Best Finance (Including Personal) Books I’ve Read

I’ve always been an avid reader, typically reading between 50 and 70 books per year. Because of that I was persistently getting asked about recommendations. With that in mind, in 1996 I began to keep a list of the books I had read and rated each one either, distinguished, excellent, very good, good, fair or poor. And I’m often asked which are the best investment books I’ve read. With that in mind, I decided to create this list which includes books on investing, financial planning, behavioral finance, and even planning a meaningful life in retirement. Each one will help you become a better investor, one more likely to achieve their financial and life goals.

To keep the list to a manageable level it includes only the books that I rated distinguished or excellent. Thus, there are many others that I think are worthy of your attention. The list is in alphabetical order by author.

Finally, a list like this is, of course, based solely on my personal opinion, with which you are free to disagree.

1. The New Retirementality-Anthony

2. The Honest Truth About Dishonesty-Ariely

3. Predictably Irrational-Ariely

4. Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes-Belsky & Gilovich

5. The Investor’s Manifesto- Bernstein

6. The Four Pillars of Investing-Bernstein

7. Intelligent Asset Allocator-Bernstein

8. Capital Ideas-Bernstein

9. Investment Management-Bernstein & Damodaran

10. Strategic Asset Allocation/ Campbell & Viscera

11. Strategic Financial Planning over the Lifecycle-Charupat, Huang, & Milevsky

12. The Equity Risk Premium-Cornell

13. Triumph of the Optimists-Dimson & Marsh

14. The Myth of the Rational Market-Fox

15. Quantitative Value- Gray & Carlisle

16. Quantitative Momentum- Gray & Vogel

17. Strangers in Paradise-Grubman

18. The Missing Billionaires-Haghani & White

19. Thinking, Fast and Slow-Kahneman

20. Fortune Tellers-Howard Kurtz

21. The Hedge Fund Mirage-Lack

22. Retire Secure, 3rd Edition-Lange

23. Adaptive Markets-Lo

24. When Genuis Failed-Lowenstein

25. Successful Investing is a Process-Lussier

26. Simple Money-Maurer

27. Drunkard’s Walk-Mlodin

28. The Success Equation-Maubossin

29. Behavioral Finance-Montier

30. Someday Rich-Noonan & Smith

31. What Works on Wall Street- O’Shaughnessy

32. Quants-Patterson

33. Behavioral Finance and Wealth Management-Pompian

34. Hidden Truths About Retirement & Long Term Care-Rosenblatt & Davis

35. Smart & Simple Financial Strategies-Quinn

36. How to Make Your Money Last-Quinn

37. The Humble Investor-Rasmussen

38. Portfolio Theory & Capital Markets-Sharpe

39. Stocks for the Long Run-Siegel

40. The Signal and the Noise-Silver

41. Understanding the Prudent Investor Act-Simon

42. Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map-Slott

43. Your Retirement Quest-Spector

44. Valuing Wall Street/Smithers & Wright

45. Finance for Normal People-Statman

46. What Investors Really Want-Statman

47. The Wisdom of Crowds-Surowiecki

48. Misbehaving-Thaler

49. Nudge –Thaler & Susstein

50. Searching for Alpha-Warwick

51. The Physics of Wall Street-Weatherall

52. Estate Planning for the Post-Transition Period-Williams

53. Your Money and Your Brain-Zweig

I hope you will find them as impactful as I did.