Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing
What the Rich Invest In, that the Poor and Middle Class do Not!
by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter, C.P.A.

Kiyosaki is a favorite of mine, so when I saw this next book in the Rich Dad series, I couldn’t help but pick it up. When we think about investing, we think about our future, and when we learn the tools, language, and facts of investing at the levels that Kioysaki is talking about, we begin to understand how we may use that knowledge for the benefit of our loved ones and our communities.

If you’ve played Monopoly, you know the formula for success, and Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad” (his friend’s father) told him that formula: buy four green houses and then sell them and buy one red hotel…. keep on going until you control the whole board.

Kiyosaki’s tone is light hearted and positive: he is wry when he speaks of his “poor” days as a student and just returning from the military, and he is energetic and adamant that readers who follow a straightforward formula will automatically bring you from the 90% level to the top 10% level.

A great read, and a good way to remind you of your own investment plan.

Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill

If you haven’t yet read Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, I highly, highly recommend you find a copy. This is a classic book about the power of positive thinking when it comes to financial success.

The book opens with the sentence “Truly, “thoughts are things,” and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects.” When you understand the idea that almost everything around us is a manifestation of an original idea, you see the power of this books’ premise, that there is a “secret” that is the foundation of all success.

Over twenty years, Hill studied the examples of a number of successful individuals, and he has distilled his research into this “how-to” book, first published in 1937. He points to the example of Andrew Carnegie and the “Carnegie Secret,” which is never explicitly mentioned but is similar to the film “The Secret” where thoughts become things… ideas become reality.

The book has sold over 30 million copies since its first publishing, and there are probably multiple copies in your library or bookstore for you to peruse. It’s a quick read and a book that you will read at different stages along your path to glean a different understanding.

Here are the 13 principles that Hill outlines for you to follow in your quest for success:

Desire
Faith
Auto-suggestion
Specialized Knowledge
Imagination
Organized Planning
Decision
Persistence
The Master Mind
The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
The Subconscious Mind
The Brain
The Sixth Sense

How to Retire Early and Live Well
With Less than a Million Dollars
by Gillette Edmunds

This book is well worth it for those of you who need a back-to-basics approach to minding your money. Gillette Edmunds retired at age 29 and spent his days mastering his ability to manage and grow his own money. His net worth more than tripled and he was able to hone his ideas into a set of time-tested rules. His point is that the typical retirement plan (stocks, mutual funds, bonds, cash) is not set up for someone who is a full-time investor and who needs to see returns for the rest of their lives.

The parts on asset allocation in markets that are unfamiliar to most investors are well-written, timely, and easy-to-understand.

It’s worth a trip to your local bookstore’s personal finance section to get a copy of it!