Getting a handle on your budget can be a challenge, particularly if you’re new to managing your finances. But a good book can help you get started and stay motivated on your journey. Especially if you're looking for a new way to budget in the year ahead, or are starting from scratch with your financial goals, your budget is THE essential first piece. (Read my guide on how to budget here.) Let's take a look at the best budgeting books published over the years, many of which I'm lucky to say are written by dear friends I've made through personal finance blogging over the last decade.
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Best Budgeting Books for Those Starting Out
One Week Budget
The One Week Budget: Learn to Create Your Money Management System in 7 Days or Less! was written by Tiffany Aliche, a financial guru, award-winning educator, and self-proclaimed “Budgetnista.”
One of the best budgeting books for: complete beginners. If you’ve just moved out of your parents’ house and you need to understand how bank accounts work and how to keep track of your money, it’s the perfect book for you. If you already understand the basics of financial management, you might want something with a little bit more meat to it – but this is still a great book for budgeting your hard earned money.
Tiffany has a friendly, chatty tone. If you enjoy a breezy read with lots of personal anecdotes, you’ll appreciate this. There's a reason she's one of the most popular personal finance educators of all time!
The Financial Diet
The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner’s Guide to Getting Good With Money was co-written by Chelsea fa*gan and Lauren Ver Hage. fa*gan is a home cook and co-founder of TFD. Ver Hage is the other co-founder and also works as a graphic designer and art director.
One of the best budgeting books for: people with no strong interest in personal finances. (Hi! Me!) If you’re trying to get by on your first job, you’ll find a lot of value here. The same goes if you’re struggling with student debt or trying to figure out what type of bank account to open. This book will help you manage money so you can get your finances on track.
The core concept of the book is that your finances aren’t just about how you manage your money but it's also about everything from the food you buy to the clothes you wear on your back. fa*gan and Ver Hage also offer advice on how to negotiate a raise – an essential skill for anyone who’s just starting their career.
Overall, this is one of my favorite budgeting books that I highly recommend.
Money Honey
Money Honey: A Simple 7-Step Guide for Getting Your Financial $hit Together was written by Rachel Richards, with a foreword by Paula Pant. Richards is a self-made real-estate investor who retired in her early 30s. Pant is the founder of Afford Anything, a personal finance blog with more than 75,000 subscribers.
One of the best budgeting books for: people looking to achieve financial independence solely through the basics of money management. It discusses how to pay off debt, invest in the stock market, and budget your money in a friendly, approachable manner that’s easy to understand. Richards also isn’t overly wordy. She gets right to the point so you won't get bored reading this personal finance book.
Besides the basics, Richards explains how to invest for the future. She’s famous as a champion of passive income. If you’re intending to retire early, you’ll appreciate her advice.
Best Budgeting Books – The Classics
I Will Teach You to Be Rich is written by Ramit Singh Sethi, an American finance expert and entrepreneur. He’s the co-founder of PBworks, a company that produces commercial wiki software, and the founder of GrowthLab.com and IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com.
This book won’t teach you to become wealthy. What it will do is provide you with the tools you need to manage money and increase your income. There are no complicated spreadsheets or quirky budgeting gimmicks.
One of the best budgeting books for: straightforward advice for automating your finances and preparing yourself for retirement.
The tone is light and easygoing, with no complicated jargon or buzzwords. You might not learn how to get rich, but you’ll learn how to get the most out of the money you have. This is one of those “holy grail” finance books everyone has read because it is that good. It's one of the best personal finance books you'll find, and I strongly recommend it.
The Simple Path to Wealth
The Simple Path to Wealth didn't start as a book; it started as a blog, written by JL Collins. Collins already had a successful career in publishing and was at the stage where most people are thinking about retirement. He'd spent decades accumulating money and said that the most important thing to spend your money on is freedom.
Collins started his blog in 2011 as a personal project for his daughter. He wanted to leave a permanent archive of his financial advice to her. But then, the blog went viral. When it developed a large international following, Collins rewrote much of the material into a comprehensive book.
His core philosophy is that index funds are the best way to build wealth. This is a common philosophy, but many people who invest in these funds still lose money. In The Simple Path to Wealth, Collins explains
One of the best budgeting books for: explaining why so many people lose money in the stock market, and how savvy investors can sock away a substantial nest egg.
One of the best budgeting books for: cleaning up your finances inside and out.
Total disclaimer here. I'm not a Ramsey acolyte (and definitely not a fan) and I really, really struggled putting this book on the list. HOWEVER, I couldn't write about best budgeting books and not include this one. I just know too many people who have used the advice and really benefitted from it and changed their finances for the better. The Total Money Makeover might just be the most well-known guide to personal finances. Dave Ramsey’s 2003 classic is a 7-step road map to financial independence.
Here’s the program in a nutshell:
- Save $1,000 for emergencies. Do whatever you have to in order to get this money. Sell things if you have to, and keep it separate from the rest of your money.
- Pay off your debts. Start with the smallest, and work your way up.
