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Welcome to this amazing roundup of the best investment books for beginner investors! I reached out to over 100 personal finance bloggers and was pleasantly surprised with how many were responsive to my request for their favorite beginner investment book.
Investing is extremely important, and I put this resource together to help guide you to make the right investment decisions. You will realize there are no books on bitcoin and no books on day-trading in this list. Investing is about the long-term, not the short term.
Below is the list of the best books for investment beginners suggested by over 30 money bloggers.
Related: If you are new to investing, take a look at my article How to Invest in the Stock Market – 11 Simple Steps for Millennials or signup for my FREE email course for investment beginners below!
Accelerated FI: A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel
About the book
I chose this book because it’s so easy to think you can beat the market or believe that a fund manager out there can do it for you. It’s tempting to think there’s a shortcut to building wealth in the market but there just isn’t. If all of these studies prove nobody can predictably and consistently beat the market even when it’s their full time job then why would you bother trying when you are just spending your spare time on it? This book was the best eye opener to convince me to only invest in index funds and not screw around with my retirement money. I lost about $7k trying to beat the market by trading options and it was a lesson that will stick with me forever thanks to this book
About Accelerated FI
My site is www.AcceleratedFI.com. I mainly write about side hustles and making extra money on the side.
Adventures in Mobile Homes: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
About the book
On the investing side, I have to recommend Rich Dad, Poor Dad. This book changed my life. It taught me about passive income. Before reading the book, I had no idea there were different kinds of income!
About Adventures in Mobile Homes
Rachel Hernandez, Author and Real Estate Investor Site Link at http://www.adventuresinmobilehomes.com
Birds of a Fire: The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
About the book
I love “The Black Swan” by Nassim Taleb because it warns you about black swan events in an understandable way. The market has been on a bull streak for so long that I feel people have forgotten the carnage 2008 brought on. I aslo like his investment strategies regarding asymmetric bets.
About Birds of a FIRE
This is Olivia from Birds of a FIRE, a financial independence blog from the perspective of a young millennial looking to hack the luxuries while speeding up FIRE by side hustles.
Budgets Are Sexy: The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
About the book
I’d go with JL Collins’ “The Simple Path to Wealth” – not only because it covers my own personal favorite investing strategy of Index funds, but also because it covers how it all fits into *life* and *money* in general. It’s hard to separate out some of these things since it’s all inter-connected, and Jim does an excellent job of not only helping to get your mindset right, but also making it entertaining in the process. Great overall book!
About Budgets Are Sexy
My goal with this blog is to get people to stop and *pay attention* to their money. Especially you younger gen. You won’t find any long in-depth instruction manuals or anything else that bores me to death here, as I really want this to be a fun place to share and interact with each other. I think this comment from a random passer-by sums it up perfectly, “he’s the Miley Cyrus of finance,” haha… I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a compliment, but I’m taking it as one anyways 😉 budgetsaresexy.com
Can I Retire Yet: The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
About the book
I love JL Collins’ book “The Simple Path to Wealth”. His writing simplified investing for me and made it accessible. It isn’t the only investing book you should read, but it is the first one I recommend to everyone looking to get started.
About Can I Retire Yet
This site is focused on the personal finance needs of anyone who is thinking about retirement or early retirement. The initial audience is my own baby boom generation, but anyone who is interested in financial independence and financial freedom will find value here.
This site is different from other personal finance blogs, in being written by someone older, who actually has saved, invested, and retired early. The ideas covered here aren’t speculation, future plans, or wishful thinking. They are firsthand experience. canIretireyet.com
ESI Money: The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing by Lindauer, Larimore, and LeBoeuf
About the book
Since I’m a big fan of index funds and primarily use Vanguard funds, it’s probably no surprise that I like a book highlighting the investment philosophies of Vanguard’s founder, John Bogle. But even if I didn’t like index funds or Vanguard (which some of you may not) I think I’d still like this book.
About ESI Money
ESI Money is written by “ESI”, a 50-something retiree. The site is basically a list of what’s allowed me to become financially independent and how you can implement those successes in your life.
Financial Panther: The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
About the book
The suggested investment book for beginners that I recommend is The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. I seriously think it’s a life-changing book for new investors. If you’re only willing to read one investment book, this is the one to read – follow what it says and you’ll do better than most people in life.
About Financial Panther
I blog over at FinancialPanther.com, where I write about my journey as a lawyer side hustling towards financial independence.
