Just ask any investor. The best investing books have the power to change your entire outlook – transforming how we see money, updating our investing mindset, and demystifying the stock market (from a casino into the long-term wealth machine that it is.) 

We can all benefit from the lessons of great authors, and at Sarwa we are no different. 

That is why we’ve collected some of the best investing books out there to launch our Sarwa Book Club. 

Through this Sarwa-approved book list, you can learn timeless investing principles that can help shape your investing mindset – perhaps the most important thing for all investors to learn. 

Developing such a mindset will prevent you from getting distracted.

Today, we live in a world with information overload. Blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos offer a stream of content that can turn into noise. In this world, many people can get easily enthralled by “investing ideas” that turn out to be gambling, or – worse yet –  plain old scams. 

The best way to avoid this has always been to educate yourself. 

By reading up on the time-tested principles of personal financial management, budgeting, and investing, you’ll be giving yourself the tools needed to succeed and – perhaps more importantly – not get distracted or discouraged by the whims of so-called investment “gurus.” 

The best investing books have been written and/or endorsed by many of the most successful investors of our time, and all offer one thing in common – a great foundation to start understanding how to apply smart long-term investing strategies. 

In this article, we launch the Sarwa Book Club by highlighting 20 of such books. Many of the books in our list have been recommended by Sarwa employees who have found them to be a treasure when it comes to their own investment journeys. 

We hope that you will also find them helpful in your own unique path of wealth-building discovery. 

Do you want to learn more about the principles of investing success? Subscribe today to Sarwa’s Fully Invested newsletter for regular educational resources. 

1. The Intelligent Investor

Written by Benjamin Graham, the mentor of Warren Buffett, The Intelligent Investor is one of the best books to read for stock market investing. 

The book mentions three key features of an intelligent investor: their focus on long-term prospects of the company before investing; the protection of losses through diversification; and the focus on safe and steady returns rather than crazy profits.

These three principles ring true up until today. 

The long-term ability of a company to grow its earnings remains a main determinant of whether its stock price will grow or not. Moreover, this focus on long-term prospects is evident when one considers Warren Buffet’s stock holdings. 

Similarly, portfolio diversification remains a golden standard in the investing world when it comes to risk minimisation.

Also, concentrating on safe and steady returns over fast profit is still great wealth-building advice even today. What’s also true today: The obsessive search for crazy profits is the primary reason why many investors lose money to scams (including pump and dump schemes) or poor investment decisions.

Another key principle that Benjamin Graham established has come to be known as value investing. According to this principle, investors should purchase the stocks of good companies (those with long-term prospects) when their market price is lower than their intrinsic value.

2. Security Analysis

“Security Analysis: Principles and Techniques” by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd (a professor at Columbia Business School) remains one of the best investment books ever.

This book offers a comprehensive framework for analysing securities based on the principles of value investing. It explains how to estimate intrinsic value through various valuation methods based on data available on balance sheets and income statements.  

It also consistently differentiates between speculation and investment and the role of long-term discipline, patience, and rationality in the latter. 
The book would go on to be the basis of Columbia Business School’s finance curriculum and an inspiration to Warren Buffett. It remains one of the best books for investing in stocks as a value investor.

3. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing was written by John Bogle, the father of passive investing, and it is considered one of the best books for investing in stocks by many today. 

Passive investing is the strategy of purchasing a basket of securities (index funds or ETFs) that tracks the performance of a given index rather than trying to outperform such an index. There are two main reasons passive investing has become more favoured in many circles: 

First, passive investing is more cost-effective, more transparent, less risky, and provides more opportunities for diversification. Secondly, statistics show that most active funds, while charging higher fees and taking on greater risk, have failed to outperform their indices. 

In his book, John Bogle laid out the foundation for the now-popular passive approach to investing. According to him, the best way for retail investors to get a fair share of market returns is to purchase low-cost passive index funds. Bogle also advocated long-term investing, maximising the power of compounding, and prioritising what works in the actual market. 

4. A Random Walk Down Wall Street

“If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to improve your personal finances, here’s a suggestion: Instead of picking up one of the scores of new works flooding into bookstores, reread an old one: A Random Walk Down Wall Street.” That was the New York Times’s glowing review of A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel, a professor of Economics at Princeton University. 

