The most recommended personal finance books

Good trading does not always involve just buying and selling decisions. If it was, trading would be much easier! To be a successful trader, you must have your psychological “house” in order. And that is what this book is superb for. Trade Your Way To Financial Freedom assists you in navigating the turbulent mental, emotional and psychological waters all traders face.

Now this book was a Christmas gift from my daughter who was 23 at the time. I typically will submit a readers list to my family around the holidays but this one was not on my list believe it or not.

Little did I know that it would become one of my favorite books and here's why. Dean doesn’t sugarcoat his experience around what it takes to get to the next level. He gives you real examples and will challenge you to get out of your comfort zone very similar to Jack Canfield but with a totally different writing style.

The difference between Jack and Dean, in my opinion, is that Dean uses a more personal approach to storytelling so you feel like you are on the journey right along with him the good the bad, and the ugly.

He then goes into detail about the who, what, and why… show more.

As a financial coach, I have met many women who feel alone with their financial challenges, or unable to talk openly about their finances. Women With Money includes the voices of women Chatzky interviewed about their money challenges and goals, and their comments help to humanize the subject. Chatzky’s discussion of our money beliefs is very solid, as is her advice about putting our money to work. Some topics, like investing in real estate, won’t be applicable to all readers, at least not right away. But overall, Chatzky, a longtime personal finance journalist, deftly communicates core personal finance topics in a clear and accessible way. 

I’ve always like the phrase “Work Optional” to describe the state of being financially independent enough that you don’t have to work for money anymore, but nevertheless choose to for reasons like having a purpose, or structure.

Work Optional is also the title of another fine American book on Financial Independence, bearing the subtitle Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way. The author is an American woman, Tanja Hester, who “retired” early at age 38, along with her husband Mark, who was then 41. I put the word “retired” in quotes because, as is usually the case with advocates of the so-called FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early), Hester didn’t actually retire to do nothing.

Generally, I find that when FIRE proponents say they “retired” at 30 or 40, what they really mean is they quit working as salaried employees for a corporation, to launch what amounts to an encore career built… show more.

Rich Dad Poor Dad is the book that changed the trajectory of my life forever.

It is a parable that explains the difference between the traditional way of thinking “Go to school, get a good job, work hard, retire” with the entrepreneur mentality, and the concepts of utilizing passive income to replace your job at an earlier age.

I love this book because it takes the normally boring subject of finance and investing and breaks it down in a fun and easy way to learn so that you will actually finish the book and have the ability to experience that light-switch moment! 

Without a doubt this is the most commonly mentioned book that I hear referenced on podcasts as “the book that started it all”.

“Isn’t six figures enough? No, it’s not.” - Rachel Rodgers.

Since 2017, I have told anyone who will listen that I want to be a Billionaire Mum. Only $1B to go. I rarely got pushback, but I also rarely met anyone who had actual dreams, goals, or plans to become a millionaire, much less a billionaire. Then, in 2021, Rachel wrote the book that showed me why making millions of dollars in profit is necessary to make my dreams come true.

My biggest dream is to create a community of fellow ethical billionaires, host Mahlena's Davos–an alternative to the yearly World Economic Forum–and make the Earth a more equitable place. What is yours?

Most money books are full of get-rich-quick schemes and bad advice. This one goes to the root of why we make good or bad financial decisions.

I have a tendency to overlook the business side of writing, and this book helped me see why that might be and do something about it. Everyone has strong feelings about money: this book helped me get mine under control and in perspective, which enables me to write better and publish the books I want to publish.

In this beautifully written and painfully honest memoir, the author gives up buying anything but consumables for a year. During that year, she realizes the treadmill of consumerism had kept her stuck and unhappy. Working to live, living to work. She dives deep into the cycles of spending, debt, and regret and realizes how often she had turned to spending, food, and booze to avoid feeling her feelings. 

Not only did Cait’s journey remind me so much of my own in my 20’s. Spending money I didn’t have to make myself feel better about things I couldn’t change about myself, all the while ignoring the things I could change, she also reminded me of so many of my clients. Hoping that the stuff they buy will fix their problems.

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.

This book helps readers become financially “whole” by providing practical guidance, dos and don’ts, and action items. One of my favorite parts about the book was the author’s discussion on insurance. Before reading this book, I found much of the conversation around the various insurances to be overwhelming, muddled, and quite “salesy.” In this book, the author breaks down the importance of determining your insurance needs, selecting the right policies for you, and understanding specifics about health, life, disability, and property insurance. I also enjoyed the author’s discussion on selecting financial professionals, including practical advice on choosing accountants, financial advisors, and estate planning attorneys.