Financial Pilgrimage: Lifeonaire by Steve Cook
About the book
I’ll provide one that I haven’t seen mentioned too often. It’s more of a lifestyle book, but was a huge motivator to get me more focused on investing and paying off debt. The book is Lifeonaire and I think it’s a great inspirational book for beginners. Lifeonaire is an organization devoted to helping people live abundant, prosperous lives. Much like a millionaire possesses a lot of money, a Lifeonaire has a lot of life.
About Financial Pilgrimage
At Financial Pilgrimage, our mission is to inspire people to think differently about money through our story.We want to help people see there is true freedom in being debt free and financially independent. Stop thinking about money as a means to buy more stuff, and start thinking about how to use money to buy your freedom.
Fitz Villafuerte: The Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein
About the book
If you’re looking for a beginner’s guide to investing, then this book is for you. It will take you to the reasons why you should invest, what to look for in any investment so you can avoid bad ones, and more importantly, how to choose which one is best for you.
The best lesson from the book: It’s sometimes best to be boring about investing.
When you’re just starting out, putting your money only on investments that you really know is your best option. Later on, avoid following what’s hot as told by the media and learn to just sit on what you have.
Finally, never invest on anything unless you’ve taken the time to learn how it works and you have a clear understanding of its pros and cons.
About Fitz Villafuerte
Fitz Villafuerte owns the blog, Ready To Be Rich (www.fitzvillafuerte.com), It’s a blog about business, investments, and personal finance. It was started in 2007 and has ever since been teaching Filipinos on how to achieve financial freedom through
financial education.
The Frugal Gene: The Little Book that Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt
About the book
I read the Magic Formula (MF) investing method called ‘The Little Book that Beats the Market’ – by Joel Greenblatt and thought his wit was delightful. It’s good for beginners because a lot of investing books come off a little dry and technical. I found his book to be a fun read. Greenblatt stresses the importance of investing in valuable, successful, long-term companies and claims to beat the S&P 500 96% of the time. It’s an interesting alternative or “spice” to the typical index fund investor.
About The Frugal Gene
I’m Lily over at The Frugal Gene. I share my life and finances with our readers with openness. My husband and I scrimp, save, and work our bums off to save over 6 figures a year in the grandest pursuit of financial independence. We live car-free and moonlight as your pillow fluffing hosts on Airbnb. Follow along if you like a little humor with your morning read.
Life and My Finance: Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam
About the book
The book that best reflects and explains my beliefs about investing is “Millionaire Teacher“. Andrew Hallam does an excellent job summing up the earnings of mutual funds vs. index funds and is living proof that the lazy investor is a wise investor. Love it!
About Life and My Finances
My website, LifeAndMyFinances.com is all about getting out of debt, saving money, and becoming rich via simple investing. It’s worked for Andrew, it’s worked for me, and it will work for you too!
Making Momentum: Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam
About the book
My recommendation for the best investment book for beginners is Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School by Andrew Hallam. The author breaks down the fundamentals of money management in an easy to understand and simple manner. Rooted in sharing actionable advice, the book is perfect for beginners looking to better understand saving, investing and financial independence. The book was also updated in 2017 to provide refreshed information to match the most recent markets and financial landscape.
About Making Momentum
Scott here from Making Momentum (http://makingmomentum.net), I share tips, hacks, best practices and other content to help others optimize their life and finances. Focusing on growing your income, saving more, traveling for less and living a better life.
Michael Dinich: Whatever Happened to Penny Candy by Richard J. Maybury
About the book
First business book I ever read and really spurred my love of economics.
About Michael Dinich
Founder of Your Money Geek. I often write about Finance, Taxes, Politics, Renewable Energy and Geek Culture. Providing clients with the confidence and security to enjoy retirement is my life’s mission. https://michaeldinich.net/
Money Ahoy: Wealth by Virtue by Chad Gordon
About the book
Wealth by Virtue – this is a book for beginners about many different topics related to wealth, risk, and taxes. I just finished reading it and it is fantastic!
About Money Ahoy
www.MoneyAhoy.com – MoneyAhoy is a website devoted to helping you save more money, make more money, and invest your money more wisely.
Money Q&A: Investing for Dummies by Eric Tyson
About the book
Investing for Dummies by Eric Tyson – Dummies books may seem a little juvenile, but not this one. Eric Tyson is a seasoned pro and one of the best investing/finance related author in the Dummies series. There’s a reason that this book has been a continual best seller and revised almost every year. Eric Tyson walks investors through learning how to invest and aligning your investments with your goals in Investing For Dummies. The book helps readers understand how to develop an investment strategy and manage your expectations. The book is about growing your investment portfolio the right way – slowly and steadily.
