I will often get this question from students (ok, maybe not often but sometimes).  What book should I read to become smarter about personal finance?  Or maybe you want to buy a gift for your children, nieces or nephews.   I have to admit being a bit outdated as the books that influenced me were from the 1990s (think Peter Lynch’s One Up on Wall Street) and were principally focused on investing.  I thought I would try and put together a meta-analysis to see who keeps showing up on these lists.  For simplicity, I took the first five books mentioned in the article to keep the list to a manageable size.  My conclusion:  If you want a best seller, include Millionaire in the title!

From Time:

1. Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill)
2. Secrets of Millionaire Mind (T. Harv Eker)
3. Money Book For Young, Fabulous and Broke (Suze Orman)
4. Total Money Makeover (Dave Ramsey)
5. The Millionaire Next Door (Stanley and Danko)

Amazon Best Sellers (as of November 18, 2014):

1. Money:  Master the Game (Tony Robbins)
2. Total Money Makeover (Dave Ramsey)
3. The Compound Effect (Darren Harvey)
4. Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill)
5. The Millionaire Next Door (Stanley and Danko)

From Business Insider:

1. The Millionaire Next Door (Stanley and Danko)
2. The Investment Answer (Goldie and Murray):  I gave this book to my siblings as I love their approach to investing.
3. I Will Teach You to Be Rich (Ramit Sethi)
4. Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman)
5. The Automatic Millionaire (David Bach)

From LifeHack:

1. The Millionaire Next Door (Stanley and Danko)
2. The Investment Answer (Goldie and Murray)
3. Psyche Yourself Rich (Farnoosh Tarobi)
4. The Millionaire Mind (Thomas Stanley
5. I Will Teach You to Be Rich (Ramit Sethi)

From Wisebread:

1. Why Didn’t They Teach Me This in School? Personal Money Management Principles to Live By (Cary Siegel)
2.  Money Book For Young, Fabulous and Broke (Suze Orman)
3. Your Money:  The Missing Manual (J.D. Roth)
4. Get a Financial Life:  Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties (Beth Kobliner)
5. Personal Finance Simplified

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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