Best Financial Education Books: Anyone Can Start Investing

There are thousands of books dedicated to helping total beginners join the coveted investor class. And I’ve yet to meet a single reader who did, because those books are missing something.

Financial education books help you finally get started

Do you makes these investing mistakes? Or should I say, mistake. Singular. Because you don’t invest, and never have. And it’s easy to, because it’s so overwhelming. The advice you’ve heard talks about the mistakes to avoid. The ideal way to invest. Investing with this and that percentage. Or even just a few inspirational quotes, that ended up on a mood board.

If you heard advice and didn’t get the outcome you were after. It’s automatically bad advice. Why listen if they aren’t helping you? Since I’m a trained life coach, I have a unique curse. I can detect bad advice in seconds. And 99% of advice out there on anything, especially investment, is bad advice. The internet made this problem worse. Just be famous, and you’re treated like an expert. These fake experts even brag about it openly on obscure podcasts. They’ve scammed you, out of watch time and money.

But no worries. Mere mortals like us without millions of dollars or decades of experience can join the investor class. Doing it is all about mindset, you only have to show up. And you show up by making the first investment. I showed up last year and made $200 in only a couple months with zero prior experience. Using what I read in only one book 4 years ago. It took me that long to put it in place, because I struggled to show up, and put it into practice.

Why you must carefully pick your financial education books

The author was a fake expert, and his insecurity made him over-complicate investing. That’s why we should only read from qualified experts. They are someone who A) Helps people achieve the same result the book promises, or has achieved the same result in a notable way, B) Talks about how to get the result rather than irrelevant information, C) Helps solve your specific problem.

That last piece of the criteria is important. If you’ve looked this up, you are no doubt an aspiring investor, who knows nothing about investing. And maybe even read some financial education books before. But never showed up to the stock market. You need to read for your level, someone whose starting out with investing.

These 5 financial education books will give you the answers to small and large questions. Which eliminate the fear of losing money, and help you join the investor class. And as a bonus. At the very bottom of this post. I include a behavior science backed todolist, which break down the exact steps for showing up with investing.

1              Morningstar’s 30-Minute Money Solutions: Finances is complicated, and the industry heaps even more complexity onto it. This book shows you doable steps that take less than 30 minutes.

2              How I Invest My Money: Investing books talk about what you should do with your money, but do they follow their advice? This book chronicle how investers invest with themselves.

3              One Up On Wall Street: Peter Lynch loves this term “Dumb money”. Why buy stock in companies you never heard before? There’s value to being obvious.

4              The Elements Of Investing: Like a nice dad by your side, who knows a lot about investing. Answering big and small questions to help you show up.

5              The Little Book Of Common Sense Investing: The inventor of the index fund explains the long-term view of making money.

Go beyond financial education books and use science

To go beyond financial education books. Because well, you probably expected me to say this. I am no financial expert, and none of my advice is financial advice. It’s behavior design advice, because I was trained in Behavior Design by Stanford Professor BJ Fogg. The easiest way to get yourself to do anything difficult and new. Is by breaking it down into tiny micro steps, because it reduces the friction that comes from deciding what to do.

1.      Save $100 just for investing, digitally or physically. Separate that money somehow.

2.      Find at least three options for an investing app (if that’s what you want), or someone who can help you invest.

3.      Decide one one of those options, and reach out to get the service / product.

4.      Fill out all the prior paperwork. If it’s too onerous, feel free to find another service / product which isn’t.

5.      Invest that first $100 anywhere. Congrats, you joined the investor class.