About Money Q&A
Money Q&A is a popular personal finance blog that is geared towards answering its readers’ tough investing and retirement planning questions.
Freedom is Groovy: The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
About the book
For beginner investors you cannot go wrong with “The Simple Path to Wealth” by JL Collins. Just as its subtitle says, it is indeed a road map. It’s simple to read and it illustrates how anyone can learn to invest and achieve wealth. There’s no secret sauce. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist, an A student, or born into a family business to be a good investor. You just have to form some tried and true habits and stick with them.
About Freedom is Groovy
Freedom Is Groovy is about escaping the tyranny of financial dependency and becoming liberated from pointless jobs. Mr. and Mrs. Groovy have broken the freedom code and want to show you how you can, too. The Groovies have also embarked on a home-building journey and invite you to watch them decision-make and argue with each other in their “Building Groovy Ranch” series.
My Millennial Guide: The Little Book Investing Series
My Millennial Guide recommends “The Little Book Series”. This includes (but is not limited to) books such as: The Little book of Value Investing, The Little Book of that Beats the Market, The Little Book that Builds Wealth, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, etc…
About the book series
“During his youth, Billionaire investor Warren Buffett took his investment education so seriously that he read every book on investing at the Omaha public library, some of them twice. That’s dedication, but if you’re a beginner who is just getting started in investing, I would recommend The Little Book Investing Series. [These books do] a great job touching on value investing, dollar cost indexing, and passive indexing and can help you get a basic understanding of what your investment strategy will be.”
About My Millennial Guide
My name is Brian Meiggs and I’m the head Millennial at My Millennial Guide. MMG is a finance-focused online publishing platform empowering others to take part in better financial literacy. Learn the best ways to save money, make more money, and get career advice by joining the Millennial community. You can learn more about us at www.mymillennialguide.com.
My Money Wizard: The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
About the book
“My favorite book for beginning investors is The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias. It’s a bold name, but as far as a crash course on investing basics, this book covers it all. Topics range from the basics of saving money all the way to covered call options trading, and everything’s written in a down to earth and at times hilarious way. Plus, Mark Cuban credits his success to the book, so it’s got that going for it. You can read my full book review here.”
About My Money Wizard
As far as my site, I started MyMoneyWizard.com after saving $100,000 at age 25. Today, I share all my progress towards retiring in my 30s, including monthly spending reports and net worth updates.
My Own Advisor: If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly by William J. Bernstein
About the book
Best book for beginners (and free! is): If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly.
Why?
Because in five easy lessons or as the author calls them, hurdles, you’ll understand what pitfalls to avoid as a investor starting your investing journey now and decades into your financial future, in order to grow your wealth over time.
A review by My Own Advisor
About My Own Advisor
Mark Seed is the founder, editor and owner of My Own Advisor. As my own DIY financial advisor, I’ve grown our portfolio to over $500,000 – but there’s more work to do! Our next big goal is to own a $1 million investment portfolio for an early retirement. Come follow my saving and investing journey by subscribing to my site.
Our Financial Path: Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam
About the book
A good inspiration for me was the Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School by Andrew Hallam. This book shows how simple index fund investing and a proper investment methodology can help any middle-wage individual become a millionaire.
The author was a schoolteacher who has accumulated great wealth simply by sticking to the plan. This helps any middle-class investors to relate. A very inspiring book that shows a clear step-by-step to wealth building. It shows the very principles I teach here; younger investors should invest steadily, automatically, stop looking at stock market news, ignore the “professionals”, and, invest in low-cost index fund investing.
About Our Financial Path
While most other bloggers in the field are already retired or write about personal finance full-time, I started my path only
a year,2,3 years ago and will take you with me throughout my challenges and accomplishments. http://ourfinancialpath.com
PF Geeks: I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
About the book
This is Rich from PF Geeks! I’ve read a number of personal finance and investing books. One that I would absolutely recommend to beginners is “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi. I’ve been reading through it recently and it is fantastic! I will say it isn’t a purely a book on investing, but goes into automating your finances and setting yourself up to invest.
About PF Geeks
PF Geeks is where I nerd out and write about save money, make money, and manage your own money! I’m also passionate about helping couples get on the same team with their finances! You can click here to checkout PF Geeks
Physician on Fire: How To Think About Money by Jonathan Clements
About the book
“In How to Think About Money, Mr. Clements demonstrates the importance of not only investing money wisely, but also spending money wisely and understanding the role money plays in living a happy and fulfilled life.”
