Finance Books to Boost Your Financial Literacy—and More

Books stand out among educational materials as often the most comprehensive and trusted sources on the author’s chosen subject. The other posts in this series on financial literacy may list resources more current, more interactive, or more appropriate for on-the-go learning, but if you really want to do a deep dive on a subject or learn as much as you can about a particular aspect of finance, start filling your bookshelves.That said, sifting through the endless library of finance books alone is a daunting task—and not every book out there is worth the investment, if you’ll pardon the pun. This is why it helps to have experts on your side. We’ve done the hard work to determine which are the best ones for you to learn all you can on the financial topic that concerns you the most.Our list features finance books on finance which consider the ages of the readers (from children to retirees), their specific goals (general financial literacy improvement or investing), and the employment status (books for entrepreneurs). Hopefully, you’ll find below a book suited to your situation so that you can become an expert on the topic soon enough.

In 1969 Carol Hanisch wrote ‘The personal is political’ and the same should be said of finance. Budgeting guides and investment forecasts are useful resources—they equip us with some of the tools we need to embark on our own financial journeys. But without the trials and tribulations of others who have trodden the same paths, we miss out on an invaluable aspect of finance: lived experience.

Our pick for this section is a collection of interviews with financial experts that tell the stories behind decisions made by notable figures in finance: Morgan Housel (Wall Street Journal), Christine Benz (Morningstar), and Tyrone Ross (Onramp Invest) and many more.Portnoy and Brown’s book demonstrates that the path to financial success is across peaks and valleys. No matter how successful a person becomes, each of us is more than the sum of our experiences.   Honourable mentions: On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girl’s Guide to Personal Finance by Manisha Thakor, Sharon Kedar

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that working and saving simply isn’t enough to sustain you and anyone else you become responsible for. This is where investing comes into play. At first a mess of stocks and bonds and awash with conflicting advice on what to do with your money, investing can seem daunting and confusing and potentially dangerous.There’s a flip side, of course. Investing intelligently will allow you to get more out of your money, to achieve a kind of stability far more reliable than a big savings account. How you invest depends on the kind of career path you want for yourself. Are you investing in yourself by getting a good education? In real estate, betting on the property increasing in value? And what are you investing? Time? Money? Effort? There are many aspects of investing which require careful consideration.  This is where finance books come in. Approach investing with an expert guiding you through the terms and concepts, before mapping out a path for you to use your money wisely.

Australian author Scott Pape’s smash hit Barefoot Investor book series begins with ‘the only money guide you’ll ever need’. A practical guide with concrete tips on intelligent investing, Pape injects the book with a unique, personable style which has attracted so many readers since the first book in his series. Pape also addresses situations of crises with his own personal crisis: the author lost his house in a bushfire. His personal journey of financial recovery has taught him a great deal about investing wisely and he imparts the knowledge successfully in this book.  Honourable mention: The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel

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As a business banking service, we want to provide everything we can to entrepreneurs who want to get their ideas off the ground. When you’re running your own business, a good grasp of financial concepts could be the barometer of your success. You will be in charge of your finances, especially in the beginning and perhaps for the entirety of your self-employed career—in this case, there’s never too much you can learn about finance.Every year sees more entrepreneurship books on the shelves. Self-made billionaires and start-up culture have spread the idea that financial freedom and enviable success merely require a good idea. While this might be true of the first step, all the following steps promise one steep financial challenge after another.A good book on the basics of self-employment or entrepreneurship can become your bible on your journey to the top with all the other self-employed free souls.

