Top 5 Books for Investors

Warren Buffet singled out these five reads as the all-time greatest books on investing, as reported by Time Magazine.

1. The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel by Benjamin Graham

Originally published in 1949, Graham’s book is considered the definitive volume on value investing. Benjamin Graham, a professor who taught at Columbia Business School in the 1920s, revised the book several times before his death in 1976. Subsequent editions often appear with a preface written by Buffet. One of the central take-aways from Graham’s investment strategy is that investors should be more concerned with the practical performance of the companies in their stock portfolios than with the whims of the stock market. 

2. Money: Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins

Robbins’ 2014 book describes the seven steps to achieving financial independence. It guides readers through creating a lifetime financial plan. To come up with his seven steps, Robbins interviewed more than 50 financial experts, including Warren Buffet. 

3. A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing by Burton Malkiel

Burton Gordon Malkiel is an economics professor at Princeton who first released this book in 1973. In it, he explains the principles of the efficient-market theory and shows why both fundamental analysis and technical analysis are flawed investment techniques. This book appears on Buffet’s list despite the fact that Buffet has been a noted critic of efficient-market theory, most notably at a graduation speech Buffet gave in 1984.  

4. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money – That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter

First published in 1997, Rich Dad, Poor Dad has been endorsed by a number of celebrities, from Oprah Winfrey to Will Smith, and has sold more than 32 million copies worldwide in 51 different languages. The New York Times bestseller started life as a self-published book, but Kiyosaki’s determination to make the rounds of talk shows and radio programs pushed the book into the public eye. 

Kiyosaki and Lechter use anecdotes from Kiyosaki’s childhood, comparing Kiyosaki’s own father (the poor dad) to the rich father of Kiyosaki’s best friend. The financial advice in the book is focused on Kiyosaki’s strategy of setting up passive income sources. 

5. The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason

This book on household and personal finance is relayed through a series of parables that take place in ancient Babylon. George Samuel Clason, who was born in 1874, first wrote these parables as a series of pamphlets that were passed out at banks and other financial institutions as quick financial tutorials. They were first gathered and published in a single volume in 1926.