When it comes to the world of investing, it can be quite intimidating especially for those who are new to it. The field of financial services uses terminology and technical jargons that make investing concepts seem much harder to grasp than they actually are.
Fortunately, there are some people out there that are trying to make investing more accessible to the average person. Remember, managing our financial lives successfully – and responsibly – is a life skill.
Reading books is one of the best ways to accumulate knowledge in this area and there is a wide range of books on investing for individuals (who are just starting to invest) to choose from. And you don’t need to do the research on finding the best ones as we’ve come up with a list of five books to read in 2025 for new investors.
#1 The Psychology Of Money – By Morgan Housel
One of the best and most straightforward books on money out there, The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel breaks down more complex money concepts into human stories and experiences.
At the end of the day, Housel argues that your relationship with money is shaped by your past and your experiences.
He makes this point in a compelling fashion, sharing 19 short stories on how successful behavioural traits lead to positive money outcomes. Indeed, being smart doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be good with money – it’s the way that you behave that matters.
#2 One Up On Wall Street – By Peter Lynch
This is a seminal tome on investing and was written by one of the most successful long-term fund managers ever – Peter Lynch.
In One Up On Wall Street, he dives into why the average investor has such distinct advantages over professionals (like fund managers) and how they can leverage these advantages to deliver successful investing outcomes.
Geared more towards those of us who have an interest in researching and purchasing individual companies, Lynch outlines where opportunities might lie and uses investing anecdotes from his own career to illustrate his points.
He also offers straightforward advice, such as knowing what the numbers in a financial statement are matters, and some guidelines on how to invest in various company types – from cyclical firms to fast-growth companies. The book has sold over one million copies since its first edition was released in 1989.
#3 I Will Teach You To Be Rich – By Ramit Sethi
Ramit Sethi already has a documentary series on Netflix (How To Get Rich) but he’s actually well known for his book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
It’s effectively a six-week personal finance programme that encourages those of us in our 20s and early 30s to get on the path toward better money habits. It has practical advice within it and breaks down finance easily by focusing on four core pillars; banking, saving, budgeting, and investing.
Indeed, Sethi is more focused on instilling good money habits into readers’ lives rather than being the smartest or most successful person out there.
He himself doesn’t have a finance background and graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in Information & Society with a minor in Psychology.
That comes through in the book as he explores our relationships with money and how they can shape our habits – for good or bad. While it may have more US-specific finance examples within it, the overarching good money habits we should be adopting are universal in nature.
#4 Just Keep Buying: Proven Ways To Save Money And Build Wealth – By Nick Maggiulli
As individuals, we are sometimes faced with a mountain of evidence and data when it comes to saving, investing, and money. In Just Keep Buying, Nick Maggiulli – who is COO and Data Scientist at Ritholtz Wealth Management – helps readers grasp these intimidating topics in an engaging manner.
He looks at why the financial industry has many times been guilty of ignoring empirical evidence and instead focusing on conjecture when communicating with investors. Instead, in the book he crunches the numbers and looks to provide evidence-backed solutions to saving and investing in a fun manner.
Maggiulli explores various strategies on how we can all act smarter when we save and invest, as well as practical advice that we can enact on our wealth-building journey.
#5 The Little Book Of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way To Guarantee Your Fair Share Of Stock Market Returns – By John Bogle
John Bogle is best known as being the founder of Vanguard Group, the huge exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider and asset manager.
In The Little Book Of Common Sense Investing, Bogle argues that trying to beat the market is effectively a “zero sum” game in that there must be a loser for every winner in the market. Instead of trying to outwit the market, owning the “whole market” is the way to go.
Bogle shows readers how to incorporate the index investing strategy into their portfolio and how it could change the way they think about taking investment advice – much of which is sales-driven and not serving the best interest of investors.
He suggests using common sense when investing and going the route of the index tracker, better known today as a market exchange-traded fund (ETF). No one can argue that this approach hasn’t worked over the past 100 years or so – given the consistent long-term returns of stocks – and this book is a great reminder of how investing successfully can actually be simple.
Read Also: DollarsAndSense Book Review: What We Learnt From Vishal Khandelwal’s The Sketchbook of Wisdom
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