person holding a glasses while reading a personal finance book

The 10 Best Personal Finance Books For Designing Your Financial Future

Learning how to manage your personal finances is a difficult challenge for any adult, but thankfully there are plenty of resources out there for those who are looking to gain some insight into the art of managing one’s own money. While the Internet is a good resource in its own right, the nature of publishing, which requires citations and has a higher bar for quality, ensures that some of the best personal finance books picked up by intelligent publishers can help you in your quest to get a better grip on your own moneymaking processes.

Product FAQ

1. What Is a Personal Finance Book?

A personal finance book is a guide to managing one’s personal finances. They are usually written by people who have claims to knowing a thing or two about money management, whether it be from personal success in their chosen field or winning the Nobel Prize in Economics. Some go for straightforward tips and tricks and play more like guidebooks; others use personal anecdotes to illustrate an overall point and read more like works of nonfiction memoirs with a little advice thrown in.

2. Who Is a Personal Finance Book For?

Personal finance books as a whole are for anyone who is looking to make their money work for them. However, there are different levels of difficulty in each one, and it’s best to take on some guidance in advance as to whether you should go for something easier or harder. It is also recommended that you learn which ones are more like guidebooks and which ones are more like memoirs.

3. Where Can I Buy a Personal Finance Book?

All ten of the books we looked into for this guide can be purchased on Amazon. Most are widely available in paperback, hardcover, and on e-reading devices such as the Kindle.

4. Which Personal Finance Book Is the Best for Me?

Our guide, which reviews ten of the most widely selling and best personal finance books, will hopefully help you come to the right decisionas to which is the strongest selection of the best personal finance books.

How We Reviewed the Best Personal Finance Books

The following products were reviewed based on features, price, and pros & cons. We looked into each one to get a look at how difficult they are to follow, their format, and the general credibility of these books.  

Overall Price Range

Almost all of the best personal finance books can be acquired for less than $20 on Amazon if you buy them in paperback, making them a bargain. Hardcovers are usually only slightly more expensive. Some are also available in mass market paperbacks that cost less than $5. The best personal finance books can also be acquired if you have a subscription to Audible or Kindle Unlimited, available on Amazon.

What We Reviewed

  • The Millionaire Next Door
  • Nudge
  • Pound Foolish
  • Rich Dad Poor Dad
  • You Are a Badass at Making Money
  • The Automatic Millionaire, Expanded and Updated
  • How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
  • The Total Money Makeover
  • Your Money or Your Life
  • The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

The Millionaire Next Door

Features

This book’s focus is on the seven common traits that unite most millionaires, as selected by business professors Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko. Stanley and Danko realized after many years of study that most people could be saving half their income or more in order to be more responsible in the long run, and that most people are UAWs: under accumulators of wealth. It also includes a simple net worth formula to help you know if you’re saving enough.

Price $

Pros

  • Gives you key tips to allow you to accumulate more wealth in the long run
  • Includes formulas and straightforward tricks
  • Strong use of evidence to give you advice

Cons

  • Some readers have complained of an overemphasis on anecdotes

Where to Buy

http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1548618323&sr=8-1&keywords=the millionaire next door&linkCode=sl1&tag=vcl03-20&linkId=986aa38106f93c6db1cf324c57d10158&language=en_US&tag=dividendman0c-20

Nudge

Features

The focus of this book is on an explanation of the “nudge” factors that help us make better choices. Richard Thaler (a Nobel Prize in Economics winner) has a focus on behavioral economics, and his book is on overcoming the psychological and emotional factors that cause us to make irrational money decisions. The goal of this book is to allow us to overcome our biases that cause us to make poor financial decisions.

Price $

Pros

  • Nobel Prize-winning author
  • Noted for being enjoyable to read
  • Strong use of concepts

Cons

  • Heavy focus on changing the system, which not everyone can do
  • Doesn’t delve deeply into who should be changing the system and the potential biases involved

Where to Buy

Pound Foolish

Features

This book takes a close look at how the personal finance industry can be fairly corrupt, with a focus on people who give advice out of self-interest rather than helping others. Author Helaine Olen particularly deconstructs myths about cutting out small pleasures, the idea of disciplined investing, sexist notions about women needing help with investments, and the value of financial literacy classes. 

Olen argues for more scrutiny and control within the industry in order to prevent exploitation and cautions readers to be more discerning with their choices when it comes to seeking advice from professionals.

Price $

Pros

  • A great antidote to some of the other choices on this list
  • Genuinely designed to help people talk about money more practically
  • Deconstructs the media’s tips and tricks that people have subconsciously absorbed

Cons

  • Doesn’t help with the actual management of money
  • Potentially depressing, since it reveals so much is rooted in something approaching luck

Where to Buy

http://www.amazon.com/Pound-Foolish-Exposing-Personal-Industry/dp/159184679X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1548618415&sr=8-1&keywords=pound foolish&linkCode=sl1&tag=vcl03-20&linkId=d2751b9ea10d84007cad4c583f733d7e&language=en_US&tag=dividendman0c-20

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Features

This book is all about the father of the author, Robert Kiyosaki, and the father of his best friend as a child. Kiyosaki’s father was not practical in his attitude towards money, while the father of his friend was. This book is the number one most successful personal finance book of all time and features straightforward binary decisions that have helped millions in their attitudes towards saving for retirement and the future.

