8 Top Investing Books to Read If You Are Just Getting Started in the Market

Your mind is the most important asset you own. If you focus on your investing education instead of the immediate results, you will see much bigger gains over your lifetime.

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Updated: 9/21/22

Investing in resources like these will be one of your best investing decisions, ever. From all the investing books I’ve read, here are my top 8 for someone just getting started in the market.

8. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

This was the book that started it all for me in my investing journey, and I’d recommend to any other absolute beginners. This book is so inspiring and motivating, and Kiyosaki does a good job of giving the reader a different way to look at money.

While I don’t agree with his ideas of using other people’s money to invest and make more money, there are still timeless ideas and quotes throughout the book. Rich Dad, Poor Dad gives you the “why” of investing, and gets you started on the right mindset to becoming wealthy.

7. A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel

This is another great book to get different perspectives on investing.  Malkiel does a great job at presenting all the different strategies for investing in the stock market, from value investing to growth investing, and indexing. While I am an active investor myself, I still believe that A Random Walk Down Wall Street was valuable towards making me aware of other strategies that people use on Wall Street.

6. What Works on Wall Street by James O’Shaughnessy

This book gives you specific methods to analyze individual stocks and companies. Through extensive research and testing, O’Shaughnessy showed how superior gains can be made and have been made by value investors in the stock market. The amount of sheer data in What Works on Wall Street is fascinating, and the book took Wall Street by storm as a best seller in the 90’s.

O’Shaughnessy also defends the importance of the rarely used P/S ratio, and of course backs it up with more raw data and case studies. If you are a numbers guy like I am and love to see how ratios and indicators have shaped the performance of stocks, pick up this book today.

5. Richer, Wiser, Happier by William Green

This has been one of my favorite recent reads, because William interviews so many excellent investors in this book.

Time and again you start to hear the same common themes.

Buy stocks for the long term, and hold on to them! The best investors stay curious, and constantly work to improve their knowledge about businesses, investing, and the stock market. I found myself both enlightened and encouraged throughout this book. Check it out and learn from some of the greats.

4. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings by Philip Fisher

This investing classic is a pillar of growth investing strategies. I agree with Fisher’s philosophy of only needing a few well selected companies to see spectacular profits. Fisher’s insight is unique as he goes beyond the numbers, bringing to light the importance of management and R&D.

The recommendation to investigate about companies through talking to employees and competitors is rare and valuable wisdom. I don’t think this book should be considered as a sole resource for an investing strategy, but instead supplemental reading to complement other knowledge.

My 3 Favorite Investing Books [All-Time]

3. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

This book is an investing classic. A very quick read, entertaining, and informative.

The book gives you exactly the right mindset you need to be a successful investor. You can be the best stock picker in the world, but if you don’t learn the lessons presented in this book, you will never be wealthy.

The lessons from this book are always relevant, as you’ll quickly realize there is no secret to wealth. The same way people have been getting wealthy during the Babylon times is the same way people get rich today. The Richest Man in Babylon teaches important lessons while keeping the reader entertained with timeless stories.

I hope you don’t take this recommendation lightly. As an investor, you need this book like a tour guide needs a map. At its low price, you have no excuse.

2. Beating the Street by Peter Lynch

This book follows the life of the wildly successful investing career of hedge fund manager Peter Lynch. Each story piqued my interest as a reader and made Beating the Street a classic page turner. Lynch has an easy to follow writing style and investing style, which has made this book wildly successful as well.

His strategy, based on growth investing and P/E ratios, is the perfect place to start for beginners wanting to analyze individual stocks.

This book is a fantastic warm-up to the more intense The Intelligent Investor, which I talk about below. If you are tired of investing information overload, I stress reading this book and then The Intelligent Investor. You’ll be so glad you did.

1. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

Ben Graham is well known as the father of value investing, and rightly so. The man was Warren Buffet’s mentor, and his analysis of individual stocks has been followed and respected for decades.

His strategy is one of the few that has stood the test of time.

The beauty of the value investing approach presented in the book is that an investor learns how to properly value a company, and identify stocks that are undervalued. Once that is recognized, Graham teaches how to ensure that the undervalued company is in outstanding financial condition.

Combining these two factors gives investors a margin of safety, which limits the downside of an investment and often leads to above average returns.

Through his teachings, Graham humbly stresses the importance of limiting risk and winning with patience and long term thinking. The wisdom Graham shares is unparalleled in the investing world, and continues to help investors secure the financial freedom they’ve always desired. Warren Buffett calls this book “by far the best book on investing ever written,” and rightly so.

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