I looked around, but couldn’t find a thread talking about personal finance books!
I know I know, we all love the OMD book. Of course! But sometimes we need other books, too. What are some of your favorites? Best ones for certain topics? The book you wish you had read first?
A friend recently confided me that she made a goal to budget this year, and I’ve been racking my brain to try to figure out what the “best first book” is. She isn’t really into cats, so the OMD book doesn’t make as much sense as it did for some of my other friends.
I recently had Get Money by Kristin Wong recommended to me. It surprised me how approachable and practical but value-based the content is! I was considering Your Money or Your Life but I’m not sure if that’s too intense for my friend right off the bat.
Anyone have feedback on Get Money or suggestions for an intro book for my pretty normal millennial young professional friend?
I adored Your Money or Your Life and it was a super important book for me. That being said, it can be an intense experience and it requires a type of introspection that’s very valuable but can be less-than-practical for some folks.
It sounded corny but I really liked You are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero. It’s kind of a spiritual successor to Think and Grow Rich but without the “able straight white male born in the early 20th century who certainly thinks minorities and women are inferior” ickiness.
I read this in 2010-2011 and am very happy he’s been successful! Not a big fan of the newer book covers, though. And I may need to schedule a reread. I remember taking his interviewing advice to heart.
Ooh I’ve just started this one. I feel like I’m in a good place to do the work. I’m not a big fan of the author herself, though, she’s quite abrasive in her interviews, but what she says makes sense.
I read your money or your life when I was 18 and it was probably pretty early in my personal finance reading lists, but at the time I was living on a hippie commune in a tree making $0 (free room and board though) after saving up for a year in a minimum wage job to do so… so it felt… less impactful than maybe it would’ve been if I had been someone working a professional 9-5?
Essentially it had you calculate out the cost of what you wear to work, and your commute, etc, and just - it felt irrelevant to me because I wasn’t the target audience. It made a bunch of assumptions based on the target audience that did not apply to me. That being said, it is a good advanced level book.
Haha whereas it’s why I first figured out how much a single day of commuting costs me. I am now armed with that figure whenever folks ask why I don’t come in more. (The answer: It costs me $80 per commute.)
@Illathrael Interesting! I’ve never seen her interview, but in the book at least I really liked her – she felt no-nonsense and straightforward. However, I tend to get along really with people who get described as abrasive, so this is not surprising to me.
Also, where lots of personal finance books assume that you are either single or in just one functional marriage, Gail and her books are very aware that this is not the case. Particularly useful for making sure that your assets aren’t vulnerable to those life changes.
There’s an episode of Bad With Money with Gaby Dunn that was my first introduction to her. I also don’t like the way she sells her book in the Introduction, because, well, I’m already reading it, let it sell itself. That being said, I haven’t read the whole book yet or any of her blog posts, and I am wanting to learn.