The major premise of this book is that ordinary people without degrees in finance or an office on Wall Street can still win at investing by following established principles. While Burton goes through the principles of value investing and what fundamental analysis of stocks involves, his recommendation, like John Bogle’s, is that ordinary people can best build wealth through low-cost index funds. 

Furthermore, Burton establishes the fact that a measure of risk is needed to build wealth and that instead of avoiding it, investors should seek to minimise their risk through diversification. 

Burton also emphasises that some psychological and emotional discipline is required to succeed at investing. To avoid the fear-and-greed cycle that Warren Buffett talked about, investors must refuse to follow the crowd; instead, they should focus on what Graham above calls “safe and steady returns.”

5. Millionaire Expat

Written by Andrew Hallam, a personal finance journalist, Millionaire Expat considers how expats can build wealth away from home. 

Like John Bogle and Burton Malkiel, Andrew Hallam establishes that ordinary investors (expats in this case) can also build profitable investment portfolios without following the “financial sharks” who are out there to get their money. He also advises ordinary investors to stick to low-cost index funds and ETFs. 

Andrew does not just tell investors what to buy; he shows them how and where to buy them. He also explains in detail why buying one asset is better than buying another, as well as insights on how to achieve tax efficiency while investing and what investors need to do based on their nationality. 

Furthermore, Andrew shows that robo-advisors – or digital financial advisors – can be a good way to build profitable and tax-efficient portfolios, and he provides a list of some of the most reputable ones.

6. The Richest Man in Babylon 

George Clason’s The Richest Man in Babylon is considered one of the best investing books ever published, a true classic that contains “timeless rules that work for everyone” and “shows you the importance of working on your skills,” according to Amel Asseyr, a member of the Sarwa staff. Here, Clason focuses on how to make money, keep it, and make it grow, using tales and parables set in ancient Babylonia.

Regarding earning money, George believes that anyone can become lucky by learning to work hard. This is in line with the common saying that “luck favours the prepared.” Skills development and the maximum use of opportunities are the kinds of preparation that luck favours, according to George. 

Secondly, those who want to build wealth must live below their means. In the book, George advises that readers save 10% of their income towards wealth building. 

More impressive is his “pay yourself first” dictum. According to him, you should first save 10% of your income and keep it away before spending what remains (the 90%). That is, spend what remains instead of saving what remains. This principle has become a key part of budgeting in today’s personal finance management. 

Finally, learn how to wisely invest your savings to generate wealth. While saving money is good, investing the money saved is the only way to truly build great wealth over time. 

7. The Psychology of Money

The Psychology of Money was written by Morgan Housel, a partner at The Collaborative Fund, a network of fund managers. 

In this book, Morgan shows through 19 short stories how emotion (especially greed and envy) plays a great role in many of our money decisions and how we can change the tide by making more rational decisions. He also shows that many of the money decisions we make later in life result from our early experiences. 

This book is especially relevant for people who feel they have made huge financial mistakes and don’t know what to do to correct them. It does not just help you identify the root causes of such mistakes, but it also shows how you can go beyond those mistakes to make more rational decisions that will improve your finances. 

8. Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Though it is “all-too-shared,” Rich Dad, Poor Dad still remains one of the best investing books, according to Nadine Mezher, CMO and Co-founder at Sarwa. 

In this book, Robert Kiyosaki chronicles his journey to wealth by differentiating between what he learnt from his biological Dad (poor Dad) and his friend’s Dad (rich Dad). While the former drummed up the popular “go to school and get a good job” rhetoric – working for money – the latter told him that wealth is built when you learn how to get money to work for you. 

Robert followed the latter path by learning how to invest in stocks and real estate, as well as by leveraging other people’s money to build his wealth, which is one of the key points of the book. 

Some of the other key takeaways of this book include learning how to invest in your financial education, spending money on assets rather than liabilities, taking on calculated risk, and paying yourself first. 

9. Your Money or Your Life

Oprah Winfrey has called Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez “a wonderful book” that “can really change your life.”

This book attempts to help readers calibrate their financial life, moving them from debt to wealth building in nine steps. It focuses by helping readers get out of debt, save a portion of their income, and invest that savings to build wealth. 

Unlike other financial management books, Your Money or Your Life approaches savings not from a strict budgeting perspective but with a focus on mindfulness and the development of healthy habits. That is, the authors believe you can reduce your cost of living even without diminishing your standard of living. 

