Books on investing

7_week_wonder

Every so often I've seen threads here with people asking for advice on investing and often the replies include recommendations of books on investing.

But now that I actually have some time to read, and possibly want to look at investing, can I find the book recommendations? Of course not!

So, which books would you recommend (and which would you avoid).

Many thanks

dunstonh

Avoid anything that is US based. They have a different taxation system to the UK that results in a different style of investing. They also tend to be very inward looking whereas the European/UK styles of investing tend to be more global.

Be wary of anything from fleet street publications. Also be wary of media (books/magazines) that promote the investing style of a sponsor or advertiser.

I cant really give you any suggestions as I dont read consumer based material. Just remember that investing is about opinions. There are no best ways but there are wrong ways. Different strategies can all have merits and perform in different ways at different times. So, if you find a book/magazine that is too focused on one method and critical on the rest then consider it biased.

gadgetmind

7_week_wonder wrote: »

So, which books would you recommend (and which would you avoid).

Start with "Smarter Investing" by Tim Hale.

While that book covers a lot of ground, fundamental issues such as whether to use pensions and/or ISAs, and how to establish your investing goals are perhaps worth asking about here.

badger09

+1 for Smarter Investing as a starter.

7 week wonder, if you're planning on buying Tim Hale's book, you might want to wait until 11 October when the latest edition is due out.

However, if you're going to be very MSE you can probably borrow the current edition from your local library now

Contrary_clive

Monkey with a pin is available as a free download. It's not nearly as direct as Smarter Investing though. As you've been a member for several years though, I imagine a lot of what you would read has probably already been covered on this forum. If you haven't spent much time on 'savings and investments' part of the forum then you might want to do a search for 'vanguard' for starters.

Archi_Bald

My favourite "book" is monevator.com, starting on this page: http://monevator.com/category/investing/passive-investing-investing/

BLB53

I can recommend John Kay's 'The long and the Short of it' http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Long-Short-Investment-Intelligent/dp/0954809327/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1377716814&sr=1-1 also a good introduction (ebook) is 'Slow & Steady Steps..' http://www.amazon.co.uk/Slow-Steady-Steps-Wealth-ebook/dp/B007EBLN3G/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377716970&sr=1-2&keywords=slow+steady

As others have already said, theres lots of free info via the blogs such as Monevator and diy investor etc.

I'm sure there are probably lots of books to avoid but offhand I can't think of any!

Good luck!

Archi_Bald

BLB53 wrote: »

I'm sure there are probably lots of books to avoid but offhand I can't think of any!

I am with you on that. There's also a heck of a lot of really bad info on the internet (MSE generally excepted, apart from some trolls that appear now and then).

SnowMan

A classic....

Burton Malkiel - A Random Walk Down Wall Street

kidmugsy

When this book came out I saw excerpts - I thought pretty well of it.
http://www.fowlerdrew.co.uk/who-we-are/what-investors-need-to-know/

gmgmgm

BLB53 wrote: »

I can recommend John Kay's 'The long and the Short of it' http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Long-Short-Investment-Intelligent/dp/0954809327/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1377716814&sr=1-1

Completely agree- if you're starting from near-zero get John Kay's book early on.