Book Suggestions for Beginner Investor

Boggleheads guide to investing.

Also check out their forum.

Benjamin Graham: The Intelligent Investor

good luck with the Graham - that is more advanced

try Ric Edelman's books to start, and one step up would be Joel Greenblatt's two small books. David Swensen's Unconventional Success is also excellent.

"My Rules of Life" - Flagpole

Although one can legitimately question its thesis of efficient or semi-efficient securities markets, "A Random Walk Down Wall Street," by Burton Malkiel, remains a classic. Get the latest edition. (It gets updated every several years, as lessons are learned from each new financial bubble, crisis, or fad.)

I'm not the OP but I'm interested in investing as well. Should I get "The Truth About Money 4th Edition" by Ric Edelman? Thanks!

Seymour G. wrote:

I'm an early 20 something and would like to start learning about investing. What are some good books to get me started? I'm really not looking for any "get rich quick" or "surefire investing" books. I would actually like to become fairly knowledgeable on the subject, but I need to start at the beginning. I could probably even use some suggestions that touch on applicable economics. What are the classics of the subject? Thanks in advance for and suggestions.

You should read as much as you possibly can.

For info on WHEN you should invest and how much to invest and how to get out of debt, read The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

For inspiration but no guidance, read The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko.

For more specific info (yet still for beginners) read Jim Cramer's books.

Investigate on your own the following:

1) Difference between investing and trading.

2) Roth IRA

3) 401k

4) Mutual Funds

5) Dividends and how to get them and what to do with them (reinvest them is what you do).

6) Stocks vs. bonds

Lots more things too.

Good luck.

Best advice I ever got was to just start...set up a mutual fund or 401k or Roth IRA and just start putting money in. Don't try to time anything. Put money in and keep doing it. IF after you own a home outright and have no debt at all you want to buy individual stocks, THEN go do that, and use Jim Cramer's advice on how to do that (not necessarily which stocks).

A Random Walk Down Wall Street:

http://www.amazon.com/Random-Walk-Down-Wall-Street/dp/0393315290

Flagpole wrote:

For info on WHEN you should invest and how much to invest and how to get out of debt, read The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

For inspiration but no guidance, read The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko.

For more specific info (yet still for beginners) read Jim Cramer's books.

Investigate on your own the following:

These books and authors are so bad that if we banned books in this country, they would be on the top of the list. I'm not just being snarky: #1 is for complete idiots, #2 suffers from a the biggest case of survivor bias you've ever seen, and #3 Jim Cramer is an absolute and complete nitwit. And a real jerk.

Do not get swept up by the hysteria and get rich quick schemes. Finance is one area where you want to learn from people who have a strong LONG-TERM investing track record. These tend not to be the people writing popular consumer-oriented books marketed on Oprah.

A good place to start is to google "David Swensen" and read his books and interviews. Swensen manages Yale's endowment, quite successfully.

If you do read Graham, go for one of the earlier editions - actually written by Graham. I made the mistake of buying a recent edition which is completely revamped, almost unreadable, with someone else's words.

middle professor wrote:

A Random Walk Down Wall Street:

http://www.amazon.com/Random-Walk-Down-Wall-Street/dp/0393315290

I think you provided the link to the 1996 edition. The original poster should make sure to get the 2011 edition:

Also, check out the other books listed on that page -- books by Graham, Bogle, Lynch, et al.

Flagpole mentioned "The Millionaire Next Door," whose primary author is Thomas Stanley. I think it's a useful book (as is Stanley's follow-up, "The Millionaire Mind"), but I would probably give preference to Stanley's more recent (2009) book, "Stop Acting Rich and Start Living Like a Real Millionaire." Stanley does not really provide investment advice in any conventional sense, but he provides what I think is a very useful view of money and affluence in America. I understand that an earlier poster criticized a "survivor bias" in the book's presentation, and one can certainly quarrel with conclusions that may be drawn from demographic statistics, but there's still a lot of good and interesting material in Stanley's work. (His writing style may not be my cup of tea, but that's O.K.)

Thank you Avocado and all. It has always been difficult for me to understand money. Good thing I have a good income, but it's definitely not because of my financial skills. I really need to learn and be smarter about it.

I'll read "A Random Walk Down Wall Street."

I certainly respect (and have read) all the suggestions herein. However, I think Jim Cramer is the best at keeping investing simple and interesting for a newby. After which, you can certainly graduate to "Buffetology" and "Random Walk Down Wall Street", but if you dive straight into these without a strong financial core, you will lose interest fast. Before you even pickup at book, spend an hour and watch Mad Money (6-7 or 11-12 on CNBC) to get a feel for him. Don't listen to his stock picks rather focus on his theory, and you will obtain a strong basis of the fundamentals. Trust me on this one. I've been in your shoes, and he is the best for the beginner!

1) Dave Ramsey is for people who are in debt (MOST PEOPLE ARE) and don't know how to get out of debt (AGAIN, THAT'S MOST PEOPLE).2) Millionaire Next Door is a classic book that provides inspiration (as I said) and not any guidance. It is a required read for a new investor.3) Jim Cramer is far from a nitwit. His investing principles are sound...fund 401k and Roth IRA first and THEN go for individual stocks. Make sure to have no more than 20% in any one sector of the market, and go for best of breed. Good, solid info that will keep you from losing your shirt. He gets more specific than that too, urging you to understand cycles and indicators. Don't turn a trade into an investment and vice versa, and NEVER sell everything you have. His books are made for beginners, and that's what the OP is looking for. Cramer goes beyond that even.

OP, please do not read garbage books written for the Oprah crowd. If you have a serious interest in learning to invest, even if you are a beginner, read the Swensen book - I dug up the link for you:

http://www.amazon.com/Unconventional-Success-Fundamental-Approach-Investment/product-reviews/0743228383/

Yes, he will tell you not to buy individual stocks, which is good advice.

As for Jim Cramer, click on some of these links:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=jim+cramer+idiot

Then decide whether you want to learn, or to be entertained/annoyed.

I'm in a similar situation as the OP. I'm finishing up grad school and looking to start planning for my future.

Any more suggestions for books/references.

I've listened to Dave Ramsey's show, and don't have much of a debt problem (only have subsidized loans and my assets are ~$10,000 more than my debt).

I'm familiar with basic economics, and know that index funds are the way to go for the casual investor. I also just ordered the book Unconventional Success by David F. Swensen for 5 cents + S&H.

thanks

Some books that are definitely worth checking out for background, context, factual information and thought starters -- using three very different approaches.

The Successful Investor: What 80 Million People Need to Know to Invest Profitably and Avoid Big Losses (William O’Neil)

The Intelligent Investor (Benjamin Graham)

Fooled By Randomness (Nassim Taleb)