Top 3 investing books

[narwhale]

Hello fellow Mustachians,

Looking for some good reads on investing, etc. What are your top three basics? Not looking for above and beyond technical, just intelligent, basic yet thorough.

I know MMM himself has mentioned a few books but I cannot locate them in his posts?

Best,

narwhale

[bigchrisb]

Mine would be:
- The Millionaire Next Door.  Reinforcement that being wealthy is as dependent upon savings rate as it is upon investment (the old spend less than you earn and invest the balance) chestnut.
- The Richest Man in Babylon.  Written almost 100 years ago, and set in the ancient past, it goes to show that which the world changes a great deal, is also stays very much the same.  The fundamentals haven't changed.
- The Intelligent Investor.  A reminder about investment fundamentals, and not getting carried away with the latest craze, from arguably one of the worlds greatest long term investors.

I'm sure others will have different recommendations.  I'm keen to see what is put forward that I can add to my reading list!

[apennysaved]

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/the-mmm-reading-list/

Here is MMM's reading list.  You can find it on the home page under MMM Recommends.

[hoppy08520]

I really enjoyed The Four Pillars of Investing. Not only did I learn a lot, but it was funny.

You'll never be able to take a financial advisor seriously again after reading this book.

[aj_yooper]

I really enjoyed The Four Pillars of Investing. Not only did I learn a lot, but it was funny.

You'll never be able to take a financial advisor seriously again after reading this book.

+1 on Four Pillars; William Bernstein is a very good writer.    The Intellligent Asset Allocator is excellent, but a little dense at times.  All his books are excellent.  I also like Rick Ferri's All About Asset Allocation  For fun, The Millionaire Next Door

[destron]

May I also humbly suggest:

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Malkiel -- to steal a quote from an amazon review, "The author believes in a weak form of efficient market theory. Simply put, the market may not be perfectly efficient at all times, but it's efficient enough to make it very difficult and costly trying to beat it."

[Khan]

Well, it depends on what you want to get out of it. I could recommend many, many books,  but some of them are a lot "deeper" than others. I would give The Intelligent Investor, for instance, to someone that was interested in falling asleep as quickly as I'd give it to someone who was interested in investing.

That said, my "light" list:
-The Millionaire Next Door
-Anything by William Bernstein(Four Pillars, Intelligent Asset Allocator, The Investor's Manifesto[covers risk/reward exceptionally well])
-Stocks for the Long Run(this was my first book)

[fiveoclockshadow]

-Anything by William Bernstein(Four Pillars, Intelligent Asset Allocator, The Investor's Manifesto[covers risk/reward exceptionally well])

I don't think many if any people would consider The Intelligent Asset Allocator to be "light".  Short certainly, but more technical than almost any other book anyone has mentioned and extremely concise.  That said, Bernstein is an amazing author who has written well at many levels so I'd put either Pillars or Manifesto near the top of any first time reading list.

Another one I read specifically to evaluate as an easy introduction is The Elements of Investing by Malkiel (same author as Random Walk) and Ellis.  I think this is a top notch investing book for the beginner and gets my top rating as a first book for anyone from teenager to octogenarian.  Short, sweet and to the point.

[Ozstache]

There are a lot of good FIRE related books out there, but most of them waffle on to fill the requisite 200+ pages expected by Joe public. One of my favourites that economises on words but still gets a great FIRE message across is Retiring Sooner by Darrow Kirkpatrick. It was free on Amazon ebooks for a couple of days a few months ago but is currently priced at a low $4.99. If there is one FIRE book I recommend, it's this one. http://www.amazon.com/Retiring-Sooner-Accelerate-Financial-Independence-ebook/dp/B00D1D0BHU

[Khan]

I don't think many if any people would consider The Intelligent Asset Allocator to be "light".

I'm not sure which books of his I've read and haven't(besides Manifesto), but I can wholeheartedly recommend him as an author, ya dig?

[fiveoclockshadow]

I'm not sure which books of his I've read and haven't(besides Manifesto), but I can wholeheartedly recommend him as an author, ya dig?

Completely agree - just warning the OP that IAA is probably the hardest of Bernstein's books and proves to be well above what even some experienced investors are comfortable with.  It assumes you already know what standard deviation, cross-correlation coefficients and the like are.  He wrote Four Pillars because IAA was too hard for many to digest.  He wrote Manifesto because even Four Pillars was still too hard for many others to digest.

Oh - and my third recommendation is probably The Boglehead's Guide to Investing especially since it is more inclusive than many others and talks about insurance which is a critical but often overlooked part of any financial plan.  Very accessible book as well.  You can be particularly frugal if you want and just trot over to the Boglehead's wiki and get most of that information for free in a different format.

[TSR Capital]

1) Peter Lynch - One Up On Wall Street
2) Peter Lynch - Beating the Street
3) Ben Graham - The Intelligent Investor

[dharmon]

1) Random Walk Down Wall Street
2) The Intelligent Investor
3) Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits

[Pylortes]

I recommend:

1. Contrarian Investment Strategies (there are multiple editions, have only read the 1980 edition) by David Dreman. 

2. The New Buffetology- Mary Buffett and David Clark

3. One up on Wall Street- (previously cited)  Peter Lynch

4.  The Little Book that Beats the Market- Joel Greenblatt.  This is the shortest read- might start with this one first then go to the others.

