The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor


Howard Marks - 2011
    After four decades spent ascending to the top of the investment management profession, he is today sought out by the world's leading value investors, and his client memos brim with insightful commentary and a time-tested, fundamental philosophy. Now for the first time, all readers can benefit from Marks's wisdom, concentrated into a single volume that speaks to both the amateur and seasoned investor.Informed by a lifetime of experience and study, The Most Important Thing explains the keys to successful investment and the pitfalls that can destroy capital or ruin a career. Utilizing passages from his memos to illustrate his ideas, Marks teaches by example, detailing the development of an investment philosophy that fully acknowledges the complexities of investing and the perils of the financial world. Brilliantly applying insight to today's volatile markets, Marks offers a volume that is part memoir, part creed, with a number of broad takeaways.Marks expounds on such concepts as "second-level thinking," the price/value relationship, patient opportunism, and defensive investing. Frankly and honestly assessing his own decisions--and occasional missteps--he provides valuable lessons for critical thinking, risk assessment, and investment strategy. Encouraging investors to be "contrarian," Marks wisely judges market cycles and achieves returns through aggressive yet measured action. Which element is the most essential? Successful investing requires thoughtful attention to many separate aspects, and each of Marks's subjects proves to be the most important thing.

Real Money Answers for Every Woman: How to Win the Money Game With or Without a Man


Patrice C. Washington - 2016
    “I work hard, I deserve this.” “I bought it on sale.” But at twenty-two, the recent college graduate was $18,000 in debt and sinking fast. It was time to take control. Patrice educated herself about finance, adopted a new attitude toward money, and most importantly, adjusted her spending habits. By twenty-five she was debt free—and used the wisdom she gained to start her own successful real estate and mortgage brokerage—and by twenty-nine started her own financial counseling business.Patrice’s former bad spending habits aren’t unique, and women find themselves in financial hot water for a host of reasons. Women earn less than men and have to stretch those hard-earned dollars further. They contribute more to caregiving and aging parents, live longer, and many—including most African American women—are choosing to stay single.Real Money Answers for Every Woman teaches you how to take responsibility for your financial future, whether you’re just starting out or need a fresh start. In a handy Q & A format, it offers relatable and easy to understand and implement advice on everything from managing credit cards, home ownership, and student loans to affordable childcare and even negotiating for a higher salary. Following Patrice’s practical advice, you’ll learn to form “wealthy” habits, establish an “opportunity fund,” stop collecting STUFF that causes debt, and discover the freedom that comes from feeling financially secure.

The 21-Day Financial Fast: Your Path to Financial Peace and Freedom


Michelle Singletary - 2009
    For twenty-one days, participants will put away their credit cards and buy only the barest essentials. With Michelle's guidance during this three-week financial fast, you will discover how to:Break bad spending habitsPlot a course to become debt-free with the Debt Dash PlanAvoid the temptation of overspending for collegeLearn how to prepare elderly relatives and yourself for future long-term care expensesBe prepared for any contingency with a Life Happens FundStop worrying about money and find the priceless power of financial peaceAs you discover practical ways to achieve financial freedom, you'll experience what it truly means to live a life of financial peace and prosperity.Thousands of individuals have participated in the fast and as a result have gotten out of debt and become better managers of their money and finances. The 21-Day Financial Fast is great for earners at any income-level or stage of life, whether you are living paycheck-to-paycheck or just trying to make smarter financial choices.

Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People


Jane Bryant Quinn - 2006
    Her classic bestseller, Making the Most of Your Money, guided a generation toward smart and sensible financial choices. Here she strips away the extras, choosing the best financial ideas and products available today. They're all you need to create a successful and long-lasting financial plan. It's money management the No Worry way. To start with, she tells you to forget all the complicated stuff the financial industry sells. You don't need it, it costs too much, and some of it is downright bad. It's designed to make the banks, brokers, and insurance companies rich, not you. The best ideas (a super-short list!) are simple, low in cost, and easy to use. They're also sophisticated and smart. The strategies shown here are followed by some of the most successful planners and money managers around today, yet they're something everyone can understand. They'll give you what you need from your money -- regular savings, financial security, long-term investment growth, personal control, and best of all, peace of mind. Once you've set up a No Worry plan, you won't have to pay much attention to it. The choices you'll find here are all good ones. All you have to do is arrange for automatic payments and contributions and then get on with the rest of your busy life. You can focus your energies on your job, family, leisure, and friends, secure in the knowledge that your finances are okay. Here's what you'll do on the No Worry plan: Save more money without feeling pinchedGet rid of debt the automatic wayKeep yourself safe, with the right amount of insurance at the lowest costZero in on the right mortgage, every timePick the best college savings plan for your kidsUnderstand your finances, in ways you never did beforeFind the smartest and simplest ways of investing money, to earn superior returns over the long run The investment ideas alone will open your eyes to the newest strategies for accumulating wealth (without making big mistakes!). Jane Bryant Quinn will change the way you think about money. She has the answers busy people need.