- Grow your emergency fund. You should save enough for three to six months of expenses.
- Invest in your retirement. Save 15% of your pre-tax income for retirement. Social Security and company matching funds don’t count.
- Set aside a college fund. You can skip this step if you don’t have kids.
- Pay off your mortgage. Pay as much as you can. The more you pay today, the less you’ll pay in interest tomorrow.
- Do what you want. You can invest money to grow your wealth, take a vacation, or give to charity.
Of course, there’s a lot more to it than this but this is one of the most well-renowned budgeting books you can find. While many people have a “love or hate” relationship with Dave Ramsey, there's a ton you can learn from this budgeting book. And maybe just separate the “man” from the advice.
Your Money or Your Life
Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence was written by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. Robin is an American sustainable living activist, speaker, and writer, and Dominguez is a former financial analyst who retired at age 31.
This book is on the older side – it was first published in 1992. But it was updated in 2018 to reflect the digital nature of today’s age. It’s a good general guide to personal finances, regardless of where you are in life. Whether you just got your first job or you’re trying to plan your retirement, you’ll find plenty of words of wisdom to help you on your financial journey.
One of the best budgeting books for: taking a holistic approach to financial management. In addition to looking at how you manage your money, they talk about developing smart habits and simplifying your life to reduce your expenses – all while living a more sustainable lifestyle.
Spend Well, Live Rich
Spend Well, Live Rich: How to Get What You Want with the Money You Have is by Michelle Singletary, an American journalist who writes a personal finance column for the Washington Post. Singletary didn’t grow up wealthy. She was raised by her grandmother, who she lovingly calls Big Mama in the book. Big Mama raised five children on under $13,000 a year. Along the way, she managed to pay off her house, her car, and accumulated a healthy savings account.
Spend Well, Live Rich isn’t a complex financial guide. It’s based on what Big Mama called her Seven Money Mantras. These are homespun, down-to-earth pieces of advice like “Keep it simple” and “If it’s on your ass, it’s not an asset!”
One of the best budgeting books for: concrete, real-world examples that flesh out the book and make it more relatable.
Best Budgeting Books for Those Looking to Shake Things Up
The Latte Factor
The Latte Factor: Why You Don’t Have to Be Rich to Live Rich was co-written by David Bach and John David Mann. Bach is an American entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and writer. Mann has had an eclectic career. He got his start as a professional cellist and even won awards for his compositions. Today, he's a business journalist.
The Latte Factor isn’t a traditional business book. It’s a narrative story about a young woman named Zoey, who’s struggling with the same issues many young people deal with: she has student loans to pay off, and she’s run up credit card debt. And while she’s finally gotten a job in her chosen career, she’s not earning enough to really do more than make ends meet.
Zoey’s boss suggests that she talk to Henry, the old man who moonlights as a barista at her local coffee shop. Over a series of visits, Henry teaches Zoey his “Three Secrets to Financial Freedom.” As the story progresses, Zoey comes to see the wisdom in Henry’s advice, and eventually works her way to a more secure financial position.
One of the best budgeting books for: if you like motivational stories as part of your financial advice.
Get a Financial Life
Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties was written by Beth Kobliner. She’s an American personal finance journalist who contributes to the Huffington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal, among other publications.
This budgeting book has been in print since 1996, and has become the gold standard for people from college age until their mid-30s. Kobliner’s straightforward, no-nonsense style makes for an easy-to-read text. You’ll learn how to save money, escape the debt trap, and plan for your long-term future. The advice is all concrete, with specific steps you can take.
You might think that a 26-year-old book would be out of date when it comes to things like online banking, which didn’t even exist in 1996. Thankfully, Kobliner created a new, revised edition in 2017. This edition is more relevant to the issues that younger millennials and older Gen Zers are facing.
One of the best budgeting books for: those looking to level up their money.
Broke Millennial
Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together is by millennial money expert (and dear friend!) Erin Lowry. Lowry is famous for helping other millennials learn how to go from living paycheck to paycheck to living their best lives.
In a pleasant, conversational writing style, she encourages people in their twenties and thirties to follow three pieces of advice. First, evaluate your past financial mistakes and determine the obstacles you face going forward. Second, calculate what percentage of your money you need, and how much you can put into savings.
Finally, Lowry advises younger people to use credit cards. While running up a large balance is unwise, making regular charges and paying off your bills is a smart way to build credit and earn some rewards along the way.
This book offers actionable advice to help you create a financial plan for your money so you can reach your goals. I cannot tell you how many people/readers I've met over the years who have told me this was one of the best budgeting books they've ever read.
One of the best budgeting books for generation-specific money advice.
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Final Thoughts on the Best Budgeting Books
Budgeting can be hard, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. (Here are some examples from other bloggers on how to accurately budget each month.)
With the right advice, you can get out of debt, save for that vacation, or sock away some money for retirement.
So if you want to stop living paycheck to paycheck and reach your money goals, these books should be on your list.
