My top 5 books for your personal financial education

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I have always consider myself a pretty smart woman with money. I started learning about money and finances after college when I worked at the Chicago Board of Trade. The financial education I learned there was far from the financial education we had during unemployment.

I believe we need to educate ourselves so we can move forward. Shortly after working at the CBOT, I started reading personal finance books to further my financial education.

Related: This is what happened when my husband lost his job

My financial education started with these

I read all kinds of books. The Millionaire Next Door, Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Automatic Millionaire, the list continues.

What I learned from these books was I am a spender. I had a hard time not spending money. This is why living on cash is so good for me.

The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas J. Stanley

 This  book was one of the first books I read about personal finance. It helped me to visualize how the average American could be a millionaire just by living a frugal life.

Rich Dad PoorDad, by Robert Kiyosaki

 This book helped me to start thinking about creating wealth, not just from a job but from a side gig too. It is probably the first book that encouraged me to be an entrepreneur and to think differently about making money.

The Automatic Millionaire, By David Bach

 As a young adult, David Bach’s teaching were just what I needed. I put all my savings on auto pilot. This allowed me to be able to asses the rest of my finances and pay off my debts.

Bach is known for his “latte” factor. It’s where you track your spending and figure out where you are spending money that could be cut out. His example is a cup of coffee, if you buy a cup of coffee every day at the end of the week you have spent $20 on coffee that you could have spent else where.

Many people aren’t that aware of what they spend money on. This is why his “latte factor” was such an eye opening experience for me.

Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey

If you don’t have the money to take the course, then I would definitely recommend that you read his book, Total Money Makeover. It gives you the same plan that is taught in Financial Peace, just without the videos.

After our unemployment period, my husband and I went through Financial Peace University. This course really helped us to get on track with our finances. The best benefit of the course was my husband and I openly talking about our finances without a screaming match. If you and your husband struggle to communicate about money, this is the course for you!

The Money Book for the Young Fabulous and Broke, Suzi Orman

I love this book and it is what I recommend for my college friends. It teaches you everything you need to know about money and even helps you learn how to buy a car. It is never to young to start learning about personal finance. I love Suze, she has a way of communicating that is a no bull approach and it’s awesome.

My Favorites

The books that impacted me the most was The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach and Financial Peace University, by Dave Ramsey. They were the books that taught me specifically about personal finance and how to manage money so I could have a savings account that actually had more than $100 in it.

Do you have more books to add to the list? I would love to hear them! Leave a comment or sign up for my email list!

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