"The Smartest Money Book You'll Ever Read" by Daniel R. Solin

 

Full of practical advice, this book aims to help readers get smart with their money.  Topics such as debt consolidation, renting vs owning, investing, financial advisors, and more are covered.  Stocks and bonds are compared, as well as high and low risk portfolios.  Readers learn the scam of mutual funds with below average performance and above average fees.  The science of compounding interest is explained.  Throughout the book, there are several "mint hints" that show readers how to use the mint website for financial planning.  Overall this book is very high level and focuses on the basics.  For more detailed advice on investing, Solin has other books.  This is more of an introduction to personal finance book for beginners.  

"Investing in Bonds" by David Scott

 This handy little book has all the basic fundamental of bond investing.  Readers will learn about coupons, yield to maturity, bid, ask, and much more.  They will understand the different maturities of bonds--short, intermediate, and long term.  Government and corporate bonds will be differentiated, along with foreign bonds.  While not as glamorous as stocks, bonds provide a steady and reliable stream of income when chosen correctly.  To help mitigate risk, readers will also make use of the bond rating scales provided in the book.  If you have money just sitting in the bank, put it to work with bonds!

"The Smartest Portfolio You'll Ever Own" by Daniel R Solin

 

This is an excellent finance book for anyone looking to invest.  The chapters are crisp and concise, getting right to the point.  Solin warns readers the dangers of mutual fund fees--that often underperform.  He encourages readers to invest in a diversified portfolio of index funds and ETF.  These offer the diversification of mutual funds but with a fraction of the fees.  Also, as Solin's research points to, these funds do better historically as compared to mutual funds.  This may be due to the lower fees.  Since index fund and ETF managers aren't making riches off of fees, they need to make riches off of funds.  This is a win win for investors.  The concept of asset allocation is also brought up.  The "smartest portfolio" has several options based on one's risk tolerance.  Solin recommends investors start out high risk when they are young and gradually transition to low risk as they near retirement.  This book is well researched yet full of common sense.  I look forward to testing out Solin's "smartest portfolio" for myself.  Something tells me I won't be disappointed.

"Warren Buffet and the Art of Stock Arbitrage" by Mary Buffett & David Clark

Warren Buffet is one of the investment giants in the finance world.  Known for his record-breaking returns in the stock market, there is no shortage of books claiming to unlock his secrets.  This book is unique in that one of the co-authors is the daughter-in-law of Buffet himself.  This gives her unique insight into the man most have only heard of.  Readers will learn about arbitrage, which is essentially buying a stock at a lower price than one expects to sell it in the future.  While most attempts to "time the market" often end in disaster, Buffet uses the financial news of mergers and acquisitions to decide which stocks to arbitrage.  If a company announces that it will acquire another and it is a done deal set to be executed in the near future, that gives Warren the confidence to go forward with the deal.  Interestingly enough, apparently Warren leveraged other people's money to get such high profits.  In other words, he'd borrow, say, 1.0 million dollars to buy company A's stock, which is later bought out by company B.  Company A's stock goes up and Buffet makes 1.2 million dollars and has to pay 0.1 million dollars to his creditor (for borrowing the initial 1.0 million dollars).  This yields Buffet a net profit of 0.1 million dollar--not too shabby!  While the average investor likely will not have the ability to leverage other people's money, readers can still learn how to stop arbitrage deals to make small profits for themselves.  Happy investing!

"The Elements of Investing" by Charles D. Ellis

Short and slightly informative, this is a basic investment resource.  It is not as insightful as others I have read but is nevertheless a starting point for those new to investing.  Personally, I felt it had too much "common sense" advice used to simply fill pages.  Things like living beneath one's means and avoiding credit card debt are great but need not be a focus of investment books (in my humble opinion).  Also, I am not sure if there are any conflicts of interest, but there seemed to be an excessive reliance on mutual fund recommendations.  As someone who learned what high fees and taxes accompany mutual funds, I question the motivation behind such guidance.  

"Rescue Your Money" by Ric Edelman

This is a phenomenal finance book.  The pages are few, the paper is compact, and the font is large.  This book gets right to the point without any "fluff".  I enjoyed this read so much that I ordered more of Edelman's books.  I learned about diversification via asset allocation.  Having a mix of stocks and bonds is not true diversification is the stocks and bonds are in single asset classes (e.g.- only corporate bonds and only large cap value stocks).  I also learned the pitfalls of mutual funds in terms of high fees and excessive taxes that fund managers pass on to ordinary people like me.  This is an excellent resource that I could not recommend more!

"The Small Investor" by Jim Gard

 

This is hands down one of the very best books on investing that I have ever read.  It's straightforward and to the point.  Technical details are balanced alongside easy-to-understand analogies.  As the acorn on the cover alludes to, there is a "small investor squirrel" that readers follow throughout the book.  Various illustrations show the squirrel in different investment scenarios.  This helps take what many would consider a boring topic and adds some delight to the scene.  I very much so enjoyed that aspect.  Just like how an acorn is infinitely precious to a squirrel, so is one's money to a person.  This book is a little outdated but the underlying principles stand the test of time.  In the twenty-first century, I am glad that I can do free trades online and do not need to go thru a broker--something unheard of decades ago.  Perhaps my biggest takeaway from this book is that I need to be more involved in research.  I should not just buy or sell a stock because "that's what the experts on TV are saying".  I also should not just "buy a stock and forget about it".  Successful investing requires diligence, consistency, hard work, and most of all homework.