Best Books On Investing for Beginners

Last updated October 12, 2019 in Best Books On Investing.

Let these best books about investing for beginners complement articles, tutorials and classes for lifelong learning. These are excellent books for everyone. Make them a part of your learning how to invest.

Best Investment Books for Novices
Best Investing Books for Beginners and Advanced Beginners
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best-investing-books-for-beginners — The best investing books for beginner investors include two of my own.

There is no shortage of investing books, but here are some investing books worth reading. Warning! Many investing books appeal to our worst instincts with a speculative strategy. The problem is that most investors don’t know how to recognize this as a losing strategy until they’ve learned the common sense principles about saving and investing—that should be taught to everyone in school, but they aren’t. It falls on us to learn this ourselves from selected good books and websites like this one.

Here are some book recommendations and other resources to keep you moving forward. Some of these authors have written several books. You’re in good hands with any books by any of these authors!

Not sure what level? In the next article I suggest the best investment books based on the lessons you may want to learn next. Read example phrases to find misconceptions that you’ll want to correct, and why.

Or, check out what some consider the best investing books of all time!

Using your library is the healthy frugal way to borrow these books. But if you want to own them, you would be doing me a small favor if you bought them using these links to Amazon. I earn a few coins which helps to pay for this website. You will not pay a penny more. I appreciate your support!

Best Investment Books for Novices

Once you control your spending and want to start investing your savings, you can graduate to the best investing books of all time for novices. The books I chose for this category teach novice investors some key concepts:

saving for retirement is usually Priority #1
picking individual stocks and market timing are for losers
broadly diversified mutual funds are both smartest and lowest cost

Book	Author / Description	Ratings
Click to learn more.	Bernstein, William J. Steal This Book! If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly William Bernstein is one of the best investment authors of our time. He wrote this gem to guide both the young—and not so young—investor through the five hurdles that threaten to spoil their dreams. It’s available for free as a PDF that you can read in an hour or two. Or, buy paperback from Amazon to give it as a wedding, birthday, or graduation gift.	4.5 stars Amazon 4.2 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Sit, Harry (aka The Finance Buff) My Financial Toolbox: The Nuts and Bolts of Managing Your Money It's like having a wise friend show you all the accounts and decision he has made with his wife. Learn how to achieve 95% of what you want with only 5% of the effort.	New - just published Amazon 5.0 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Schultheis, Bill The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On with Your Life This easy to read in one sitting. It drives home the necessity of investing and the importance of index funds. It’s wonderfully simple in plain English. Read reviews and buy on Amazon.	4.1 stars Amazon 3.8 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Van Ness, Rick Common Sense Investing: Ten Simple Rules To Finance Your Dreams This is my book. You can also find the content as videos on this website, but people buy the book to learn at their own pace, for a quick reference, as a gift for others, or even just to support this non-profit educational website. (Thanks!) Read reviews and buy on Amazon.	4.5 stars Amazon 4.0 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Piper, Mike Investing Made Simple: Investing in Index Funds Explained in 100 Pages or Less Mike is another author I admire for simple, straight to the the point, and accurate guidance. He also has a whole collection of “simple” books and a nice weekly newsletter that I also recommend.	4.5 stars Amazon 4.0 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Hallam, Andrew Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School (Paperback, 2011). This is a terrific guide for all new investors! The incredible story of how a schoolteacher built a million-dollar portfolio, and how you can too. And now, with Millionaire Teacher, he wants to show you how to follow in his footsteps—with lively humor and the simple clarity you'd expect from a gifted educator.	4.7 stars Amazon 4.3 stars Goodreads

Best Investing Books for Beginners and Advanced Beginners

It’s most important for beginners to avoid the books that feed our human tendency to speculate and attempt to “time the market”. This website, or good books, will teach you that these are losing strategies. Below I recommend what may be the best investing books of all time for beginner investors. Click on any books and use the “Look Inside” feature at Amazon to choose one or more that grabs you. Ultimately, the best book is the one you read and motivates you to get started. Beginner investors will learn:

