Dan Ariely is a psychologist and behavioural economics scholar; Jeff Kreisler is a lawyer turned comedian. Together they have written an engaging book filled with humorous anecdotes about the impact our emotions and irrational thoughts have on the way we use our money. Well worth reading.
John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, a now giant investment fund company, popularized the low-cost index mutual fund in the United States. Many issuers now offer a variety of index mutual funds and ETFs in Canada and the US but Bogle is the man who made it possible. This book, although based in the US context, makes the case for index investing in a persuasive manner that is universally applicable, and judging by the way in which index investing is growing, his case has been won.
I read the original back in the 1990s, which presented personal finance in a novelized format. The sequel updates the original and exchanges the novelization approach for a casual living room chat style of writing. Either book, or both of them, will help the personal finance novice get off to a good start.
Portnoy, an investment professional and educator, has written an excellent book to help readers reorient our relationship with money. Worth the price of the book alone is his wise insight into the difference between being rich and being wealthy.
Zweig is the personal finance columnist for the Wall Street Journal. This book investigates the emerging science of neuroeconomics. The human brain did not develop in our current context, and as a result we tend to not behave in ways that make sense for us financially. A fascinating read.