People sometimes ask, “Do you have any good books to recommend on personal finance and investing?” Yes, I do. Three of them. Two books and one PDF. The two books are:
Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vickie Robin.
The One-Page Financial Plan by Carl Richards.
The One-Page Financial Plan by Carl Richards.
The PDF title is “If You Can,” by Bill Bernstein. It’s free. Sixteen pages. Copy and paste this link in your browser: https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf
Now, I am adding another book-- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. So far, 91% of the ratings are 4 or 5 stars.
Briefly, doing well with money isn’t about what you know. It’s about how you behave. But behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people (like you).
Money—investing, personal finance, and business decisions—is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world, people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, in a meeting room, during their commute, in the shower, where personal history and their own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together.
This is one of those books I put in the category of, “If I were to write a book, this would be it.” The chapters are short (2-10 pages). It's numbers light. You can dive in anywhere. And when you do, have a pen or marker handy. I've made underlines, arrows, and brackets from cover to cover.
If you’re under 40, this book will help you bypass immense grief and frustration as you build your life. I wish I had these understandings at that age.
If you’re under 40, this book will help you bypass immense grief and frustration as you build your life. I wish I had these understandings at that age.
If you’re in the middle years, you may experience some relief as well as a blunt reality check. We’re usually good on some things. Others deserve adjustment.
Finally, if like me, it’s late in the game, you have an opportunity to transmit durable principles to younger people. That’s our job at this age. Spreading mustard seeds.
Get a paperback copy of this book so you can mark it up. Then buy one for someone you love. It could change lives. (We don’t have an affiliate sales agreement. We don't do that.)
You can also read a great example of Housel’s work is his latest blog posting titled Common Causes of Very Bad Decisions.
Let us know what you think.
Jim Cosgrove, CFP, Plano, TX jim.cosgrove@verizon.net 972-489-0262
Jim Cosgrove, Partner, San Jose, CA jimcos42@gmail.com 408-674-6315
Jim Cosgrove, Partner, San Jose, CA jimcos42@gmail.com 408-674-6315
