55 Best Investing Books - Boost Your Money and Awesome Brain

The best-investing books can ease the learning to invest, which can be daunting. There’s just so much stuff to keep track of, right?

I got just the thing to cure all that.

I thought long and hard how to structure an overview of the education of an aspiring superior investor like you.

I believe the best approach is to be blunt and honest about all the books out there on investing.

Let’s divide best into four groups

So I divide the books into four categories according to their usefulness. Group 1 is the most useful. The value of the books decreases as you move down the groups. The 4th group still holds some exciting books, however! I haven’t put any books on here that I don’t personally have found useful.

I could have. I could have put Michael Covel’s Trend Following (one of my pet peeves) or the Market Wizards series – these are just financial porn books but are notat all helpful in actual investing.

If you want a list of excellent financial porn books, let me know in the comments – I got recommendations on these by the truckload! Tchu-Tchu.

I define usefulness as a book that has some sort of practical advice. A book that urges you to do something about the long-term you, but doesn’t excite you so much that it forces you to do something all the time.

The four groups

The best-investing books are divided into the following four groups:

1. Best investing books that you should read right now! These are the books that I highly recommend. Books that are written by authorities on investing, and that will help you invest both theoretically and practically.
2. Best investing books that will help you invest better. These are the books that explain what investing is, maybe cover asset allocation, and steers you awayfrom all the F.U.D. out there.
3. Best investing books that give you intelligent insight into investing. They may also provide well thought out evergreen general investing advice.
4. Best investing books that seem like they would help you but don’t, but that you are glad you read nonetheless. When you look up “best books on investing,” this category is by far the largest. These are theoretical books. These are books that tout one strategy over another (often outdated or outcompeted). These are also the books without any plan at all in them. They can also be vanity projects disguised as an actual book.

Ok, let’s get on with it.

(The lists are mostly sorted mostly alphabetically)

Group 1 – Best investing books that you should read right now!

1. Allan Roth – How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street: Golden Rules Any Investor Can Learn.
2. Andrew Tobias – The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need.
3. Daniel Solin – The Smartest Portfolio You’ll Ever Own: A Do-It-Yourself Breakthrough Strategy.
4. John C. Bogle – The Little Book of Common Sense Investing.
5. Rick Ferri – The Power of Passive Investing: More Wealth with Less Work.
6. Taylor Larimore – The Bogleheads” Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio: How a Simple Portfolio of Three Total Market Index Funds Outperforms Most Investors with Less Risk.
7. William Bernstein – The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio.

Group 2 – Best investing books that will actually help you invest better.

1. Bill Schultheis – The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On with Your Life.
2. Craig Israelsen – 7Twelve: A Diversified Investment Portfolio with a Plan.
3. Daniel Solin – The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read: The Proven Way to Beat the “Pros” and Take Control of Your Financial Future.
4. David Swensen – Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment.
5. Frank Armstrong III – The Informed Investor: A Hype-Free Guide to Constructing a Sound Financial Portfolio.
6. Harry Browne – Fail-Safe Investing: Lifelong Financial Security in 30 Minutes.
7. JL Collins – The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Roadmap to Financial Independence and a Rich, Free Life.
8. John C. Bogle – Common Sense on Mutual Funds.
9. Lars Kroijer – Investing Demystified: How to Invest Without Speculation and Sleepless Nights.
10. Meb Faber – The Ivy Portfolio: How to Invest Like the Top Endowments and Avoid Bear Markets.
11. Taylor Larimore – The Bogleheads” Guide to Investing.
12. Thomas J. Stanley – The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy.
13. Tim Maurer – Simple Money: A No-Nonsense Guide to Personal Finance.
14. William Bernstein – Rational Expectations: Asset Allocation for Investing Adults.
15. William Bernstein – The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk.
16. William Bernstein – How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly. (Free download)
17. William Bernstein – Deep Risk: How History Informs Portfolio Design.

Group 3 – Best investing books that give you an excellent overview of all things investing

1. Burton Malkiel – A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing.
2. Charles D. Ellis – Winning the Loser’s Game, 6th edition: Timeless Strategies for Successful Investing Kindle Edition.
3. Craig Rowland – The Permanent Portfolio: Harry Browne’s Long-Term Investment Strategy.
4. Daniel Kahneman – Thinking, Fast, and Slow.
5. David Chilton – The Wealthy Barber.
6. Ben Carlson – A Wealth of Common Sense: Why Simplicity Trumps Complexity in Any Investment Plan.
7. George Samuel Clason – The Richest Man in Babylon.
8. James Montier – Behavioural Investing: A Practitioner’s Guide to Applying Behavioural Finance.
9. James Montier – The Little Book of Behavioral Investing: How Not To Be Your Own Worst Enemy.
10. Jason Zweig – Your Money and Your Brain: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich.
11. Jeremy J. Siegel – Stocks for the Long Run: The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns & Long-Term Investment Strategies.
12. Justin Fox – The Myth of the Rational Market.
13. Larry Swedroe – Wise Investing Made Simple: Larry Swedroe’s Tales to Enrich Your Future.
14. Larry Swedroe – Your Complete Guide to Factor-Based Investing: The Way Smart Money Invests Today.
15. Mark Hebner – Index Funds: The 12-Step Recovery Program for Active Investors.
16. Meb Faber – Global Asset Allocation: A Survey of the World’s Top Asset Allocation Strategies.
17. Paul Merriman – Financial Fitness Forever: 5 Steps to More Money, Less Risk, and More Peace of Mind.
18. Paul Merriman – Get Smart or Get Screwed: How To Select The Best and Get The Most From Your Financial Advisor.
19. Rick Ferri – All About Asset Allocation.
20. Rick Ferri – The ETF Book: All You Need to Know About Exchange-Traded Funds.
21. Roger Gibson – Asset Allocation: Balancing Financial Risk, Fifth Edition: Balancing Financial Risk.
22. Tony Robbins – MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom.
23. Nick Murray – Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth.

Group 4 – Best investing books that seem like they would help you but really don’t, but that you are glad you read nonetheless

1. Benjamin Graham – The Intelligent Investor.
2. Lawrence A. Cunningham and Warren Buffett – The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America by Warren Buffett.
3. Nassim Nicholas Taleb – The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.
4. Peter Lynch – One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In.
5. Richard Thaler – Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics.
6. Robert D. Arnott – The Fundamental Index: A Better Way to Invest.
7. Wesley R. Gray – D.I.Y. Financial Advisor: A Simple Solution to Build and Protect Your Wealth.
8. Phil Town –Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing – in Only 15 Minutes a Week!

What are you reading?

That’s a lot of books, right?

If you’re just starting, don’t let that scare you. Just pick up Alan Roth’s book or one of John C. Bogle’s and go from there. You won’t be disappointed, and your wallet will thank you!