My Reading List

G-Diddy20 · #1 03-31-2007, 11:29 AM

I am a total newb when it comes to finances, investing, RE, or just overall money in general. I searched through listmania on amazon and put together 8 books that I am shooting to read to get myself started. See what you guys think, and any other recommendations or revisions are more than welcome. Thanks...

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
2. Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson
3. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley
4. Building Wealth: Achieving Personal and Financial Success in Real Estate and Business Without Money, Credit, or Luck by Russ Whiney
5. Investing in Real Estate by Andrew James Mclean
6. Focus on Personal Finance: An Active Approach to Help You Develop Successful Financial Skills by Jack Kapoor
7. The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Investing by Jason Kelly
8. The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses by Amar Bhide

G

Jeff W · #2 03-31-2007, 11:55 AM

What are your investment objectives?

G-Diddy20 · #3 03-31-2007, 12:29 PM

in total newb i mean TOTAL newb. im not sure how to answer your question other than to say that I want to learn as much as I can about investing and eventually be able to be successful and make money by and selling stocks and real estate.

G

IdealFugacity · #4 03-31-2007, 01:04 PM

G-Diddy, I would really read The Four Pillars of Investing.

Generally, you're not going to be trying to make money by buying and selling stocks unless you are one of the rare individuals. I would highly suggest you consider indexing, or at least reading about it. When reading the books on your list above, PAY ATTENTION to the stories about throwing darts / chimapanzees / randomly picking stocks from a list.

Good luck

APXG · #5 03-31-2007, 03:17 PM

[ QUOTE ]
G-Diddy, I would really read The Four Pillars of Investing.

Generally, you're not going to be trying to make money by buying and selling stocks unless you are one of the rare individuals. I would highly suggest you consider indexing, or at least reading about it. When reading the books on your list above, PAY ATTENTION to the stories about throwing darts / chimapanzees / randomly picking stocks from a list.

Good luck

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps the greatest flaw in books like "Rich Dad, Poor Dad".

G-D, to have any decent chance of success in "buying and selling stocks / real estate", you need to think about it 24/7 NATURALLY - be completely addicted to it for the next 10 years, at least. Otherwise you are wasting your time and playing lotto in which the winners end up wealthy through complete luck, but then go on to talk about how "you only need to think stocks 'a few hours per week'".

chisness · #6 03-31-2007, 03:21 PM

Try Richest Man in Babylon instead of RDPD

ahnuld · #7 03-31-2007, 03:59 PM

rich dad poor dad was trashed pretty badly in this forum last week. I never read it, but im pretty sure you should skip it. And APXG is right, it will be really hard to invest unless you have a ton of time to devote to this. Like a few hours a day at least, every single day.

chaz64 · #8 03-31-2007, 07:35 PM

[ QUOTE ]
G-Diddy, I would really read The Four Pillars of Investing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just read this recently, very good book. Does a nice job of showing how investing in index funds is +EV vs. trying to pick stocks/funds on your own to "beat the market."

Jeff W · #9 03-31-2007, 07:57 PM

In the same vein, I recommend All About Asset Allocation by Richard Ferri. The majority of investors are much better off with a broad cross-section of index funds than buying stocks.

That said, unlike the more militant Bogleheads, I think there are merits to stock trading for sufficiently disciplined and analytical traders.

spider · #10 03-31-2007, 09:56 PM

Dummies book by Tyson is good, I don't know if I'd bother with the rest. Beyond that, you need to separate the general stock investing from real estate, they are just completely separate.

For stocks, start by understanding the argument for indexing. A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel would be a pretty good starting point, but you could also pick up something by Bogle. That should get you started and if it turns you on you could move on to stuff more oriented to stock picking -- Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham or One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch are two classics.

For real estate, it will depend on what you are aiming for. There is some great stuff at 2+2 on this if you dig around. But also keep in mind that this will depend a lot on the area you are in if you are talking about buying stuff and renting it out. For example, prices are so high in some areas that you really can't do this profitably at the moment.