The TOP personal finance books to HELP YOU get ahead in 2023

The principles in The Barefoot Investor truly emphasise saving, not living beyond your means and having manageable debt levels (e.g. mortgage). This book has been extremely popular (particularly in Australia and New Zealand) mainly because it doesn’t overwhelm the reader with a whole heap of complex formulas and how-tos. It isn’t one of those get-rich-quick books or books about the way to get deep into debt and buy thirty investment properties or a FIRE-related book about trying to retire by 30. Instead, Scott Pape focuses on maintaining security and tapping into the essential and core principles like consistently saving for retirement. Scott keeps his rules on wealth simple and uses analogies throughout the book to explain the process of wealth building.

Scott has also come out with “The Barefoot Investor for Families”, mainly drafted as a money guide for younger audiences in the hope to equip them with financial literacy as they get older.

Mary Holm is one of New Zealand’s most popular personal finance writers, having written on the topic for many decades. Her New Zealand-centric angle to many issues has made her relatively popular – and Mary regularly posts a Q&A column where readers can submit their questions for her to answer.

Her laid-back approach makes it easy to understand the personal finance concepts she lays out. Her writing is in a simple and easy to understand language that provides resources specific to New Zealand examples. The core of the book tackles how to reduce your debt, curb your spending and save more. Mary Holm’s book offers wise and straightforward advice to those that want to secure their financial future. This book is concise and intended to help ordinary Kiwis navigate the various traps many fall into.

Mary has an MBA in finance, has lectured on financial literacy at Auckland University and was a founding director of the Financial Markets Authority. She has written numerous books and authored a booklet for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ). There are many comprehensive breakdowns in the book, and she has incorporated a few key examples (e.g. rental property cases) that Kiwis will likely resonate with. This book was written to be a holistic guide to personal finance and is reasonably complex. Mary touches on almost everything in the book and there’s a wealth of information in the book that’s broad enough to appeal to readers of any age. Mary uses real-world examples of good and bad parts of investing, quality analysis and graphs to explain complex concepts.

Many personal finance books are being actively marketed and sold to us that may not necessarily fit everyone’s exact needs. Kiwi’s are generally keen to get better with money, but most don’t have the time or drive to find out more. Because this book is generalist in nature, it can be an excellent gift for family, friends, or community members. Those that have got an interest in money and personal finance in New Zealand will likely appreciate the depth that this book goes into.

Through countless interviews and amassing a vast amount of knowledge, Thomas Stanley concludes that becoming a millionaire is accessible for almost everyone, as long as they’re willing to sacrifice certain things. The book dives into how becoming a millionaire has nothing to try to start up a company or get lucky.

Instead, the book focuses on setting up a robust budget, living below your means, consistently saving and investing and not spending too much money pleasing others. In addition, it addresses the issues of “keeping up with the Joneses” or trying to impress people you do not like with money you do not have. The Millionaire next door is an essential read for any New Zealander hoping to find a reliable, consistent way to build wealth.

Frances Cook’s book on her experiences with personal finance is a journey on how she has navigated personal finance in New Zealand. Going from cash-strapped financial anxiety to money expert, Frances walks through many different stories with key lessons for any New Zealander. In the book, she shares her real-life story of how she navigated the murky waters of finance and her mistakes along the way.

Frances graduated from the Victoria University of Wellington and has done several personal finance-related endeavours, from podcasts to writing columns. Some of the topics she touches on include the best way to approach banking and transactions, managing KiwiSaver and retirement savings, the best way to budget and making smarter decisions when it comes to real estate.

Money Matters speaks to your soul as much as it does your wallet. Two parts philosophy, one part pocket science, Money Matters encourages you to examine the root cause of your financial shortcomings in order to make lasting and meaningful changes. Only when you understand where you went wrong and why, can you begin to right the ship and get rich for all the right reasons, according to the author.

The Psychology of Money is broken down into nineteen different short stories that examine the different ways people think about money. This book is extremely easy to go through and incorporates many different anecdotal stories that Morgan Housel has experienced in his career. The book examines the (somewhat irrational) way humans behave and takes a psychological view of finances compared to the formulaic viewpoint that many other personal finance books take. Housel dives deep into what drives us, the unique worldviews we hold and the proportion that luck plays in our financial lives. The book hopefully assists us in understanding the way we behave with money and teaches us ways to make better decisions in the process.