Speculating and active trading is a losing strategy
The best strategy is both easiest and produces highest returns
The industry’s self-interest is to make it look complicated
It’s actually simple, although your human emotions don’t make it easy

Book	Author / Description	Ratings
Click to learn more.	Bodie, Zvi and Taqqu, Rachelle Risk Less and Prosper: Your Guide to Safer Investing It's about sensible financial planning with an emphasis on meeting essential needs without unnecessary risk. Excellent advice and easy to understand. Read my extensive review here.	3.4 stars Amazon 3.1 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Pfau, Wade Safety-first Retirement Planning Superb book about using an integrated approach to assure retirement income needs are met without unnecessary risk. Part of a trilogy, although each can stand alone.	4.9 stars Amazon 4.75 stars Goodreads
Click book to see it on Amazon.	Bogle, John C. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (A classic.) I had an opportunity to ask Jack (author) to sign any of his books (I have them all) and I chose this one. It’s compelling. It’s simple. It’s short. Read reviews and buy on Amazon.	4.6 stars Amazon 4.2 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Bernstein, William J. Steal This Book! If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly by one of the best investment authors of our time: William Bernstein. In 2014 he wrote a gem to guide both the young—and not so young—investor through the five hurdles that threaten to spoil their dreams. It’s available for free as a PDF that you can read in an hour or two. Or, buy from Amazon if you prefer paperback, or to give it as a wedding, birthday, or graduation gift.	4.5 stars Amazon 4.2 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Larimore, Taylor; LeBoeuf, Michael; and Lindauer, Mel The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing Wiley; 2 edition (2014); 336 pages. Friends of John Bogle put together a guide simply to support Bogle’s mission by teaching others how to get the best long-term return on their investment dollars. It’s also a good introduction to this amazing site: Bogleheads.org. Read reviews and buy on Amazon.	4.5 stars Amazon 4.3 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Larimore, Taylor The Bogleheads' Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio: How a Simple Portfolio of Three Total Market Index Funds Outperforms Most Investors with Less Risk This is a compelling description of how a simple portfolio of three total market index funds outperforms most investors with less risk. See my full review.	4.6 stars Amazon 3.9 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Swedroe, Larry The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need: The Way Smart Money Invests Today Another one of my favorites! Will be most appreciated by those that already have already begun to build an investment portfolio, because there are some outstanding chapters that deal with mutual fund choices. Read reviews and buy on Amazon.	4.3 stars Amazon 4.0 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more - opens new window on Amazon.	Van Ness, Rick Why Bother With bonds: A Guide To Build An All-Weather Portfolio Including CDs, Bonds, and Bond Funds This is my book. You will learn: How to choose your stocks/bonds allocation How to become immune to changing interest rates When to use CDs and individual bonds How to choose a good bond fund How to hedge against unexpected inflation	4.5 stars Amazon 4.1 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Roth, Allan S. How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street: Golden Rules Any Investor Can Learn Author Allan Roth uses conversations with his son as the device to debunk myths and teach common sense investing principles in a way that we can all understand. This book is for ages 20 to 50 by an author who is a very respected financial planner. Read reviews and buy on Amazon.	4.6 stars Amazon 4.0 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more - opens new window on Amazon.	Dahle, James M. The White Coat Investor's Financial Boot Camp: A 12-Step High-Yield Guide to Bring Your Finances Up to Speed (Feb 2019) Pay no attention to the fact that this was written for doctors. This book will show you how to: Protect your income from disability, premature death, and malpractice lawsuits Design and follow a budget that will allow you to build wealth while still living the good life Understand the intricacies of the federal income driven repayment and forgiveness programs Pay off your student loans within 2-5 years of residency graduation Increase your income from your practice and side gigs Buy and pay off the house of your dreams Understand the tax code and reduce your annual tax bill by thousands Invest to achieve your financial goals while taking as little risk as possible Avoid getting ripped off by insurance agents and financial advisors Pay for the education of your children so they