Also, the authors focus on sustainability, which has become an important topic globally. It shows that the development of healthy habits can help readers save money, as well as save the planet. 

Like The Psychology of Money, this is a good book for those who have experienced financial mess and are looking for a way to start fresh. 

10. Outliers

Written by Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers helps us analyse why “people have a specific idea of what success means in their minds, and how overarching structures play a massive role in shaping our journeys,” according to Alex Ghanem, Content Manager at Sarwa. 

While we all recognise that there are high achievers among us who have accomplished feats that many can only dream of, Malcolm suggests that we are often mistaken about the contributing factors to their success. 

In this book, he shows how family background, upbringing, culture, generation, and others shape the life realities of these outliers and contribute to their outstanding success. 

This is especially important in the world of investing since many people will quickly recognise that the success of many popular investors is almost impossible to replicate. For Malcolm, this is because there are many factors that contribute to the success of outliers. 

11. Fooled by Randomness

The idea that we often fail to understand the actual factors behind certain outcomes is also found in Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a risk analyst and philosopher. 

His point is that randomness and luck shape outcomes in finance, business, and other aspects of life even more than skill or intelligence. In other words, many successes we attribute to skill are often the result of luck. 

For instance, people can take the same risks in business or the financial markets and have different results. However, survivorship bias makes us think that those who succeed were more skilled or intelligent. 

In the financial markets, short-term success may be noise, and different people can achieve it. However, it is over long periods that true skill shows itself. 

Also, instead of trying to predict or forecast the market, investors should focus on risk management instead, as there will always be factors that will shape the market that we can’t foresee. 

12. Richer, Wiser, Happier

If a book by a successful investor is a gold mine, imagine one that pulls together lessons from more than 40 of the greatest investors. Such is Richer, Wiser, and Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life by William Green, a seasoned financial journalist. 

In this book, Green interviewed investment stalwarts like Charlie Munger, Jack Bogle, Sir John Templeton, Ray Dalio, Joel Greenblatt, and Howard Marks, among others, distilling the secrets of their investment and general life success. 

He found that patience (long-term thinking), discipline (not being controlled by one’s emotions), humility, adaptability, independent thinking, continuous learning, and simplicity are some of the virtues common to these investors. 

Green also noted that money can bring peace of mind and that true success and happiness can be measured by relationships, wisdom, and purpose. Interestingly, the same virtues that make great investors also lead to a meaningful life. 

Given its wide scope and the quality of investors interviewed, it is the best book for investment advice in 2026. 

13. Behaviour Gap

Written by Carl Richards, founder of Prasada Capital Management, Behaviour Gap is “one of the easiest and most informative reads” for new investors, according to Alex. 

This book is similar in approach to The Psychology of Money – it shows the psychological biases and tendencies that lead us to make poor financial decisions and what we need to know and do to make better ones. 

Carl also makes many important points regarding investing: You can’t successfully time the market; higher returns generally come with higher risk but this doesn’t generally lead to higher returns; successful investing requires humility; past performance is not a proof of future ones; don’t follow the herd; if an investment opportunity looks too good to be true, it probably is; and financial planning should be personalised.

With these principles, new investors can start on the right path, and those who have made a mess can ditch the old path and follow a better one.  

14. One Up On Wall Street

Ordinary investors can spot good investment opportunities even before the experts. This is the primary thesis of One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch, the former manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments. 

The average investor can do this by paying attention to the best goods and services they encounter in their daily life. Many of these goods and services will be produced or offered by companies that are not yet within the sight of professional managers. By buying such stocks earlier, ordinary investors can earn huge returns. 

Also, Peter considers the features of stocks he calls “tenbaggers,” those that can see a tenfold rise in their price and how ordinary investors can check if any of the companies will be one or not. Similarly, he identifies five features of bad investments that investors must be wary of. 

Though buying index funds or ETFs is now the main recommendation for ordinary investors, Peter thinks that by paying attention to some key principles, they can also pick profitable tenbaggers. 

15. How to Make Money in Stocks

William O’Neil is one of those who agree with Lynch that ordinary investors can still outperform the market. In his book, How to Make Money in Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times and Bad, he demonstrates how a combination of fundamental and technical analysis can help identify stocks with high potential. 

