Top 5 Greatest Investment Book Authors
Today’s guest post comes from Ryan of Semperfinance, a military-community oriented personal finance and stock investment blog.
Education is the key to developing successful investment strategies. Blogs, websites and periodicals are great for staying up to date on the latest and greatest in the financial world, but nothing beats a good old-fashioned book for reinforcing the fundamentals and learning from the masters. Here’s a list of the top 5 investment authors every stock investor should be familiar with.
Benjamin Graham
Considered the father of value investing, he invented the Mr. Market metaphor and advised evaluating stocks as one would evaluate a business. Graham, a Columbia business school professor, published Security Analysis in the midst of the Great Depression. Anyone who can successfully sell books on stock investing during the Great Depression is worth taking a look at. Warren Buffet considers himself a disciple of Graham, even naming one of his sons (Howard Graham Buffett) after him. Every investor should be familiar with his work.
Recommended Books:
- Security Analysis
- The Intelligent Investor
- Benjamin Graham On Value Investing: Lessons from the Dean of Wall Street.
Warren Buffett
While not an author of books, Buffett has written many articles and (now famous) letters to shareholders. His writing contains homey Midwestern wisdom, jokes and pearls of investing wisdom. Buffett was greatly influenced by mentor Graham whose work he draws upon, but he has his own insights developed over many years of successful, smart investing.
- The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America
- Warren Buffett Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World’s Greatest Investor
Peter Lynch
Peter Lynch was an investing legend. His should be admired for his work ethic as much as his stock picks. Lynch practiced due diligence in picking stocks 24/7. Even on vacation he would ski a run, call a company to speak to the management then get back on the chairlift and do it over again. Like Buffett and Graham, Lynch advised focusing on company fundamentals and did not try to predict the market.
Recommended Books:
Tom and David Gardner
These two brothers were taught stock market investing by their father and ushered stock investing into the Internet era with their landmark website, fool.com. These guys have created the “Foolish” philosophy of bucking the trends of the “Wise” on Wall Street.
Recommended Books:
Robert Kiyosaki
Some people hate Kiyosaki, but I think he has some very good points to make. Don’t expect a lot of specific investment advice from Kiyosaki, instead he reinforces fundamental financial principles every investor should espouse.
Recommended Books:
If you haven’t read all of these books, you’re missing out on your financial education. Get started today!
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August 5th, 2008 at 6:17 am
The people that hate Kiyosaki are typically people who knit-pick on those little details. He tries to convey stories about his life, in order to make investing simple for those of us who have no business understanding.
Enough websites exist, trying to tear down his message. All fluff, no real world numbers. But if you don’t understand the theory how are you suppose to learn?
Kiyosaki may not be perfect in my eyes but he did inspire me to get into the world of investing. His basic tenants are still in my head every time I analyze a potential deal or investment.
August 5th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Clifford,
Kiyosaki did inspire a lot of people to start earning passive income. The problem with him is that he never really tested his theories in real life – in other words there are no records of him or a company where he’s a majority holder ever engaged in real estate flipping.
Some of his teachings are dangerous because he oversimplifies things, which could potentially hurt people.
The theory might be sound but at the end of the day if the teacher has never practiced his theory in a real life investment, then this theory is almost worthless..
August 7th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Great story. When I started investing seriously / actively in 1994, I made a point of reading every book on investing in my local library, maybe 50 in all. I read all the above authors, or about great investors like Buffett.
For my money, the best on Buffett is the biography by Roger Lowenstein: Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist. This is followed closely by any article (usually in Fortune Magazine) on Buffett authored by Carol Loomis, who also writes the BRK annual report.
As for Peter Lynch, his books are a bit dated since it is very hard to follow his investing principles. SEC Fair Disclosure laws passed in 2002, changed after Lynch’s run with the Fidelity Magellan fund. No longer can you take a company exec to lunch, or call him on the phone while skiing, and get non-public information from him. The internet also made the dissemination of company info much faster and broadly available. Still, he was great in his day and is fun to read.
August 7th, 2008 at 7:13 am
While I am at it, let me provide a link at my website to all the other worthy authors, or investors chronicled by biographers, including Phil Fisher, David Dreman, Mark Mobius, Jim Rogers, John Bogle. I have read all the books on this list (and many more) and can recommend them.
http://astore.amazon.com/wealthed-20/105-6527616-4367628?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=20
August 7th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
“His basic tenants are still in my head every time I analyze a potential deal or investment.”
Robert K. talks a lot about real estate, but I think your focus on his tenants misses the point. Granted, it’s important to be careful when choosing tenants, to make sure they can pay their rent, but it’s also important to focus on the property and its price.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
[...] Some end of the summer reading [...]
August 9th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Great list.
I would also add Robert G. Allen for the book Multiple Streams of Income. Like him or not, he encourages the pursuit of passive income.
I believe in the VALUE camp so much that I bought an original 1962 copy of Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham. A great investment on many levels.
We can all learn from others.
August 9th, 2008 at 9:35 am
that is a very good book too. unfortunately, its probably his only good book!
August 9th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Robert Kiyosaki got me started. I have three of his books and I always enjoy playing cashflow 101. I got zero knowledge in investing and the way he wrote his books got me hooked. It was simple and very informative.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Same for me too. Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad books were enlightening to me. It got me started to understand the importance of financial literacy and the lack of it in the general population.