Financial Professionals Recommend Readings for Financial Success
What does financial success mean to you? For some it means getting rich quick. For others, just having enough to pay the bills with a little left over for fun. Still others define it as setting up a secure retirement. Whatever your personal financial definition, there are books that can help you get there. Recently a group of financial professionals weighed in on their reading recommendations to help people become successful with money.
Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Vicki Robin, Joe Dominguez, and Monique Tilford is a favorite of Kevin Gahagan of Mosaic Financial Partners. Founder of You Need a Budget Jesse Mecham agrees: “[The book] drilled home the idea that we trade our life for money,” he says. “Once that idea is ingrained in your thinking, you start to see money in a whole new way. A way that helps you be content and purposeful when it comes to your finances.”
Jason Fisher owns BestLifeRates.org, an independent consumer financial education site for life insurance. His recommendation is Soldier of Finance by Jeff Rose. “His position is that of a boot camp, and fighting every day to destroy debt and build both income and income earning assets,” Fisher says. “Finance is an uphill battle; this book can be your compass.”
“Strangely enough,” jokes Fredrick Petrie of Navigator Services, “I recommend my book.” Petrie has authored The End of Work: Financial Planning for People with Better Things to Do. “Most books are aimed at telling readers how they can do it themselves,” Petrie continues. “But my experience is that most people do not have the interest (never mind the discipline) to become DIY managers. My approach is to explain how the financial industry works, and a broad understanding of products, so that they can be more knowledgeable consumers of financial services, without getting taken to the cleaners by the snake oil salesmen in the business.”
Gene Natali of The Missing Semester, LLC also shares thoughts on his own work. With co-author Matt Kabala, Natali wrote The Missing Semester, a short course on the essentials for making wise financial decisions and gaining financial freedom. Natali mentions that his recommendation is “a passionate one after seeing the book in action at the University of Pittsburgh this past semester.” A third self-recommendation was submitted by Harry Dent of Dent Research: his book The Demographic Cliff: How to Survive and Prosper During the Great Deflation of 2014-2019 describes what’s going to happen to our economy with the accelerating retirements of the Baby Boomers. Dent explores the implications of his controversial predictions for retirement planning, healthcare, real estate, education, investing, and business strategies, with the goal to help readers survive and prosper during what he views as the challenging years ahead.
Money and the Meaning of Life by Jacob Needleman is the suggestion from Financial Coach Matt Kelly of Momentum Personal Finance in Durango, CO. From Christopher Cannon, CFPâ with RetireRight Pittsburgh comes the recommendation Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach their Kids about Money that the Poor and Middle Class do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki. “This was the first finance book I ever read, which was given to me by a teacher in high school,” claims Cannon. “I will forever be indebted to him for creating this middle class kid’s interest in finance. Here I find myself almost 20 years later as a Certified Financial Planner helping families with their finances.”
For a real and simple approach targeting Millennials, Stefanie O’Connell recommends her book The Broke and Beautiful Life. Tony Robbins’ MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom is a favorite of Atul Dubal of PrudentProspera in Pleasanton, CA. “This book clearly stands out,” says Dubal. “And needless to say, Mr. Tony Robbins needs no introduction!” And Dave Ramsey’s well-known Total Money Makeover comes highly recommended by Rob Drury of the Texas-based Association of Christian Financial Advisors. Although he considers Ramsey’s book to be the overall best personal finance advice in circulation today, “At the same time, saying this makes me cringe,” Drury adds, “as I and most financial authorities recognize that it is full of clearly dangerous misinformation about such topics as insurance and investments. Still, there is no better general resource for the average American to combat debt, prepare for the future, and create a long term personal financial plan.”
Jacqueline Snee suggests a free publication, the Consumer Action Handbook edited by Marietta Jelks at the U.S. General Services Administration’s Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC). Snee quotes Jelks as saying, “The free Consumer Action Handbook is valuable resource, filled with tips to help you make informed purchase decisions and get the most for your money. I’d recommend for the variety of topics it covers, including credit, insurance, identity theft, and travel. Also, the Handbook is practical. It includes actionable steps, websites URLs and phone numbers that you need.”
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