His CANSLIM system has become a popular one among growth investors and traders. He advocates screening for stocks with current quarterly earnings of at least 25%, annual earnings growth, new products, services, or management, strong demand and fewer shares outstanding, a leadership position in a leading industry, institutional support from mutual funds and other large investors, and a favourable market trend.   

While such fundamental analysis can help choose what to buy, O’Neil advocates paying attention to price and volume charts to decide when to buy them. He identified patterns like cup-with-handle, double bottoms, and flat base as potential breakout points where investors can ride on an upward trend.  

16. Technical Analysis Explained

Though many see technical analysis as only for traders, many investors are learning how to combine stock market fundamentals and technical analysis for improved results. 

One of the foundational texts for technical analysis is Technical Analysis Explained: The Successful Investor’s Guide to Spotting Investment Trends and Turning Points by Martin Pring, a renowned technical analyst and educator. 

The book explains how to identify market trends (primary, secondary, and minor), interpret all types of stock charts, identify chart patterns (head-and-shoulder, double bottoms, double tops, flags, and triangles, etc.), and apply technical indicators (moving averages, RSI, MACD, etc.).   

It also pays attention to risk management (position sizing, stop-loss orders) and investor psychology (objective signals instead of emotions). 

17. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits

Written by Philip Fisher, the founder of Fisher and Co, a fund management company, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits is one of the personal favourites of Warren Buffett and one of the best books to read for stock market investing. As Warren said, “I sought out Phil Fisher after reading his Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits…When I met him, I was impressed by the man as by his ideas.” 

The central idea that Philip presents is that investors should focus on the long-term prospects of a company when selecting a stock. When it comes to value, Philip believes that the growth potential of a company is the most important. Therefore, identifying long-term growth stocks is at the heart of stock investing. 

Like Warren and Benjamin, Philip espoused long-term investing rather than short-term trading as well as a focus on a company’s fundamentals rather than his current price movements. 

Furthermore, he believed that the best time to buy a good stock is when the price has fallen. This provides investors with an opportunity to minimise cost and maximise returns.  

18. The Psychology of Finance

The field of behavioural finance is becoming increasingly popular as researchers seek to understand how human psychology affects financial markets. 

One of the popular works in this area is The Psychology of Finance: Understanding the Behavioural Dynamics of Markets by Lars Tvede, an investor, entrepreneur, and author. 

Its major premise is that financial markets are not purely rational but are partially driven by human emotions, psychology, and biases like fear, greed, herd mentality, and emotional swings. 

The book shows how human emotions drive each market cycle (pessimism when the market bottoms out, optimism when it begins to rise, euphoria when it peaks, and fear when it starts declining) and how biases (confirmation bias, loss aversion, and overconfidence, among others) distort rational investing. 

Tvede believes that the appropriate response to the psychology of finance is for investors to embrace contrarian thinking – buy when others are fearful and sell when they are greedy, which is similar to what Buffett recommends.   

19. Thinking Fast and Slow

Many people consider Daniel Kahneman to be the modern founder of behavioural finance and economics. 

In Thinking Fast and Slow, Kahneman outlines two models of thinking: System 1, which is fast, automatic, and emotional, and System 2, which is slow, logical, and more effortful. 

Most of our decisions rely on the former. The result is that we have cognitive biases that affect our decision-making. These include anchoring, loss aversion, overconfidence, and the availability heuristic.  

In investing, these cognitive biases lead to poor portfolio decisions, which can be made manifest in either irrational risk-taking or risk-avoidance. 

Kahneman suggests that time-tested investing wisdom, like discipline and diversification, remains important since markets are not purely rational. 

20. The Black Swan

One of the best investing books that has transformed the way investors think is The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.  

Taleb shows that certain rare and unpredictable events (black swans) tend to have outsized impacts on history in general and financial markets in particular. Some of these include 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Though these events look obvious in hindsight, our traditional models cannot predict them. 

Taleb believes that investors need to design their portfolios to protect themselves against black swans. 

Black swan theory investing has become very popular with experts executing tail-risk hedging with derivatives (especially options) and safe-haven assets like gold. 

21. Antifragile

Taleb continues his thoughts in The Black Swan in Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. 

He introduces the concept of antifragility, where systems don’t just survive shocks, volatility, and randomness, but even improve because of them.    

This is the concept behind the barbell investment strategy. Here, Taleb advises mixing high-risk and no-risk assets while avoiding middle-of-the-road or moderate risk assets. 

