Get rich quick is a myth – building wealth is something that needs strategy and time. Get rich quick schemes tend to prey on people with the desire, but not the willingness to truly achieve financial security. This is a list of books that will truly help you to attain great wealth – but the right way… slowly.
10. How to Get Out of Debt…
The first book on this list is designed to get you started on the road to wealth – by eradicating your debt. As long as you are burdened by debt, you can’t build your wealth. Once the debt is gone, all of the money you have available can be put towards your financial growth. Remember, you are also paying interest on your debt – once you pay it off, that money can start earning YOU interest.
9. Frugal Living for Dummies
The rich don’t get rich by spending money – they get rich by living frugally. Speaking from my own experience of living frugally, I was able to remove all of my debt and save enough money to put a deposit on a house – all in one year. Not only did I become financially free, I had a much more enjoyable and healthy life. By not going out every night I saved enough time and money to join a gym. I started cooking my own meals and learnt a lot about using and re-using food. It was tough at first, but in the end I was competing against my previous week to see how much I could save – it became a game that I loved.
8. Your Money or your Life
According to one reviewer: “This book was instrumental in my re-imagining of what money is and what it means to my life. As a result of reading this book, I now have a very healthy money-outlook, and can easily make choices that would have been quite difficult before.” In addition, all readers of this site will love this book because it puts its principles forward in a nine-step method – think of it as a top 9 list!
7. The Automatic Millionaire
This book is a straightforward march through common-sense personal financial planning that suggests readers “automate” their contributions to retirement and investment vehicles. The author, in fact, calls his model the “tortoise approach” to becoming wealthy by retirement age. Remember – there is no true get rich quick scheme.
6. Start Small Profit Big
I have to say that real estate is my favorite wealth building tool. In fact, as the property markets around the world are beginning to slump, we are about to hit a perfect time for buying – remember, when everyone is selling – buy, when everyone is buying – sell. Get this book now to prepare yourself for the great investment opportunity which is on its way.
5. Rich Dad Poor Dad
I suspect that most of you will have guessed that this book would be on the list – and it does deserve its place here. The author (Robert Kiyosaki) has used his principles in his own life and been greatly rewarded financially for it. He speaks from experience and manages to do so in an easy to understand way. I enjoyed this book immensely when I read it for the first time and it really changed my way of looking at money and wealth building.
4. One Up On Wall Street
This book is great. Not only does Peter Lynch give a run down of how he invests, but he uses a sensible approach while investing. He examines how to analyze a company, its operations, its financial statements and various other important factors when making an investment decision. The author (Peter Lynch) has also written another great book which is aimed at teenagers: Learn to Earn.
3. The Richest Man in Babylon
How are the sophisticated doing financially? By sophisticated, I mean the affluent, high income earners who spend most of what they make…Richest Man in Bablyon is timeless like Think and Grow Rich but written in a style like the very popular Rich Dad, Poor Dad series. An easy read. Informative and entertaining.
2. The Millionaire Next Door
I thoroughly enjoyed this book – the authors, Thomas Stanley and William Danko, have a very easy to read casual style. One reviewer on amazon sums the book up brilliantly: “Every now and then very, very special book comes along with a “aha” and this is such a book. Many people are spending their way through high incomes—keeping up with the “JONE’S” high profile lifestyle’s encumbered with high debt and zero savings. I worked for a millonaire one time who said “Money buys clothes, clothes don’t buy anything!” He advised us to buy our “toys” clothes, cars, vacations etc. off profits of profits and never spend principal!” That is the basic premise of this book – build profits, then enjoy them – but don’t spend principal.
1. Think and Grow Rich
First published in 1937, this is the end product of two decades of research conducted by Napoleon Hill. His research started when Andrew Carnegie (the steel tycoon who was then the richest man on earth) gave him the assignment of organizing a Philosophy of Personal Achievement. Hill, who was a poor journalist, armed with just an introductory letter from Carnegie, set out to interview over five hundred successful people including Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, John D. Rockefeller, George Eastman, William Wrigley Jr. and Charles M. Schwab. Hill then revealed the priceless wisdom of his research in the form of the thirteen steps to success found in this book. If you only buy one book on this list – this is the one.