5 Best Financial Books of All Time: Prosperity, Wealth, & Success

I’ve put off writing this article for a while, because the best financial books for creating wealth will depend on where you’re at in your journey.

For example, if you’re already extremely knowledgeable about making money, I would probably recommend more area-specific books with very technical advice on generating wealth or creating a business.

But if you’re new to wealth generation, I’d probably recommend some more basic books that talk about the fundamentals of creating wealth. I’ve struggled to put together a list that will help both the novice and the expert at making money, and I think that everyone can gain something from this list.

So with this in mind, here’s my top five books on how to generate wealth and live a life of abundance:

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

“Just know that it’s fear that keeps most people working at a job. The fear of not paying their bills. The fear of being fired. The fear of not having enough money. the fear of starting over. That’s the price of studying to learn a profession or trade, and then working for money. Most people become a slave to money… and then get angry at their boss.”

-Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad

This is one of the best books out there for men who are just getting into the world of finance, because it teaches you the principles of wealth. It teaches you a series of fundamental rules and guidelines that the rich follow, that the poor don’t.

This book is so effective at helping men become rich, because it changes the rules that they play the game by.

Most men have the wrong mindset when it comes to getting rich; they think that if they just work really hard, max out their 401k, and save up, they’ll be able to become millionaires. This is a completely false belief.

Sure, MAYBE you’ll become a millionaire by the time you’re in a wheel chair, but is it really worth it to trade the best years of your life for money when you’re too old to use it? Of course not. Rich Dad Poor Dad teaches you a series of fundamental mindset shifts that are necessary to becoming rich.

It teaches you that the rich make their money work for them, rather than them working for money. It teaches you how to use tax breaks to your advantage. It teaches you that in order to get rich you must maximize assets while minimizing liabilities.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of this book is that Robert Kiyosaki doesn’t believe your house is an asset.

Most financial investors believe that your house is an asset, but Robert Kiyosaki, and I too, believe that your house is actually a liability. Why? Because every month it takes money out of your pocket, it’s that simple.

This is just one of the few mindset shifts that Rich Dad Poor Dad will instill in you—I highly recommend that you read this book as early as possible, because the sooner that you can shift your mindset when it comes to money, the better.

2. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

“The market is a pendulum that forever swings between unsustainable optimism (which makes stocks too expensive) and unjustified pessimism (which makes them too cheap). The Intelligent Investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.”

-Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor

The intelligent investor is a phenomenal book that will provide you with a comprehensive introduction towards investing. In fact, Warren Buffett has attributed most of his success to this single book. His entire investing strategy is based around it.

“Who’s Warren Buffett?” you may ask. He’s only one of the world’s richest financial investors with a net worth of $64 billion dollars. So yeah, I think that we should listen to him and read this book.

The Intelligent Investor explains a concept known as value investing—the idea that you should invest in a stock based off of its intrinsic value, rather than based off of hype or the sentiment of the times. As far as long term investing goes, this is the best way to do things.

A lot of men buy stocks for the long term based off of what some guru says, or based off of a “feeling” that it will go up. This is completely moronic and will end up sucking your bank account dry. If you want to invest in the long term, invest in stocks that are fundamentally solid.

This book discusses the fundamentals to look for—things like price to earnings ratios, stock history, CEO trust, and more. Although my medium-term investing strategy is somewhat different, whenever I invest in stocks for the long term, I ALWAYS consult this book.

According to Benjamin Graham, most of investing is actually emotional. I would agree 100%. He says that the hardest part about investing is developing the emotional resilience; most men either become consumed by greed or fall victim to panic and paranoia. The intelligent investor is one who can transcend both.

3. Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver by Mike Maloney

“This is a process that’s been going on over and over again throughout history, except this time it’s happening on a global scale, it has never before happened in all countries at once. That means that this is the greatest wealth transfer in history, therefore it’s the greatest opportunity in history… and it’s not going to happen again in your lifetime.”

-Mike Maloney, Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver

Men of the year 2016 have a unique opportunity to multiply their wealth by vast amounts. The reason why is because the United States Federal Reserve has created an unsustainable situation, in which we rely on debt to repay debt.

In other words, within the next several years the US economy will collapse, and it will take the entire world with it.

If you want a more in depth explanation of why this will happen, I highly recommend that you check out the book. About 75% of it is dedicated to explaining why the global economy will collapse within the next few years, and the forces involved.

Mike dissects multiple topics, including:

• How the USA’s treasury is following the exact same pattern as the Roman Empire
• Why fiat currencies lead to the death of nations
• Examples from history where economies have been destroyed
• How the Federal Reserve’s economic policies will lead to hyperinflation and economic collapse
• And more

The most valuable information in this book, however, is how you can profit off of the impending global economic collapse.