Barbell strategy is now popular in fixed-income investing, where portfolio managers focus on long-term and short-term bonds while ignoring intermediate-term bonds. 

For Taleb, most of your investment resources should be in extremely safe assets, while a small portion should go to more speculative, high-return, and high-risk assets. With the former, you reduce downside risk, and with the latter, you remain exposed to positive black swan events. 

22. Options as a Strategic Investment

Universa Investments, an investment management company where Taleb acts as an advisor, seeks antifragility by using options to profit during rare but significant events. 

Specifically, they buy cheap, far out-of-the-money options as insurance against black swan events. If the events don’t happen, they lose only a small amount (since these are cheap option contracts), but they gain a lot when they occur. 

One of the fundamental texts for the use of options is Options as a Strategic Investment by Lawrence McMillan, a fund manager and options trader. It is one of the best books to read for stock market investing, and many consider it the “bible of options trading.”

McMillan explains the types of options contracts, options pricing, options volatility, and the Greeks. He also shows the different stock options trading strategies across three categories: income strategies (covered calls, cash-secured puts), hedging (protective puts, collars), and speculative (straddles, strangles, condors, butterflies). 

23. Option Volatility and Pricing

Options Volatility and Pricing: Advanced Trading Strategies and Techniques by Sheldon Natenberg, a former director of risk management at Chicago Trading Company, is another classic book on options trading. 

Unlike McMillan, Natenberg focuses primarily on options pricing, volatility, and risk management. It also devotes some attention to trading psychology and the importance of discipline and consistency. 

It is more theoretical than McMillan’s book, and it’s best for advanced traders and professional risk managers. 

24. Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order

Taleb explores how rare macro events can impact investment portfolios and how investors can design their portfolios to be antifragile to shocks. 

In Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail, a New York Times bestseller, Ray Dalio analyzes the impacts of global political trends and power shifts. He showed that the US is in the late stage of its cycle, while China, on the other hand, is rising. 

When a power shift happens from one dominant empire to another, it is usually with turbulence. At the level of financial markets, investors can expect more volatility, inflation, and currency shifts. 

In anticipation of such a shift, investors should diversify globally (outside of the United States) and design their portfolios to handle shocks.

25. The Warren Buffett Way

A detailed overview of the secrets of Warren Buffett’s investing success, The Warren Buffett Way by Robert Hagstrom, a senior portfolio manager at EquityCompass, a fund management company, is one of the best investing books for beginners and seasoned investors alike. 

Robert highlights some of the important principles that have characterised the iconic run of the Warren Buffett investing approach: fundamental analysis, focus on the long term,  and emotional discipline, among others. 

In addition to outlining these principles, Robert analyses Warren’s holdings to show how he has applied these principles in each of his stock selections. 

26. The Essays of Warren Buffett

Some of the best books to read for stock market investing are those that pull together some of the top insights from Warren Buffett. The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, compiled by Lawrence Cunningham, a professor of Law at George Washington University, is one of such books. 

This is a collection of Buffett’s highly regarded annual shareholder letters. Cunningham organised them into themes like investing, corporate governance, and business management. 

For investors, Cunningham emphasised Buffett’s focus on value investing, long-term investing (to benefit from compounding), circle of competence (investing in businesses you understand), and risk management (avoiding leverage and ensuring you safeguard your capital). 

27. Poor Charlie’s Almanack

What Hagstrom and Cunningham did for Buffett, Peter Kaufman, an American businessman, did for Charlie Munger, a former Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, in Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger. 

This book is a collection of 11 major speeches and essays by Munger. It includes his thoughts on investing, decision-making, and other aspects of living a successful and happy life. 

Like Buffett, Munger stresses the importance of buying quality businesses at fair prices, focusing on long-term compounding, and avoiding short-term speculation. He also emphasised the need to avoid overconfidence, envy, and short-termism when making investment and other life decisions. 

Other virtues Munger recommended for a successful life include continuous learning, simplicity, humility, humor, and integrity. It is no wonder that he was one of those who recommended Richer, Wiser, and Happier.

28. The Only Investment Guide You Will Ever Need

In The Only Investment Guide You Will Ever Need, Andrew Tobias, a former treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, provides tips, information, and advice on various personal management topics. It is similar to Your Money or Your Life in terms of its comprehensiveness. 

