Author Topic: Financial book recommendations for work book club  (Read 3097 times)

MayDay

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Financial book recommendations for work book club
« on: December 15, 2016, 04:18:02 AM »
I don't read financial books (I find everything online) but my husband is in a financial book club at work and I told him I would solicit opinions.

This is a new thing, the only book so far is I Will Teach You To Be Rich.  H thinks it was too simple and aimed at too young an audience.

The group is all ages, new grads to 65. They skew towards engineer s (they might all be engineers). Assume they all are already putting 10-20% in the 401k.  They are all probably getting paid 80k+ but I'm sure most spend it all, based on the cars in the parking lot.

What books might appeal to and/or educate this audience?

Masstache

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Re: Financial book recommendations for work book club
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2016, 04:39:50 AM »
Pretty much anything by John C. Bogle

FLBiker

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Re: Financial book recommendations for work book club
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2016, 06:49:18 AM »
I haven't read a lot, but two that I really liked were The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need and A Random Walk Down Wall Street.  Both of these (as I remember) were good, pro-index fund takes on investing.  The first one deals with financial life more generally, while the second is more focused on the stock market.  They literally are the only two financial books I ever read, and got me on the right path long before I found bogleheads or money mustache.  I actually probably read these books before either site existed (definitely before MMM).
« Last Edit: December 15, 2016, 07:03:44 AM by FLBiker »

Phenix

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Re: Financial book recommendations for work book club
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2016, 06:55:49 AM »
I haven't read a lot, but two that I really liked were The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need and A Random Walk Down Wall Street.  Both of these (as I remember) were good, pro-index fund takes on investing.  The first one deals with financially life more generally, while the second is more focused on the stock market.  They literally are the only two financial books I ever read, and got me on the right path long before I found bogleheads or money mustache.  I actually probably read these books before either site existed (definitely before MMM).

+1 to A Random Walk Down Wall Street

I also like recommending The Simple Path to Wealth and Bogleheads Guide to Investing though both might be too basic for the given audience.

muckety_muck

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Re: Financial book recommendations for work book club
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2016, 07:00:32 AM »
A few come to mind as fitting the range of ages:

The Millionaire Next Door (a study written by PhDs - would probably go over well with engineers)
Your Money or Your Life (opens your eyes to what working FT really does to your life/spare time)
Automatic Millionaire (set it & forget it)
The Only investment Guide You'll Ever Need (a good overview/starting point for getting into investing)

If a lot of them are in debt, I would recommend also the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Only useful for those in debt really...

Felicity

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Re: Financial book recommendations for work book club
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2016, 07:07:46 AM »
Another +1 for A Random Walk Down Wall Street

I was originally going to suggest Happy Money, but might be too simplistic? It's a really easy read, but they do get into studies and the like, looking different ways of spending money and how they affect happiness. Some are relatively common knowledge (at least around these parts of the internet), like how fancy houses don't make you happier. Other bits of observations from research are less intuitive, like pre-paying for experiences. My husband and I both really enjoyed that book, and we're both engineers.

MayDay

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Re: Financial book recommendations for work book club
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2016, 07:50:28 AM »
Very helpful, thanks guys.

No idea if people are in debt, I'm sure some are, but I don't know that they'll want to focus on that.

I will pass these on to H.

little_brown_dog

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Re: Financial book recommendations for work book club
« Reply #7 on: December 15, 2016, 09:06:49 AM »
The Two Income Trap by Elizabeth Warren. Great read for young professionals and couples as it really shows how inadvertent lifestyle inflation (buying a nice house in a nice town to access a good school district) can totally screw you if you need two incomes to pay for it. It takes the idea that only irresponsible spenders/low income people end up in bad financial circumstances and turns it on its head. Reading it will definitely make a young couple think twice about buying that 400k house they can afford with 2 incomes but not one.
« Last Edit: December 15, 2016, 09:33:54 AM by little_brown_dog »

Secretly Saving

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Re: Financial book recommendations for work book club
« Reply #8 on: December 15, 2016, 11:19:56 AM »
The Two Income Trap by Elizabeth Warren. Great read for young professionals and couples as it really shows how inadvertent lifestyle inflation (buying a nice house in a nice town to access a good school district) can totally screw you if you need two incomes to pay for it. It takes the idea that only irresponsible spenders/low income people end up in bad financial circumstances and turns it on its head. Reading it will definitely make a young couple think twice about buying that 400k house they can afford with 2 incomes but not one.

+1 for Two Income Trap.  Read it in my twenties and it had a profound impact on our plans!

Masstache

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Re: Financial book recommendations for work book club
« Reply #9 on: December 15, 2016, 11:39:47 AM »
The Two Income Trap by Elizabeth Warren. Great read for young professionals and couples as it really shows how inadvertent lifestyle inflation (buying a nice house in a nice town to access a good school district) can totally screw you if you need two incomes to pay for it. It takes the idea that only irresponsible spenders/low income people end up in bad financial circumstances and turns it on its head. Reading it will definitely make a young couple think twice about buying that 400k house they can afford with 2 incomes but not one.

+1 for Two Income Trap.  Read it in my twenties and it had a profound impact on our plans!

I had no idea our senior Senator had written this book.  I will definitely check it out!

Bee21

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Re: Financial book recommendations for work book club
« Reply #10 on: December 15, 2016, 03:05:23 PM »
The intelligent investor and The four pillars of investing. These are a bit old, but brilliant. Especially the four pillars as it gives a historical perspective.

And i also enjoyed sen warren's book. There is an other one she wrote with her daughter, that one is also good for someone just starting out. Personal finance, not necessarily investing.