12 Must-Have Investment Books To Become a Pro

12 Top Investment Books of All Time for Beginners

Have you ever asked yourself which stock market investing books are the best?
With so many business books, you lose the big picture, don't you? Which ones are good, and which ones can you recommend? Which ones are worth saving for later?
This review focuses on the best investment books that we can recommend to you!

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money is one of the most "must-have" financial and investment books for all beginners.

Rich Dad Poor Dad, written by Robert Kiyosaki, explains what investments are and how not to confuse assets with liabilities. He makes it clear that the knowledge that students receive in school is not suitable for real life. In addition, at the end of each chapter, the reader will find exercises that help develop the right attitude to money. 

This book may not make the list of the best investment books for beginners, but it will give something more — the right mindset, which is especially useful for beginning investors.

Here are some central thoughts of the book:

• Fear of being judged by society keeps us from leaving the "rat race" and becoming rich
• Fear and greed can cause financially illiterate people to make irrational decisions
• Financial self-education and a realistic assessment of one's finances are steps toward wealth
• Laziness and arrogance can drive even financially literate people into poverty
• Invest only in assets and avoid liabilities
• Your profession pays the bills, but only your own business will make you rich‍
• Study the tax code to minimize taxes‍‍

2. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

If you are new to investing, then you definitely need to read the book "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham. It is not intended for day traders or speculators, in this book you will find the wisdom of millions of investors who invest their money on a long-term basis.

Here's what knowledge you'll gain from this book:

• How to build and effectively manage a portfolio of assets
• How to minimize risk when investing
• How to get the most out of each deal
• How to use your analytical skills and discipline to achieve success in investing
• How to make a clear plan of buying stocks and bonds, which will help increase the chances of profitable deals and reduce the influence of emotions on the trader.

Even Warren Buffett has said that The Intelligent Investor is one of the best financial investing books for beginners of all time in his collection. Perhaps a better review couldn't be expected.

3. The Simple Path to Wells by J L Collins

This book is special and best suited for beginning investors. What makes it special is that it is based on the author's letters to his daughter, in which he mainly talked about financial education, monetary literacy, and other important things related to money.

From this book you will learn:
How to minimize risk when investing

• How to build your financial base and avoid debt
• Why traditional investment advice most often doesn't work
• How to develop a money mindset and specific financial consciousness
• What is the stock market and its basic rules
• Effective investment strategies, which are worth following
• Essential steps for successful wealth building and preservation
• How to deal with basic accounts quickly and efficiently
• Which investment companies to invest in and whether to do so.

Jay Collins does the unbelievable in this book, talking about the toughest investment things so simply and literally in a playful way that you'll easily get through this book in even one day

4. One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market by Peter Lynch

When it comes to the best guide to investing for beginners, many experienced investors think of this book. It is a real find for beginners, as this is a book by an expert and mutual fund manager, Peter Lynch.

From this book you will learn:

• Which assets are worth investing in for beginners and professionals
• Why investors with little investment experience have a huge advantage over their more experienced peers
• What qualities an investor needs to bear in order to succeed
• How an investor can use their greatest strengths to make the right decisions
• How to quickly find the best investment opportunities
• How to find the most profitable companies and invest in them before the professionals do
• Which stocks to add to your portfolio and how to create a portfolio of the top 10 stocks.

The peculiarity of this book is its simplicity; the practical advice Peter Lynch gives can be easily applied even by beginners. He explains how any investor, regardless of their experience, can quickly determine which stocks are promising, which are "trash," and which are not worth messing with. You'll also get tips on investing in fast-growing companies. As a bonus, you will also learn about Peter Lynch's investment strategy that brought him his fortune.

Learn how to conduct market analysis and create your portfolio, while others are just wondering where to get all the knowledge they need.

You can always gain the necessary knowledge about investing and trading in a financial market with the Gainy app!

5. The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy by Thomas Stanley

In The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley exposes the traits that are common among wealthy people. Exciting, right? The book’s main message that every beginning investor can gain is that anyone with a steady job can become rich under one essential condition: if they manage their money well enough.

From this book you will learn:

• How to deal with basic accounts quickly and efficiently
• Which investment companies to invest in and whether to do so.
• How millionaires differ from ordinary people (who don’t usually know how to manage their money)
• Why high income does not equal to wealth
• How to create and preserve capital for your children and grandchildren
• Why frugality is one of the essential traits of millionaires
• how easy it is to find investment opportunities and what is worth investing in.

6. The Five-Day Weekend: The Freedom to Make Your Life and Work Rich and Purposeful by Nick Halick

Who doesn't dream of a five-day weekend? Living free and self-determined is the great desire of our time. Nick Halik advises on how to make it happen. How to make more money with less effort? How do you make your money grow?

Nick Halik offers the reader practical advice on creating a passive income from investing and the opportunity to add three more days off to the existing two. You will learn how to create several sources of passive income at once, which will be completely unrelated to each other. And even the loss of one of them will not affect your situation in any way.

If you want to cut costs professionally, take some time and read the book.

7. Cryptocurrencies in Simply Explained: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, ICO, Decentralization, Mining & Co by Julian Hosp

Are you interested in cryptocurrencies? Then you can't go past Julian Hosp, who can make you cryptocurrency savvy.