In addition to general tips on budgeting, saving, investing, retirement planning, among others, the new edition also talks about cryptocurrencies, NFTs, sustainable investing, and COVID-19. 

29. How to Buy Stocks

How to Buy Stocks,  written by Louis Engel, a former advertiser at Merril Lynch and Henry Hecht, is a classic and widely considered one of the best investment books for beginners. 

This is an introductory book that aims to help investors understand all the basics of the stock and bond market. Do you want to know what a publicly traded company is, what a stock is, how it differs from bonds, and what the stock exchange actually does? Then this is the book to read. 

While all the other stock investing books above focus more on the principles of stock investing, this one helps to demystify the stock (and bond) markets so you can better understand what you are investing in. 

Warren Buffett said you should not invest in what you don’t understand; this is the book that will help you heed that advice.

30. Stocks for the Long Run 

Written by Jeremy Siegel, a professor of finance at Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania, Stocks for the Long Run shows why long-term investing is so commonly preferred over short-term trading. 

According to Jeremy, price movements in the short run are driven by interest rates, risk, uncertainty, changes in earnings, and other emotional and psychological factors, while in the long run, they reflect the actual value of the underlying company/asset. Therefore, one is better keeping their money invested in the long run instead of reacting to short-term fluctuations that are heavily influenced by emotion. 

Though stocks are volatile, Jeremy believes that their high returns makes them the best for building wealth; therefore, instead of shunning them, investors should seek to minimise their risk and stay invested. 

In general, investors should focus on selecting the right investments (based on fundamentals), creating balanced portfolios, and spending time in the market through a long-term approach. 

31. Everyday Millionaires

Everyday Millionaires, written by Chris Hogan, a former radio show host at The Ramsey Solutions, a personal finance management company, has one simple thesis: “ordinary people have become millionaires and you can as well.”

The book begins by showing, based on research, that most American millionaires worked for their money; that is, they didn’t inherit wealth. It then goes on to show that anyone can follow the principles that characterised these “self-made” millionaires and build wealth for themselves. 

In addition to identifying the basic financial management principles that these millionaires have applied (paying off debt, creating a budget, living below their means, investing early), he also emphasised the importance of taking responsibility for one’s finances instead of playing the victim. That sense of personal responsibility is crucial for financial success. 

32. The Millionaire Next Door

Written by Thomas Stanley, a former professor of Marketing at Georgia State University, The Millionaire Next Door is an inquiry into how millionaires in America built their wealth. Its thesis is similar to Everyday Millionaires: “if they can do it, you can too.” 

Thomas identified seven principles that characterised millionaires: living below their means, developing a financial strategy, prioritising financial independence, frugality, raising financially responsible children, leveraging market opportunities, and choosing their occupation wisely. 

With these principles, you can also set yourself up to build wealth just like self-made millionaires. 

33. 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom

In 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom, Tony Robbins, a popular author and life strategist, lays out the main steps that anyone can take to achieve financial freedom and independence. 

The steps highlighted by Tony Robbins include saving towards retirement, investing in financial education, figuring the amount you need to retire early, investment diversification, creating a lifetime income plan, and using the investment principles of Warren, Bogle, and others. 

Robert Kiyosaki mentioned that financial freedom is the best way to get out of the “rat race;” in this book, Tony Robbins shows you how to do that in simple steps. 

34. Millionaire Teacher

Stanley and Robbins have shown that there are a lot of self-made millionaires in America. About 60% of millionaires in the UAE are also self-made, according to Expat Wealth That Work, a financial advisory firm.

However, some may think that self-made millionaires are just people who make big bucks in big technology or oil and gas companies. Not so, according to Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School, a book by Andrew Hallam, a former high school teacher.   

His thesis: ordinary people on modest incomes (including teachers) can build wealth if they embrace smart and disciplined investing. 

Hallam left us with nine rules for investing success: spend less than you earn, avoid debt traps, understand compounding, choose low-risk index funds, don’t time the market, diversify globally, ignore financial noise from the media, be patient and disciplined, and understand that wealth is not an end in itself (it’s the life that it creates that ultimately matters). 

35. Cracking the Millionaire Code

Cracking the Millionaire Code by Mark Hansen, a motivational speaker and author and Robert Allen, an investment advisor, has a simple thesis: you can build wealth without sacrificing your values, health, spirituality, freedom, friends and family. 

