The Best Personal Finance Books for Every Stage of Your Money Journey

If you’ve recently discovered the ‘FIRE’ movement or decided to finally take control of your finances and start investing, you may be wondering where to begin. The good news is that there are hundreds of free resources and books available that can help with wherever you’re at in your personal finance journey.

Financial literacy is no longer only for the wealthy and well connected. Anyone willing to put in a little time and effort to learn can become great at managing their own finances. You don’t have to spend money on a financial adviser or expensive online courses to learn how to build wealth.

Most likely, you already have access to dozens, if not hundreds, of personal finance books through your local library. There are also thousands of blogs and other online resources that you could tap into as well.

In fact, there is so much free information available that it’s easy to become overwhelmed. It can be difficult to separate the good advice from the bad.

Books are a great way to delve into whichever topic is currently most relevant to your personal finance journey. Although they require more of a time commitment than short form discussions on the internet (like a blog post), books are typically vetted more thoroughly and address a topic more holistically.

Since discovering the FIRE movement in late 2018, I’ve read dozens of personal finance books and hundreds of blog posts.

Here are my picks for the best personal finance books for the different stages of your money journey…

Note: This post includes affiliate links which help to fund this blog. If you make any purchase at Amazon using one of these links, we may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Most of the books below should be available for free from your local library. But should you choose to make a purchase through Amazon instead, please consider using one of my links. Thank you for your support!

You’re ready to pursue financial independence and start investing

The Simple Path to Wealth

If you only have the time (or patience) to read one personal finance book, make it this one.

In my opinion, The Simple Path to Wealth is the one of the most well-rounded books about pursuing financial independence. It’s short and easy to read, yet provides an excellent roadmap which most people could use to achieve financial independence.

This book addresses everything from why you should pursue financial independence to what you should do with that money once you get there. However, the majority of it is dedicated to basic investing strategies for the wealth accumulation phase. Within its pages you’ll find easy to understand information on how to build and self-manage your investment portfolio, including an introduction to the various tax-advantaged accounts available.

My praise of this book may be a bit biased, as its investing philosophies are very consistent with our own and the decisions we’ve made on our journey to financial independence. However, I know a number of other people who view this to be one of the best personal finance books for anyone beginning their financial independence journey.

You know the basics and want to dive a little deeper into investing

The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing

If you’ve read The Simple Path to Wealth and want to dive a little bit deeper into index investing and building a portfolio allocation, this book is a good one to read.

This book is still easy to comprehend, but includes more details on how to build basic and advanced portfolio allocations. It also more robustly covers how to effectively utilize tax-advantaged accounts to minimize your tax burden, and what type of investments to include in each type of account.

Newbies to the investing world often find the idea of buying individual stocks to be alluring. But the truth is that most people are better off just buying the whole index and holding investments for as long as they can.

Index investing provides more diversification, which better balances the risks and rewards within your portfolio. Sure, you might find the next Tesla, Facebook, or Amazon… but the odds of you doing so and buying it at the right time and not selling it too soon are slim.

Take the emotions out of it and ‘just buy the haystack’, as John Bogle would say.

You just discovered the FIRE movement

Your Money or Your Life

Your Money or Your Life was one of the first books I read after discovering the FIRE Movement. Vicki Robin is considered one of the pioneers of the movement.

This book resonated with me and clarified my decision to pursue financial independence.

It is all about transforming your relationship with money, and thinking through the hidden trade-offs that come with making or spending more of it. The book also provides meaningful advice for pursuing financial independence in a way that promotes a healthy mindset and fulfilling life.

At the time I read this book, I was still slaving away in my stressful public accounting career. This book helped me to think differently about the tradeoffs I was making, including identifying the hidden ‘costs’ of my career and calculating my true hourly wage, in a way that I hadn’t previously considered.

There’s a reason this book has stood the test of time.

In reality, money is not what makes us happy. It’s only a tool that can help… when used correctly.

You think you want to pursue FIRE but need some motivation

Quit Like a Millionaire

Quit Like a Millionaire is the book that got me really excited about the FIRE movement.

Although we decided to pursue financial independence and early retirement after reading some of the other books mentioned herein, this is the book that I found to be the most motivating.

Achieving early retirement seemed feasible based on where we were at financially, but I still had hesitations. Having a real life example of ordinary people retiring at an extraordinarily young age was helpful. Especially because Kristy and Bryce did so without a trust fund, owning real estate or a business, or taking on crazy risks in the stock market.

