My six favourite books on Personal Finance & Investing

A range of books which hopefully will be very engrossing to read whilst also helping you learn about the world of investing and insights into your own beliefs and behaviours around money.

Transcript

Hi! I am Cleona, founder of Conscious Money. My channel helps you on how to have freedom and clarity with money and life.

Introduction

Today is a very exciting topic for me. Books. I love books and you probably do too. I have a range of books for you today which hopefully will be a very engrossing read while also helping you to learn about the world of investing and insights into your own beliefs and behaviors around money.

I always find more books than I can read and I'm excited to have a big pile of books on my study table. I only read nonfiction and because I work as a financial advisor I am passionate about learning about this world of money and investing, the psychology of money, the history of stock markets and so my choice of books reflects this.

I have tried to pick books that are a little bit off-piste... although, you probably have heard of one of the books for sure on this list. I will be mentioning the books today in a random order.

1.Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth by Nick Murray

The first book I have for you today is called Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth by Nick Murray. I was fortunate enough to buy Nick Murray’s book ‘The Excellent Investment Advisor’ early on in my advisory career. It made complete sense to me, stressing the role of an investment adviser as a behavioural coach.

Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth is a great buy for you to get your investing foundations strong - a 1999 copy set me back about £25 and it is worth it! There is a more recent edition and I think it is 2008 so some of the investment information or stock market data might be a little bit outdated... however, I would still recommend buying this book because the value of this book is more to do with understanding your investment foundations.

What I like about the book is that it simplifies investment concepts. Investing is not complicated and when you're clear on the concepts you make decisions from a very clear place… for example, he says, on page 50 “when you invest in stocks, you're an owner of businesses, when you invest in bonds, you are a lender to businesses.” It's so simple to understand two different asset classes -equities and bonds or stocks and Bonds.

I also like it when the author is very consistent with an informed viewpoint about investing and Nick Murray bangs those points home throughout the book about beliefs and behaviors being really important to be successful around investing.

Murray also uses the tree as his analogy for a long term mindset when Investing. It's a very useful analogy He explains that when you plant a tree you don't dig it up to check on the progress of the roots every few weeks or months, you don't store it in your garage in the winter when weather conditions are a bit choppy and then plant it back when summer is around... you don't pull at the leaves or the branches to make it grow quicker... you just sort of leave it alone and let it do its thing... which is the same as investing... so I really like that analogy. I would highly recommend buying this book.

2. It’s not about the money - by Brent Kessel.

The second book is It’s not about the money - by Brent Kessel. A participant in a money workshop actually told me about this book.

Brent, the author, sounds lovely - an American financial adviser who talks about socially responsible investing, philanthropy, does ashtanga yoga, meditates,...what’s not to like? I like that he brings his whole self to his work - and he does the same in his book where he combines the spiritual and the material. He talks about these 8 financial archetypes like The Saver, The Pleasure Seeker, The Caretaker...For example: if you were a caretaker, you may feel guilty or overburdened..and you prioritise your needs as less important than others and so you operate of a sense of guilt which isn't particularly healthy. Then he also provides ways to focus or balance out these archetypes we probably have a combination of all eight but I imagine that a few one or two or more are more dominant or are more important in your life to balance out.

He also talks about core stories, money scripts, money wounds... I found it a fascinating read as a financial advisor, I see so many people focus on the outside... like you know, I need to save more... I should be spending differently or I must be putting money away in a pension... but if you can't see and shift the stories that don't serve you on the inside and replace them with more helpful beliefs... that is often so much more powerful. I believe that the inside creates the outside with money and this book will definitely help you to work on the inside more clearly.

3. Pitbull - Lessons from Wall Street's Champion Trader by Martin Schwartz

The third book I have for you is ‘Pitbull - Lessons from Wall Street's Champion Trader’ by Martin Schwartz.

Marty was a day trader based in New York, I think, and it's a very entertaining read. It's just a funny, very interesting story about a real-life Wall Street trader and the techniques he used to make millions trading. It's not a ‘how to start a trading business’ kind of book - though it does offer you very important lessons from his life and all the learnings from his life are distilled in a very useful way.

The book gives you an insight into the highs and the lows of trading. Trading can be quite the emotional roller coaster when things don't go your way and Marty talks about how to cut your losses early, how to get your ego out of the way, the importance of honesty and self-discipline and self-awareness and the pressures that come with trading other people's money. His wife Audrey sounds lovely and seems completely detached from how much money he makes from his trading which I find very endearing.

Trading is very different to investing. Trading commodities or stocks is about short-term profit especially day trading is about profiting from short-term movements which can be quite volatile. It's not for everyone; certainly not for me. Investing also focuses on profits... so long-term profits with buy-and-hold strategies usually upwards of five years. Marty is incredibly honest and his stories are hysterical- a finance book that actually makes you laugh out loud.

There's a scene in the book where he describes having some medical issues and he's in hospital and there's TV monitors in front of him that he can see and so he starts to manipulate his blood pressure and Audrey, his wife enters the room and turns the screens around... that's quite funny and it's a really good book.