The world of cryptocurrencies looks pretty complicated and confusing to many people. And it really is! If you are just learning about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, you probably want someone to tell you about cryptocurrencies simply and clearly, without complicated terms. 

This book will do just that for you! You will learn what cryptocurrencies are, how they work and which of them are worth investing in, which have great growth potential, what investment strategies to use, what blockchain is, and why these technologies are the future.

8. How to Day Trade for a Living by Andrew Aziz

One of the best guides for investors who trade intraday. Great for beginners as well as more experienced traders. In How to Day Trade for a Living, you’ll learn the fundamentals of day trading, the difference between this approach and others, and be able to master some helpful strategies.

You will also learn:

• Where to begin with day trading, and what strategy to choose
• Whether it is worth for a beginner to develop their own strategy or it is better to borrow a ready and tested one
• Why it’s not worth treating trading and investing as a game of chance
• How to keep the right psychological state for the whole day to be successful in trading.

The author intentionally made this book very short so that everyone could read it with minimum effort. 

9. The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor by Robert Hagstrom

Are you looking for the best investing books of all time for beginners regarding stock market investing?

You certainly can't get past this one. Warren Buffett is probably the most famous portfolio manager and investor. Countless stock market investment books for beginners have been written about him, his life's journey, and especially his investment approach and investments themselves.

One of the most well-researched and, in our opinion, one of the top investment books for beginners about Warren Buffett is The Warren Buffett Way. In the book, author Robert Hagstrom repeatedly quotes the letters from Berkshire Hathaway shareholders and proficiently categorizes them into separate investing topics, namely: company valuation, portfolio management, psychology, etc. As a result, the reader gets a glimpse into the world of investing, just as a legendary investor does, and gains important insights for the future of investing.

10. The Little Book of Valuation: How to Value a Company, Pick a Stock, and Profit by Aswath Damodaran

Valuation, or determining the intrinsic value of a company, is probably the most important activity in stock analysis. This is because without knowing the intrinsic value, it is difficult for us to assess whether a stock is cheap in the market or not.

For those unfamiliar with valuation techniques, etc., The Little Book of Valuation is the perfect place to start. It will surely become one of your favorite books about investing. 

From Damodaran's Little Book of Evaluation, we learn the following:

• The common approaches to valuation (both internal and relative valuation)
• Why our valuations are usually not independent and influenced by information we already know about a company. The book tells us why this usually leads to wrong decisions and how to deal with this.
• Why a simple approach is usually better
• How to determine intrinsic value step by step using the DCF (FCFF-based) method.

The Little Book of Valuation is great for beginners who want to learn a little more about business valuation and for whom it was always too abstract. Some economic knowledge won't hurt here, but it's not required either.

And as the title itself says, it's really a small and very understandable book that you can read quickly in a few days… not one of those thick academic books that have a lot of theory but little practical relevance. It is one of those best books about investing for beginners that are definitely worth a read.

So, what is the main content, and why do we recommend this book to anyone analyzing companies as a DIY value-oriented investor?

First, the basics of valuation. Damodaran begins by describing the different basic approaches to valuation (internal and relative). Then, he dispels several myths that surround the whole valuation topic. For example, the myth that the evaluation process always has to be detailed and complicated. In many cases, it is even better to ignore unnecessary details. Since business valuation results are always wrong anyway, additional detail in many cases only increases the likelihood of prediction error (valuation error).

Second, it is the understanding of time value. Damodaran visually explains the concept of intrinsic value, starting with the simplest case of dividend payments, which we receive over a long period. In the next step, he explains the concept of the time value of these payments (the money we receive today is more valuable than the money we will receive in the future).

11. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman is an American economist and psychologist who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his use of psychological methods.

Are people conscious and autonomous authors of their own choices and judgments? Do they really always make rational decisions? Certainly, we would like to believe that we are capable of thinking objectively and rationally, but the pitfalls of thinking are harder to avoid than they seem. It happens to investors, too, and it doesn't help them make good decisions.

In the book, Kahneman explains how the mind works and describes how our thinking is determined by two systems: one that is fast, intuitive, and emotional, and one that is slower but more logical. Kahneman reveals the interesting possibilities but also the pitfalls and shortcomings of fast thinking, pointing out how intuitive feelings overwhelm our thoughts and behavior. The book will be useful to both experienced and novice investors. 

12. The Road to Financial Freedom by Bodo Schafer

What is financial independence? Each person answers this question differently. For some, to find the desired independence will not be enough to save even a million dollars, while others will be happy with a hundred thousand. The book by Bodo Schaefer, in detail, tells you how to get rich in just a few years, using the unique methodology of the author. 

The book was written in the process of gaining his personal financial independence. Schaefer shares his experience of acquiring wealth and preserving capital in various situations. He believes that the rich person is not one who earns a lot, but one who knows how to allocate their expenses intelligently. Bodo suggests investing the money saved in this simple way in promising ideas. The author repeatedly gives examples in the book of how simple control over your expenses allows you to increase your income by 50% or more.

Final Thoughts 

We have considered the best books to learn about investing and financial literacy, but hardly all the best books on stock investing worthy of your attention can fit into one review. Keep learning and getting better every day, and Gainy will help you do just that. Download the app now!

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