About Physician on Fire
PhysicianOnFIRE.com is a web log a.k.a. blog site dedicated to the discussion of issues pertaining to personal finance, early retirement, medicine, and miscellany. I will post new material a couple times a week as long as I have something to say, and readers to read.
Savvy New Canadians: The Four Pillars of Investing by William J. Bernstein
About the book
Why I love the book: It breaks investing into four main parts:
1) The theory of investing – what is investing, risk vs. return, costs of investing, market timing and stock-picking do not work, indexing is the most reliable way to invest.
2) The history of investing – a beginner needs to understand the past history of the financial markets in order for them to fare well in the present. The formation of stock market bubbles, manias and crashes. Things never really change in the markets.
3) The psychology of investing – how to avoid the psychological dilemma that dooms most investors. Overconfidence, recency, herd mentality and other behavioural biases.
4) The business of investing – your broker is not your friend. shun the financial media. consider all your investing and savings as one portfolio.
About Savvy New Canadians
Savvy New Canadians is a personal finance blog that focuses on money, savings, investing, credit, debt management, financial freedom, retirement planning, frugal living, DIY, productivity, entrepreneurship and more. You can click here to go to savvynewcanadians.com I have also reviewed the book “The Four Pillars of Investing” here: Four Pillars of Investing Review
Seller at Heart: One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch
About the book
I’m sure most will say The Intelligent Investor, even Warren Buffett did but in my opinion that the book is outdated, incredibly long and dry.
As someone’s first investment read I would recommend One Up on Wall Street. Author, Peter Lynch is a beast of an investor and he is not proposing some get-rich-quick scheme, he gives you the keys to successful long-term investing success.
About Seller At Heart
I blog over at Seller at heart and I have a post about how to begin investing for young people or anyone who isn’t sure where to start.
Sneaky Falcon: The Millionaires’ Club: How to Start and Run Your Own Investment Club by Carolyn M. Brown
About the book
While we wouldn’t necessarily put it up there with the Intelligent Investor or any other of the investing classics, this book was very influential for us. It covers literally everything you need to know on how to start an investment club and begin investing as a group. While it’s a bit dated, (now 18 years old) it was still highly relevant and informative in our journey to start Sneaky Falcon Enterprises, and may inspire you to start your own club.
About Sneaky Falcon
Sneaky Falcon (www.sneakyfalcon.com) follows the misadventures of the Sneaky Falcon Enterprises investment club. Through humor and first hand experiences, the group shares their quest to make a lot of money in stocks and learn about the markets.
Spills Spot: The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
About the book
My recommendation for an investment book for beginners would be The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. In the book, Jim clearly lays out the steps for how to start building wealth through passive index fund investing. This is a great option for any investor, beginner or advanced. The book talks about the how and why for putting this investment strategy into place.
About Spills Spot
This is Matt from Spills Spot, a personal finance blog focused on inspiring my generation to be more interested in personal finance and improve at managing their money.
Stock Street: The Little Book of Value Investing by Christopher H. Browne
About the book
There was an amazing transition in my life when I one day discovered the key to investing. It was the missing ingredient I had been overlooking for years, it was the secret sauce, the white whale! (You get the picture) This ingredient was so simple, yet so difficult to discover. The concept that made it all click for me was that stocks sell for prices. The price is either a bad price, or a good price. This lead to an understanding that stocks are actual businesses. And that if you can figure out what price a business should sell for – be it a restaurant in your home town or a multinational corporation- you can figure out the price its stock should be selling for. This is the book that bridged the gap for me.
About Stock Street
Well, in case you didn’t realize, you are reading this article on Stock Street. So welcome! This website is dedicated to beginners who are trying to learn the ropes to investing. We are an anti-daytrading, anti-cryptocurrency, website. We believe in oldschool investing – that companies are pieces of businesses, and that treating stocks as pieces of busienss will help you learn how to invest and make money for a very long time. The most important thing for us is to provide a place for you to come to and not be worried about us trying to pitch you bad advice so we can make some money when you signup for some terrible speculative investment. We’re here to help.
The Flawed Consumer: The Long and the Short of It by John Kay
About the book
In my opinion, a good book on investing for beginners is the long and the short of it by John Kay. The book describes itself as “a guide to finance and investment for normally intelligent people who aren’t in the industry”. It is a great guide for beginners as it assumes that you don’t know a lot about investing and therefore steps out investing from start to finish in a comprehensive, but user friendly fashion. If you’re keen to learn about investing principles and practices, check it out.