Price $

Pros

  • A massive bestseller, worth reading for having an opinion on
  • Presents basic ideas that were under-discussed at the time

Cons

  • Kiyosaki made a huge portion of the anecdotes
  • Mostly a motivational book

Where to Buy

http://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Teach-Middle/dp/1612680194/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1548617326&sr=8-1&keywords=rich dad poor dad&linkCode=sl1&tag=vcl03-20&linkId=d32a907866ecf7070fc4fd6ad196bfed&language=en_US&tag=dividendman0c-20

You Are a Badass at Making Money

Features

In this book Jen Sincero, the author of the best-seller You Are a Badass, takes her self motivating approach to life and applies it to the matter of financial success. Her use of comedic personal essays and anecdotes to unlock potential money saving secrets is designed to help motivate people to get in the mindset to make money.

Price $

Pros

  • Potentially helpful for the less confident
  • A fun read compared to the more practical tone of the other books listed here

Cons

  • More motivational than actually advice giving

Where to Buy

http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Badass-Making-Money/dp/0735222975/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1548617945&sr=8-1&keywords=you are a badass at&linkCode=sl1&tag=vcl03-20&linkId=db4f1422a1286abae6fd2f28b64b6166&language=en_US&tag=dividendman0c-20

The Automatic Millionaire, Expanded and Updated

Features

In this powerful book, author David Bach argues for the power of automating your financial decisions, which removes the potential that emotion will affect your willpower when it comes to saving. Instead, he helps you understand how to turn it into a logical process. This book is a testament to the power of changing your habits, and the book has been so successful that automation is now widely considered a normal concept in financial management. The plan itself can also be set up quickly and efficiently.

Price $

Pros

  • Gives you a quick plan to set up that will become an easy habit
  • Makes saving and earning money more efficient
  • Has inspired enormous financial success for many

Cons

  • Doesn’t really cover the potential for variations in the plan
  • More for beginners than experts, who have already likely mastered the automation concept

Where to Buy

http://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Millionaire-Expanded-Updated-Powerful/dp/0451499085/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1548618009&sr=8-1&keywords=the automatic millionare&linkCode=sl1&tag=vcl03-20&linkId=fc02617a810daf33d6677ad2031773cc&language=en_US&tag=dividendman0c-20

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

Features

This book takes a different focus on the nature of retirement than the one financial books usually take. In most books, retirement is typically framed as something to enjoy after the last day of work has finally come. The focus here is on the achievement of satisfaction once one has retired, with the argument being that you don’t need unlimited money to retire, but a clear sense of one’s goals for after retirement and a knowledge of just how much money you will need to achieve those goals.

Price $

Pros

  • Takes a nuanced approach to retirement, which is not commonly covered even in the best personal finance books
  • Successfully manages to be a personal finance book without a heavy financial focus

Cons

  • Heavily focused on the idea of finding a passion, which can be a little obvious
  • Contains a lot of fan letters for previous books author has written

Where to Buy

The Total Money Makeover

Features

This helpful book by money guru Dave Ramsey is all about getting rid of debt and recognizing some of the most insidious myths about how to manage one’s money. Author Dave Ramsey uses a blunt, ranting style to convey his ideas about the nature of handling one’s money. The book is best when used as a wake up call for those who are in denial about their money problems.

Price $

Pros

  • Can be entertaining for a certain type of reader
  • Blunt, efficient delivery style makes it an easy read

Cons

  • Many people find the writing style fairly irritating
  • If you do not have debt, you might not need it (although it covers other potential saving tips)

Where to Buy

Your Money or Your Life

Features

Your Money or Your Life is all about telling people to think about their goals and aims and how much money they will need to save in order to accomplish those. The simple question underlying Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez’s book is “how much money are you willing to trade your life for?”, as that is essentially how work functions.

Price $

Pros

  • Focus on extreme frugality and goals makes it good for forcing you to consider your plans
  • Helps you decide what things are most important to you

Cons

  • Once you get past the initial question, the book is fairly redundant

Where to Buy

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

Features

This book is really a financial guide written by John C. Bogle. His claim for this book to be one of the best personal finance books out there is that he is the founder of one of the most successful investment firms ever. Bogle’s advice is to focus less on stocks and more on keeping your savings rate as high as possible. He also advises people to stick to index funds, which tend to grow at a fairly steady rate.

Price $

Pros

  • Great for novices and very practical
  • Short, fast read

Cons

  • Some think the book is essentially an argument for Bogle’s Vanguard, which he recommends in the book itself

Where to Buy

The Verdict

While all ten of these books are among the best personal finance books on the market, you ultimately must consider which one is the best for your needs. Beginners should try The Automatic Millionaire, which is both simple and accurate in terms of the advice it gives, even if it can be a little too easy to process this advice.    If you are looking for some more advanced tips, however, then Nudge is the right choice for reframing your thinking about money, while Pound Foolish is great to have as a perpetual warning about what can happen if you fall for the wrong (and commonly perpetuated) tips and tricks about what to do with your money and financial future.

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