News & Understanding Markets

Purpose: Learn how to interpret markets and global events like an investor.

  • Too Big to Fail — Andrew Ross Sorkin

  • The Big Short — Michael Lewis

  • When Genius Failed — Roger Lowenstein

  • Barbarians at the Gate — Bryan Burrough & John Helyar

  • Business Adventures — John Brooks (Buffett’s favorite collection of business journalism)

Foundational Financial Literacy

Purpose: The must-reads for personal money management and financial awareness.

  • The Richest Man in Babylon — George S. Clason

  • The Millionaire Next Door — Thomas J. Stanley & William D. Danko

  • I Will Teach You To Be Rich — Ramit Sethi

  • Your Money or Your Life — Vicki Robin

  • The Psychology of Money — Morgan Housel

  • The Total Money Makeover — Dave Ramsey

  • Money: Master the Game — Tony Robbins (for more ambitious adult learners)

Investing & Wealth Building

Purpose: Teach compounding, valuation, and the long-term mindset.

  • The Intelligent Investor — Benjamin Graham

  • Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits — Philip Fisher

  • One Up on Wall Street — Peter Lynch

  • The Little Book of Common Sense Investing — John C. Bogle

  • The Warren Buffett Way — Robert G. Hagstrom

  • The Essays of Warren Buffett — Edited by Lawrence Cunningham

  • A Random Walk Down Wall Street — Burton Malkiel

  • Poor Charlie’s Almanack — Charlie Munger

  • The Dhandho Investor — Mohnish Pabrai (modern Buffett-style investing)

  • Richer, Wiser, Happier — William Green (modern investor psychology)

Entrepreneurship & Building Businesses

Purpose: For founders, builders, and those learning ownership.

  • Zero to One — Peter Thiel

  • The Lean Startup — Eric Ries

  • The E-Myth Revisited — Michael E. Gerber

  • Company of One — Paul Jarvis

  • Good to Great — Jim Collins

  • Built to Last — Jim Collins & Jerry Porras

  • Shoe Dog — Phil Knight (Nike founder memoir)

  • Let My People Go Surfing — Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia founder)

  • The Hard Thing About Hard Things — Ben Horowitz

  • How I Built This — Guy Raz

Economics & Global Perspective

Purpose: Understand macro forces, policy, and economic principles.

  • Economics in One Lesson — Henry Hazlitt

  • Basic Economics — Thomas Sowell

  • Naked Economics — Charles Wheelan

  • Freakonomics — Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

  • The Undercover Economist — Tim Harford

  • The Ascent of Money — Niall Ferguson

  • Capital in the Twenty-First Century — Thomas Piketty (advanced)

Financial Ratios, Valuation & Analysis

Purpose: For students learning to value businesses and read financials.

  • Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation — Stephen Penman

  • Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies — McKinsey & Company

  • Investment Valuation — Aswath Damodaran

  • The Interpretation of Financial Statements — Benjamin Graham

  • Security Analysis — Benjamin Graham & David Dodd (advanced classic)

Careers in Finance, Investing & Private Equity

Purpose: Understand the paths and realities of professional finance.

  • Monkey Business — John Rolfe & Peter Troob (humorous insider view of investment banking)

  • King of Capital — David Carey & John Morris (history of Blackstone & private equity)

  • More Money Than God — Sebastian Mallaby (hedge fund evolution)

  • Principles — Ray Dalio (for leadership & investment philosophy)

  • The Most Important Thing — Howard Marks (memo-style investing wisdom)

  • What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence — Stephen A. Schwarzman

Banking, Credit & Debt

Purpose: Credit literacy and borrowing awareness.

  • Your Score — Anthony Davenport

  • The Total Money Makeover — Dave Ramsey (debt elimination focus)

  • Confessions of a Credit Junkie — Beverly Harzog (practical credit management)

  • The Truth About Money — Ric Edelman (well-rounded personal finance overview)

Housing & Real Estate

Purpose: Teach buying, renting, and investment property basics.

  • The Book on Rental Property Investing — Brandon Turner

  • The Millionaire Real Estate Investor — Gary Keller

  • Real Estate Investing for Dummies — Eric Tyson & Robert Griswold

  • Mortgage Management for Dummies — Eric Tyson (intro-level clarity)

Taxes & Insurance

Purpose: The least glamorous but most crucial part of wealth building.

  • J.K. Lasser’s Your Income Tax (annual edition)

  • The Overtaxed Investor — Phil DeMuth

  • The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated — Harold Pollack (includes tax simplicity lessons)

Behavioral Finance & Psychology

Purpose: Understanding money behavior, decision-making, and biases.

  • Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman

  • Nudge — Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein

  • The Psychology of Money — Morgan Housel (cross-listed for accessibility)

  • Misbehaving — Richard Thaler

  • Predictably Irrational — Dan Ariely

Philanthropy, Legacy & Meaning

Purpose: How to think about giving and purpose beyond wealth.

  • The Soul of Money — Lynne Twist

  • Give and Take — Adam Grant

  • Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World — Anand Giridharadas (provocative but important)

  • The Life You Can Save — Peter Singer

  • Half Time — Bob Buford (moving from success to significance)

Youth & Family Learning

Purpose: For parents, teachers, and young learners.

  • Make Your Kid a Money Genius (Even If You’re Not) — Beth Kobliner

  • The Opposite of Spoiled — Ron Lieber

  • Growing Money — Gail Karlitz

  • Finance 101 for Kids — Walter Andal

  • How to Turn $100 into $1,000,000 — James McKenna & Jeannine Glista (for middle schoolers)