Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth

This book, written in a breezy and readable style, nonetheless provides a detailed framework for developing a life-long financial plan.

Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth

This book provides an outstanding review of the key types of investments that are appropriate for income investors.

Read Geoff Considine's detailed description and review here.

Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth

This book provides an intro and remarkably broad coverage of the topic of asset allocation, but keeps the treatment at a highly readable level. Read my detailed description and review here.

John Bogle

This book provides a short but comprehensive summary of the case for low-cost investing using index funds. Bogle is a pioneer in this area and also a great writer.

Thomas Stanley and William Danko

What do people do to accumulate substantial wealth? Stanley and Danko performed an enormous study of who the wealthy are, how they because wealthy, and their behavior and attitudes towards money. Theory is one thing, data is another. This book is packed with data compiled from massive numbers of interviews.

Ramit Sethi

There is a definite need for financial education and philosophy for young people. Ramit Sethi has emerged as an influential voice for this audience. Not everyone will appreciate his somewhat acerbic wit, but the concrete advice and information in this book is great for the recent college graduate, young professionals, or older people who never learned this stuff. No, this book will not actually show you the path to riches but it does provide a series of steps to financial sanity.

Charles Farrell

This book develops a series of simple financial metrics for guiding how much to save, spend on a home, spend on your education, etc. Think of each of these metrics as being like a Body Mass Index for financial health. Read my review here.

Financial freedom is not entirely simple to define. You might define financial freedom as having so much money that they can do whatever you want, without regard for cost. Under this definition, only Warren Buffett and Bill Gates and people at that level of wealth have achieved financial freedom. I use a broader definition. Financial freedom is being able to choose how you spend your life rather than having your choices dictated by the demands of your debts, monthly bills, and other financial commitments. Financial freedom means that you have a life that is in balance. You may still work for a living, but your values are aligned with your actions, you have a financial plan that will take you to your long-term goals, and satisfy your values with regard to work, family, and success. This definition encompasses a more traditional view of financial independence, but it is considerably broader. This is not freedom from any need to get up in the morning—it is having the ability to choose your path in life rather than having your path determined by financial encumbrances. Vast numbers of people could achieve this type of financial freedom if they understood some basic principles and applied them in their daily lives.
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Geoff Considine

I am often in the situation that people want to tell me about their unpleasant experiences with financial advisors... The person has spent time with an ‘advisor’ or ‘planner’ at a brokerage firm or fund family or local bank and has come away feeling that all the advisor really wants to do is to steer clients into highfee investments or other strategies that will benefit the advisor and his/her firm. On top of this, many investors are familiar with studies that show that passive investment strategies tend to dominate active strategies over time...
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Geoff Considine

This book is more technical than the other books on this list of reading materials.

This book provides an overview of key investing topics that investors and advisors need to understand in developing investment management strategies to provide for long-term income or other goals. The book draws together core concepts that Geoff Considine has explored in his articles on portfolio planning, along with new insights and strategies. We explore the tools of portfolio management, the core asset classes that investors need to be aware of, and how to quantify risk and to determine whether a portfolio is a good match to a specific investor's needs. A major theme that we explore is how to deal with risk and uncertainty in long-term planning. Monte Carlo simulation, a technique for making future projections of a portfolios behavior, is used to motivate many of the examples and we show a series of ways to get comfortable with Monte Carlo as a planning tool.
This book is more technical than the other books on this list of reading materials.
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Monte Carlo simulations use historical statistics and mathematical models for the variability in returns on the market and various asset classes as well as individual stocks to forecast the range of possible outcomes associated with a saving, investment, asset allocation, and income plan... Monte Carlo simulations actually generate hundreds of possible futures and then allow you to look at the probability of funding a specific income goal, running out of money, becoming very wealthy, etc. This approach is called Monte Carlo because it involves using the computer to generate many "rolls of the dice."
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