Must Read Best Personal Finance Books – For millennials, dealing with serious personal finance situations is par for the course.
- 3 out of every 4 18- to 34-year-olds have debt (11% have over $100,000 in debt obligations).
- 3 in 10 millennials have less than $1,000 in savings.
- 67% of millennials say they would have difficulty paying a bill of $1,000 right away. [Source]
These are sobering statistics. For 18- to 34-year-olds, the days of retirement pensions and low health care costs never existed. The economic turmoil of the late 2000s have made huge debt loads and delayed homeownership a current day reality.
For millennials who have to claw themselves out of a debt hole or learn personal finance habits their parents didn’t teach them, money books can be invaluable.
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Table of Contents
Why Read Personal Finance Books?
Growing up, my parents never disclosed their income or expenses. Money was “private,” not something to be discussed or analyzed. A pervasive feeling of fear about money surrounded any discussion of needs or wants.
As a result, I, too, adopted this fear of scarcity and lack. Imagine my surprise when years later I learned my parents had been saving consistently throughout my entire childhood. Why had they acted like we were one step away from destitution?
There’s no doubt that this feeling of scarcity contributed to the debt and spending problem my husband and I had in our early married years. We didn’t spend thoughtfully, we spent angrily and resentfully. We didn’t make choices based on goals, we made them in defiance. We felt like we had to overcome feeling poor.
Eventually, to move forward and become successful, we had to reprogram our money mindset to become successful with money. We did that by reading A LOT of the best personal finance books.
Today we budget, save, and invest, thanks to money books. But the only reason we do that is because we’ve read hundreds of personal finance books. Every time I feel that mindset of scarcity creeping back, I dive into an old favorite money book or find a new personal finance book on a topic I want to learn.
Reading the best personal finance books allows you to reprogram the old habits.
How to Start a Personal Finance Book Habit
Do you want to start learning more about personal finance and reading the best money books but don’t have any time? Here are a few tips on how to develop a reading habit:
- Start a reading bucket list. Craft a list of all of the money books you’d like to read soon. Having a goal list means you never have to waste time wondering what to read next. I like the physical reminder of my next personal finance book – so I like to buy the books in advance and stack ‘em up on my bedside.
- Listen to personal finance audiobooks when you’re driving or working out. Let your workout or commute do double duty! You can also listen on 1.5x speed to increase the amount of information you can consume.
- Read 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night. Reading in small chunks is an effective way to develop a reading habit, even if you don’t have hours to devote.
- Partner up. If you and a friend want to learn more about investing, set a coffee date to discuss a book. It’s fun and you’re more likely to read if you have someone to be accountable to. You could also start a personal finance book club with a larger group of people in your area.
- Let yourself splurge on reading tools. You’re more likely to read more when it’s convenient. Reading tools like the Kindle or Kindle app are easy to toss in a briefcase or bag, making it super easy to read on the go.
- Have Amazon read to you. Did you know the Amazon Echo or Echo Show will read your books to you with a simple voice command?
Now you can listen to your books while you’re chopping onions in the kitchen or sipping wine in the living room. Alexa reads eligible books that you purchase from the Kindle store, that you borrow from the Kindle Owners Lending Library or Kindle Unlimited, or that others share with you in the Family Library.
Keep reading for our curated list of the best money books for millennials.
The Best Personal Finance Books about Debt
The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner’s Guide to Getting Good with Money
The Best Personal Finance Books about Budgeting and Money Management
Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together
The Millennial Money Fix: What You Need to Know About Budgeting, Debt, and Finding Financial Freedom
Love Your Life Not Theirs: 7 Money Habits for Living the Life You Want
The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
How to Manage Your Money When You Don’t Have Any (Second Edition)
Smart is the New Rich: Money Guide for Millennials
The Best Personal Finance Books about Investing
Set for Life: Dominate Life, Money, and the American Dream
Millennial Money: How Young Investors Can Build a Fortune
Easy Way for Millennials to Invest
Even if you’re cash strapped you can start an investment account. With as little as $0.01 you can use an easy app to get started investing with an app called Acorns.
You start by linking your Acorns account to your banking account or credit card. Then when you purchase something, the app will round up the purchase and add micro-amounts to your investment account.
Every time you buy something, your change will automatically be invested for you. So when you buy something for $0.97, for example, the Acorns app could put $0.03 in your investment account for you.
Creating residual income streams by investing is one of the smartest ways to save money on a tight budget, thanks to the Acorns app. And when you sign up via the link below, you get a free $5 to start your investing journey.
Sign up and start with Acorns.
What are the best personal finance books that you found helpful? Leave your list of favorite money books in the comments!
