1. The Psychology of Money

In The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories that breaks down complex topics with a remarkable clarity ( and personal finance story in Chapter 20 ). This is a self help book is easy to understand and broaden your thinking about money. This book isn’t for advanced readers, but can be used by anyone from 20-60 years. Some of the excerpts from the book:

“People from different generations, raised by different parents who earned different incomes and held different values, in different parts of the world, born into different economies, experiencing different job markets with different incentives and different degrees of luck, learn very different lessons.

“Your personal experiences with money make up maybe 0.00000001% of what’s happened in the world, but maybe 80% of how you think the world works. So equally smart people can disagree about how and why recessions happen, how you should invest your money, what you should prioritize, how much risk you should take, and so on.”

2.The Behavioral Investor

In The Behavioral Investor, psychologist and asset manager Dr. Daniel Crosby examines the sociological, neurological, and psychological factors that influence our investment decisions and in the second half gives practical solutions for improving returns on investments. This book is a guide to the psychology of asset management.

If you like the book ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ but found it not useful, you would love this book because this book links behavioural psychology to stock exchange and hence ways to earn money. The book gives you  possible solutions to the human biases ( so many we have heard ) and helps you keep a clear mind while investing. You may already know many ideas given in the book but the book links them to a specific activity – stock market investing and provide a basic framework to keep in mind.

3. The Little Book That Still Beats the Market

The Little Book that Still Beats the Market updates and expands upon the research findings from the original book “The Little Book that Beats the Market“.  This book helps investors buy a group of above-average companies but only when they are available at below-average prices. This book is for an average investor who doesn’t spend too much time on investing. The rational, logical explanation to the investment approach recommended by the author is easy to understand, and clear guidance to implementing the steps in effective valuation. At Rs 102/- this book is a bargain. Another book by the author “The Big Secret for the Small Investor: The Shortest Route to Long-Term Investment Success” is most suited for to the passive investors. This is a to-the-point book and is geared at someone who wants to know how they should invest their money but are not into investing and don’t want to do the analysis work themselves.

4. Big Mistakes: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments

This book is about learning from mistakes. It is not a how-to book. It is an interesting dive into market history and psychology. The author gives examples of failures of most successful investors like Jack Bogle, Michael Steinhardt, Stanley Druckenmiller, John Paulson, the Sequoia Fund, Long Term Capital Management, Bill Ackman and Warren Buffett ( Yes, Warren Buffett ).

When investing everyone makes mistakes. This book would help you recover from those failures, in your investing journey. ( in some cases, don’t make those mistakes, if you are smart enough )

5. 100 Baggers: Stocks That Return 100-to-1 and How To Find Them

You don’t need an MBA or a finance degree to find these stocks that return $100 for every $1 invested. This book helps you find those 100-Baggers. The author takes decades of data about 100 bagger companies and focuses exclusively on them. The average 100-bagger requires 26 years to multiple its value 100 times which is equivalent to a 19.4% CAGR. This book is about finding 100 baggers and waiting for them to give that return.

6. Alchemy of Finance by George Soros

“The Man who Moves Markets,” George Soros presents a theoretical and practical account of financial trends and a new paradigm by which to understand the financial markets. His main focus is to contend that markets reflect not facts (or any scientific objective) but rather the biases of its participants. This is a difficult book to understand as Soros is not able to clearly put his point across. You need to have a decent grasp of finance or macroeconomics for understanding this book. But this book gives you a chance to understand the thinking of the man who broke the Bank of England.

7. Mastering the Market Cycle: Getting the Odds on Your Side

This book is an introduction to market cycles. Not an advanced book but a good book for beginner. It is very important to know where we are with respect to each of the 5 critical cycles ( described in the book) and most important is the risk cycle which is determined by the psychology of investors ( bearish or bullish ) It is difficult to know how long a cycle will go on, what would be the inflation rate, and so on. But generally a good idea to know about market cycles if you are an active investor. Available at only Rs 179 on Kindle

Bonus: Classic Money Books at a discount/ almost free

The Richest Man in Babylon

Rs 7 on Kindle at the time of writing this article

Think and Grow Rich

Rs 9 on Kindle at the time of writing this article

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

Rs 286.9 on Kindle, Rs 2 on Audiobooks at the time of writing this article