There are a lot of great personal finance books out there to choose from but only some that can change the way you think.
Below, CNBC Make It rounded up three money-related reads that come highly recommended from self-made millionaires, early retirees and super savers because these books were able to help reshape their mindsets about how to spend and how to save.
“Your Money or Your Life” by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez
This 1992 classic, which was recently revised and updated, is a favorite among early retirees and super savers.
One New York City-based millennial, who goes by the pen name J.P. Livingston on her blog “The Money Habit,” retired with $2.25 million before age 30. And it was “Your Money or Your Life” that “opened my eyes” to the idea of early retirement, she tells CNBC Make It.
Another millennial millionaire, Grant Sabatier of “Millennial Money,” who went from having $2.26 in his bank account to seven figures, calls it “the best book on money, period.” And he’s read over 360 personal finance books.
It changed his relationship with money and his approach to spending and saving, he tells CNBC Make It: “The premise of it is that you exchange your time for money. And when you start thinking about how many hours of your life it took to save up the money to buy something, you really start thinking twice about your purchases.”
For example, “Say I work eight hours a day and after taxes, make $10 an hour, meaning I’m earning $80 a day. I want to go out for a nice dinner on Friday and that costs about $80, meaning I spent an entire day of my life working for this meal. And then you start thinking about even larger purchases, like a $1,000 TV, and you think, ‘How much of my life did I trade for this? Is it worth it?'”
“Early Retirement Extreme” by Jacob Lund Fisker
“The Money Wizard,” a personal finance blogger who saved $100,000 by age 25 and plans to retire in his early 30s, says his journey to financial independence started after reading Jacob Lund Fisker’s book at age 22.
“The book changed my whole outlook on a working career,” he tells CNBC Make It. “I had always assumed, like most people, that I needed several millions of dollars to retire. Yet here the author was proving retirement was possible on far less than I ever imagined. It’s not one size fits all for everybody — it depends on how much money you spend and what your expenses are.”
“So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport
Chris Reining banked $1 million by age 35 and retired at 37, thanks to various habits he had developed, including reading for one hour every night. On his blog, Reining shares books that have had the biggest impact on his life. And Cal Newport’s made the list.
“Most people don’t understand that how much money you make depends on your value,” Reining writes. “And you increase this value by building what Cal Newport calls ‘career capital,’ or honing more and more skills.”
Young people in particular should pick up this books, says the self-made millionaire: “If I read this book when I started my career, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time in my 20s being stagnant. I would’ve known that to advance my career I needed to spend my time mastering more skills.”