4. A wealth of common sense: A Wealth of Common Sense: Why Simplicity Trumps Complexity in Any Investment Plan by Ben Carlson

My fourth recommendation is ‘A wealth of common sense: A Wealth of Common Sense: Why Simplicity Trumps Complexity in Any Investment Plan’ by Ben Carlson. You can see so many sticky notes.

It's very practical and it talks again about basic, sensible guidance for improving long-term investment results and making rational decisions to invest successfully. You don't need to know the ins and outs of investing...you do need to know some basics and you do need to take the obstacles out of the way that prevents you from taking actions and it is important to know some of the investing biases... it is important to know how bad stock markets have been... what bear markets are like... just so that you can be more prepared when things do go wrong.

The book talks about market myths, the history of bear market crashes (which by the way, it helps me keep perspective and stay calm when I see red in the stock markets) which we had recently with Covid19... so I'm sure it will help you avoid poor reactive decisions too. He explains the importance of diversification and self-awareness.

Again, like Nick Murray - avoiding high costs and so on so it comes down to the basics of investing and it's written in a very accessible way. Again, when the author is clear on his own concepts and views, it really comes through in the book. It's probably one of the best investment books I have ever read. The book is easy to read even if you are a beginner to investing and the content is meaty and worthwhile.

Ben also has a great blog and a podcast. His podcast is called Animal Spirits which he hosts along with his friend and colleague Michael Batnick. I try and listen to it regularly and it's probably the only podcast that I don't listen to at 1.5 or or 2x speed. Also, because I enjoy the banter between them and the off-piste conversations about movies and books and netflix.

5. Your Money and Your Brain: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich by Jason Zweig

My 5th recommendation is ‘Your Money and Your Brain: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich’ by Jason Zweig. Or Zweyyyggg. I'm not sure how you pronounce that. My mother used to say that you could pronounce nouns anyway... I don't know if that's true.

I can't find this book whomever I lent it to... give it back! I hate lending my books out, do you like lending books? Leave me a comment below if you do. Back to the book. I love the meeting of the two worlds: our brain and then how we do money.

After reading the book, you may be more compassionate with yourself about “stupid” financial decisions you made in the past. It seems that we are hard-wired to make bad financial decisions, we aren't necessarily rational robots when it comes to money decisions, we have logical parts and emotional parts of our brain and probably habits and conditions and a lot of conditioning over centuries and money has so much to do with visceral things when it comes to safety- so the book points out that paying attention to our instincts and feelings is important.

I found the book very helpful in understanding my own and then my clients investing behaviors and since I believe that one of the important parts of my role is to be a good behavior coach, I found the book really useful. And I think if you invest, you would find it useful too.

6. Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez

The sixth book is ‘ Your Money or Your Life’ by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. I love this book because we really don't talk about how we ‘do’ money, how we save, how we spend, how we earn, how we invest. This is one of my top favorite books by far.

I've also met the author Vicki Robin a few times and resonate with her on so many levels - especially care for the environment and working towards social change. I can highly recommend this book... there's also a movement in the fire community financial independent retire early community (FIRE) to use financial independence for social good which I love or FI for good.

The book does not tell you what to do...which is incredible... because so many of us have autonomy triggers and like to make our own decisions - especially when it comes to money and life.

It does offer nine steps to view money and spending in your life and to look at money as life energy and it invites you to work out what your hourly rate is.

I like the concept of the hourly rate and I use it to guide my decisions about spending money on clothes or holidays or even deciding to work longer hours and take on more clients. I have to confess I did cheat on the steps and I didn’t do them all. I'm not very good at stopping and doing the exercises that any book suggests. I just speed-read to the end but the book still helped me to think about money completely differently.

Doing the life energy' maths has helped me to make decisions about money based on my values leading to much more fulfillment in both my personal and professional life. Sometimes, I say no to more money and buying things and I find that this makes me more content. I also don't hesitate to spend money on what brings me fulfillment or on what I actually value.

This book really has a very strong message also about buying less stuff and what is ‘enough’ and when you're clear on what is enough, then I feel that life just takes on more clarity and you end up working/ spending/ earning/ investing in line with your values ...which to me is just life altering... so, certainly one of the most impactful books I've ever read.

Don't cheat like me and do all the exercises... although the one exercise that I found the scariest was working out all the money that you've ever made in your life on a spreadsheet - that is scary! I still recommend having a go at as many as you can and getting the book. It's an amazing book.

I hope you read some or all of these books... even if you have a financial adviser, it's worth reading to feel more financially educated and empowered. Leave me a comment below on what you're most drawn to as a book and why.

Also if you have books that were helpful to you in your journey, I would love to know in the comment section... because, not that I need any more book recommendations... but I'm greedy when it comes to books and yeah, I'm curious and I love, I love to learn more so please leave me suggestions in the comment section and it might help other subscribers too. Thank you very much for listening... happy reading and bye, bye.