I love to read, and my favorite books are mainly all non-fiction, either personal development or personal finance books (I’ll own that I am a dork). I’ve gotten some questions about what have been some of my personal favorites, so I’ve compiled a list of the books that have taught me the most and that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.
Some are strictly about personal finance, some are more about mindset and personal and professional development and some are more business-focused since I work in marketing and business development.
My Top Picks
- The Simple Path to Wealth. If you only had time to read ONE book, I’d make it this one. The author, JL Collins (an icon in the FIRE community), wrote this book for his daughter, basically distilling down everything he learned in a simple and easy to understand way about how to become financially independent and build wealth. So many books make the topic of money so confusing and complex. This book doesn’t do that, so I think it’s really approachable, especially if you are new to learning in this area. Also, he introduces the concept of F-you money, and well, if you don’t know what that is, you should read this book and find out.
- The Millionaire Next Door. Another important read. This book examines millionaires in America, and exposes how they behave and spend their money (it’s not how you might think). If you are interested in understanding the qualities that make people wealthy, I’d suggest diving into this book.
- Set for Life. I found this book through BiggerPockets (an amazing resource to learn how to achieve financial freedom through real estate investing). This book is an awesome guide that shows you how to implement a three-step approach to gain financial freedom so that you can enjoy life on your own terms.
- Unshakeable. I am a big Tony Robbins fan, so I will typically read anything he writes. In this book, Tony interviews 50 of the greatest financial minds in the world and distills that down into a playbook that provides you with the tools to help you achieve your financial goals. I love how actionable this book is, giving specific strategies on how to protect yourself from economic uncertainty (hello 2020) and providing resources and tools to get you on the right track.
- Your Money or Your Life. This is a staple read in the FIRE community and one of the most influential books written on personal finance. If you really want to change your relationship with money and be more intentional about how you spend money, I’d highly recommend this book. The author walks you through a way to divide how much you earn by the number of hours you work. Then you can convert each purchase to a number of life units, instead of just looking at it like money. “Knowing money is life energy allows you to maximize and optimize your most precious resource: your time: your life.”
- The Art of Exceptional Living. Jim Rohn is probably my favorite author/speaker of all time. I typically read/listen to this book about once a year, because it has so many valuable nuggets in it. This book is really just an overall great read for both personal and professional development. He covers everything from self-education, to developing new skills, to setting goals to teach you how to build wealth and master the art of living exceptionally well. Some of the things he talks about may sound a little outdated, but there is so much good stuff to soak up from this book. I personally enjoy listening to the audio book (I find his voice and tone so easy to listen to).
- The Four-Hour Work Week. This was probably one of the most eye-opening books I have read. It challenges readers to forget the old idea about retirement and instead provides a blueprint to essentially escape the rat race and create the life you want now. He covers everything from mini-retirements to outsourcing your life and includes so many resources, tools and even scripts showing you exactly how to do it. Early in my career, I implemented different things I learned in this book to negotiate a remote working scenario (this was pre-pandemic) that allowed me to work from home in the US, for a company in Ireland, making more money with less hours. It was honestly incredible.
