Remember that line from Good Will Hunting, “You — people baffle me. You spend all your money on these — fancy books. You surround yourselves with ‘em. They’re the wrong — books.” These are the right books! Our catalog of the best Financial Independence books contain some of the most well written and researched material related to personal finance, investing, achieving FI or early retirement, and contain some amazing success stories. Quite a few get outdated overtime, but others can stand the test of time. We’ll do our best to keep the listing as relevant to today as possible.
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If you are a busy individual and don’t have time to read (strange that you found this page), Amazon’s Audible is the best way to experience these books while multitasking. It’s a great commute companion to expose yourself to literature. There’s free, a la carte, and various membership levels to listen to most financial independence books on the market. Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks
Best Financial Independence Books
Vicki Robin pioneered the Financial Independence revolution encouraging people to stop thinking traditionally and details 9 steps to transform your relationship with money and achieve freedom through financial independence. This is the grandmother of the FI movement and has been updated recently. Note: Don’t get the audiobook on this one, it’s a sales pitch to the hardcopy.
Burton Malkiel identifies the reasons for bull and bear markets and provides numerous evidence to the broad based index investing strategy that beats individual stock investing or mutual fund management. An eye opener if you’ve been using money managers, day trading, or even value investing.
The self help guru Tim Ferris’ popular book “The 4 Hour Work Week” details the methods he uses to increase productivity. As an entrepreneur and angel investor in some of the most popular companies, his advice is quite relevant for ambitious leaders seeking success. This book provides the tactics to live more and work less by evaluating successful case studies of those who have started businesses or navigated the corporate ladder.
George S. Clason’s classic 1926 book “The Richest Man in Babylon” is a compilation of financial advice parables set in ancient Babylon. Read entertaining tales of merchants, tradesmen, and herdsmen, to learn how to save more of what you earn, get out of debt, put your money to work, attract good luck, choose wise investments, and safeguard a lasting fortune. It is heralded as one of the greatest inspirational works on the subject of frugality, personal wealth building, and financial planning. Highly recommend for anyone starting down the patch to financial freedom.
Renown publisher, consultant, speaker, and financial independence blogger JL Collins authored and self published this gem after writing a series of letters to his daughter and turning them into a book for the masses. He is an avid follower of the indexing investment philosophy and exposes many traps that typical people fall into when not educated directly on the more simple path to accumulate wealth.
The dinosaur of the bunch and brainchild of Benjamin Graham on value investing. This was the manifesto of the legendary Warren Buffett that has guided him to become one of the wealthiest persons in the world. Before index funds and ETFs, there were very few that could evaluate companies and determine their intrinsic value and growth potential. If you’re going the individual stock route, read this carefully.
Another classic in the Personal Finance community that is a bestseller and identifies seven common traits that show up multiple times with those who have accumulated wealth. This is a statistical study of the truly wealthy in U.S. that don’t live in privileged communities, but rather…next door. This new edition, the first since 1998, includes a new foreword for the twenty-first century by Dr. Thomas J. Stanley..
The personal story of Elizabeth and Nate Thames of how they took their family from urban professionals to financially independent homesteaders in Vermont through frugal living. They despised the 9-5 and created a plan to save over 70% of their take home pay. In less than three years, Liz and Nate reached their goal. Today, they retired early and live out their dream on a 66 acre homestead in the woods of rural Vermont with their children.
The legacy bestseller that weaves a hypothetical story of growing up with two dads. The book explores the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you. The book pits a father’s ideal that you need to go to school and earn a high income vs his best friend’s father’s method of using money to create businesses and diversify income streams.
The White Coat Investor: A Doctor’s Guide to Personal Finance and Investing was written by James Dahle, a practicing emergency physician. Dahle runs a popular blog of the same name and basically repurposed years of content into this streamlined manual. The book is primarily focused on the finances of medical professionals and high income earners. He’ll describe methods for adequate insurance coverage, asset protection, home ownership, low cost investing, tax avoidance, and handling student loans.
Best Inspirational Finance Related Books
Not all books have to be about personal finance to be educational. There are many stories and biography type books that may provide more value to you through inspiration and overcoming adversity.
The biggest success story of the century is Warren Buffett. Of all the biographical accounts in existence, this is the most detailed personal account of his life and business activities. Alice Schroeder had unprecedented access to Warren and detailed his personal life chronologically in concert with his businesses and investments. You get a complete vision of how Warren became one of the richest people in the world, his influences, and the obstacles he faced along the way. To get into the mind of this master investor, you can also read his Berkshire Hathaway Letters to shareholders.
“Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” is the biographical account from Ashlee Vance of one of the most daring entrepreneurs of the twentieth century. It is an entertaining recall of his successes, failures, and management style that led to pushing the boundary of technology and risking it all for the betterment of mankind with his efforts in electric cars, rocketry, and online payment systems.
One of the greatest rags to riches stories ever heard. Arnold himself narrates a piece of the audiobook and provides us a detailed look at his rise from an aspiring BodyBuilder in Austria to Mr. Olympia, businessman, movie star, and then politician. He’s interacted with the most prominent families in the world and rose from obscurity to one of the most famous people in the world. His inspiration and motivational connotations can be applied to many aspects of your life.
