The 10 Best Personal Finance Books to Help You Stick to Your Budgets
With the merry, and expensive, holiday season now behind us and January (better known as Hibernate-and-Recover-Financially month) over, we can receive our paycheck with a smile and a sweet sigh of relief as we remember how to breathe easy again. The difficulty now is not being over eager and spending our money in a single weekend of carefree and excessive celebration.
That’s where this blog comes in. This list of must-read personal finance books are the gift you really should have bought yourself over the holidays. Don’t worry if you didn’t — it’s never too late to soak up the knowledge of experts and just live a better, less stressful life.
The 4-hour Work Week — Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss is an ex-workaholic whose day-to-day life was completely filled with work and nothing else. Research and experience led him to the creation of this life-changing book that has spent more than four years on the New York Times Best Seller List. His book helps you to quantify tasks that take up your time and design your lifestyle to make it more enjoyable and less work-oriented while giving you the opportunity to do what you do well.
Life Leverage — Rob Moore
When a self-made, successful, business-minded person writes a book on how to live a successful life, we are all ears! Moore’s Life Leverage is more than just advice from an expert who is living the dream, it is a life philosophy that we can all adopt and apply to our lives. Moore focuses on living a fulfilled life, and forgoes the concept of work/life balance. Instead, he claims we can merge these aspects and live a holistic, inspired life.
The No Spend Year — Michelle McGagh
It might sound extreme, but the amount that this financial journalist saved in her challenging No Spend Year is just as extreme! McGagh has an honest, personal and unintimidating way of addressing money problems and the common phenomenon of spending on small, unnecessary purchases that tend to accumulate into a substantial amount. She gives the reader power over their finances and helps them realise their financial goals.
RICH DAD POOR DAD — Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
Both Lechter and Kiyosaki are business people who have dedicated their careers to educating people in personal finance and business. The book is presented as a set of parables based on Kiyosaki’s life. The book has sold more than 58 million copies and is still a respected work in its genre. It simplifies the complex topic of finance for the layperson and gives people hope that they can change their circumstances.
The 100-Year Life — Andrew Scott and Lynda Gratton
Scott and Gratton are both Professors at the London Business School, so all their claims and words of advice found in this book are securely rooted in academic research. They believe that there is one-factor many finance experts haven’t been considering seriously enough: longevity. Nowadays, living to be a centenarian is becoming increasingly common and it’s a huge factor that will lead us to require restructuring and redesigning life, and our personal finances in particular. They have written about actions and plans to turn 100 years of life into a gift.
Money: A User’s Guide — Laura Whateley
This book, by acclaimed money expert, is all about regaining control of your finances and, as a result, your life. It is a practical and essential tool to help you tackle housing, paying off debt, pensions, stocks and shares, money and love, and much more. Whateley helps you snuff out the panic once and for all and take charge of your bank account like never before.
Introducing Personal Finance — Michael Taillard
Taillard is an economics expert with a PhD in economics and specialising in strategic management and behavioural science. He’s written seven books related to personal finance and the global economy, so nobody can deny that this man knows what he’s talking about. Introducing Personal Finance educates the reader on how to save, earn and get the most out of your money. He includes tips on how to gain control over your spending behaviour, matching your investments to your values and simplify your financial management.
Money: Know More, Make More, Give More — Rob Moore
Last on our list of must-reads on personal finance is another book by Rob Moore, the self-made multimillionaire. In this book, he claims that the reason why many of us spend our lives chasing, yet, never holding on to wealth and financial independence is because we just don’t know or understand the rules to the money game we’re stuck playing. In this inspiring book, Moore divulges all the rules, shares simple ways of managing your finances and describes in detail how to create an ambitious plan for yourself.
Stop waiting for the day you win the lottery and take control of your finances instead. All the books mentioned above may be purchased at any Agenda outlet in Malta and Gozo, so grab your copy now and educate yourself on one the most elusive topics of our generation: Money.
