5 Best Books for Investing in 2021
People want to start investing more than ever this year. Partially due to the meme stock craze. New technology for investors has had a huge impact too.
Mobile apps, free trades, and fractional shares have made access to the stock market easier than ever.
But investing can still seem confusing when you have no experience.
Pro tip: you don’t need a college degree to learn how to invest.
There are plenty of books that will take you from 0 to hero.
These are books I’ve read, and personally attest that they: are simple to understand, have actionable advice, and give you realistic expectations
I suggest reading these books in the order I placed them to get the best foundational knowledge on investing.
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- The Little Book on Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle
- The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner
- Invest Like Warren Buffet by Matthew R. Kratter
- The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
After reading and applying the knowledge in these books, you will have the confidence to start investing and grow your wealth to the millions!
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Chances are, this isn’t the first time someone has suggested you read Rich Dad Poor Dad. It’s because it does an excellent job at opening your mind to how the wealth generation system really works.
This book is more about broadening your way of thinking than it is about actionable advice.
I’ll give a little disclaimer about this book and say that the author has been on record saying his “rich dad” is actually a personification of the investing habits he learned from multiple people. That doesn’t make the knowledge wrong, though.
As always, take everything with a grain of salt. You don’t have to agree with all of Robert’s opinions but read this book first to open your mind to how people become rich and stay rich.
The Little Book on Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle
This little book is my favorite on the list. It takes everything I learned in my degree, read on the internet, and still needed to discover, and puts it into a straightforward, easy-to-read book.
John C. Bogle talks about the most proven way to invest in the United States stock market, the pitfalls of trying to “beat the market,” and delivers it in a style anyone can understand.
There is a plethora of actionable advice that you can take and immediately start using. If there were only one book you wanted to take from this list, this would be it.
The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner
A few years back, I was curious about how millionaires in the US created their wealth. After researching, it was clear that most of them had their hands in real estate.
The sentiments in Rich Dad Poor Dad confirmed this further.
Real estate is one of the greatest wealth generators available, and anyone can participate in it.
However, real estate investing is NOT buying a house and paying your own mortgage.
Sure, you will build value out of the property — but you are still paying interest on the loan, paying for all the equity yourself, and getting no monthly income from your property. Robert Kiyosaki would call that a liability, not an asset.
It is completely feasible and realistic to start investing in real estate and become a millionaire in 10 years or less.
My suggestion is to read Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner and get into the BiggerPockets community ASAP! This book gives you an actionable step-by-step guide to getting started in real estate investing and how to scale up.
Invest Like Warren Buffet by Matthew R. Kratter
Warren Buffet is consistently in the top 10 and top 5 richest people in the world, all because of his wise investing strategies.
This 40-page ebook is the shortest and lowest-priced book on the list. However, it has some of the best actionable advice I could find.
Kratter gets straight to the point and avoids any fluff. The book directly tells you what methods to use to analyze a company and its stock.
This book comes later down the list because it contains slightly more technical terms and methods. You’ll find this book more useful after you’ve gotten your feet wet in the stock market.
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
The holy grail of investing knowledge comes to us via Benjamin Graham, the former professor of Warren Buffet.
At first, I thought it was a bit dated. As I read on though, the book gave more and more valuable knowledge that still applied to present-day investing.
There are helpful commentary sections after each chapter that break down Graham’s intellectual diction into a more digestible and relatable fashion.
The Intelligent Investor is the gold standard of investing knowledge but can be a daunting task to read. Save this one for last after you’ve gained some experience.
Summary
If you don’t know how to do something, read a book. The same advice goes for investing.
Done consistently and properly, anyone can generate large sums of wealth by investing.
Investing isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. Investing is about making plans, staying consistent, and compounding your wealth over time. You can learn how to do this by reading the five books on this list.
