My Favorite Investing Books

My friend Patrick O’Shaughnessy hit up a bunch of us financial blogger types for a quick list our five favorite investing books for a crowdsourced post he was doing (and also for his own curiosity, he was looking for something new to read).

I obviously can’t make a comprehensive list of my favorite investing books and limit it to five, but I thought I could offer up five books that were a bit more obscure for most investors – you probably don’t need me to list books about Graham, Lynch, Buffett and Livermore.

And then I included my own because given the thrust of Patrick’s blog – millennial investing – I figured I would do my part to keep his audience safe from the worst elements of the game.

My list and rationale for each choice below, followed by an Amazon link if you want to buy yourself or someone else the gift of knowledge:

1. The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner – a beautifully written classic and a great crash course on the history of economics and its colorful pioneers for people who didn’t study econ at school (like me).

2. Investing: The Last Liberal Art by Robert G. Hagstrom – demonstrates why the great investors are always knowledgeable about art, literature, science, history etc, not just markets.

3. Backstage Wall Street by Joshua M. Brown – maybe the best book ever written about toxic investment products and Wall Street’s highly flawed approach to dealing with Main Street (I’m biased on this one)

4. Irrational Exuberance (2nd Edition 2009) by Professor Robert J. Shiller – this is your desert island book about the nexus of human psychology and investing. If you only read one behavioral finance book, make it this one.

5. Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth (Fifth Edition 2013) by Nick Murray – this is my bible. It’s the foundation of my entire approach to portfolio management and my long-term investing philosophy – it probably changed the course of my life and career.

Visit NickMurray.com for purchase information.

Now go ahead and check out the full list at Millennial Invest, including picks from my boys Meb Faber, Morgan Housel, Michael Kitces, Michael Batnick, and Ben Carlson:

The Best Investing Books Ever (Millennial Invest)