FIRE Book List

There are many books about personal finance and it’s easy to see why. Many people want to become financially literate, to be rich. However, most personal finance books repeat the same basic beginner-friendly advice; Save your money! Make a budget! Live within your means! And while that’s helpful for beginners, it doesn’t do much good for those of us who already know the basics and want to learn more.

Here at WeFIRE, we have taken the liberty to comb through bestseller lists and several pages worth of book recommendations to bring you a variety of useful personal finance books, so you can find the one you need no matter where you are on your journey to FIRE. Don’t feel like reading a book? No problem! We know your time is precious so we’ve also prepared comprehensive reviews for each book on the list!

Take your pick, your journey to financial independence awaits!

Best books for general financial advice (for beginners):

For those of us who are complete beginners to money management, there are a wealth of options. Virtually any book you find in the personal finance section of your local library or bookstore will do the trick. Of the myriad of options, we landed on these four books as all-around good reads that will provide a strong start to your journey to financial independence.

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter

Main points:

• Invest in yourself! If you can learn and use your mind to generate enormous wealth
• Assets put money in your pocket, liabilities take money out. Know which is which
• Don’t say “I can’t afford it” instead ask “how can I afford it?”
• Start today! Overcome your fear of failure, you need to fail to learn, and learn to succeed

Read the full review: Reviewing Rich Dad Poor Dad – Is this Book Worth the Hype?

The Richest Man in Babylon by George Samuel Clason

Main points:

• Pay yourself first, save 10% (or more) of your paycheck every month
• Make sure you know the difference between needs and wants
• Take advantage of compounding – have patience and money will work for you
• Beware of scams, if something sounds too good to be true, it is
• Own your house and make it an investment
• Establish a future income so you can retire comfortably
• Increase your knowledge and skill so you have greater earning power

Read the full review: Reviewing The Richest Man in Babylon – Is This Book Truly Timeless?

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

Main points:

• Millionaires don’t spend money the way non-millionaires think
• Millionaires devote time to planning their annual budgets
• Millionaires invest in what they know and they hold the same companies for years
• Millionaires live in middle-class neighborhoods
• Millionaires drive used cars

Read the full review: Reviewing The Millionaire Next Door – Do We Actually Have Millionaire Neighbors?

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel

Main points:

• What is the efficient market hypothesis and how to apply it
• Why retail investors have an edge over professional mutual and hedge fund managers
• Focus on stocks that are both a bargain and have potential for growth
• Consider investing in an index fund
• Diversify in companies with a negative covariance

Read the full review: Reviewing A Random Walk Down Wall Street – Is It Worth A Read?

Best books on investing (for more experienced FIRE chasers):

On the whole, personal finance have two levels of complexity. The first is “lower your expenses” and the second is “increase your earnings.” Lowering your expenses is fairly straight forward: sort out your needs and wants, make a budget, save your money, but increasing your earnings is complicated. There are only so many hours in a day and only so much money our boss can afford to pay us, no matter how experienced and educated we get.

That leaves two options: 1) start businesses, or 2) invest in businesses. We will focus on investing, because it’s far less work (and less risky) than starting a business. While easier than starting a business, investing is by no means easy. Fortunately, there are a number of investment books available to help you along. Unfortunately, some of them are scams. We selected for you the best and most influential investment books (that are not scams, we promise) to help you improve your return on investment.

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

Main points:

• Decide whether you are a passive investor or active investor and stick with it
• Passive investors invest in index funds and/or large stable companies with dollar cost averaging
• Active investors can purchase smaller companies but only at a bargain
• Look for net-asset-stocks (cigar butts) where total asset is greater than liabilites + share price
• Don’t listen to the price quotations of “Mr. Market,” trust your own valuation
• Have a margin of safety

Read the full review: Reviewing The Intelligent Investor – Is It Still Relevant?

The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks

Main points:

• You must first understand what it means to be above average before you can achieve such a thing
• Know the relationship between price (where are we in the market cycle?) and value
• Be a contarian, be right, and practice mental fortitude
• The influence psychology on the market and yourself
• Know what you don’t know, don’t try and predict the market, it never works
• Understand, recognize, and control risk
• Earn more from the stock market than you give back to achieve alpha

Read the full review: Reviewing The Most Important Thing – How Do People Beat the Market?

