10 Must-Read Personal Finance Books

This is a guest post by Joel Ohman.

One of the best things about almost every book in the personal finance genre is that they are useful to just about everyone! No matter what stage of life you are in a book about personal finance should be applicable to you. Of course, some of the books that I will recommend below will maybe skew towards being more useful to those who are entrepreneurs or small business owners but whether you own your own business or you work for "the man" then here are 10 must read personal finance books that I heartily recommend (and then be sure to list off some of your favorites in the comments below). Here they are in no particular order:

#1 Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki

Rich Dad Poor Dad is admittedly very light reading but has some very powerful principles that were very instrumental years ago in helping me to think of building income producing assets and owning a business rather than just blindly heading down the typical path of working as an employee for X amount of years and then retiring.

#2 A Random Walk Down Wall Street - Burton Malkiel

Princeton Professor Burton Malkiel makes a very convincing case that you can't time the market when investing so it's a better use of your time and money to just invest in an index fund and commit to being a buy and hold investor.

#3 The 4 Hour Work Week - Timothy Ferris

The 4HWW as it is termed by it's many devotees is a great out of the box book for anyone that feels like they are caught up in the rat race and wanting more from their career while having a better work/life balance. The 4HWW doesn't fit the mold of a generic personal finance book but it is quite possibly my all time favorite book about entrepreneurship that has some great application on many different aspects of personal finance.

#4 The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley & William D. Danko

If you think that all millionaires jet around in fancy cars and live extravagant lifestyles then this book will be an eye opener for you. Wanna be a millionaire or simply learn some of the habits of many millionaires across the US? If so, then this book is for you.

#5 The E-Myth - Michael Gerber

The E-Myth is another book on the list that is aimed at entrepreneurs and has the main goal of dissecting the various reasons why many small businesses fail and how to start and run a small business successfully.

#6 The Automatic Millionaire - David Bach

Whether you have an average income or a super sized income David Bach presents a model for helping just about anyone automate their way to becoming a millionaire.

#7 Money, Possessions, & Eternity - Randy Alcorn

While there are many popular personal finance books that are written from a Christian standpoint (i.e. the "Dave Ramsey and credit cards" viewpoint is popular among many) this book is a favorite of mine because it clearly lays out Biblical personal finance principles as well as Biblical guidance on having the proper view of money.

#8 Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill

This short but sweet book explores the motivation behind financial success. Don't be put off by the somewhat fluff filled/"The Secret" sounding title as this book has some very real and very concrete advice that is as useful today as it was when it was published back in 1937 during The Great Depression.

#9 Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

OK, OK, you probably never thought that you would see a work of fiction ever pop up on a personal finance book list but just to mix things up a little bit I thought that this would be a good book to include. This book has rightly been called a "Capitalist's Manifesto" and is well worth reading for its application to making money, starting a business, investing, etc.

#10 The Richest Man in Babylon - George Clason

This is another "classic" personal finance book that along with Think and Grow Rich has inspired many people over the years to dedicate themselves to improving their financial habits and build wealth for themselves using time tested principles like utilizing compound interest, sacrificing in the short term to invest for the long term, etc.

What About YOU?

What books would you add to the list?

Author Bio: Joel Ohman is a CFPŽ who loves to read not just personal finance and business books but books of all kinds. Lately he has been taking away time from reading to work on some of his most recent web based projects that include a car insurance comparison website and and a website for comparing insurance quotes.