Weekend reading – Timeless books on personal finance
Hello everyone,
Hope you’ve had a great week – the markets (and our portfolio) are at an all-time high – welcome to another Weekend Reading edition featuring some timeless personal finance books to consider.
More on this list soon!
First, some recent reading memories:
Last weekend I shared that I believe we are now Coast FI/FIRE… the need to continue saving for retirement is pretty much optional for us going forward – although we will continue to make investment purchases here and there, including upcoming 2025 TFSA contributions.
I have heard from many readers and subscribers on this topic over the past week and I am truly grateful for your comments!! They are very kind. 🙂
Weekend reading – Are we now Coast FIRE?
I also recently shared how I now manage my Locked-In Retirement Account (LIRA) including holdings. Some readers have asked: “Mark, what exactly do you own“…so I shared that in this report:
Then and now – managing my LIRA
Weekend reading – Timeless books on personal finance
The inspiration for this week’s headline comes from this MoneySense Article:
The 25 most timeless books on personal finance
Certainly many words in these books together And Some of these words can be very, very helpful to investors and advisors alike – but most of the concepts surrounding personal finance are not new – they are just being rehashed over and over again. Respected author and columnist Jason Zweig once said:
“…As you probably remember, I once defined my job as saying exactly the same thing 50 to 100 times a year in such a way that neither my editors nor my readers notice that I’m repeating myself. That’s a lot harder than it sounds; it’s more demanding than it sounds; and it’s usually more fun than it sounds.”
Quite right.
You want to read moreCheckout The knowledge project Transcript with Jason here, with thanks to Farnam Street. @farnamstreet
The ability to summarize concepts and information clearly and concisely for others without repeating the same thing over and over is both an art and a gift.
When I think about this gift I don’t have – running this personal finance blog, which is sort of an online journal – I use this platform for fun, but it’s also very cathartic when it comes to sharing my experiences in saving and investing (and I have a lot of them)!
This was a big event a few years ago and thanks to these changes my portfolio is now at all-time highs (ATHs).
Lessons learned from diversification – reducing my Canadian home bias
More than anything else, I continue to run this site as a means to share what I learn about myself and about others – what I approve of and what doesn’t work. I try to learn as much as I can from what successful people have done before me… to create my own financial path. While that path is not and has not been perfect, I do my best to implement what I believe will work for us over time. I do my best to share this information at no cost or fee on this site – it’s up to you to make your own financial decisions. Hopefully your decisions are good ones. 🙂
“…there are few things more important in money than understanding your own time horizon and not being influenced by the actions and behavior of people who are playing different games than you. The most important thing I can recommend is to make the effort to find out what game you are playing.” – The Psychology of Money.
The psychology of money
With that in mind, another inspiration for this weekend reading issue came when I listened once again to Preet Banerjee revisiting his simple and effective five top tips from his 10-year-old book Don’t worry too much about your money:
- Disaster-proof your life (i.e., get the necessary insurance for yourself or your family).
- Spend less than you earn.
- Pay off high-interest debt aggressively.
- Read the fine print.
- Delay consumption (i.e. avoid comparisons and trying to keep up with others).
If you’re new to personal finance or investing, it might be worth taking a look at one of these timeless personal finance books to see if any of the concepts apply to you.
I have listed other favorites on my book page here including links and reviews to most of them.
Do you have a favorite book or book series on personal finance? What books have helped you find your own financial path?
More weekend reading – More than timeless books on personal finance
Great post by Ben Carlson on the topic of balanced portfolio and some regrets about having one. I think about this stuff often when it comes to my LIRA (see link above), along with other portfolio investments and various changes over the years. The would have, could have, should have stuff…
In his post, Ben quoted Jack Bogle of Vanguard, who for many years actually split his portfolio evenly between stocks and bonds, a 50/50 portfolio. My goodness, if Jack Bogle had problems, then maybe we all have problems from time to time. He once commented:
“I spend about half my time wondering why I have so many stocks and about half my time wondering why I have so few.” – Jack Bogle.
From Ben: “The bad news about diversification is that regret is a constant problem.”
As I mature as an investor, I constantly remind myself that the investor’s main problem is the person in the mirror. I have to constantly pay attention to my own behavior as an investor. 🙂 I have yet to meet an investor (professionals, experts included) who feels completely confident in their behavior. I know this sounds overly simplistic, but from Warren Buffett, who says his words very, very well and succinctly:
“Investing is simple, but not easy.”
Speaking of Warren Buffett, DIY investor Dividend Growth Investor reported how Warren Buffett has adapted his investing and selling approaches over the years. The most successful investor of our timechanges its approach.
I agree with DGI’s thoughts – I’m thinking about this stuff all the time especially when financial experts claim that things have to be one way or the other for people. I respectfully disagree. On a personal level, we live in a world of “it depends”…
“The game of investing is fascinating because there are no hard and fast rules. The same kind of logic and reasoning can work very well under certain conditions, but fail miserably under others.”
Dividend Daddy @DividendDaddy1 shared some inspiration for DIY investors this week:
“Born to prosper, not to be someone else’s reward. Be the architect of your own prosperity.”
Source: https://x.com/DividendDaddy1/status/1826605247810228594
About at Cash flows and portfolios, We updated this post on expected returns from asset classes. In that post, we also shared the return and inflation assumptions we use for our own financial forecast reports and why – they are conservative but very reasonable. I’d be curious to hear what you use for your own forecasts and why! Let us know!
What returns are expected for each asset class in the future?
You still have plenty of time to save, invest and become wealthy this summer!
As always, Check out my offers page – Partnerships and discounts to help you get the most for your money – some you won’t find anywhere else!
Check out my partnerships with:
- Dividend stocks rock
- 5i Research
- StockTrades.ca
- Legal wills
- and more!
As always, you can also ask here low-cost financial forecasting services – at any time.
I launched this service with my good friend and hobby investor Joe, who Million Dollar Journey) as a service for DIY investors for DIY investors without the conflicts of advice, without expensive fees (like some charge) and with a money-back guarantee – because, well, we would expect that from others…
You can always contact us there on this website, even if you just want to talk about personal finance and investing. We try to respond to every reader comment and email there as well.
In addition to our free content on the website, we offer (2) low-cost services to choose from:
- Done for you – we do the work and data entry and provide your reports OR
- DIY – where you do all the work, enter your data yourself and get your own results in the software – we essentially provide you with professional financial software that allows you to plan your own retirement income!
As Readers of My Own Advisor, You will always get a discount on both services. Just mention my site. That’s all.
Enjoy your weekend. 🙂
Mark
Mark
My name is Mark Seed – the founder, editor and owner of My Own Advisor. As my own financial advisor, I’m looking to retire early soon, sooner than most. Find out how, what I did and what you can learn to create your own path to financial independence and working on your own terms (FIWOOT!). Subscribe to the newsletter read by thousands. Always free.