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Phil Fisher

Main points:

• The “scuttlebutt” technique – actually talk to people who know the company
• Make sure the company passes at least 13 of the 15 points listed by Fisher
  • won’t know if the company passes these points without first doing the scuttlebutt
• Don’t try to time the market, but don’t overpay for stocks
• Only sell a company if the fundamentals have deteriorated, growth is exhausted, or you have made a mistake

Read the full review: Reviewing Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits – The Lesser Known Foundation of Buffett’s Investment Philosophy

Best books on motivation and changing your mindset:

We all need some motivation from time to time, to remind us why we’re on this path and what we have to look forward to after achieving FIRE. Motivational books that can help change your mindset can be a powerful tool, because before we can accomplish anything, we must first understand why we are doing it and what value it will bring us. The issue is that motivational books can get repetitive, so we’ve selected a couple that have unique insights.

Your Money or Your Life by Joseph R. Dominguez and Vicki Robin

Main points:

• Money is life energy (the condensed value of your time, energy, and skill)
• Know when enough is enough (recognize that more money doesn’t mean more happy)
• Don’t overexaggerate the danger of inflation, being frugal is more important
• Money is the Earth’s life energy (the value of natural resources and energy)
• No shame no blame (money makes us emotional, take a deep breath and keep going)
• Work is not just paid employment (just because you’re not being paid doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing)
• The 9 Step Program to help you achieve self-fulfillment and financial independence

Read the full review: Reviewing Your Money or Your Life – Is It Possible to Have Both?

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

Main points:

• No one’s crazy, we’re all driven by our unique experiences with money
• Luck and risk are two sides of the same coin, and both are heavily influenced by factors beyond our control
• A small percentage of investments are responsible for the majority of the gains
• True wealth is invisible
• Humans can’t be 100% rational so being reasonable is good enough
• We tend to be skeptical of optimistic and trusting of pessimism – try and adopt a more balanced perspective

Read the full review: Reviewing The Psychology of Money – How Reasonable Are We With Money?

Thinking Fast and Slow by David Kahneman

Main points:

• A book covering the influences on our decision making that are not logical
• System 1 vs System 2
  • Priming – how your subconscious influences your decisions
  • Availability heuristic – the path of least resistence
• Humans and Econs
  • Accounting for loss aversion in attitude to risk taking
  • The fear of regret
  • The importance of taking on an outside view over an inside view

Read the full review: Reviewing Thinking Fast and Slow – 7 Psychological Fallacies That Affect Our Relationship With Money (and everything else)

Best books on Warren Buffet:

To achieve FIRE, you need to be a competent investor, and to be a competent investor, you need to know about more than just money. The stock market operates as a complicated web of relationships, from other retail investors, to large hedge funds, to massive multi-national companies. Navigating this tulmutuous landscape is no easy task, but fortunately, there are experienced explorers whose paths we can follow. We have gathered for you a comprehensive list of the best books on Warren Buffett so you can learn from his investments.

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

Main points:

• Don’t undrestimate compounding, Warren Buffett started investing at 10 and is now 92
• Intangible assets like reputation and a loyal customer base are valuable
• Go for companies with a wide moat, they’re more stable and competitive
• It’s better to focus on strong companies than diversification for the sake of diversification
• Invest in what you know, stay in your circle of competence
• There’s no such thing as a new paradigm

Read the full review: Reviewing The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life – What Can We Learn?

The Warren Buffett Way by Robert G. Hagstrom

Main points:

• Fisher and Graham as fundamental influences in Buffett’s philosophy
  • Fisher as the first growth investor, Graham as the classic value investor
• Buffett’s 12 tenets
  • The most important being: invest in people, not stocks
• Psychological pitfalls
  • Overconfidence – we don’t know what we don’t know
  • Loss aversion – don’t wait to sell weak stockpicks
  • Mental account – don’t give back your earnings to the stock market

Read the full review: Reviewing The Warren Buffett Way – Is This A Path Average Investor Can Follow?