I enjoy reading finance books but most people do not.
So to make your life easier, I’ve gone through all the classic finance books and distilled the message into a single sentence or phrase.
I would still recommend reading many of these books if you haven’t, but let’s be realistic, that’s probably not going to happen for all but the biggest finance geeks on the planet (again, that’s me).
Here’s what I came up with:
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The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
Give yourself a margin of safety because Mr. Market can be insane.
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One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch
Buy what you know.
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Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin LeFevre
The trend is your friend.
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Where Are the Customers Yachts? by Fred Schwed
Wall Street can be an unforgiving place.
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Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip A. Fisher
Buy high-quality stocks and never sell.
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The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
Shit happens.
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The Money Game by Adam Smith
The stocks don’t know you own them.
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A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
Don’t try to beat the market.
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The Alchemy of Finance by George Soros
Markets are one giant feedback loop.
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Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis
Greed is good for Wall Street.
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Stocks For the Long Run by Jeremy Siegel
Buy and hold.
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The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle
Costs matter.
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When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein
Temperament is more important than IQ.
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Against The Gods by Peter Bernstein
Risk is in the eye of the beholder.
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Winning the Loser’s Game by Charles Ellis
You win at the game of investing by avoiding mistakes.
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Your Money & Your Brain by Jason Zweig
We’re not hardwired to be successful investors.
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Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth by Nick Murray
The triumph of stocks.
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The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley
Live below your means.
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Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger
Read and learn widely.
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I would never put my own work among this list of classics but if I had to sum up my books in one phrase it would be this:
KISS (keep it simple, stupid)
Further reading:
9 Underrated Investing Books
Now here’s what I’ve been reading lately:
- When money dies (Of Dollars and Data)
- Understanding the different forms of equity in your life (Abnormal Returns)
- Why the stock market must go down (Reformed Broker)
- Yuan redux (Irrelevant Investor)
- David Swensen is great for Yale. Is he horrible for investing? (Institutional Investor)
- How TIPS bonds work (Movement Capital)
- Homeownership cost us $60,000 in a great housing market (Stop Ironing Shirts)
- Why mental accounting matters (Your Brain on Stocks)
- Understanding your biggest retirement expense (Betterment)