While focused on software development, The Lean Startup is about entrepreneurship overall. Ries gives unusual but valuable advice about failing business ventures in order to learn what customers really want, while applying the scientific method to getting your idea off the ground. For Ries, there’s more in play than luck and talent when becoming a successful entrepreneur.As a writer, Ries is clear and his prose, befitting his title, is lean. He gets his points across without wasting time, and he crafts memorable aphorisms entrepreneurs can take with them on their journeys: ‘It’s the boring stuff that matters most’ and ‘…if we’re building something nobody wants, it doesn’t matter if we’re doing it on time and on budget’.Honourable mentions: Accounting Made Simple

How do you begin approaching the subject of money with children, when most kids think an ATM is just a magic money dispenser?It’s true that there’s no right age to start learning about money. Some might say the earlier the better, but how early? When can you be sure your child will properly grasp even the simplest aspect of finance: that one needs money to exchange for goods and services?This is where reading to your child can play a huge role. Kids are drawn to stories and reading to your children has long been proven to yield wonderful results for cognitive development.

On finance for kids, there are interactive books, picture books, fiction, and non-fiction. The resources are plentiful and how you want to introduce your child to finance is of course up to you. Our pick for this crucial period of financial literacy is David M. Schwartz’s If You Made a Million, with illustrations by Steven Kellogg. This award-winning classic from 1994 is recommended for kids aged five to eleven and brings a fantasy element to the task of learning about finance. Kids will join Marvelosissimo the Mathematical Magician on a journey to making a million dollars, with stops along the way teaching them about investing, interest, savings, and more.Honourable mentions: How to Turn $100 into $1,000,000: A Guide to Earning, Saving, and Investing by James McKenna, Matt Fontaine, Jeannine Glista

Teenagers are a tricky demographic. If you’re raising one, you likely have enough trouble trying to find out if they’ll be home for dinner, let alone teaching them about finances (especially if the schools aren’t). If you are a teenager, what are the chances you’re thinking about finances? You might not even be working yet.Due to these difficulties, finding resources on helping teenagers with their financial literacy is its own brand of challenge. Many kids in the Gen Z bracket are looking to social media for financial advice, which has given birth to the trend of the ‘finfluencer’. But trends like these should come with warnings. Social media companies are still working out how to deal with financial advice being given on their platforms and caution around the trend is urged frequently.  

Burkholder’s book is one of the few on the market that covers the crucial period of teenagehood through young adulthood. This is such an important time to be thinking about finance because it encompasses potential milestones: your first job, leaving home, paying rent, graduating and making plans for the future, travelling by yourself—all big financial responsibilities befalling you for perhaps the first time. Burkholder’s book offers simple descriptions of financial concepts, putting things into plain terms and providing ways of approaching financial situations which will benefit in the long term. Young readers will understand the value of saving and learning about how money accrues interest; it’s all the stuff you wish you learned at that age. Honourable mentions: Heads Up Money – D.K. Publishing

You might not be ready to retire. The very idea of it might be decades from now, maybe you’re just beginning your career. Still, in just the same way that it’s important to teach kids about finance before their first piggy bank, you should spare some thought for your post-work years even before you know how you’re going to get there.Questions of retirement depend on which country you live in. Your retirement fund may be determined by the taxes you pay while working, or it may be up to you to put aside money with each paycheque. Either way, understanding the importance of how your savings, investments and pension will look after you when you stop working is immensely important for a good quality of life at the time when you may need it most.

Many of us view retirement as the end of something or many things (career, learning new skills, earning money), when it could be the beginning of so much more. Financial planner Mitch Anthony wants to help us redefine what it means to retire. A comprehensive guide to changing your mentality about retirement, Anthony takes a holistic approach to living one’s latter years. It’s not just about money, but physical and mental wellbeing, and continuing to engage in the things you loved in the years up to your retirement. Because retirement differs depending on where you live, Anthony’s philosophical approach to the subject is more useful to a wider audience. Honourable Mentions: Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk – Cameron Huddleston

Enjoy deep dives into the above finance topics with these comprehensive finance books from professionals in the finance game. Adding a finance section to your bookshelves is sure to make you an expert in a few more aspects of the topic. Keep improving your financial literacy with our content on finance podcasts, finance news, finance apps, and finfluencers.

_{Disclaimer: This selection of finance books was made at the personal judgement of the Qonto Editorial Team. None of these books are connected to Qonto and there is no paid advertising cooperation with the authors and publishers behind the books mentioned.}