http://www.subramoney.com/2011/06/investing-books-the-must-read-types/

Many people keep asking me for a list of books to read – books on investing. I had put together a list and I do keep making some changes in them…so instead of making a list again I have put the link to the same article.

Books are easy to buy – and difficult to read. If you pick up a book, you should know what to expect from that book. In case you do not know, do not read that book!

I know one student of mine who maintains a notebook to summarise the understanding from that book. Some people have the ability to do the whole process mentally. As an accountant, I prefer that you write down what you think of that book. As you get older and wiser books like ‘Random Walk Down Wall Street’ sound so much better. Phillip Fisher may sound outdated to today’s generation, but Ken fisher does owe his early years to his dad!

I do not expect all of you to read all the books mentioned here…but as you get older (compulsory)  and wiser (optional) you realise that market returns is not as much about markets, but more about YOURSELF.

Work, bringing up children, eating food, investing money, exercising….may all look different, but at the base they are all common sense. All the great authors tell you this.

Like Warren Buffet and Peter Lynch say investing is a below 120 IQ activity. Learn to listen to your stomach, as much as your brain.

http://www.subramoney.com/2011/06/investing-books-the-must-read-types/

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Best Investment books to read

Investment books to read

Subramoney’s recommended books to read

Some of the reviews may also be available online – in the personal finance section of myiris.com. Books have been listed completely at random – and I have intended it to look like an index. Keep coming back to this page – will add short summaries or comments on each book from time to time as well as full reviews. One of the links on the blogroll is a quaint friendly neigbourhood book shop – twistntales. The other place where I have bought most of these books is bookzone.com based in Mumbai.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel.

Jeremy Siegel’s Stocks for the Long Run

Commonsense of Finance – Dr. Prasanna Chandra – get the basics of finance and accounts from here so that you understand concepts like P&L, B/ Sheet, write offs, taxation, etc.

Analysis for Financial Management by Robert Higgins.

Accounting Shenanigans – do not try to read it unless you are a CA or well versed with practical accounting..

Why Smart People Make Dumb Money Mistakes by Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich.

Parag Parikhs’ book on Behaviourial finance has brought some Indianness to this science! The book is called Stock to Riches.

Roger Lowenstein’s Making of an American Capitalist.

Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor is a must-read. But it can be kind of painful for today’s kids who do not like to read about bond valuation. However, if you realise that bond valuation is the basis from which equity valuation evolves, you will appreciate this book better!

Phil Fisher – Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits

Speaking of Phil Fisher leads us to Ken Fisher – and his book “The Only 3 questions you need to know” is also an excellent book to read, and as useful as his father’s book. It clears a lot of cobwebs – turning the PE ratio is a useful example!

Peter Lynch’s Beating the Street is the journal of a successful money manager, who is also a good communicator. CIOs should do their job well and also be able to communicate their skills and strategies. 

You Can Be a Stock Market Genius by Joel Greenblatt –it’s relatively short, full of case studies, and engagingly written.

John Train’s Money Masters of Our Time and The New Money Masters

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator – Edwin Lefevre. Reads like a pot boiler!

Seth Klarman’s Margin of Safety.

Marty Whitman’s The Aggressive Conservative Investor- I personally found this a difficult read!

David Dreman’s Contrarian Investment Strategies.

Munger’s biography–Damn Right! by Janet Lowe. Personally found this difficult to read.

John Kenneth Galbraith’s A Short History of Financial Euphoria.

Devil Take the Hindmost by Edward Chancellor is a fantastic and in-depth history of manias through the ages.

Ron Chernow’s The House of Morgan

Peter Bernstein’s 2 books – Capital Ideas & Against the Gods

The Money Game – Adam Smith

Michael Lewis’s 2 books: Liar’s Poker and Moneyball. Liked Liar’s Poker.

Roger Lowenstein’s When Genius Failed, which chronicles the rise and fall of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund in the late 1990s.

Bethany McLean’s The Smartest Guys in the Room,

Kurt Eichenwald’s Conspiracy of Fools

Robert Cialdini’s Influence – good book on human behavior.

Fooled by Randomness, by Nassim Taleb, is more directly about finance, and is thought-provoking. Taleb explores how easily we confuse luck with skill, and the importance of knowing which is which. He has followed this with Black Swan. Frankly if you are planning to read, or have read Black Swan, his earlier book Fooled by Randomness becomes unnecessary.

Bruce Greenwald’s Value Investing

Michael Porter’s Competitive Strategy. Tough to read, reads like a typical textbook, but is useful if you are doing interviews of CEOs and CMOs of the world.