The Choose Yourself Guide To Wealth


James Altucher - 2015
     This is the first financial book in which the author REVEALS HOW HE, PERSONALLY, MAKES HIS OWN MONEY. We are living in an epic period of change, danger and opportunity. The economy is crashing and booming every few years. People are getting fired and replaced by computers and Chinese workers. The stock market crashes with regularity. Every "fix" from the government makes things worse. The Old World has been demolished... and people are desperate for answers. James Altucher's "The Choose Yourself Guide To Wealth" contains those answers. This is the field guide to the "New World" we live in. You can play by the old rules and get left behind, or you can use these new ideas and become wealthy. This is not a book for the faint of heart. Read at your own risk, because sometimes the truth is hard to take. But for those who are ready to hear, James provides an updated map of the new territory for generating wealth and freedom. This book is the eye-opener of the century, it is the guide to building, keeping, and investing your money and breaking free from the chains of rusted, old thinking.

48 Days to the Work You Love


Dan Miller - 1996
    It is more about learning who we are really called to be. According to the author, failing to make that fundamental discovery is why so many people find themselves in jobs they hate. But now, thousands upon thousands are finding the work they love thanks to practical advice from leading career counselor Miller. Conversational and creative, Miller helps readers see clear patterns form from which we can make successful career and job decisions by understanding our God-given skills and abilities, personality traits, values, dreams, and passions. 48 Days to the Work You Love provides a step-by-step process for creating a Life Plan and translating that plan into meaningful and fulfilling daily work.

Pocket Your Dollars: 5 Attitude Changes That Will Help You Pay Down Debt, Avoid Financial Stress, & Keep More of What You Make


Carrie Rocha - 2012
    So why do more than 60 percent of U.S. households still live paycheck to paycheck? The key to financial stability and success isn't just about money--it's about attitudes. Rocha uses the lessons she learned overcoming personal debt to teach readers how to triumph over the lies we tell ourselves, such as "I deserve a treat," "Fake it till you make it," and "I can't afford it." Each chapter uses real-life examples to explain faulty thinking about money, followed by step-by-step instructions for how to overcome these pitfalls. Budgets are helpful, but real change won't happen without a financial attitude adjustment.

The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing


Taylor Larimore - 2006
    The book offers sound, practical advice, no matter what your age or net worth. Bottomline, become a Boglehead and prosper! Originally just the chat-line ruminations of Boglehead founder Taylor Larimore, and Morningstar forum leading cohorts Mel Lindauer and Michael LeBoeuf, their trusted advice has been brewed and distilled into an easy-to-use, need-to-know, no frills guide to building up your own financial well-being - so you can worry less and profit more from the investments you make. Invest like a Boglehead, and let their grassroots investment wisdom guide you down the path of long-term wealth creation and happiness, without all the worries and fuss of stock pickers and day traders. If you face a financial crisis or problem, or simply want to know what is prudent to do with the money you save, the Bogleheads will have the answers you need to help you gain your financial footing and keep it.

Multiple Streams of Income: How to Generate a Lifetime of Unlimited Wealth


Robert G. Allen - 1998
    For this book, Allen researched hundreds of income-producing opportunities and narrowed them down to ten surefire moneymakers anyone can profit from. This revised edition includes a new chapter on a cutting-edge investing technique.

You Can Buy Happiness (and It's Cheap): How One Woman Radically Simplified Her Life and How You Can Too


Tammy Strobel - 2012
    Tammy Strobel and her husband are living the voluntary downsizing — or smart-sizing — dream and here she combines research on well-being with numerous real world examples to offer practical inspiration. Her fresh take on our things, our work, and our relationships spell out micro-actions that anyone can take to step off the getting-and-spending treadmill and into a life that’s more conscious and connected, sustainable and sustaining, heartfelt and happy.

The Art of Money: A Life-Changing Guide to Financial Happiness


Bari Tessler - 2016
    Bari Tessler’s integrative approach creates the real possibility of “money healing,” using our relationship with money as a gateway to self-awareness and a training ground for compassion, confidence, and self-worth. Tessler’s gentle techniques weave together emotional depth, big picture visioning, and refreshingly accessible, nitty-gritty money practices. Guiding readers through a step-by-step journey, The Art of Money helps anyone transform their relationship with money and, in so doing, transform their life. As Bari writes, “when we dare to speak the truth about money, amazing healing begins.”

