{"id":232,"date":"2022-03-21T19:41:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T19:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/?p=232"},"modified":"2022-03-21T19:53:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T19:53:27","slug":"my-favorite-finance-investing-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/?p=232","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Finance \/ Investing Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My Favorite Finance \/ Investing Books<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I\u2019ve read plenty of books on personal finance and investing.  They all have something to offer, some more than others.  Depending on where you are on your financial journey different books will speak to you differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buried in Debt or Just Starting Out<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are just starting out and or buried in debt Dave Ramsey\u2019s Total Money Makeover<\/em><\/strong> is a great place to start.  This book will help you set a budget, kick debt to the curb and start saving.  Dave\u2019s plan uses his proven \u201cbaby steps\u201d to get your financial life in order.  1) Create a $1,000 starter emergency fund, 2) Eliminate all debt, 3) Fully fund a 3-6 month emergency fund, 4) Invest 15% for retirement, 5) Save for your children\u2019s education, 6) Pay off your home early, 7) Build wealth and give back.  I found Dave\u2019s radio show after I was well on my way but found it a great reference for helping others.  Dave has a great way of simplifying issues and removing emotion to help people make their own decisions.  This title is my recommendation for anyone living paycheck to paycheck or struggling with debt and needs a plan to turn their financial life around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to Start Investing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you self-motivated and ready to start investing but don\u2019t know where to start?  JL Collins\u2019 book The Simple Path to Wealth<\/em><\/strong> may just be the best no nonsense book on investing ever published.  Jim\u2019s path to investing led him to create a blog to document his learnings to someday share with his daughter.  The blog content evolved into this wonderful book on how to invest simply and get back to the things you enjoy.  Jim is a firm believer in index investing and the Vanguard approach.  I suggest watching a few online interviews of Jim and then read his book.  His blog jlcollinsnh.com<\/a> is full of great information but the book is better organized to help you get started.  While Dave Ramsey\u2019s tone is that of a father trying to set his wayward child right, Jim Collins is like your knowledgeable uncle hoping you learn from his experience!  This book is my number one<\/strong> recommendation for anyone ready to start investing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another great read for someone ready to start investing is from John Bogle (the founder of Vanguard Group).  His book The Little Book on Common Sense Investing<\/em><\/strong> is a straight forward approach to index investing.  John is considered the father of the index fund.  He created Vanguard as an investor-owned company to provide low-cost alternatives to existing mutual funds.  Since Vanguard is investor owned<\/strong> there are no company stockholders looking for profit therefore lower fees.  Vanguard offers a number of fund options and John suggests a few different fund allocations based on your desired involvement level. Anything from a few index funds to a buy it and leave it balanced fund.  Watching a few interviews of John, you can tell he believes in the data behind index investing and truly wants to help the individual investor succeed.  Warren Buffet said \u201cJack did more for American investors as a whole than any individual I\u2019ve known\u201d.  If you have your budget in order and are ready to invest, this title is my number two <\/strong>recommendation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Active Investor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to pick individual stocks Ben Graham\u2019s The Intelligent Investor<\/em><\/strong> should be your investing bible.  Ben was Warren Buffet\u2019s instructor and mentor.  This book is not a light read but it lays down the foundation for successful stock selection.  The bottom line is there\u2019s a lot of work to properly analyze a publicly traded company.  The book considers a company\u2019s stock price, unique place in the market, management team, balance sheet and corporate health in detail.  The due diligence<\/strong> required for successful stock picking is not to be taken lightly.  The book even recommends if you don\u2019t have the time just buy an index fund, anything else is just speculation.  Additionally, the book provides the foundation of investing that gives valuable perspective of why so many stock pickers and fund managers fail to beat the index.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I listened to the audio book Unshakable<\/em><\/strong> by Tony Robbins.  He discusses the different types of investments and associated fees.  He uncovers many of the fees built into actively managed funds and promotes index investing as a core strategy.  Tony also covers different asset classes, diversification and allocation.  He talks about a \u201ccore and explore\u201d strategy for investors who want to be more engaged than simply buying an index fund.  I\u2019m not sure if it was the writing or the voice of the audio book but I found Unshakable<\/em> quite motivating.  It was interesting to hear his take on alternatives to index investing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning to Retire<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can I retire Yet<\/em><\/strong> by Darrow Kirkpatrick is my number one<\/strong> pick for anyone considering retirement.  Like me Darrow is an engineer and his wife is an educator.  These similarities had me immediately interested!  The book covers Darrow\u2019s data driven<\/strong> approach to determine if he was financially ready to retire.  It also covers his straight forward but effective investing and withdrawal strategy.  This book confirmed my own calculations and gave me confidence that I was financially ready to retire.  It also alerted me to the fact that I had not created a solid retirement withdrawal strategy.  I still check into the blog at www.caniretireyet.com<\/a> and find it a valuable resource. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think<\/em><\/strong> by Wes Moss not only informative but entertaining.  Wes was inspired by the movie The Pursuit of Happyness<\/em> starring Will Smith.  Wes wondered what a happy retiree looked like.  Wes shares the results of his  national retiree survey and the results are very interesting.  Wes discusses the numbers needed to retire but more importantly his survey results speak to the human side of retirement.  Things like how many hobbies or activities make a retiree happy?  How many sources of income make a retiree comfortable?  Even what brand of car happy retirees drive.  Wes has put out a number of podcasts on www.wesmoss.com<\/a> and he does a great job of explaining how you can retire sooner than you think.  I consider Wes\u2019s book a must read <\/strong>for anyone considering retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are just starting out, have money to invest, don\u2019t know where to start or are considering retirement there are books to help you along the way.  These 7 books are at the top of my list when asked for recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1EngineerOnFire.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Favorite Finance \/ Investing Books Over the years I\u2019ve read plenty of books on personal finance and investing.  They all have something to offer, some more than others.  Depending on where you are on your financial journey different books will speak to you differently. Buried in Debt or Just Starting Out If you are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-retirement","tag-books-investing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233,"href":"https:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1engineeronfire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}