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Personal Finance Books

cy4life94

cy4life94

Well-Known Member
Sep 26, 2012
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Cedar Rapids
I am looking to read a few books on personal finance and was wondering if anybody on here had read any good ones.

Just a little background, I do listen to Dave Ramsey but I haven't read his book, but I feel like it will just be repeating things that he says all of the time and I think I would get bored reading it. I also don't have any debt currently so I am not really looking to read a book that just tells me to pay it off.

Any recommendations are appreciated.
 
LivntheCyLife said:
Bogleheads' Guide to Investing

https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-G...sr=8-1&keywords=bogleheads+guide+to+investing

Or the wiki here: https://www.bogleheads.org/
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I'll second the Bogleheads' Guide to Investing

Informative read with everything you need to know on DIY investing, and keeps you engaged (hard to do on this subject)

If you have no debt, it's probably not necessary to read Dave Ramsey, unless you need ideas to save more. Plus his investing advice is shoddy at best.
 
Cyched said:
I'll second the Bogleheads' Guide to Investing

Informative read with everything you need to know on DIY investing, and keeps you engaged (hard to do on this subject)

If you have no debt, it's probably not necessary to read Dave Ramsey, unless you need ideas to save more. Plus his investing advice is shoddy at best.
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How so? I would call it basic but his audience is largely not finance and investment gurus. They are normal people.
 
wxman1 said:
How so? I would call it basic but his audience is largely not finance and investment gurus. They are normal people.
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http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/daves-investing-philosophy?snid=tools.investingphilosophy

1. Recommends people, even those near retirement, invest in a 100% equities portfolio
2. Recommends investing in loaded mutual funds
3. Tells his audience they can expect a 12% annual return
4. Recommends 8% annual withdrawal rate in retirement (a majority of experts recommend 4%)
 
Cyched said:
http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/daves-investing-philosophy?snid=tools.investingphilosophy

1. Recommends people, even those near retirement, invest in a 100% equities portfolio
2. Recommends investing in loaded mutual funds
3. Tells his audience they can expect a 12% annual return
4. Recommends 8% annual withdrawal rate in retirement (a majority of experts recommend 4%)
Click to expand...

I agree with the concerns on the financial advice. He says it's the same strategy he uses, but a 50% stock market crash on a $10+ million portfolio isn't as painful as a 50% crash on a 76 year olds $350,000 portfolio.

Also, saying expenses don't matter as much as sunnily starting an investment does is true I suppose. Better to invest in expensive funds than to not invest at all. But still, expenses matter a lot.

He gets all amped up when people Austin y his 12% prediction too. Again, just an extremely optimistic prediction to plan your retirement income on.

Never heard his 8% withdraw rate advice, but I guess it makes perfect sense if you're convinced you'll be making 12% every year.
 
"The Big Retirement Risk" by Erin Botsford
"The Truth about Retirement Plans and IRAs" by Ric Edelman
"Five Years before You Retire" by Emily Birken
"Get What's Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security" by Laurence Kotlikoff
"The Affluent Investor: Financial Advice to Grow & Protect Your Wealth" by Ben Stein

These will get you started. Kotlikoff is my favorite finance guy and has a great website on all things economic ( http://www.thepurpleplans.org/ ). Edelman is very good at explaining things and is one of the top rated personal financial advisors in the U.S. Botsford's book is a bit biased but good info. Birken is focused just on those couple years before retirement and Stein is just a good read in any format.
 
Common Sense On Mutual Funds - John Bogle
Stocks For The Long Run - Jeremy Siegel

About that Dave Ramsey 12% return. On Jan 1, 2000 the Dow was around 11,500. If it had returned 12% since then (with a 2% dividend yield) it would currently be over 52,000.
 
While I wouldn't plan for a 12% return for retirement planning, there are plenty of funds out there that have averaged 12+% over a long period of time.
 
Until we get our government back down to reasonable size and we start addressing long term governmental debt problems, I would tend to be very, very modest in the assume average annual return you use.
 
Whichever personal finance books you choose to read, remember to view everything in the light of risk/reward. Risk must be rewarded and returns are tied to risk. If somebody is suggesting returns out of whack with risk you should pause. Also, review returns of active funds v index funds. Ask yourself if the fees you pay for active management provide adequate delta over low point index funds.

This is a bit tangential, but one of the best financial skills you can learn is to negotiate in your everyday life. A wonderful book I recommend to everybody is "You Can Negotiate Anything" by Herb Cohen.
 
sunset said:
Whichever personal finance books you choose to read, remember to view everything in the light of risk/reward. Risk must be rewarded and returns are tied to risk. If somebody is suggesting returns out of whack with risk you should pause. Also, review returns of active funds v index funds. Ask yourself if the fees you pay for active management provide adequate delta over low point index funds.

This is a bit tangential, but one of the best financial skills you can learn is to negotiate in your everyday life. A wonderful book I recommend to everybody is "You Can Negotiate Anything" by Herb Cohen.
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That's another book that I will definitely look into. I know I could get better at negotiating.
 
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