Becoming Your Own Banker: Unlock the Infinite Banking Concept


R. Nelson Nash - 2000
    Very, very angry! So-called financial experts have kept certain principles from you for years. Secrets. Important secrets that, had you known them, would have made your life much simpler and much more profitable.Becoming Your Own Banker reveals secrets kept from you all these years because of the mindset that is predominant in the entire financial world.Written originally as a textbook designed to accompany a 10-hour course, Becoming Your Own Banker is designed for the layman, not the financial professional.Learn how to put these secrets to work in everyday terms...not financial double-speak. Here is some of what is revealed to you:How To Create Your Own Banking SystemFive Methods of Financing AutomobilesHow To Design an Insurance Plan that Solves the Banking FunctionPotential Sources of CapitalPlaying The "Cash Flow" GameThe Cost of AcquisitionThe Retirement Trap...and so much more! There are 84 jam-packed pages containing financial blueprints that, if applied, can open up a whole new world for you and those you care about. Discover for yourself, these important secrets and make your life much simpler and much more profitable.

Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals: Find Out How the Rich Get So Rich (the Secrets to Financial Success Revealed)


Thomas C. Corley - 2010
    These ten simple principles miraculously transform every individual who comes into contact with them. By applying these principles, you are literally walking in the footsteps of the wealthy. In Rich Habits, Tom Corley provides a step by step financial success program that is concise, easy to understand and even easier to apply, regardless of your age, education or income level. In these tough economic times, individuals are struggling financially and desperately looking for help in achieving financial success. Every person seeks prosperity for themselves and their families, and with Rich Habits the secret to financial success, possessed by only the wealthiest individuals, will be revealed. Join the Rich Habits financial success revolution.

Financial Intelligence: A Manager's Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean


Karen Berman - 2006
    But many managers can't read a balance sheet, wouldn't recognize a liquidity ratio, and don't know how to calculate return on investment. Worse, they don't have any idea where the numbers come from or how reliable they really are. In Financial Intelligence, Karen Berman and Joe Knight teach the basics of finance--but with a twist. Financial reporting, they argue, is as much art as science. Because nobody can quantify everything, accountants always rely on estimates, assumptions, and judgment calls. Savvy managers need to know how those sources of possible bias can affect the financials and that sometimes the numbers can be challenged. While providing the foundation for a deep understanding of the financial side of business, the book also arms managers with practical strategies for improving their companies' performance--strategies, such as "managing the balance sheet," that are well understood by financial professionals but rarely shared with their nonfinancial colleagues. Accessible, jargon-free, and filled with entertaining stories of real companies, Financial Intelligence gives nonfinancial managers the financial knowledge and confidence for their everyday work. Karen Berman and Joe Knight are the owners of the Los Angeles-based Business Literacy Institute and have trained tens of thousands of managers at many leading organizations. Co-author John Case has written several popular books on management.

Principles: Life and Work


Ray Dalio - 2011
    Forty years later, Bridgewater has made more money for its clients than any other hedge fund in history and grown into the fifth most important private company in the United States, according to Fortune magazine. Dalio himself has been named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Along the way, Dalio discovered a set of unique principles that have led to Bridgewater’s exceptionally effective culture, which he describes as “an idea meritocracy that strives to achieve meaningful work and meaningful relationships through radical transparency.” It is these principles, and not anything special about Dalio—who grew up an ordinary kid in a middle-class Long Island neighborhood—that he believes are the reason behind his success.In Principles, Dalio shares what he’s learned over the course of his remarkable career. He argues that life, management, economics, and investing can all be systemized into rules and understood like machines. The book’s hundreds of practical lessons, which are built around his cornerstones of “radical truth” and “radical transparency,” include Dalio laying out the most effective ways for individuals and organizations to make decisions, approach challenges, and build strong teams. He also describes the innovative tools the firm uses to bring an idea meritocracy to life, such as creating “baseball cards” for all employees that distill their strengths and weaknesses, and employing computerized decision-making systems to make believability-weighted decisions. While the book brims with novel ideas for organizations and institutions, Principles also offers a clear, straightforward approach to decision-making that Dalio believes anyone can apply, no matter what they’re seeking to achieve.Here is a rare opportunity to gain proven advice unlike anything you’ll find in the conventional business press.