Best Books on the Basics

[Silent Method]

I’m just starting to open my eyes to my own financial illiteracy, thanks in part to my chance encounter with the simple book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” I’ve always been cognizant of the idiocy of living life stuck in the poor and middle class “rat race,” but I’m starting to have a better appreciation of the habits and strategies I’m going to need to develop to create wealth.

I’m looking for more books that lay further groundwork for my budding financial literacy. I’d like to find the best precursor titles for accounting, investing, understanding markets, small business, and related law.

Thanks for help!

 

[powderguy]

Buy Dave Ramsey' books (the guy on the radio...always talks about saying NO to credit).....he knows what he is talking about and lets just say.....I wont be hurting ever again

 

[The Red Dragon]

Check the web for free basic info.

There's tons of info on shit like www.fool.com , www.investopedia.com etc.

With regards to books there will be tons of bunk out there, Rich Dad Poor Dad is bunk but it has its uses (motivation & some social awareness of your own exploitation...never settling for less).

Read up on reviews and who the authors are before going ahead with the books. Graham and Phillip Fischer have proven themselves worthy of a read (Intelligent Investor / Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits) these are dry but contain tons of useful info...very famous book on investing.

These are also a goldmine of investing information written by Warren Buffett himself http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html
But again, this is just information/research, its gotta be applied but its better off being well educated before dumping money into shady businesses/investments, I'd rather learn from the mistakes of others than making them myself.

Again this is a huge arena, you have trading/investing/business/accounting etc so there's tons and tons to learn, even more as you get more specialized into each domain.

I myself have a stockpile of books waiting at home for when from my semester:

<b>Battle for Investment Survival</b> - Gerald Loeb - written in 1934 (after the depression) - advocates an ever liquid account, waiting for the right opportunities
<b>Intelligent Investor + Security Analysis</b> by Benjamin Graham - focusses on calculating and obtaining a companie's true value - not sure about the pragmatic value but Buffett has done really well with it
<b>Technical Analysis of Stock Trends</b> by Evans and McGee - explores technical analysis where the trend is used to trade rather than a companies intrinsic value (fundamental/security analysis)
<b>The Essays of Warren Buffett</b> - pieced together by Cunningham...although I suspect his letters to shareholders have the same information - I just like reading off paper
<b>Common Stocks Uncommon Profit</b> by Phillip A. Fischer - how to select growth stocks

This is just education only, from the bits and pieces I read a lot of it is academic/theory, I have yet to go through most of these. These are the classic investing books (save for the technical analysis). I love reading and learning though you'll have to determine what's useful to you and how you're going to earn your cashflow and your investing style.

 

[flex229]

If you have a business background and a lot of time, you should read Benjamin Graham's "The Intelligent Investor."..and i believe that book was mentioned in Red Dragon's post. That's the classic book on value investing.

Others I recommend are Peter Lynch's "One Up on Wall Street" and "Beating the Street." Lynch is much easier reading than Graham, as he has this way of simplifying things.

Also, I would recommend most of William O'Neil's books- namely, "How to Make Money in Stocks." His books seem to really simplify technical trading. It presents very simple, basic information, but my trading improved vastly after reading his stuff.

 

[Razorguns]

(1) think & grow rich by napoleon hill
(2) any book by leigh steinberg on how to meet people & have them like you.

then buy books that speicliaze in whatever area of wealth making you speciazlie in.

 

[robertoblanco]

*Secrets of the Millionaire Mind*