Blog Post #11 – My Top 3 Favorite Personal Finance Books

My Top 3 Personal Finance Books

Money is an interesting subject and an emotional one. Being able to look at your finances on a  spreadsheet and make an informed decision is pretty rare, but it can be one of the best things you do in your life. These 3 books were my personal favorites on personal finance and I broke them down a bit here for you:

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

This is one of the most popular personal finance books out on the market. I think it is hands down the best book to understand the mindset and goal of investing. Kiyosaki teaches about his Rich Dad and Poor Dad and the differences in mindset they had towards money. The Rich Dad learned to invest and get rich while leveraging debt and the Poor Dad did the opposite. Kiyosaki is able to break down the mindset on a lot of accepted thoughts on money that are wrong and explain in an understandable way what is the right way to look at things. He breaks down why the rich don’t work for money.

One of the biggest points in the book was the topic of assets and liabilities. To simplify, an asset puts money in your pocket every month and a liability takes money out of your pocket every month. The big debate comes from the question, “Is your house an asset?” The answer is no if it is your personal residence and not being paid by someone else. I love this book because it teaches the mindset which leads to other books like my second favorite…..

2. Set For Life by Scott Trench

Set For Life is able to build on Rich Dad Poor Dad by breaking down personal finance a little bit more and giving step-by-step lessons to become financially free. Once you’ve learned the mindset of Kiyosaki this book will be the actionable steps with different routes to get to financial freedom. Some of these steps and topics include credit, debt, building your first $25,000, understanding your spending, House Hacking, and financial freedom.

This book helped me direct my investing strategy from trying to trade stocks to investing in Index Funds which I have been doing ever since I read the book. Scott also gives tips to help make you more money and how to be better at your job. The biggest takeaway from the book is understanding how to save more. You have to tackle your biggest expense which isn’t your $5 coffee, it’s your rent/mortgage. You can save hundreds a month and thousands a year by House Hacking! I personally do this and can tell you all the times it has benefitted me so I hop you get the same takeaway as I did. 

3. Money Honey by Rachel Richards

Picking a third book was really tough, but Rachel Richards flies a bit under the radar with Money Honey. The book is a bit quirky but the advice she gives on personal finance and the step-by-step on how to save, invest, and thrive on your finances is next level! The topics Rachel goes over are savings, debt, investing, taxes and insurance, and strategy. The insight on credit and investing really piqued my interest because of how well she was able to make it digestible for the reader. 

Rachel explains that credit is scored like a GPA and how to boost your credit. She also says to just treat a credit card like a debit card so you don’t get into financial trouble. The investing part of the book was great for targeting specific index funds and how to read and invest in them. We all want a bigger return and by acting on Rachel’s strategy we can understand how to choose rather than leaving it up to the guru investors.

These 3 books are my favorites on getting started in personal finance and investing and I hope you can take as much from them as I did!