The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk – by William J Bernstein

Asset Allocation: Balancing Financial Risk by Roger C Gibson

Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyasaki

Market Wizards – Jack D Schwager

The Warren Buffet Portfolio – Robert Hagstorm

Future for Investors – Jeremy Siegel

Common Sense on Mutual Funds – John Bogle

New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor – John Bogle

The Art of Short Selling – Kathryn F Staley (never used the short strategy personally, caveat)

Barbarians at the Gate – Bryan Burrough and John Helyar

Beating the Dow – Michael O’Higgins and John Downes

Buffet – the Making of an American Capitalist – Roger Lowenstein

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds – Charles Mackay

45 years in Wall street – WD Gann

Great crash of 1929 – J K Galbraith

How to lie with statistics – Darrell Huff

John Maynard Keynes (Volumes 1 and 2): Robert Skidelsky

Soros on Soros – George Soros with Byron Wien and Krisztina Koenen

Technical Analysis of Stock Trends – Robert D Edwards and John Magee

Think like a Tycoon – W G Hill

Where are the Customer’s Yachts – Fred Schwed Jr.

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Retire Rich Invest Rs. 40 a day‘ is doing well and selling …here is MY chance to interact with the audience!

Crossword Bangalore- 10th December- J. P. Nagar, 19 hrs. Mass Complex, Site No 74, Sarakki Industrial Area, 15th Cross Road, J.P. Nagar, Bengaluru – 560 078. Phone: (080) 41208691 – 94

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1. To impress me: I hold no post, I command no army, I cannot win any election, I do not have a  hold over any government employee, not a job creating tycoon….so there is no benefit of impressing me. However people do make an attempt. It amuses me. Sometimes I feel sorry for them.

2. Increasing knowledge to do better in the next interview: This makes a lot of sense – after all some of the books that I recommend could really be useful. Best of luck to such people.

3. To show the world what kind of books they read: Amusing but if you consider that 99% of the people are here to impress others…not difficult to believe is it?

4. Actually want to increase knowledge: I have trained upwards of 167,000 students (I am impressed – the actual number is higher) – not more than 10 people would fall in this category…..but for them here is a link….

http://www.subramoney.com/2008/03/investing-books-the-must-read-types/

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Recently my father got a copy of a book for children about Money.  Here is what I learnt from that book and I thought it will be useful for all of us to know a little about Money. So here are some important concepts about money:

Saving:
Saving money is very important. We should save money because if one day suddenly we need money we will have it with us. If we just keep on spending all the money that we get and one day we need money we will not know what to do.
I am also saving all my pocket money because I might need it in future. I have kept it in a bank account and I get interest on that every year.

Tax:
As we all know that Government pays money for various things we should never spoil those things as Government takes money from our parents in the form of tax. All those people who get regular salary have to pay tax. When we buy a movie ticket half of the money that we pay goes to the government. This is called Entertainment tax.

Investing:
Investing makes our money grow. Just as a plant grows from a seed to a plant. When we keep our money in a savings bank we get interest but if we will invest our money in fixed deposits, shares, mutual funds, public provident funds, etc. our money will grow from a small amount to a big amount faster. Real money takes more time to grow whereas a plant grows within weeks.

Insurance:
Insurance protects you from spending a big amount on medical treatment, repairs, etc. Today if I am spending a small amount on a helmet, kneepad, arm-pads, etc. this will help me in being safe while skating. I will not have to spend a big amount on medical treatment. And if I fall ill the insurance company will pay the hospital bill. This way I  and my family are spending lesser money from our pockets.

Prize Money:
We should treat our prize money just like our pocket money, because that also we have earned by working hard. We should save that money and not waste it on unwanted things. A part of the money we should spend on something fun like ice-cream and the balance we should put in our piggy bank or the savings bank account.

Banking:
We keep our money in the bank so that it is safe. The bank gives us a passbook in which we can see how much money we have deposited and how much money we have withdrawn. For using our money the bank pays us interest – this is also added to our total amount. Last time I saw there was an additional Rs. 314 interest in my savings bank account.

Credit Card:

When we are in a shop and we do not have cash with us we can buy things by using our credit card. The shop-keeper will let us take the goods because he will get the payment from the bank which has given us the credit card. However we have to make the payment to the bank after a few days when the bank asks us to make the payment. If we do not make the payment before the due date, we will have to pay interest on the amount that is due.

