selling financial book of all time. I have read it and recommended it to others. The book has mass appeal because it’s not strictly Christian.

Get-rich-quick schemes are avoided in place of a simple and straightforward approach. The program, Financial Peace University, has been used in churches and secular organizations. The major focus is the elimination of debt. The accompanying radio show, podcasts, and supplemental material also have this focus.

This was probably the most easily digestible book on investing that I’ve ever read. To me, the most difficult part of investing is simply getting over the fear of doing it, and Morgan Housel gives genuine motivation for overcoming that fear.

The chapters are purposefully short, which allowed me to absorb the main takeaways without getting too in the weeds on details (a necessary downside of a lot of nonfiction). I loved that it included very clear examples of how our brains work against us when it comes to our finances, as well as clear advice on how to counteract that.

Pensionize Your Nest Egg, or PYNE as some readers call it, is a classic Canadian financial book by famed finance professor Moshe Milevsky and certified financial planner Alexandra Macqueen.

Its audience is primarily anxious would-be retirees who do not have the luxury of having an inflation-indexed, guaranteed-for-life Defined Benefit pension plan offered by an employer. In fact, the headline when I first reviewed the book, was “A Cure for Pension Envy.” Instead, its core reader may have lots of money in group RRSPs, Defined Contribution plans or 401(k)s that rise and fall with financial markets. Hence the subtitle of the second edition, published in 2015, is How to Use Product Allocation to Create a Guaranteed Income for Life.

In practice, this involves using a particular product – the life annuity – to make your nest egg more like a true DB pension. The authors go into some… show more.

Cindy is a clear, realistic, and relatable personal finance expert! She walks you through every major aspect of managing your money as an adult. She is honest about the challenges of navigating finances as a first-gen professional and then shows you how you can still make the most of your cash flow, save, invest in the stock market, and build your credit. She also touches on how to avoid falling into the cycle of over-consumption and overspending.

This book is a comprehensive and actionable guide for anyone looking to set themselves up for long-term financial health.

When I started my financial freedom journey, I discovered the Clever Girl Finance platform and gained great value from their blog posts and resources. When their book was released, I immediately picked it up because I needed guidance and encouragement in my journey to pay off over $200,000 of debt. This book provides actionable tips on how to create a debt freedom plan and, importantly, how to stick to the plan. I appreciated its balanced approach, which emphasized rewarding yourself (even in small ways) during the journey and managing your debt-free goals alongside your other financial goals.