Question: What are the best books on personal finance that you can recommend? Thank you, sir.—Honney Natividad via Twitter

Answer: Best is a relative term and I may not be the right person to give you a qualified answer. However, I can give you my opinion on some books that I personally find insightful and helpful. Finance, even Personal Finance, is a very broad subject matter involving many disciplines and there are many good books out there that are very good read.

There are books that write about the technical aspects of personal finance and zeroes in on specific subject matter, i.e., investing, estate planning, stock market, insurance planning, accounting and the like. There are also books that tackle the broad spectrum of personal financial planning. There are also many books that tackle behavioral issues on finance that belongs on the motivational or self-help genre. Then there are the hybrids that try to give you a more balanced view on the technical as well as the behavioral issues on the finance and I personally go for these books.

Perhaps the most popular finance books are those written by Robert Kiyosaki, which were brought about by the highly popular Rich Dad Poor Dad bestseller. The book is so popular that it created some sort of cult-like behavior among many, which is quite disturbing if you ask me.

Rich Dad Poor Dad and Kiyosaki’s succeeding books have some good points but they are quite over-rated for me because they lack some specificity and many readers question the validity of his claims. Like any book, we should learn to eat it like a fish, we get the meat and throw away the bones, as the saying goes.

Let me give you a list of books that I highly recommend because I like the way they were written—balanced and grounded on solid financial principles; yet they can still help you get motivated. Sorry, Kiyosaki fans, you won’t find his books on my list.

1) Total Money Make Over and Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey—OK I admit it, I’m a Dave Ramsey fan boy and for a good reason. I like his straightforward approach on personal finance. His books, particularly Total Money Make Over is very practical and it is full of real stories of people who overcame financial difficulties.

Ramsey is a no-nonsense finance guru yet you can really sense his sincerity in trying to help people get out of the financial mess they are into. These two books are great starter books that will open your eyes and give you hope.

2) Pwede Na! The Complete Pinoy Guide to Personal Finance by Efren Ll. Cruz—Hands down, Efren’s books are the best personal finance book ever written by a Filipino. It is a concise yet surprisingly comprehensive book that will guide the reader in the many facets of financial planning and financial instruments. As the title connotes, it is indeed a complete guide, yet it will not overwhelm you as you find yourself glued to the pages.

3) Millionaire Next Door—by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko. This is an iconic book that discusses the behavior of Millionaire in the USA. It is not only insightful, it will actually shatter many of our misconception on wealth and wealth accumulation. I particularly like this book because it is based on solid research. This is a good financial behavior book that may help you change your mindset.

4) Automatic Millionaire by David Bach—this book by a best-selling author gives you an overly simplistic view on achieving wealth and yet it is effective in its message that in eating an elephant, we need to do it one bite at a time. Simple, practical and sensible.

5) Money Matters by Larry Burkett—Financial counseling is the most effective route toward achieving financial security but many do not have access to good financial counselors or advisors. Money Matters is a form of counseling book and I like the question-and-answer format. The questions are very practical and real, not superfluous or ambivalent. The answers of Mr. Burkett are successful in providing advice in an emphatic way; yet, you will find that his answers have sound financial grounding.

6) Till Debt Do Us Part by Chinkee Tan—another book written by a local author that I highly recommend. Chinkee’s book deals with an issue that plagues many Filipinos and yet one that is hardly discussed openly. The author successfully convinces the reader that debt is not a good thing and yet it gives us hope that being truly debt-free is within the reach of the average Pinoy. I like the practical steps in finding a solution to the debt trap written specifically for the Pinoy psyche. Chinkee has written many best-selling books but Till Debt Do Us Part remains to be my favorite.

There are so many other good books and reading them is definitely a good idea. Just make sure that you are objective in reading the book and it does help to check the authenticity of the author. Many are led astray by what they read so I want to reiterate this concern. Notwithstanding the many “bad” finance books out there (local and foreign), I implore the Pinoys to get a book on personal finance and read. One good idea can change your future and redirect you to the path to financial peace.

I am in the process of writing a book myself but recommending it here will be self-serving so let me just stick to the six I mentioned. Financial wisdom will be yours if you seek it. Hope this helps.

Appears in Philippine Daily Inquirer

I also have mine — Francis Kong and Dave Ramsey.

Here’s a nice video of Dave Ramsey and after you listen to him, you’d know why he is someone I look up to. As to Francis, hear him live at Steps to Financial Peace this Friday.

While I still enjoy reading, I have a huge waiting line in my reading list and I have been trying to find more and more time to read. Since I take a lot of long trips, the travel time would have been a great time to catch on my reading right? However, I am unable to do so because I have some motion sickness… Fail!

