Books are a crucial first step when learning about trading and investing for beginners.
We chose the following five because 80% of the success you have in trading and investing will come down to ONE key factor – your mindset.
Our five best books all touch upon this in very different but highly insightful ways:
Secrets of The Millionaire Mind: Think Rich to Get Rich! – T. Harv Ecker
The book that set the founder of Investment Mastery on his way. The title actually says it all… and it doesn’t disappoint.
Many of us here at Investment Mastery have read it (and re-read, re-read, re-read it…) and are actually utilizing so many things from it when trading investments.
There are two parts to the book really:
#1 – The Blueprint
#2 – The Wealth Principle
Ecker’s blueprint explores the four personalities you might have developed during your formative years and the people you were surrounded by because that determines how you then relate to money.
Figure that out, says Ecker, because knowing it is the first step to change.
As for The Wealth Principle, Ecker actually has 17 of them. They are basically actions you need to take if you want to increase your wealth and financial position.
Associate yourself with rich people, he says – because successful people leave clues. They also focus on opportunities.
A nice line Ecker has – rich people play their life to win; unsuccessful people play their life not to lose.
Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert T. Kiyosaki
This book is useful because it gives you the foundations of money and how you can utilize that knowledge and become rich yourself. One of the first mind-opening books we read.
This book is based on the author’s real dad and the dad of Kiyosaki’s best friend.
Kiyosaki’s dad is a highly educated teacher, who doesn’t earn a lot of money but spends most of it and the other one, he earns loads of money, doesn’t have a college degree even, but he’s smart, and learned the game of money and making it in millions.
So Kiyosaki follows in the footsteps of his friend’s rich dad and it’s just another game; the money game. He argues that if you think rich people are horrible people, then you are not going to be rich, are you?
So you need to change your perception of money and learn how to be creative with money.
Money is energy. A great concept. Believe money is energy and you can go and get loads of it, but you need to believe it, you need to have a plan for it.
Think And Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
One of the classic books on this topic. Written in 1937 but is still very relevant today.
Hill shows you the principles of rich people. He talked to rich people to find out what their blueprints were.
Hill says, surround yourself with the right people, you need to have a desire, a vision – such as Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb who had something like 200 failed experiments but kept going… and finally succeeded!
Think And Grow Rich is full of positive examples of such successes.
You need a desire, a purpose in life and know why you are doing it, in order to follow through.
Again, it’s about mindset.
The Richest Man In Babylon – George S. Clason
Not a long book but the knowledge within it is awesome.
It’s about the city of Babylon, one of the richest of its time, and how it flourished, grew wealthy, and was prestigious for centuries. But then was sacked, came crashing down.
He uses the example of a man who has debt and needs to pay it off but he doesn’t have the right tools.
So he seeks out the richest man and asks, How would you do this?
The rich man tells him – he needs to know how to make money, then learn how to keep the money and more importantly – reproduce it.
By investing it.
The Trading Athlete: Winning The Mental Game Of Online Trading – Doug Hirschhorn & Shane M. Murphy
This book is great because it’s all about winning the mental game of trading and investing.
It’s basically saying you need to develop the mindset of a pro athlete.
For example – if you have a golf player and a baseball player, they’re completely different sports but if both of them play at the highest level they have more in common with each other than two golf players or two baseball players at different levels.
The reason for that – again, mindset.
What they explain in this book is the rules around that, but also what can you do in order to not fall into the pits of failure.
It’s about having a clear plan, and clear strategies.
You need to know what you should be doing BEFORE you do it.
So, what next?
If you actually study these books, learn from them and use them to take action then you have a good chance of reaching all your financial goals.
One thing we would encourage you to do is instead of reading one book a month, read the one book 12 times during the year and take action.
Does that sound over the top? Well, if you think so, then we urge you to think again.
Why?
Well… see if you can figure that out.
