Look, I get it. Reading about money sounds about as fun as watching paint dry. But stick with me here, because these books are different. They won’t bore you to tears with complicated formulas or make you feel stupid for not knowing what a P/E ratio is. I picked up my first investing book about seven years ago when I realized my savings account was basically earning nothing. Fast forward to now, and I’ve read probably 50+ books on money and investing.
Most were garbage. But some? They legitimately changed how I think about building wealth. So here’s my list of 10 books every investor should read—whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been at this for a while.
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
Warren Buffett proclaims it’s the best investing book ever written, and odds are the guy knows a thing or two about that. Graham wrote this in 1949, but it was updated in 2024 for its 75th anniversary with contemporary examples from Jason Zweig. And the big thing that Graham said repeatedly is this: don’t be an idiot and do whatever everyone else is doing. When everyone’s buying, maybe you should be selling.
When everybody is panicking, that’s when opportunities arise.” That, he says, is value investing — purchasing based on what something’s actually worth and not just what’s trendy. His “margin of safety” concept is brilliant. Buy things when they’re cheap enough that even if you’re wrong, you won’t lose your shirt. Makes sense, right?
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
This book messed with my head in the best way possible. Housel writes about how we’re all weird and emotional about money, even when we believe we’re being logical. There’s this legend about a man who became a janitor and managed to amass $8 million. Then there is the one about top-paid executives who went broke. The difference? Behavior, not brains or income. One chapter is about how we keep moving the goalposts: first you need $100,000, then a million dollars, then ten million dollars. When does it stop? Over 8 million people bought this book. That’s not hype; it’s that good.
A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
Malkiel basically calls out everyone who thinks they can beat the market by picking hot stocks. His research shows that most professionals can’t do it consistently, so why should you or I try? He’s a huge fan of index funds; just buy a little bit of everything and stop trying to be clever. The book’s been around since the 1970s and keeps getting updated because, surprise, his advice still works. Sometimes boring wins.
One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch
Lynch ran Fidelity’s Magellan Fund and crushed it for years. His whole thing is that regular people have advantages over Wall Street analysts. You see stuff in your everyday life that fund managers miss. Your kid won’t stop talking about some new gaming app? The coffee shop down the street always has a line? That restaurant chain keeps opening new locations? Lynch says pay attention. Those observations can lead to good investments if you do your homework. He writes like he’s chatting with you over coffee, not lecturing from some ivory tower.
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle
Bogle started Vanguard, and this little book is maybe 200 pages. You can finish it in a weekend. His argument is dead simple: fees are killing your returns. Think about it. If you’re paying 1% or 2% in fees every year, that compounds over decades into massive money you’ll never see. His solution? Buy cheap index funds and stop overthinking everything. It’s not exciting. Nobody’s going to think you’re a genius. But your bank account will thank you in 30 years.
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher
Fisher takes a totally different approach from Graham. He cares less about whether something’s cheap and more about whether it’s actually a great company. What’s the management team like? Are they innovating or just coasting? Can this business keep growing for ten years? He’d talk to customers, competitors, and even former employees to get the real story on a company. It’s like being a detective. Some of the best investors today still use his methods.
The Essays of Warren Buffett (compiled by Lawrence Cunningham)
This is Buffett’s annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, organized by topic. You’re getting free lessons from a guy worth over $100 billion. What makes these letters great is that Buffett writes like a normal person. No jargon, no showing off. He explains insurance and capital allocation using everyday examples. Reading these feels like getting advice from your smart uncle who actually wants you to understand, not just nod along.
How Not to Invest by Barry Ritholtz
Ritholtz published this in 2024, and it’s refreshing because instead of saying “do this, do that,” he shows you all the ways people screw up their money. We’re all walking around with biases we don’t even know about. We hold losing stocks too long because we don’t want to admit we were wrong. We sell winners too early. We trust data that confirms what we already believe. Learning what NOT to do is sometimes more useful than following some perfect plan. Plus, the book’s actually entertaining, which you can’t say about most finance writing.
The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
Collins wrote this for his daughter, and you can tell. The 2025 revised edition just came out, and it’s basically a guide to financial independence without any BS. His advice: spend less than you make, throw the difference into index funds, and ignore the noise. There’s no secret sauce. No complicated strategies. Just consistency and patience. The best investing books for beginners usually overcomplicate things. Collins does the opposite. If you only read one book from this list, make it this one.
100 Baggers by Christopher Mayer
A “100 bagger” means a stock that goes up 100 times. Turn $10,000 into a million. Sounds impossible, right? But Mayer studied companies that did exactly that to find patterns. These winners weren’t lottery tickets. They were quality businesses that grew earnings year after year while management reinvested profits smartly. The trick is finding them early and having the guts to hold on when things get rocky. Most top 10 investment books for beginners skip this aggressive growth stuff, but it’s worth understanding even if you stick with safer bets.
Why This List Matters
I didn’t throw together some generic list of best investing books of all time from other websites. I picked books that actually changed how I handle money. Graham teaches you the foundation. Housel fixes your brain. Malkiel and Bogle keep you from doing dumb stuff. Lynch and Fisher show you how to evaluate companies. Buffett demonstrates mastery. Ritholtz prevents self-sabotage. Collins gives you a straightforward plan.
Mayer shows what’s possible. You don’t need to become some investing guru. You just need to stop making the same mistakes everyone else makes. These books help with that. Start with one. Maybe Housel if you want something quick and mind-bending. Graham, if you want the classic foundation. Collins, if you want the most direct path from broke to financially free.
Final Words
Reading won’t make you rich tomorrow. You won’t find hot stock tips or secret formulas. But you’ll stop losing money on stupid decisions, and that’s half the battle. The other half? Actually implementing what you learn instead of just nodding along and forgetting everything next week. So grab one of these books. Read it on your commute, before bed, whenever. Give it time to sink in. Then grab another. Your future self, the one with an actual nest egg, will be glad you did.