—end of Mridula’s article——

comments from kids more welcome than from adults -subramanyam

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At Aundh, Twistntales http://www.twistntales.blogspot.com/ had done a great job of emailing, sending sms, calling people…and the personal touch of a cosy and relationship oriented stores was visible. More than 40 people had turned up…and the amount of interaction was very good.

At Crossword Powai there was some confusion created regarding the starting time – ad said 6pm, email said 6.30pm….so we started at a compromise! At 6.15 …and ended at about 7 pm…there were no more questions to ask perhaps. No clue about how many copies of the book was sold.

At Crossword Vashi, the program was at the ground floor, but the people went to the shop – which is at the 2nd floor. There were about 20 people..Mayank the shop in charge introduced …however it was impossible to hold the audience’s attention, thanks to noise level. We closed early – 7.10 perhaps (started at 6.30)..not too many questions,….a few friends had come…and frankly was a tad disappointed

hopefully we will all learn…..

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that is the question..

putting together a book containing topics like practice management, how to bill, how much to charge..etc. as the first block of chapters

then saving, spending, Investing and protecting – all steps of getting rich. This book is trying to get doctors to read and apply that knowledge in their real life..

thought of many titles including ‘Hey Doctor, Get Rich’ ..ultimately settled for Get Rich: A wealth Prescription for Doctors…hope the doctors like it.

Of course it will take about 6-9 weeks to hit the market…by the way ‘Retire Rich: Invest Rs. 40 a day’ is doing well…and people are buying it (I hope they are reading it).

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The book is a fantastic hit at knowing that the author who is remembered is the ‘best selling’ and it need not be the ‘best writing’. Also the book is funded a little by all of us too – the Central Government (oops, hurts paying taxes does it not), the Gujarat government, IIM A,…and priced exactly like a child’s meal in a udipi of Mumbai.

Her language is Hinglish – and not sure why. She has tried some gender balancing…but not tried too hard perhaps. The book was simple to create, I guess. Decide on 30 people tell them about the project and ask for their CVs. I read the book – surprisingly I knew 4-5 of them – so wanted to see what she said. Realized that there was nothing new, controversial, …for example none of them said ‘to fund my working capital, I cheated on provident fund and tax deducted at source’. They all said the same things, bought 5000 copies of the book (25*5000 is not a bad number dude)..and went about their business. Like Nehru tells Indira : “nice to read about History, but even better to create it”. All these entrepreneurs are capable of writing – perhaps better…or should I say far better?

Completely from a business point of view, a brilliant idea. Should you read it? Your call. However if you put the names of R Subramaniam, Nirmal Jain, Deepta Rangarajan, Harsha Bhogle, Sanjiv Bhikchandani, Rashesh Shah, ..surely other kids in other colleges will buy? and pricing it at Rs. 125 is again brilliant. Fantastic publicity for the author..and if you do not own 5-6 channels, and have a limited marketing budget…a good first book idea.

The companies run by these people are Subhiksha, Indiainfoline, Myiris.com, Naukri.com, Edelweiss,…surely all are famous companies.

I am sure this book review as not very useful…so here is a useful review read it:

http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/book-review-stay-hungry-stay-foolish

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This program was at Yashada – a very nice learning center in Aundh, Pune. It was a packed auditorium and if the people took back whatever Debashis and Sucheta said, they would be well off if they implemented even half of it. Taking it to the next logical step of making the client actually do it is a challenge. Scaling it up to reach all the corners of India (Youtube!) and making it relevant for a larger cross section of the population will be a challenge that has to be addressed. Was personally happy to hear Debashis talk about ‘investing’ in real estate and gold – it could not have found him fans . As time goes by will write more about Moneylife Foundation which is a CSR initiative for Debasis and Sucheta. Best of luck Sucheta, best of luck Debashis.

Sunday was a book reading session of ‘Retire Rich: Invest Rs. 40 a day’ also at Aundh, Pune. This was at Hotel Seasons and was organised by Twist n tales and the publisher Cnbc TV 18. Deepa Venkatraghvan read an important chapter and told people how to start early. Very good quality of crowd and very smart questions were asked. Convinced one woman why she should know more about money and her husband know more about cooking.

http://www.twistntales.blogspot.com/

Then I read from Deepa’s book – ‘What an agent will tell you, and you should not listen . …more will follow..

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http://www.jagoinvestor.com/2010/08/review-of-book-on-retirement-retire-rich-invest-rs-40-a-day.html

and my comments on the comments are here:

http://www.jagoinvestor.com/2010/08/review-of-book-on-retirement-retire-rich-invest-rs-40-a-day.html#comment-12296

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