12 top personal finance books to read this summer

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For obvious reasons, a lot of personal finance and retirement books come my way and, from time to time, we’ve dedicated a particular edition of this column to a single book. This one looks at a dozen noteworthy books I’ve read lately, or plan to—most of them published in the last few years.

If you want to learn about…global macroeconomics

Let’s start with global macroeconomics, which is top-of-mind for many investors and would-be retirees these days. With central banks around the world putting their printing presses into overdrive to combat the coronavirus bear market (however brief it may have been), I suggest reading Graham Summers’ The Everything Bubble: The Endgame for Central Bank Policy, first published in 2017. It describes what the author calls “serial bubbles”—not just stocks but virtually every asset class, including fixed income and real estate. The U.S. tech bubble was $7 trillion (U.S.) in size; the subsequent U.S. housing bubble, $14 trillion; and the U.S. bond bubble ,$20 trillion, or more than $60 trillion if you include junior debt instruments, making it the largest asset bubble in history.

The book also tackles the two sources of financial repression for retirees hoping to live on interest income: ZIRP and NIRP, which stand, respectively, for Zero Interest Rate Policy and Negative Interest Rate Policy.

If you want to learn about…President Trump’s influence on the economy

Along similar lines is Peak Trump: The Undrainable Swamp and the Fantasy of MAGA, by David Stockman, published in 2019. Like Summers, Stockman is a newsletter writer, but best known as Budget Director under Ronald Reagan. I say similar lines because Peak Trump includes a chapter also titled The Everything Bubble. Stockman believes the Trump boom—aided by the Federal Reserve’s “rotten regime of Bubble Finance”—has been a mirage and is fated to fade away. He originally thought stocks peaked in September 2018 when the S&P 500 index neared 3,000. This was before Coronavirus but markets subsequently plummeted and have apparently recovered with the S&P 500 retaking that high by in the summer of 2020. Presidential incumbents usually win re-election if the economy and stock market stay strong, but that’s hardly a slam dunk after the Depression-level unemployment and social unrest that has come about in the wake of COVID-19.

Two years ago, this column reviewed several other Trump books in an attempt to understand the investment implications of his presidency. One was Trumpocracy by dual citizen and political pundit David Frum. He has just released his second Trump book, Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy. These are more political than financial books but every insight into the likely winner of November 2020 is valuable for investors. I’ve not yet got a copy of the new one but the blizzard of online and media reviews seems to suggest Frum believes Trump has lost the plot and may be vulnerable.

If you want to learn about…investing for younger Canadians

With all this talk of asset bubbles and negative interest rates, it seems everyone is fated to worry about money—and not just near-retirees (unless you’re among the fortunate few with a gold-plated defined benefit pension plan). This brings us to our first all-Canadian book: Worry-Free Money, by financial planner Shannon Lee Simmons. Published in 2017, this book will primarily interest younger investors with a long time horizon. Simmons declares “everyone is worried about money” and says social media has only aggravated the situation. But if you’re worried she will nag you about things like budgeting, fear not: She gives reasons why “you need to stop budgeting.” Rather, you have to control your spending, living within your “hard limit,” and say “no” to unhappy spending. Little wonder the book features testimonials from financial gurus like David Chilton and Rob Carrick.

If you want to learn about…retirement

Hopefully, after a few decades of such financial discipline, retirement will be within your grasp. If so, another Canadian book (published in 2019) may help you stay resolved to keep on the marathon of saving and investing: The Joy of Being Retired by the prolific Edmonton-based international self-publishing master Ernie J. Zelinski. This is a light read, with 365 reasons (and cartoons) on why retirement rocks and work sucks. But, as I have pondered elsewhere, is it really about retirement or financial independence? Zelinski covers them both off with his latest book (published in 2020), The Lazy Person’s Guide to Success: Financial Independence and Personal Freedom Too! While Zelinski admits straight up in this volume that he is “lazy,” I have joked before that if so, he’s the hardest working lazy person I’ve ever encountered! His tips include working less and thinking more, tapping your creativity, and using money to buy time.

For the nitty-gritty on how to pull off a satisfying retirement, I still like semi-retired actuary Fred Vettese’s Retirement Income for Life, published in 2018 (and reviewed in this column). Also useful is the older Your Retirement Income Blueprint, by Daryl Diamond, as well as the recently published The Sleep-Easy Retirement Guide, by longtime MoneySense contributor David Aston. (See my review of Aston’s book from earlier this year.)

If you want to learn about…DIY investing

Another Canadian book, Ian Duncan MacDonald’s self-published Income and Wealth from Self-Directed Investing (first published in 2018, and released in paperback in 2019), is useful for anyone who wants hands-on detailed instructions on do-it-yourself investing at online discount brokerages. If you hate the idea of overpaying for financial advice or packaged investment products, this book may be the antidote.

If you want to learn about…Warren Buffett

Finally, no book roundup is complete without a mention of Warren Buffett. Thanks to a friend who gave me a copy for my birthday, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the long (more than 800 pages) The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. This was first published right after the financial crisis in 2009, but I promise your image of the avuncular investor will never be quite the same after you read this number-one New York Times bestseller.

If the title strikes you as odd, it’s a reference to Buffett’s childhood, when he loved to roll snowballs into ever-expanding aggregations of snow—an apt metaphor for his snowballing investment and business empire. There’s plenty of his investment wisdom thrown in with the fascinating biographical exposition: everything from the famous “margin of safety,” to “be fearful when everyone is greedy and greedy when everyone is fearful.”

Happy reading!

Jonathan Chevreau is founder of the Financial Independence Hub, author of Findependence Day and co-author of Victory Lap Retirement. He can be reached at [email protected]

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About Jonathan Chevreau

As MoneySense’s Investing-Editor-at-Large, he is also author of Findependence Day and co-author of Victory Lap Retirement. Reach him at [email protected], where he is the founder of Financial Independence Hub.