The next best thing? Podcasts. I’ve been subscribing to some podcasts and they are very convenient for an information junkie like me. So what’s in my podcast subscription list right now?

1) Ravi Zacharias: Ravi and his team are my favorite Christian Apologetics and they have 2 programs over at iTunes — Just Thinking and Let My People Think. Listening to Ravi and his team’s podcasts is an absolute must for me… this is nourishment for my spirit and my brain as well. If you doubt your faith and if you doubt God, listen to Ravi Zacharias!

2) The Dave Ramsey Show: I try to catch Dave’s radio podcasts and his podcasts are always updated over at iTunes. I get a lot of practical personal finance knowledge from Dave Ramsey, I just love his no nonsense approach to money. I must admit though that I haven’t been listening to Dave’s show as much of late. Looks like I need to do so again.

I’ve also recently subscribed to the podcasts of Seth Godin and the The Economist. Seth Godin was introduced to me by my good friend Carlo Ople and my pastor Dennis Sy. The Economist was a magazine/journal I used to read a lot before, good thing they now have podcasts.

While reading books/journals are still best, podcasts may be the next best thing.

However, there’s still one book that I must read everyday and no technology can be a good substitute for me, the Bible.

ps – I still like to read books by the way, I just need to find time to do so. Will share my reading list soon.

There was one question posted there that I want to discuss in this blog, a question I have been asked many times – “what is the secret to being rich?” Ever since I went public (as a personal finance speaker / writer), answering that proverbial question seems to be the bane of my existence, so to speak. Well, I don’t really get annoyed answering that question but I am a bit disturbed that people actually think there is some sort of secret to being wealthy. My answer? There is none – never was, never will.

Let us not fool ourselves that there is a magic formula that will answer our question. Achieving financial freedom is a process and that process requires something so simple, yet so difficult to many – discipline. There is a reason why I recommend books like Total Money Make Over (Dave Ramsey) or Millionaire Next Door (Thomas J. Stanley & William D. Danko ) over more popular books like Rich Dad Poor Dad (Robert Kiyosaki) and Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (Harv T. Ecker).  Read those books and you’ll know why. I subscribe to Dave Ramsey’s podcasts because they are very practical, easy to apply and well, I like his ‘no-nonsense’ approach. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and I must say there’s some value particularly on awakening our mind to the alternatives. I glanced through the book Millionaire Mind and didn’t even read much anymore because it’s full of mind tricks and lacking of real principles that will work. Unlike Total Money Make Over and Next Door Millionaire, they are direct to the point and you can actually apply it and see real measurable results.

There are no secrets; there are no short-cuts. To believe so is the markings of a fool and no one wants to be a fool right? If there’s one book that will really change you and make you not just achieve success but significance… it’s the Bible. One more thing, as you desire great wealth, pay more attention to the why rather than the how.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Matthew 6:21

If you want to ask me a question on Formspring, visit http://www.formspring.me/RandellTiongson Sensible questions only ok? Questions on love, marriage, dating, hair, good looks and all that, ask my friend David Bonifacio.

I used to hate waiting and I get annoyed if I have to wait. However, I needed to get used to waiting with the kind of work I have so I decided to make my waiting time productive. When I say productive, I didn’t mean bringing my laptop with me and do a lot of those work — I meant being productive in the sense of recharging oneself.

How? I read and listen to podcasts a lot during those ‘waiting time’. I make sure I always travel with my Bible, a book and an iPod especially on those trips that I need to ride a plane. I fly often, like 2 to 3 times a month but I look forward to those trips so I can recharge myself. The best benefit is I get to read God’s word more than I do during my normal routine — in doing so, I can read the Bible cover to cover once a year (give or take a month or two). I also get to read my books and I have loads of them (most are unread). I also get to listen to podcasts, something I don’t get a chance to under my normal routine.

I just finished the book “Heavenly Man” and I probably will grab another book and shove it to my body bag. I just updated my iPod with my favorite podcasts – the Dave Ramsey Show. I also downloaded podcasts of someone Francis Kong recommended to me a long time ago, Ravi Zacharias — I never really got to it and totally forgot it, until now.

So next time you fret about waiting, make it a productive wait and take the chance to do some real learning. Happy waiting!

Here’s what Dave Ramsey says…

“Debt is not a tool!”

Myth: Deb is a tool and should be use to create prosperity.

Truth: Debt adds considerable risk, most often doesn’t bring prosperity, and isn’t used by wealthy people nearly as much as we are led to believe.