The authors support this thesis by recounting the stories of different people who have built wealth by keeping their finances under control and investing in profitable opportunities. 

There are four codes that you must unlock to become a millionaire: the destiny code (discovering your unique place in the world), the prism code (refracting multiple income streams), the angel code (networking with the right people), and the star code (treating customers well).

Unlike books 15 and 16 in the list, this one focuses on unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit within to create and/or invest in profitable businesses. 

36. Blue Ocean Strategy

Talking about investing in profitable businesses, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, professors at INSEAD, a graduate business school, is a classic on the type of companies you should focus on. 

Blue oceans are untapped markets where competition is irrelevant, and pricing power belongs to businesses that make the first move. On the other hand, red oceans are saturated markets where businesses are fighting on cost over a shrinking profit pool. 

The authors recommend that companies should operate in blue oceans and focus on value innovation. 

By reading this book, investors can understand the types of companies they should be pursuing in both public and private markets.

37. Zero to One

Another book in the same mold is Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, by Peter Thiel, the co-founder of Paypal and Blake Masters, a venture capitalist. 

They argue that the greatest value in business occurs when you create something new (zero to one) rather than improving what already exists (one to n). The best companies create unique products or services by exploring hidden opportunities and truths not yet widely recognised. 

Investors in public and private markets can use these insights to identify companies they should be targeting. 

38. The Only Cryptocurrency Investing Book You’ll Ever Need

Cryptocurrencies are no longer on the fringe; traditional financial institutions are now adopting them on a large scale. Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, already produces higher risk-adjusted returns than stocks. 

If you are seeking to add cryptocurrencies to your investment portfolio, The Only Cryptocurrency Investing Book You’ll Ever Need by Freeman Publications, a financial education brand, is a must-read. 

It helps beginners understand what crypto assets are all about, how to add them to traditional portfolios, and the importance of long-term investing (instead of speculation). This focus on cryptocurrencies as investment vehicles makes this book appropriate for long-term investors focused on building wealth.   

For crypto enthusiasts, it is the best book for investment advice in 2026. 

39. Early Retirement Extreme

The Financial Independence and Retire Early (FIRE) movement has now become a part of popular culture. One of the works that popularised the concept behind the movement is Early Retirement Extreme: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Financial Independence by Jacob Lund Fisker, an astrophysicist turned personal finance expert. 

Its main premise is that you can achieve financial independence in a decade or so by significantly reducing your expenses (to 25-50% of a typical household’s budget), embracing a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach, and investing about 75-80% of your income wisely in the financial market (low-cost index funds).

Fisker also notes that retirement is not about escaping productive work but gaining the freedom to do things that are meaningful to you, irrespective of whether they pay or how much they pay. The goal is not necessarily to increase the quantity of your possessions but to improve the quality of your life. 

40. Die with Zero

Traditional personal finance says that you should invest to build a significant net worth. This can be to enjoy your retirement or leave enough money for your kids. 

In Die with Zero: Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your Life, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, Bill Perkins, a hedge fund manager and film producer, challenges that conventional wisdom.  

The aim is not to die rich but to live a rich life, according to him. Such a rich life involves creating lasting memories by spending on experiences (travel, adventure, personal growth, time with loved ones, etc.) that make life meaningful. Since our capacity to enjoy such experiences declines with age, it’s better to enjoy them now rather than save them for retirement. 

Thus, instead of saving excessively for retirement, you should save enough for security. Also, instead of leaving large inheritances, you should give money to your loved ones when they can benefit the most from it. 

Sarwa Book Club

We know that the Sarwa Book Club is a long list of best investing books, and it might be a bit difficult knowing where to start. To make things easier, focus on where you currently are in your financial life and choose the book that is best suited for you at this time.

For example, are your finances in a mess due to poor decisions? The Psychology of Money and Behaviour Gap could be a good place to start. 

Are you seeking to get a general overview of the stock market? How to Buy Stocks is then a good pick. 

What’s most important is to invest in your financial education, and that can start right here, right now. 

[Look to this list in the coming months. We’ll be updating it periodically with new entries for the best investing books.]

[Are you ready to start achieving your financial goals with the time-tested investing principles found in these best investing books? Schedule a call with a Sarwa wealth advisor, and we will guide you on the path towards financial fulfilment.]