Books to get started on Investing for all experience levels

There are many books written on investing in Stocks. Reading a book on finance, let alone Stock investing can be a real challenge (especially for people with no prior background in finance, accounting or business like myself) - the ratios, the jargon, the technical details, etc. can put anyone to sleep. But, the following books explain fundamental concepts & would put the reader in the right mindset to start their process to become educated in the world of stock investing (and personal finance). These selected books are applicable to people with all experience levels in Stock investing. The books 1-3 are easy to read and would be applicable for people with any level of experience as an investor. Book 4 is little bit more complex. Book 5 is on Personal Finance concepts.

 1. One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch

About the author - Peter Lynch is considered one of the greatest investors of all time. He managed Fidelity Magellan fund between 1977 & 1990, where the assets of the fund grew from $20million to $14billion. He was able to achieve an annual return of 29% per year. Read more about Peter Lynch here - https://www.investopedia.com/university/greatest/peterlynch.asp

About the book - I was extremely fortunate & darn lucky to happen to read this book as the first book on stock investing. It had a phenomenal effect on me and my perspective of how to look at businesses. For some reason, the author Peter Lynch connected with me through this book & I felt like I was being expertly led through the basics of stock investing. I would highly recommend anyone to start with this book & graduate to other books once they get their feet wet.

This book should be a very enjoyable & easy read for most people who want to understand how the stock market works, what are the principles of good businesses, characteristics of good stock, some details into fundamentals & valuing a company, etc. Peter Lynch also explains in detail how an average person can achieve extra-ordinary results in investing by doing the simple things & being aware of small things & businesses around where they live. The author also introduces the term "multi-bagger" in this book, to define any stock that has appreciated beyond 100% in value since the original purchase. An investor with a mindset to pick growth companies would gravitate to the philosophies of Peter Lynch.

2. The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai

About the author - Mohnish Pabrai became famous when he along with Guy Spier bid ~$650,000 in 2008 for charity dinner with Warren Buffett. Mohnish is a Warren Buffett disciple & one of the highly respected investors in US who has been compounding his original investment at a very high rate (north of ~20% per year) since 1995. Mohnish has also setup a foundation called “Dakshana” in India to help educate students from less fortunate backgrounds to get into India’s most prestigious engineering schools like IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), NITs, etc. Read more about Mohnish here -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohnish_Pabrai

Several of Mohnish's teachings are available on Youtube.

About the book - This is a fantastic read & gets the reader thinking along the lines of a business owner. Deal making aspect of a business is explored in this book. I would highly recommend anyone to watch/listen to some of Mohnish's teachings on YouTube before reading this book. This would help you to better understand the author & his motivations with picking stocks.

 3. The Little Book that Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt

About the author - Joel Greenblatt is a well-known value investor, hedge fund manager and adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He is known to have compounded his returns at 40% per year from 1985 to 2006 through Gotham Capital. Joel is a philanthropist & has setup few websites on investing - Value Investors Club, Magic Formula Investing, Formula Investing, etc.

About the book - The book is a New York Times bestseller. It introduces the Magic Formula concept, which is a pretty simple idea actually. The book is fantastic & walks the reader through a very simple made up business idea story of a boy selling bubble gums at school & later building such a business as an adult later in life. The book explains concepts of Earnings, Earnings yield (E/P) (opposite of P/E), return on captical (ROC), etc. Practicing the idea presented in this book may or may not yield results for an individual investor, but the concepts of different ratios & it's meaning is well explained in this book.

4. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

About the author - Benjamin Graham is considered the father of value investing and the mentor of Warren Buffett. He was an investor, economist and professor. He wrote two books which are considered the greats books on investing - Security Analysis (1934) & The Intelligent Investor (1949). Ben Graham had many disciples who were widely successful in investing world, the most prominent of them being Warren Buffett.

Read more about Ben Graham here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Graham

About the book - It is considered that Intelligent Investor is a much simpler book to read than Security Analysis. To be honest, as an Engineer with limited background in finance, accounting, business, I found this book very hard. I will admit that I have never finished this book (early-2019), but I am fairly confident that if I ever finish this book, I would be a much better investor. My personal goal for 2019 is to read this book. But, this book is considered one of the greatest books, if not the greatest in Stock investing. No book list in Stock Investing can avoid having this book mentioned in the top few.

Cheat sheet - Mohnish Pabrai’s book “The Dhandho Investor” says that Warren Buffett recommends to read at least Chapter 8, 20 of the Intelligent Investor.

 5. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (Personal Finance)

About the book - This is an international best seller book that has sold millions of copies. This book probably launched the author’s writing career & he has since written over ~20 books under the “Rich Dad” series. The concepts in the book are simple & it is more informational. This is a book about personal finance & not related to stock investing. It is a good non-fiction simple to understand book. 

Kindly leave your comments below. Would love to hear back from you & if you have other book suggestions for others, kindly add them in comments section.

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