About The Flawed Consumer
I’m Kara, from www.theflawedconsumer.com. The Flawed Consumer is a money management blog that follows me, a flawed Gen Y consumer, in my quest to achieve wealth simply by changing spending habits.
The Rich Miser: Investing in Bonds for Dummies by Russell Wild
About the book
On the bond side of investing, I like Investing in Bonds for Dummies. It’s a great introduction to a topic that can be more complicated than it would initially seem. It covers everything from the very basics to more advanced subjects like building a bond portfolio.
For over 200 pages of information, I think it’s a wonderful deal and resource.
About The Rich Miser
Miguel here from The Rich Miser (www.richmiser.com), a site devoted to sharing tips, hacks, and reviews on living well for less.
Think Save Retire: The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko
About the book
I do have a favorite money book, but it’s not necessarily *just* about investing. Instead, it’s called The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley, and it talks about how most millionaires look, act and walk just like the rest of us. They aren’t necessarily driving around in expensive BMWs or other European imports, wearing $25,000 Rolex watches and sporting $2,500 suits. They shop at Target and Safeway just like the rest of us. Drive normal cars like Civics and Jeeps, and wear normal clothes with suits that usually don’t exceed a few hundred bucks.
About Think, Save, Retire
I blog about financial independence and early retirement while living on the road full-time in our 30′ Airstream travel trailer with my wife and two rescued dogs. My wife and I retired at 33 and 35, respectively, and now enjoy our time seeing everything that there is to see about our country and world. You can click here to read more about Think, Save, Retire.
Time in the Market: The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing by Lindauer, Larimore, and LeBoeuf
About the book
I recently wrote about this on my blog(https://timeinthemarket.com/the-three-best-beginner-investing-books/) but I think the best beginner book is The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing. I like it because it teaches the reader all he or she need to know about investing in simple and easy to follow terms. It outlines a path to success, tells the reader exactly what they need to do to get there and doesn’t get bogged down in the details. On top of that, the book gives some basic advice on expenses, loans and other financial matters beyond investing.
It’s one of those books that can teach you all you need to know about saving for retirement and many people won’t have to read anything else after this book unless they find investing fascinating and want to know more.
About Time in the Market
I’m a 30 something first generation American getting tired of the 9 to 5 grind and looking for ways to transition to a lifestyle that’s not paycheck dependent. I work in insurance, I studied finance and I love to write and eat in my spare time. Let’s talk stocks, passive income and investing. Checkout Time in the Market.
Maplemoney: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle
About the book
The book that really changed my perspective as a young investor was The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle, the Founder of Vanguard. This book shows how simply tracking the market through index funds will outperform almost everyone who tries to beat the market. If you’re buying actively-managed mutual funds, you’re trying to outperform in spite of higher expenses, higher turnover, and higher taxes. After reading this book, I pulled my money out of high-MER mutual funds and started investing in index funds.
About Maple Money
Tom Drake is the head writer at MapleMoney, a personal finance blog that helps Canadians create lasting financial freedom.
I hope you were able to find a book or two to help you along your way towards investing! What I found interesting about this list was that four books were mentioned by more than one blogger and one book, The Simple Path to Wealth, was mentioned by four!
Disclaimer: These are the ideas and opinions of the bloggers featured. The author is not responsible for the actions of those who read the posts on this blog. Each individual reader has a unique situation and unique needs. This blog is not intended to solve those unique situations of the readers. This blog is not liable for decisions made by the readers of this blog.
This article DOES include affiliate links. Use them, I will make a little dough (at no extra cost to you). Here is my affiliate link disclaimer if you want to read more: DISCLAIMER
Thanks for including me! This is a great collection of books and something I wish I had access to when I was 18-22. So much knowledge to be had within the 1000’s of pages these books offer as a collective whole.
I’ve got a few new ones to check out myself from this.
Cheers,
Scott
Thanks so much, Scott! And ain’t that the truth? I would be so much further ahead if I had read just two of these books back then!
I am surprised that no one mentioned “Single Best Investment” by Lowell Miller:
http://www.mhinvest.com/files/pdf/SBI_Single_Best_Investment_Miller.pdf
Oh haven’t heard of that one I’ll check it out.
Thanks, so much for putting together this article and for including me!
Thanks so much for being a part of it! I really appreciate it.