I also really liked the ‘yield shield’ concept, which made me feel better about the added market risks a longer retirement runway would have.

Their no nonsense, casual tone was refreshing, and you can find more of it on their blog Millennial Revolution.

After reading this book, I finally believed that FIRE was actually possible for us and was pumped up to begin the journey.

You’re tempted to upgrade your home or car to keep up with the ‘Joneses’

The Millionaire Next Door

Spoiler alert! Most millionaires don’t live in McMansions and drive fancy cars.

Yep, that’s right. Most millionaires in this country are actually self-made and fairly frugal. They don’t spend all their money trying to impress other people. The Millionaire Next Door provides an interesting deep dive into the common spending habits of the wealthy.

I spent far too long believing that I was expected to show my success in corporate America through material purchases. I arrived at work with my Prada bag and designer shoes to do just that. Of course, if you follow this blog, you already know what a waste those purchases were for me in hindsight.

It may not be sexy, but living below your means is one of the secrets to getting (and staying) rich.

You’ve struggled with money decisions in the past

The Psychology of Money

This book is about our emotional biases and the psychology behind the way we think about money and the financial decisions we make.

It’s chocked full of interesting stories, facts and quotes that might help to shed some light on why you do the things you do when it comes to money.

For a deeper preview and my favorite takeaways from The Psychology of Money, check out my full book review linked here.

You’re thinking of diversifying into real estate

We’ve been contemplating this as well. Although, the stay on evictions during the pandemic and rising housing costs have caused us to reconsider whether we want to delve into rentals anymore.

If this is a stage that you’re at in your own personal finance journey, check out my post on the five easy ways we’re investing in real estate. It contains links to some of my favorite real estate resources.

You’ve gone so far down the frugal rabbit hole that you’re feeling deprived or burnt out.

Die with Zero

So for full disclosure, I didn’t love this book. However, it contains an important message that super-savers, like myself, might need to hear.

Perhaps you’ve already saved enough money for retirement and are suffering from ‘one-more year’ syndrome. Or, perhaps you’ve gone too far down the frugal path and the aggressive savings rate is causing you to feel deprived or burnt out along your journey.

Ironically, saving too much can occasionally be just as bad as saving too little. We were veering down this path (I’m a frugal zealot), but reading this book helped me to think a bit differently about money and loosen the purse-strings.

Life is unpredictable. Because our time on this planet is limited, time is too precious to waste. Sacrificing more time to make more money that we don’t need can be a mistake. As can forgoing experiences that might bring us a lot of joy simply because of the monetary cost.

While we should of course be financially responsible, it’s also important to make the most of this life.

If this sounds like something you struggle with, check out my full book review linked here.

Bonus: If you’re feeling overwhelmed trying to ‘do it all’ or feel like you’re stretched too thin

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Ok, this is not technically a personal finance book. However, it’s a really good book about time and life management that I believe many people could benefit from reading.

The Financial Independence and Retire Early movement tends to attract type A personalities, like myself. Many of us have strived for perfection our whole lives, juggling everything that we think we should be doing, all while aggressively climbing the corporate ladder. Sound familiar? That’s my story.

However, it’s just not possible to do it all or have it all.

Essentialism isn’t about doing more in less time. It’s a discipline that helps you identify what is actually important, so that you can focus on getting the ‘right’ things done and make the highest contribution to the things that really matter to you.

What personal finance books have helped you the most on your money journey?

Sharing is caring! If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it on social media. This helps the blog continue to grow and reach a larger audience. Thank you for your support!

Disclaimers:

The content included in this blog reflects the author’s opinions and personal experiences, which may be different than your own. This blog is not a replacement for, nor is it intended to represent, financial or investing advice.

This post may include affiliate or referral links (blogging isn’t cheap). You can show your support for this blog by using one of my referral links or by making any purchase on Amazon a link on this blog. Using one of these links to make a purchase or open a new account may provide a small commission or referral fee to us (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support!!

Rich Frugal Life is a member of affiliate programs for Amazon, Personal Capital, and other vendors. Personal Capital Advisors Corporation compensates Rich Frugal Life for new leads (Rich Frugal Life is not an investment client of PCAC).

Please refer to our disclosure and privacy policy for further details.