[RaveOregon]

My top three would probably be:

Margin of Safety - Seth Klarman (free pdf of book is available online)

One up on Wall Street - Peter Lynch

The Intelligent Asset Allocator - William Bernstein

[sleepyguy]

Millionaire Teacher

His personal stories have MMM written all over it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470830069

[Simple Abundant Living]

Gosh, I haven't been able to find any of these in my library system! :(

[prestojx]

Anything by Larry Swedroe.
My fav - The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy

[iris lily]

Hey OP, Millionaire Next Door isn't' a book about investing, it's a book about how to life a lifestyle that grows your net worth. It's inspirational€, but it won't explain the financial markets to you.

[Pylortes]

Hey OP, Millionaire Next Door isn't' a book about investing, it's a book about how to life a lifestyle that grows your net worth. It's inspirational€, but it won't explain the financial markets to you.

I agree, there are a couple of other books mentioned also that are more personal finance and less investing.  Dont get me wrong i loved Millionaire next door and recommend it, but for learning about stocks/investing there are better choices.  I know ive previosuly chimed in with my selections, but ive read perhaps 20-30 investment books and i would rate Contrarian Investment Strategies 1, Buffettology 2 and One up on Wall Street 3.  If you want to learn about stock selection due yourself a favor and track down a copy.  Contrarian investment strategies is so old you can find it online on ebay amazon for a couple of bucks if your library doesnt have a copy. The $3-4 you spend on that book has the potential to return many many multiples of that if you institute its strategies.  Thats a good ROI in my opinion.

Im going to add a few more recommendations that havent been listed for further reading:
4. The Warren Buffet Way, Robert Hagstom
5.  Quality of Earnings Thornton O'Glove
6. The Motley Fool Investment Guide David & Tom Gardner

[the fixer]

I'm looking for an investment book as a present for someone that needs a specific kick in the pants, any recommendations?

He understands the advantages of index funds/low expenses and I think he knows not to trust brokers but I guess what's missing is cost averaging and really getting passive investing. He changes where his retirement plan contributions go based on market news, and in the wrong direction: down markets means he gets worried and buys more bonds. He once asked me for advice on a "good low-expense fund," with no info about desired asset class, risk, or return like a knowledgeable investor would provide.

He's a PhD in life sciences so he's extremely analytical and I think will understand an argument that's couched in numbers and study results. Ideally it would be something that doesn't treat the reader like a stereotypical clueless/scared investor. But it doesn't have to be perfect, I guess; at minimum it should be a jumping-off point for me to start a conversation.

I looked at some of the above titles on Amazon but I couldn't tell which one would be best suited, and I've never read any investment books. Ideas?

[aj_yooper]

William Bernstein's The Intelligent Asset Allocator definitely fits an analytical mind.  Also, Malkeil's A Random Walk on Wall Street Guide to Investing.  On investment costs, have him input his portfolio value and monthly savings in a business calculator and project out the effect that a 1 or 2% expense cost sums up to in a lifetime of investing. 

And, how come you haven't read any finance books?

[the fixer]

Thanks guys. I was reading some reviews of Intelligent Asset Allocator before I posted but it sounded like its focus was things I think he understands about diversifying between uncorrelated assets. I got to thinking there may be something better.

I learned everything I know about investing through several blogs: Oblivious Investor, Rick Van Ness (financinglife.org), Rick Ferri, Larry Swedroe & Allan Roth on cbsnews.com, and of course MMM and jlcollinsnh. I was considering just printing out jlcollinsnh's stock series and giving him that :)

Another book I'm considering is Van Ness's "Common Sense Investing." Even if I don't get it for this person, it would be perfect for all my other relatives so that's more reason to find something else... it would be pretty weird if everyone got the same gift from me!

[aj_yooper]

Rick Ferri's Asset Allocation is also a good investing book.  A lot simpler than The Intelligent Asset Allocator.

[Richard3]

Graham's "The Intelligent Investor"? SERIOUSLY?! I read the version with Jason Zweig's commentary. WAY overboard for the VAST majority of people and more likely to turn someone off self-managed investing.

If you can't understand the Intelligent Investor then being turned off self-managed investing is probably a good thing.

[Todge]

Top three on my bookshelf would be:

Bogle's 'Common Sense on Mutual Funds'
Bernstein's 'Four Pillars ...'
Stanley and Danko's 'Millionaire Next Door'

For a great introduction to the concept of low cost passive investing (especially for expats) Hallam's 'Millionaire Teacher'.

[jamccain]

Unexpected Returns by Easterling should be the first book anyone reads about the market IMO.

[NinetyFour]

I recently read and enjoyed The Elements of Investing by Malkiel and Ellis.  Well written, concise, simple.

[wtjbatman]

A Beginner's Guide to Investing: How to Grow Your Money the Smart and Easy Way

Get Rich with Dividends: A Proven System for Earning Double-Digit Returns

I'm new to investing, so I've only read about a half dozen other books. None of them were as interesting or informative as either of these, however.