Early Life Investments
A Family Financial Head Start
“The best time to build lifelong money habits is when you are young. The second-best time is today.”
“The best time to build lifelong money habits is when you are young. The second-best time is today.”
The Reading List
Hand-picked books we have read, used, and recommended to our own family. Honest takes — no fluff.
— Series One —
Foundational reads to build the habits that last a lifetime.
Beth Kobliner
A clear, comprehensive primer on personal finance for anyone in their twenties or thirties — budgeting, debt, investing, taxes, and insurance, all in one place.
View on Amazon →Jean Chatzky & the HerMoney Team
Your ultimate visual guide to the basics of finance. The illustrations and infographics make every concept stick — great for younger readers.
Read Full Review →Steve Burkholder
Real-world money skills for high school, college, and beyond. Short, conversational, and surprisingly funny.
View on Amazon →— Series Two —
The classic reads that shape every serious investor’s thinking.
Burton Malkiel
The book that converted a generation to low-cost index funds. Malkiel’s case is academic but accessible.
View on Amazon →Andrew Tobias
A bold title that mostly delivers. Funny, frugal, and razor-sharp on what really matters when investing your own money.
View on Amazon →Benjamin Graham
Graham’s core lesson for families and young investors: separate investing from speculation, and control your reaction to market noise. The Buffett bible.
Read Full Review →Benjamin Graham & David Dodd
The original 1934 text. Valuation, intrinsic value, and the discipline of ignoring market noise. Dense, but the foundation of value investing.
Read Full Review →Peter Thiel with Blake Masters
Thiel argues that every great business builds something genuinely new rather than competing in existing markets. Essential for understanding competitive moats and why monopoly economics matter to investors.
View on Amazon →Denise Shull
A trading psychologist and performance coach reframes emotions as data rather than noise. Grounded in neuroscience, this is the most honest book on why intelligent people make bad market decisions.
View on Amazon →— Series Three —
Three different schools of thought on managing the money you earn.
Dave Ramsey
Ramsey’s “7 Baby Steps” have helped millions get out of debt. Opinionated and best for those who need a strict plan.
View on Amazon →Robert T. Kiyosaki
Imperfect on details, transformative on mindset. Assets vs. liabilities — making your money work for you.
View on Amazon →Robert T. Kiyosaki
The same core ideas distilled for a teenage reader. The earlier kids understand asset vs. liability, the better.
View on Amazon →— Series Four —
For parents teaching the next generation — or for kids reading on their own.
Beth Kobliner
An age-by-age guide to the money conversations you should be having with your kids — from preschool through college.
View on Amazon →Robert T. Kiyosaki
Kiyosaki’s framework applied to parenting — teach kids to think about money like an entrepreneur.
View on Amazon →— Series Five —
Money lessons that stick — because they came from a Saturday-night game.
Robert T. Kiyosaki
A board game that teaches the difference between earning, owning, and investing. Best with three or four players.
View on Amazon →Robert T. Kiyosaki
Same core lessons, kid-friendly format. A great first introduction for younger children.
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— Series Six —
Reading the numbers behind the numbers — for investors, analysts, and the skeptical reader.
Thomas R. Ittelson
The most accessible introduction to reading a balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. Written for non-accountants and excellent as a first step before tackling the deeper analysis texts.
View on Amazon →Martin S. Fridson & Fernando Alvarez
A practitioner-level guide to interpreting corporate financial statements. Indispensable for any investor who wants to verify that a company’s numbers reflect economic reality rather than accounting choices.
View on Amazon →Martin S. Fridson & Fernando Alvarez
The companion workbook to Fridson and Alvarez’s core text. Exercises and case studies designed to build genuine analytical fluency — the difference between understanding the theory and being able to apply it.
View on Amazon →Howard M. Schilit, Jeremy Perler & Yoni Engelhart
The definitive guide to detecting accounting manipulation. Schilit catalogs the techniques companies use to inflate earnings and hide liabilities — then shows exactly how to find them before they cost you money.
View on Amazon →Charles W. Mulford & Eugene E. Comiskey
A detailed examination of creative accounting practices — legal and otherwise — and how to detect them. A useful companion to Financial Shenanigans for anyone building a skeptical eye toward reported earnings.
View on Amazon →Glen Cowan
A rigorous introduction to probability and statistical methods for experimental data. Written for physicists but applicable to any quantitative analyst — distributions, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, and the discipline of drawing valid conclusions from noisy data.
View on Amazon →