Best personal finance books for those in their late 30’s/40’s?

[Anonymous]

Looking for solid investment books/ personal finance books that you’ve enjoyed.

[Anonymous]

DH already works in VC and tech and entrepreneurship and most of our current investments are pretty high risk/high reward. Zero stability the way I see it. I really want something that will influence him to start putting our money, especially retirement into index funds and more stable investments to counter these and they have the potential to go through major losses with the markets/economy and unforeseen events like the pandemic. Looking for something that really pushes safe and more conservative investment strategies. We sit on different ends for risk tolerance.

[Anonymous]

If your husband works in VC he already understands personal finance and diversification - not sure you'll be able to find the perfect book. Maybe it's more about sitting down and having a conversation around risk tolerances.

[Anonymous]

Why don't you open your own account and put whatever you have left over into index fund. Tell him you are doing it to sleep better at night.
Simple Path to wealth is lovely. Browse through the top 200 in Amazon books for personal finance and take note.
I'd be annoyed as heck to be left out of decision making when it comes to money even if DH makes millions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your husband works in VC he already understands personal finance and diversification - not sure you'll be able to find the perfect book. Maybe it's more about sitting down and having a conversation around risk tolerances.

It’s his industry but he’s in the sales side, not finance, so I actually don’t think he quite understands that slow and steady can win the race. It’s like a blind spot for him. I really want some books that show index funds are historically the way to go, especially because we have various ways to make a windfall without risking our retirement accounts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you open your own account and put whatever you have left over into index fund. Tell him you are doing it to sleep better at night.
Simple Path to wealth is lovely. Browse through the top 200 in Amazon books for personal finance and take note.
I'd be annoyed as heck to be left out of decision making when it comes to money even if DH makes millions.

Yes, thank you. I have my own account as well. We are joint finances completely so I really do want him to involve me and start making much more conservative investments overall. And he doesn’t make millions, so it matters.

[Anonymous]

Index funds are not safe. They can be just as volatile as any other investment. I would broaden how you think about risk and diversification. For example, does your portfolio include real estate, business income, cash (high yield savings/money market) in addition to stocks, and are your stocks from different sectors? I think there’s a lot more to it than just investing in an index fund. How fast we forget 2022 and the fact that the s&p took huge losses just like everything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Index funds are not safe. They can be just as volatile as any other investment. I would broaden how you think about risk and diversification. For example, does your portfolio include real estate, business income, cash (high yield savings/money market) in addition to stocks, and are your stocks from different sectors? I think there’s a lot more to it than just investing in an index fund. How fast we forget 2022 and the fact that the s&p took huge losses just like everything else.

ok, that makes me feel a bit better, we are spread out between real estate (str), business income, options through tech job, stocks are mostly individual tech which scares me because I consider the business income, nature of his job and options through tech to be unstable. The individual tech stocks are too risky in my opinion. We aren’t rich enough to be investing this way. I really want to have the index funds because I do feel it’s the safest way to invest our 401k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Index funds are not safe. They can be just as volatile as any other investment. I would broaden how you think about risk and diversification. For example, does your portfolio include real estate, business income, cash (high yield savings/money market) in addition to stocks, and are your stocks from different sectors? I think there’s a lot more to it than just investing in an index fund. How fast we forget 2022 and the fact that the s&p took huge losses just like everything else.

Ridiculous. The "huge losses" in 2022 were a temporary dip. that lost only 1 year of gains and quickly recovered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH already works in VC and tech and entrepreneurship and most of our current investments are pretty high risk/high reward. Zero stability the way I see it. I really want something that will influence him to start putting our money, especially retirement into index funds and more stable investments to counter these and they have the potential to go through major losses with the markets/economy and unforeseen events like the pandemic. Looking for something that really pushes safe and more conservative investment strategies. We sit on different ends for risk tolerance.

I'd want the same. All the high-risk/high-reward stuff looks great until it all comes crashing down. I just heard about some guy in Florida that was highly leveraged into commercial real estate. Committed suicide earlier this year after he lost everything following the troubles that have plagued that sector.

[Anonymous]

A Random Walk Down Wall Street is older but worthwhile. Very influential in the move toward index funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Index funds are not safe. They can be just as volatile as any other investment. I would broaden how you think about risk and diversification. For example, does your portfolio include real estate, business income, cash (high yield savings/money market) in addition to stocks, and are your stocks from different sectors? I think there’s a lot more to it than just investing in an index fund. How fast we forget 2022 and the fact that the s&p took huge losses just like everything else.

Ridiculous. The "huge losses" in 2022 were a temporary dip. that lost only 1 year of gains and quickly recovered.

That was true of pretty much everyone else too, so my point is there’s nothing special or safer about index funds. Top individual stocks followed the same pattern (dropped in 2022 and recovered in 2023).

[Anonymous]

Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins

[Anonymous]

YOur Money Ratios.

Charles Farrell

[Anonymous]

For more of a read about money/financial mindset (vs. take these specific steps to get rich), try Cashing Out:

https://www.amazon.com/Cashing-Out-Wealth-Game-Walking/dp/B09NQM1QL2/