can begin their careers debt-free Give to others and pass on wealth to the next generation	5.0 stars Amazon 4.7 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Solin, Daniel R. The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read: The Simple, Stress-Free Way to Reach Your Investment Goals Daniel Solin cuts through the financial hype to show you exactly how to invest-with an easy-to-follow four-step plan that lets you create and monitor your investment portfolio in ninety minutes or less...and put your investment earnings in the top 5 percent of all professionally managed money. If you want to gamble, go to Las Vegas-or try stock picking and market timing. If you want to be a Smart Investor, follow this effortless and effective plan.	4.2 stars Amazon 3.7 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Zweig, Jason The Little Book of Safe Money: How to Conquer Killer Markets, Con Artists, and Yourself. One of today's most influential financial commentators offers his advice on keeping your money safe in an uncertain world The Little Book of Safe Money acts as a guide for those trying to make their way through today's down markets. The topics covered include everything from investing behavior-why our minds come with their own set of biases that often prove harmful-to the use of financial advisors. But this timely book goes one step further than the rest by questioning an investor's true appetite for risk.	3.9 stars Amazon 3.8 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Swedroe, Larry Think, Act, and Invest Like Warren Buffett: The Winning Strategy to Help You Achieve Your Financial and Life Goals 2012. Develop a financial plan to help you make rational decisions on a consistent basis Determine the level of risk that's right for you, and allocate your assets accordingly Build a low-cost, tax-efficient, globally diversified portfolio Manage your portfolio by rebalancing periodically to maintain proper risk levels The beauty of the Buffett approach is its profound simplicity: follow the basics, keep your cool, and have a sense of humor and humility. Here’s my short video book review. Read reviews and buy on Amazon.	4.1 stars Amazon 3.5 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Malkiel, Burton G. and Ellis, Charles D. The Elements of Investing: Easy Lessons for Every Investor An updated look at best rules of investing provided by two of the world's greatest financial thinkers. In the updated edition of The Elements of Investing, authors Charles Ellis and Burton Malkiel—two of the world's greatest financial thinkers—have again combined their talents to produce a straight-talking book about investing and saving. Written with every investor in mind, this reliable resource will put you on a path towards a lifetime of financial success.	4.5 stars Amazon 4.1 stars Goodreads
Only available at Amazon. Click book to learn more.	Sit, Harry; (aka.The Finance Buff) This book is the short-cut to learning what you need to know about Treasury Inflation Protected Securites by a terrific writer and blogger; clear and concise. Explore TIPS gives you all the details about investing in TIPS other books only gloss over. Starting from the very basics, what TIPS are and how they work, the book guides you through How to invest in TIPS through mutual funds and ETFs How to buy individual TIPS directly from the U.S. Treasury How to buy TIPS on the secondary market TIPS strategies The book also includes many tools the author created for aiding the decision making.	4.2 stars Amazon 3.8 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Bogle, John C. Enough.: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life That John Bogle, who has so impressed me as a man of high integrity and as the champion for ordinary investors, would recognize that there is a concept of Enough and care enough to write a book about it, elevates him to the highest esteem. In truth, it is about much more of Bogle’s thinking than just this and very worth reading! Read reviews and buy on Amazon.	4.4 stars Amazon 3.7 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Tobias, Andrew The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need (27 editions) This is the book that first grabbed me. It’s been updated many times. I’m particularly fond of the chapter titled: A Penny Saved Is Two Pennies Earned. Read reviews and buy on Amazon.	4.2 stars Amazon 3.9 stars Goodreads
Click to learn more.	Farrell, Paul B. The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing: A Book for Procrastinators, the Financially Challenged, and Everyone Who Worries About Dealing with Their Money. These are simple, easy-to-understand, proven strategies that take very little time or energy to maintain. Readers can relax. Dr. Farrell has distilled the most successful plans--from the Couch Potato to the Coffee House to the No-Brainer approach--so that even inexperienced investors can chart their financial future with confidence.	4.0 stars Amazon 3.8 stars Goodreads