- START HERE: Property Investing for Dummies 2nd Ed Australia. Bruce Brammall, Eric Tyson, Robert S. Griswold. This book is one of the first I read and provides a great introduction to the world of property investing. It's a rehash of the US version for an Australian readership and covers pretty much you'll need to be thinking about--superficially in some areas and in-depth in others.
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Robert Kiyosaki. This book, and its siblings, changed my way of thinking about finances and wealth. Kiyosaki touches on real-estate (more so in the later book) but this book is required reading. The author's style is extremely accessible and he's an excellent teacher.
- The
Cashflow Quadrant. Robert Kiyosaki. The second book in the Rich Dad series. This book is a deep dive from where Rich Dad, Poor Dad leaves off. More required reading.
- Rich Dad's Guide to Investing. Robert Kiyosaki. The third book in the Rich Dad series.
- Rich
Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and
Middle Class Do Not! Robert Kiyosaki. This book is a continuation of the first three Rich Dad books.
- My Four Year-Old The Property Investor. Cameron McLellan. A very accessible introduction to both the world of property investment and Open Wealth's approach. Buy it or get a free copy from Open Wealth. McLellan's writing style is simple to read and digest and the book covers a number of key concepts at the right level for someone new to property investment. A quick read.
- Rich Dad's Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money. Robert Kiyosaki. Another Rick dad book "exposing" how to play the game how the very rich do.
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The Warren Buffet Way 3rd Ed. Robert G. Hagstrom. A readable history of super-investor Warren Buffet's rise to wealth in the world of securities. Not directly property-related, of course, but a valuable tool in terms of describing Buffet's approach and the psychology of the stock market (and perhaps why you may want to avoid it!).
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The Big Short. Michael Lewis. An absolutely thrilling recounting of the global financial crisis which explains CDOs, credit default swaps, and the culture of risk prevalent on Wall Street that lead to financial disaster. I'm no longer a stock investor and after reading this--and coming to the realisation that even very, very smart people came close to losing it all, despite being "short"--I never will be!
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The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing (Revised Edition). Benjamin Graham. Another book about stock market investing but this was written by the godfather himself--the man who taught Warren Buffet--Benjamin Graham. I'd summarise this book with two key themes: the stock market is insane and most people can't be trusted to invest objectively. The most striking finding I once again took away from this book was don't dabble in stocks and even if you're doing it right, chances are you'll still lose because the primary function of the stock market and the companies it sells is to react in an unexpected, short-sighted, and unreasonable manner to reasonable news. Is the market efficient? It seems unlikely. Even still, there are some great takeaways from reading this book--about investing more broadly and general business concepts. Interesting concepts include the psychology of being a long-term value investor rather than a speculator. If you insist on stocks, buy the entire market through an index fund (or diversify widely). This version is lengthy with commentary by Jason Zweig but a classic for all the right reasons and every bit as relevant today as it was when it was written. Note the 2003 edition comments on the 2001 tech bubble but obviously misses out on the global financial crisis that would follow in 2006/2007; lookout for an updated edition as I suspect the experiences coming from the GFC would be very interesting to contrast and compare with Graham's wisdom. This book was on my night-side table as my wife and I were considering names for our newborn son; I think he may have been named after Benjamin Graham.
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The Psychology of Investing. John R. Nofsinger. Focusing on the single biggest risk in investing--ourselves and our feeble, emotionally-led brains--this book is a nice compliment to Ben Graham's Intelligent Investor (see above). If nothing else, it's a thin book and an easy read, providing a decent introduction to concepts which may be new to us as mere investors. This book isn't a typical technical manual but one of those rare texts that bridges domains and offers the reader true insight--in this case, about ourselves and the way we often behave when it comes to money matters (our psychological biases). It's easy to simply ignore a book like this, deeming it irrelevant; step outside your normal square and embrace material like this, however, to learn about more than the relatively simple mathematics and formulas laid out in so many other reads.
More to come...
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