The author argues that history goes through these different types of cycles; some take 30-40 years, others take a thousand years. Right now, we are approaching the shift in a 1,000 year cycle…and if you know what to do, you can make a lot of money.

For anyone looking to invest in precious metals, I highly recommend that you read this book. If you’ve been following my twitter account, you’ll know that I tweeted about a gold mining stock in January that went up 268% over the next five months. This is the power of investing in precious metals when the time is right.

4. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

“Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who follows the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.”

-George S. Clason, The Richest Man in Babylon

This book is similar to Rich Dad Poor Dad, in the sense that it deals with fundamental financial lessons. The lessons in this book, however, are different than the ones in Kiyosaki’s book. Published in 1926, this book is written in the form of parables.

Parables about sheep herders that become wealthy men, and parables about men born into riches that squander them. This story-telling format of the book makes it very easy to read, and very easy to remember the lessons.

One of my favorite lessons from this book was this: “Start thy purse to fattening.” In other words, always pay yourself first.

I don’t care if you’re barely getting by. I don’t care if you’re earning $8 an hour, making just enough to live on—start investing in yourself before you pay off ANY of your debt. If you don’t, how else will you escape the hole you’ve built for yourself?

Ever since I read this lesson, I’ve always paid myself first before I paid off debt. Now, I always buy books, seminars, and invest in the stock market BEFORE I pay off my credit cards or pay for my expenses. Why? Well, if you’re always paying someone else first, you’ll never get ahead.

When you pay someone else, this doesn’t help you in any way—but when you pay yourself first? It makes you smarter, because you’re investing in quality books that will help you succeed in life (like the ones in this article). It makes you happier, because you invest in seminars and meditation courses. And it makes you wealthier, because it repays you and increases your ability to earn.

This is just one of the many lessons that the book teaches. Another one of my favorites is: “Increase thy ability to earn.”

Too often do men only invest in wealth investments, and they don’t realize that your greatest investment is YOURSELF! If you invest in the stock market, sure you’ll get some extra money. But if you buy a book that expands your mind? Your whole world-view will change.

For example, just the knowledge that I’ve gained from The Power of Now (book #5 on my definitive list of books for men) has been worth literally $100,000. I cannot describe how much this book has changed my life.

This is why I’m always investing in MYSELF. I’m always increasing my ability to earn by learning new things, reading new books, and attending seminars. If you apply the lessons in “The Richest Man in Babylon,” to your life, you will be a very wealthy man in no time.

5. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

“Do not wait: the time will never be ‘just right’. Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along.”

-Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

There’s a reason why this book is on virtually every single list of financial books: because it’s one of the best. This is, in my opinion, one of the best financial books on prosperity, because rather than focusing on the mechanics, it focuses on the internal processes.

The whole concept behind this book is that wealth is generated by the mind. It’s that simple.

Every single man who has ever become wealthy became so, due to a burning desire to accomplish something; a burning desire to make an idea into a reality. Think about it: is that not what every single business and money-making-device is? They’re simply ideas turned into REALITY.

This is the simple truth that every man overlooks. Every man wants a specific plan to wealth; they want to be spoon-fed the step-by-step plan to getting wealthy, but guess what? There isn’t one.

Sure, there’s general actions that you can take, sure there’s steps you can follow that will generally bring about wealth, and sure there’s certain investments that will make you large returns…but making wealth is much bigger than these individual mechanics. If you can follow mechanics, you’ll get rich. But if you can develop the right mindset? You’ll get wealth for not only you, but for your grandchildren.

Think and Grow Rich describes how to bring about this mindset. It describes the specific techniques that Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men of all time, used to accumulate his wealth. This book is the origin of pretty much all visualization techniques, and I cannot recommend it enough.

I first read this book when I was a teenager, and let me tell you, every time I go back and read it, the book takes on a new meaning. Each time that I re-read this book, I find hidden gems that I thought were stupid, but that now make perfect sense. This is one of those books that provides you with value well into your old age.

Some of the lessons, a child could understand, but others, only a seasoned businessman could grasp. Either way, in my opinion, this is the best book on generating wealth in existence. If you buy ANYTHING from this article, buy this book. You will not regret it, I promise.

Summary: Best Financial Books of All Time

Overall, these are my five favorite books for generating wealth. They cover mindset, investing, and the rules of generating wealth. The sooner that you read these books, the better, because the second that you integrate their advice into your life, you’ll start improving.

I honestly don’t know where I’d be today had I not read these books—they have been some of the most rewarding books that I’ve ever read, particularly Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Learning that wealth generation is a mindset was a complete paradigm shift for me, and I’m glad that it happened at a relatively early age.

If I missed anything, be sure to let me know—I love hearing about new book recommendations from my readers. I realize that there’s a ton of books covering financial success, so I may have left your book out, but either way, let me know.

If you guys have any questions, comments, or concerns, be sure to shoot me a message down below. And, as always…I’ll see you next time.