Investment Reading List: A Recommended Reading Order from Beginner to Advanced

If you want to learn about investing, here's my recommended reading order:

1️⃣ Stage One: Building a Foundation

1. Mia and the Magic Money Tree (Kiyosaki's Little Dog Money): Financial concepts explained through a fairy tale
2. The Accounting Game: Learn accounting through the lens of a lemonade stand

2️⃣ Stage Two: Getting Started with Index Funds

1. Stay the Course by John Bogle, the father of index funds: Understand the wisdom behind passive index investing

3️⃣ Stage Three: Investing in Individual Stocks (Most people won't need to go this far)

1. The Essays of Warren Buffett: An introduction to value investing
2. The Little Book That Builds Wealth / financial statement analysis: Learn how to value a company through its financials so you can spot undervalued opportunities — financial statements are full of traps, so tread carefully

4️⃣ Stage Four: Political Science & Economics

How does society work?

1. The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs: A deep dive into global poverty, economic development, and international cooperation
2. The Low-Desire Society by Kenichi Ohmae: An in-depth look at Japan's culture of low ambition and declining consumption
3. The Low-IQ Society by Kenichi Ohmae: Examines the phenomenon of collective intellectual decline in Japan
4. The M-Shaped Society by Kenichi Ohmae: How prolonged economic stagnation polarizes income classes — the middle class hollows out while the lower and upper ends grow
5. Professional by Kenichi Ohmae: In an era of uncertainty, becoming a true expert is the only reliable strategy
6. The Art of Thinking by Kenichi Ohmae: In the new age, the gap between people will be largely determined by the quality of their thinking — sharpen your logical reasoning
7. Ohmae on AI and Fintech: How AI is poised to transform the business landscape
8. 半拿铁's "A History of the Internet": Learning from history — what the rise of mobile internet can tell us about the trajectory of AI

What about politics?

9. A Biased Look at Politics: Wherever there are people, there are grudges; wherever there are grudges, there are power games. Politics is the arena — political science is your defense against the dark arts.

What about economics?

10. Witnessing the Counter-Current by Fu Peng: Build a coherent worldview of the global economy

Future predictions and how to position yourself?

11. The Global Age by Kenichi Ohmae: The world stage has no borders
12. The Sovereign Individual: How individuals in the information age can leverage technology to achieve financial independence, transcend geographic constraints, and protect their wealth and freedom
13. The Balaji Predictions — Technology, Truth, and a Guide to Building the Future: Technology is the driving force of history — it sits upstream of culture, and upstream of politics. Truth is rarely popular, and what's popular is rarely true; learning to distinguish one from the other is the first step. To get lucky, you have to learn to seize opportunities — don't argue, build.

Supplement: Money & Currency

1. The Bitcoin Standard (or The Future of Money): Traces the evolution of money — from primitive barter to metal coins, the gold standard, government-issued fiat, and finally digital currency. What does it mean for money to be "sound"?

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Author: Jason Zhu | Original Post

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