Best Investing Books For Beginners – Our Hand-Picked Favorites

While there are tons of resources for beginner investors online, picking up a book is still one of the best ways to get into investing. From classic investing books written by famed investors to how-to manuals aimed at beginners, books are among the most valuable learning tools around for the new investor.

So, let’s take a closer look at 12 of the best investing books for beginners that you can read to learn about everything from personal finance to investing basics to advanced investing strategies.

Personal Finance

The One Page Financial Plan by Carl Richards

The One Page Financial Plan offers exactly what the title suggests: a one-page method for developing a financial plan for your future. Richards focuses on big-picture priorities to help you list out your goals. From there, he goes into the nitty-gritty details of how to bridge the gap between where you are now, financially speaking, and where you want to be to fulfill your goals.

All the Money in the World by Laura Vanderkam

This book isn’t about the number-crunching that goes into budgeting, but rather about figuring out how to start a budget in the first place. Vanderkam focuses on giving your money tangible value by spending more on the things that matter to you and less on the things that don’t. For example, if you love going out to the movies, spend more money on that and less on things that bring you less value like clothes or restaurants. 

Broke Millennial by Erin Lowry

Broke Millennial is specifically written with 20- and 30-something year-olds in mind, instead of middle-aged people with steady jobs and decades of savings. The book is incredibly practical, with advice on how to pay off debt and the pros and cons of moving back in with your parents for a few years to save on rent costs. The book also takes more of a hip approach to money than a numbers-driven, in the weeds approach, which can resonate if you hate talking about dollars and cents.

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez

This book was written to transform the way you think about money. It offers a simple nine-step program to figure out what matters most to you, eliminate debt, and achieve financial independence. Importantly, it also gets into key topics like how to invest in index funds, how to track your money and investments online, and how to manage income from multiple sources.

Investing Basics

The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, and Michael LeBoeuf

Written by the original ‘Bogleheads’ – devotees of the founder of the Vanguard investment firm, John C. Bogle – this book assumes no prior investing knowledge and teaches you how to invest in index funds. The basic investing strategy the book lays out is easy enough for any novice investor to follow, since it doesn’t involve any of the market-watching or complex strategies that other investing books advise.

The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get on with Your Life by Bill Schultheis

The Coffeehouse Investor is another easy read with a simple strategy for beginner investors: invest in index funds, stop watching the market, and all will be well. The book makes a strong argument for why index funds are a great choice not just for beginners, but also for long-term investors generally. It then goes on to help you build a diversified portfolio using index funds and then encourages you to turn your attention back to the things that matter in life.

The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias

This detailed guide takes you into the world of investing and explains concepts without assuming any experience. The book covers a lot of ground, explaining with tips and examples how to put your money in the market, how to avoid getting swept up in the excitement of trading, and how to build a long-term portfolio for retirement. It also has some personal finance tips, so it’s a great choice if you only want to read one book from this list.

The Little Book That Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt

The Little Book offers an incredibly simple investment strategy that can help you find strong investments at a great value. Greenblatt explains his method in simple terms that any beginner can understand and provides plenty of examples to help you follow along. Starting out your investing career with this book is a great way to build a long-term portfolio filled with proven companies and significant potential for growth.

Advanced Investing Strategies

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel

This book is the perfect transition to more advanced investing strategies for the newer investor. It goes beyond basics like index funds to talk about strategies like dollar-cost averaging, tax-loss harvesting, and how to get the most out of your money while investing. It also discusses assets like bonds, real estate, and insurance to help you understand how all the components of your portfolio work together as you approach retirement.

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

The Intelligent Investor was written in 1949, and over 70 years later it remains arguable the most important book that any new investor can pick up. According to Warren Buffet, a disciple of Graham, it’s “the best book about investing ever written.” Graham writes in a style that’s surprisingly inviting and goes into tremendous detail on how to analyze investments. The book is geared towards finding value and reducing risk, which is a strategy that most beginners can get behind.

Beating the Street by Peter Lynch

Beating the Street is virtually the opposite of books like The Coffeehouse Investor and The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing. It advocates for individual investors to pick individual stocks rather than rely on index funds and lays out a strategy for consistently beating the market. It’s a great way to learn about market opportunities that often fly under the radar. Of course, keep in mind that many investors have tried to beat the market over the years, and most have failed.

How to Invest in Real Estate by Joshua Dorkin and Brandon Turner

How to Invest in Real Estate is a terrific read if you’re looking to expand your portfolio beyond the stock market. Dorkin and Turner cover everything you need to know about investing in properties, with plenty of attention paid to investments like real estate investment trusts, crowdfunding, and direct ownership. It also goes into detail about how to find real estate deals and how to turn real estate investments into wealth over the long-term.

Conclusion: Investing Books For Beginners

Reading an investing book takes time, but it’s one of the best things you can do to set yourself for success as a new investor. Whether you want to invest in index funds, stocks, real estate, or you simply don’t know yet, one of these 12 best investing books for beginners can help. All of the books we highlighted are written by experts whose methods have been proven to work and who have helped millions of investors before you. So, pick up a book today to jump start your investing career.

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