Comments on: Financial books for a college graduate

Question: Financial books for a college graduate

aggienfo — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:10:09 -0800

My bro is graduating from college this month and is asking a lot of financial questions regarding investment/savings/etc. As the first college graduate in the "real world" he's asking me for some advice. I am looking to get him some books that I liked ( by Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman ) that have helped me out. I was seeing if there are other tomes of financial wisdom that I should get him for graduation (there are other gifts.. don't worry I'm not that lame;)

By: alms

alms — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:20:29 -0800

Scott Adams wrote a very good book on personal finances. Unfortunately, he couldn't get it published because it was only 129 words long. Fortunately, it got included in another book he wrote. You can read it here and read mefites (overall positive) reaction to it here.

By: 0xFCAF

0xFCAF — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:31:13 -0800

Random Walk Down Wall Street

By: femmme

femmme — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:31:30 -0800

this and this are two kick*ss sites for the common young/poor like me:)

By: vytae

vytae — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:32:52 -0800

I was surprised to enjoy Getting Loaded: 50 Start-Now Strategies for Making a Million While You're Still Young Enough Enjoy It. It's aimed at people in their 20s, starts very simple, and explains the ins and outs of investing, taxes, starting a business, etc. It's not afraid to give you the hard truth, that you'll have to work hard and save/invest hard if you want to have lots of money. But it's still very optimistic. Everything's broken up into short sections with random info-graphics and whatnot, so it's easy to get through despite all the information. And the author makes a lot of lame jokes. I'll leave other readers to decide whether they jokes are plain-lame, or so-lame-they're-funny, but they at least kept me entertained while learning about a subject I don't naturally care about.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:33:42 -0800

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is the book Warren Buffett recommends to noobs. If it's good enough for Buffett...

By: xil

xil — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:34:49 -0800

In the same vein as Random Walk, I always end up recommending the Diehards book list -- of those, The Four Pillars of Investing is perhaps the best start. A little more advanced than those "everything you need to know about money now that you're an adult" books, but a lot more skeptical too.

By: peacheater

peacheater — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:50:59 -0800

I enjoyed reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad as an undergraduate.

By: SuperSquirrel

SuperSquirrel — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:00:07 -0800

The Wealthy Barber is great: short, simple, to the point.

By: stuboo

stuboo — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:02:09 -0800

I'm a big fan of Your Money or Your Life

By: burnmp3s

burnmp3s — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:04:02 -0800

Seconding xil's list, especially The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing and A Random Walk Down Wall Street.

Also, as femmme mentioned, there are many great personal finance blogs out there that have up-to-date info about all kinds of financial issues. Get Rich Slowly is one of my favorites. PFBlogs.org is also a great resource for getting a broad range of finance related blog posts and finding good blogs.

Also, no offense to peacheater, but I dislike Robert Kiyosaki and his advice enough to warn not to buy Rich Dad, Poor Dad. A good summary of why I and others don't like it is on Wikipedia.

By: Ostara

Ostara — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:11:24 -0800

Seconding Your Money or Your Life.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is not really a "how-to" book, but a lot of people find it inspirational.

I also recommend The Millionaire Next Door.

By: thomas144

thomas144 — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:21:04 -0800

The Millionaire Next Door is excellent but The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need really is the only investment guide you will ever need.

By: 0xFCAF

0xFCAF — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:28:30 -0800

+1 against Rich Dad / Poor Dad. Everyone I know who drank the Kiyosaki Kool-aid is constantly moving from one get-rich-quick scheme to another and asking for money to finance some harebrained 'business' idea.

By: bananafish

bananafish — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:52:45 -0800

I would highly recommend "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing" by John Bogel of Vanguard. It's a short read an easy to understand. It's slanted toward index fund investing over managed mutual funds. But I think that's a good thing. One thing every new investor has to understand is the difference in philosphies between index fund and managed fund investing.

By: charlesv

charlesv — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:26:46 -0800

How to Buy Stocks

By: btkuhn

btkuhn — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:12:57 -0800

"The Richest Man in Babylon" is the classic book for dealing with finances and would be great for a graduate new to the workforce. I'd also recommend "The Millionaire Next Door".

By: aggienfo

aggienfo — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:39:17 -0800

thanks for all the advice... I'm picking out a few books for myself too. I leaning towards "Getting Loaded' and "The Only Investment Guide You'll Need"

By: 26.2

26.2 — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:52:20 -0800

Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties starts with the absolute basics of organizing your finances and progresses from there. It's a good primer for someone just starting out in personal finance.

By: alb

alb — Thu, 01 May 2008 06:29:05 -0800

Since no one's mentioned it, I'll suggest Making the Most of Your Money by Jane Bryant Quinn. To me it reads as an anti-hype finance book, i.e. it stresses prudent money management and fiscal responsibility over "getting rich". In some ways it's more of a reference book than a guide or planner, but sometimes that's what you need. If you're in a bookstore, check out a copy and see if it fits your sensibilities. (Also, I see it in used bookstores all the time, so you could get a copy on the cheap as a supplementary gift... )

By: Tamanna

Tamanna — Thu, 01 May 2008 08:09:09 -0800

I'm going to go with a different tack- personal finance websites. The Simple Dollar and Get Rich Slowly are both fantastic, well-written, frequently updated blogs. I Will Teach You To Be Rich isn't bad either, but those first two are an absolute must-read.

By: lsemel

lsemel — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:48:48 -0800

I would recommend ignoring Rich Dad Poor Dad. It's full of fluff, babble and questionable advice. I highly recommend Eric Tyson's Personal Finance for Dummies, as well as Millionaire Next Door. A Random Walk Down Wall Street makes interesting reading, but it's neatly summed up by rule #8 in Scott Adams' guide.

By: stuboo

stuboo — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:25:41 -0800

He should also watch this video. It's free.

By: alms

alms — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:03:05 -0800

Along the lines of the Scott Adams book, a couple of years ago there was a very good short article in the Wall Street Journal describing the fact that a very simple investment strategy will usually win. You can read it here: Limited Menu: Choose Only 3. I saved it as a PDF when it was written in 2006, and since then it's one of the standard pieces I give to friends struggling to figure out what investing is all about.

By: peacheater

peacheater — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:42:41 -0800

Thanks for all the warnings against Kiyosaki's books. I now have something to say to my parents when they ask me to read his books. Will recommend some of the other books mentioned here to them.