This book has been a cornerstone for many FIRE followers for years. Some argue the FIRE community was borne out of this book in the early ’90s. While this book has been around for over 25 years, it has been revised and updated to incorporate recent concepts like side hustles, freelancing and online tools for managing your money.

Vicki Robin takes an approach aimed at decluttering your life and pursuing a more financially free life. She has created a nine-step program that aims to change the role money plays in our lives, focusing on how to live life in a more free and flexible way. This is arguably one of the most successful personal finance books of all time.

One of the top takeaways from this book is the breakdown of the “Balanced Money Formula”, which splits income into three groups: (1) needs, (2) wants and (3) savings. Elizabeth Warren’s ideal money formula consists of paying 50% on needs (such as housing, transportation, food utilities, insurance and clothing), 20% on savings (repaying debt, emergency savings and retirement accounts such as KiwiSaver), and the rest (30%) on wants (everything else you may want but do not necessarily need). Some ideas in this book may appear slightly outdated given the publication date, but this book is an excellent start for beginners in the realm of budgeting and personal finance.

The rules in this book are helpful for anyone at any age. This book has been written into easily digestible lessons that are suitable for a wide range of people. The author, Cary Siegel, is a retired corporate executive. After going to the University of Chicago for an MBA, he began his career at Kraft and went on to run several companies focused on sales and marketing. He has led many speaker events and has been awarded many awards in business and finance.

Erin Lowry’s step by step guide to go from broke to financially free is ideal for many Kiwis. The book takes a relaxed tone with many different personal anecdotes mixed with practical advice on personal finance. Some of the key topics include the financial mindset you bring and how the financial environment you grew up in your household impacts you later on in life. This extends to the best way to handle specific financial situations, the core principles of investing, investing in real estate, and approaching credit cards and debit.

“Broke Millennial” is one of the most straightforward books on managing money for people newer to personal finance. The book separates itself from other personal finance books as it has been tailored to a younger audience (e.g. people in their 20s & 30s). It gives a simple, easy to follow guide on the best way to go from broke to financially competent by covering difficult real-life situations involving money – these range from managing student loans to not having the ability to separate the bill with friends.

This book is one of the most well known and bestselling books in history. It has been described as “the most vital finance book ever written”. The book centres around a motivational personal development book with a vein of self-help (and not exactly a sole personal finance book like others on this list) – although the principles in this book are often tied together.

The book is supported by 20+ years of research into the lives of a variety of successful individuals. The book focuses on how desire, persistence and faith can help people to reach great heights by eliminating negative energy and thoughts that may linger in people’s minds.

“Rich Dad Poor Dad” is among some of the most popular personal finance books globally. It has sold over 26 million copies and has earned Robert Kiyosaki widespread fame as a leading personal finance author. The book’s core teaching is that you simply must earn a higher income to become richer. In addition, the book walks through the difference between working for money and having your money work for you – a concept that many personal finance books do not cover.

The book’s main drawback is that it recommends readers start their own business to get money to work for them but does not explain exactly how. For this reason, we suggest you consider some of the other books on this list regarding starting your own business.

Dave Ramsey is a popular radio/television host and motivational speaker. His book “The Total Money Makeover” contains many great recommendations on how to get in control of your finances. In particular, he explains clear ways to reduce debt using the “snowball” method – which has become synonymous with his brand.

The book’s core message is to save a few thousand in an emergency fund, pay off any debts you have as fast as possible, build up a six-month emergency fund, then start saving aggressively for retirement and other things you desire in future.

As humans, we are constant worriers about the future. This is particularly common if you have lost your job, are trying to plan your career or are suddenly missing thousands of dollars from your pension plan. In Optionality, New Zealander Richard Meadows lays out a guide for not only becoming resilient to shocks in the economy and life but positioning yourself to take advantage of a volatile financial world.

In the book, Meadows goes on his journey from quitting his office job at 25 years old to his extensive travels while pursuing his first retirement dream and adopting a new philosophy for pursuing a life filled with purpose. The book goes into how to find investment opportunities with open-ended upside and maximise the probability of ‘moonshot’ success. It also breaks down the life-changing choices that we face under uncertain conditions, how to achieve monetary freedom allowing you to live life on your terms and how to develop a systematic approach to creating your luck.

Optionality, Richard thinks, is the answer to navigating the uncertain world we live in. Optionality has never been so valuable, and only those that have it can survive and thrive.